Warming up for Hunting Season

O

Old Bill Dibble

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Got the teens to pull their hunting rifles out of their closets to check zero and get a little practice in.

Teen 1 will hunt with his Marlin 3082 Calvary commemorative Model .30-30 with a Bushnell X3-9. This gun shoots 0.3" groups when cold with me shooting and opens up to 3" groups when hot. He was able to manage an acceptable 5" group on average when hot and 2" cold. Big but close enough. Beautiful wood on it.

He will hunt with 150gr Federal Soft points. Expected ranges 50-150 yards.

Teen 2 will hunt with his Remington 7400 with a six position and stock X3-9 Simmons scope. This monster shoots 1-2" groups cold (depends upon ammo) that open up to 6"+ when hot. Synthetic furniture.

He will hunt with Remington 165 gr Corelokt soft points. Expected ranges 100-300 yards.

The old lady hasn't decided what she wants to go with this year. It will be either her .35 Remington or .303 Enfield. She has not hunted with the Enfield in several years. It is pretty heavy to tote through the woods but she has put a few down with it.

I have not decided either. I will probably go with an AR-10 again but I have been considering a 783 (.308) or a AR in 6.8. Decisions, decisions.
 
I go thru the same thing every year. I always like to grab one of dad's and papaws old rifles to relive some old memories. After I scratch that itch and have meat for the freezer I ponder for a few minutes each morning of which rifle to use. For this year I have decided to stay with the same caliber. 35 whelen in my h&r and my new remington 700 in 35 whelen. I'm sure at some point I will end up with a model 70 in my hands before seasons over. Old habits are hard to break.
 
So far I've sat with my 7mm08 700, saw a doe and that was it

Sat last night with my Savage 10 PC and killed a pig.

Sitting now with my .243 700 waiting on another pig or buck.

I've decided to take turns with the hunting rifles this year and not be so set on the 7mm08 even if it is my go to gun. Gotta spread the love or the others will get jealous.
 
I am thinking I will almost certainly bring out the old Winchester 94 at some point this year. It hasn't seen any action since 2007 hunting hogs.
 
I've added a few rifles over the years, but I'm pretty sure my 30-06 will do the majority of the heavy lifting! Gift from my dad and my favorite to reload for.
 
Got a short little hunt in last week. Coyote at 780 yards with the .243Win. Have Pronghorn tags in about a month, then elk tags. No deer tags this year. Might try to find some leftover tags.

I take the older boy to the range around this time with about 50 rounds. He shoots at least 10 offhand, benched, sitting and prone at 100 yards. Good practice and check zeros. This year, the younger one has an elk tag too, so I will take both.
 
Loaded up a coupla hundred rounds of .44 mag with JSPs for me and the boys for gun deer season and have been pelting the target with the crossbow for a good month or so. Skeeters and ticks are pretty thick here yet, so most of my early season time will be spent working the dog on grouse and woodcock. Pheasant season opens in another month. Since Turkeys don't react to insect spray, I'll probably target them also until the weather gets cold. All of these will tell me where the deer are once I start thinking about sittin' in trees.
 
a bit

Shooting my bow some, but it's still hot and I'm not as motivated as I ought to be for practice. There's been some "work days" on my clubs and I've made an appearance and put in an honest days work where it was needed.

Re mounted a scope (new rings) on a Mossberg 800M and Loaded a quantity of .243/100 Partitions, took same rifle and it rezeroed easily. I've had a thing for Mannlicher stocked rifles, and hunted the *00M and a Mark X in '06 so set up a good bit the last two seasons.....if you're not seeing deer, the rifles are nice to admire!.

I sent a Leupold 1-4x back to Oregon for a reticle change, have remounted same back onto the old .44 Ruger auto carbine and I have been to the range twice with it, both trips frustrating. I have yet to be able to call the handy Ruger ready to go.

I've shot the early Savage Scout enough over the summer that I feel I could hunt it comfortably as is.....and probably will......it pretty much had the season off last year. If the Ruger .44 does not straighten up to my liking, the Scout may takes its place as a tree climbing and thick stuff rifle.

The Savage Hog (.308) did have the whole year off.......I should hunt it this season. It seems a particularly lucky gun....both bamaboy and I have taken good bucks with it in its first year in the woods.....then it sat last season out!

I/ve got one stainless synthetic rifle, a M77/MkII in the x39mm caliber, which I hunt a bit every year.....it's as close to as worry free as a rifle can get for wet weather, and its modest caliber worries me not at all.
 
I usually have a good idea of what I'm going to be packing but this year I'm at a loss.

I have a new AR15 in 7.62x39 that I would love to put a deer down with.

on the other hand I have an SKS that shoots better groups even though it only has Iron sights and it actually has a sling on it.

on the other hand I just bought a really nice(for me) howa 1500 in 223 that I could easily take hunting and not have to worry about finding brass when I'm done.

on the other hand I have a finnish mosin nagant on order that would be awesome to take deer hunting

but then I would have to either buy expensive hunting ammo for it, or buy dies and work up a suitable handload inside a 2 week window before deer season opens.

or since I already have ammo loaded for it, I could take my swedish M41 out...

oops forget about elk, I could take my M1 garand hunting for the first time

on the other hand...
 
"I have a new AR15 in 7.62x39 that I would love to put a deer down with.

on the other hand I have an SKS that shoots better groups even though it only has Iron sights and it actually has a sling on it."

Are you saying you have an AR that doesn't group better than an SKS with open sights?
 
Thinking of trying my Ruger American Preditor in 6.5 CM for deer/antelope this season.

Seems to look good at 100 yards.

DSCN0268.JPG
 
Kraig, I have only shot my Ruger American Predator a few times, but it is going to be the Pronghorn rifle this year. .243Win...same same, 1/2" 100 yards groups with 95 grain bullets. Even the 105s were at 0.8" for 5 rounds at 100 yards. The 75 grain VMax, I could only make out 3 of the 5 holes, could cover with half a dime.
 
m70 ,270 shoots 1/2" 3" high at 100 ,puts me dead on at long distances short distance hold on bottom of chest ,longer range hold on spine , no calulations ,just shoot
 
I seldom sight my rifle in before season. Cased rifle goes from the house to my >TRUCK< (not a pick-up. I drive a 1-ton. Different lettering and numbering seen on there license plates in this State. i.e. MANLY vehicles 1-ton & heavier are) ;)
Anywho;
Chauffeured too my cabin. Then its transported too my above ground stand by ATV. And left there. (windows closed and door locked >secured.) All that traveling. Safe to truck to cabin to deer stand. My rifle travel's via snuggled in a hard shell rifle case.

No target practice do I need. "No Sirs."
Last time I checked quite sometime ago. My 150 yard target paper? It showed clover leaf groupings on Bullseye. And as we all know Target paper does not make a good bowl of soup considering the amount of Firings it take to kill one..

Typical > my hunting;
One shot one kill. Still cycling cartridges in & out of that plastic box of 20 hand-loads I made 10 years ago for that 270. Minus 9 of course. Which all emptied of bullet & powder pho-filled my desire of keeping fresh meat in our basement freezer.

Frankly: For some other I think its good to check out a gun and its shooters accuracy prior to every deer season. (sometimes more than once even.) Practice shooting promotes less missing misery, and assures easy recovery. "If you have the luck of this Irishman that is?":D
 
Any time I have a tag, I have a tendency to practice as much as possible. However this year I have been lacking in my practice time. I have only been practicing since the beginning of August and only shot right about 300 rounds so far. My last practice session I shot this 5 shot group at 100 yards, cold no dry fire just load up and shoot. Unfortunately my groups have been opening up a bit at 500, averaging just under 5".
 

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I've hunted fall gobblers for thirty years with a shotgun (various 12 ga. shotguns) but this year I am going to try a custom built .222 Remington. Remington short action, 19.5 inch stepped down Douglas Premium barrel, Circassian walnut stock, Swarovski 30mm 1-6 power scope. I'm using reduced handholds, mostly 50 gr. Berger target or some old Winchester match 50 grainers. We'll see. :)
 
Taking the M1 Garand out this year. This is the first season that I've had it for, so it will be my primary deer rifle this year. My Glock 20 10mm stays on my hip for all hunts and outdoor treks and activities as well. And if I for some reason don't take the M1 out then my Smith & Wesson M&P 15 in .300 Blackout will be my second choice of rifle this year for deer.
 
you have to handload for it. 300BLK is marketed as a hard hitting sub sonic load so basically it's like a catapult, very arcing trajectory with diminishing returns the farther out you go. it's loaded very light with very heavy bullets. however if you handload, you can work up loads very similar to 762x39 in terms of ballistics, a 150GR bullet can still be pushed over 2000FPS which is more than enough to drop deer out to 200 yards.
 
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