First critters with reloads

[292]

Shot my first critters with my own reloads over the weekend. I know 1 of the "rules" is if I didn't take pictures I didn't do it. Have you ever tried to find a bumble bee after it was hit with 146 gr. of 7 1/2 shot pushed along by 6 gr. of unique.

[x101airborne]

Ha! Now that is funny. I shot a mud swallow that was building a nest under our porch (for the 5th time!) with my 45 colt (7 1/2 shot and 6 grains unique) with my dad and mom watching. One shot as it flew by and it dropped. I never told the folks I was using shot. They are under the impression that I was using solids. I am not one to bash anyones illusions.

[DLCTEX]

I have a stuffed toy raccoon that I hang up under the porch when Barn Swallows want to build. They take a few looks and decide to build elsewhere. I hate to shoot them as they are great mosquito catchers.

[Bob Krack]

I have a stuffed toy raccoon that I hang up under the porch when Barn Swallows want to build. They take a few looks and decide to build elsewhere. I hate to shoot them as they are great mosquito catchers.

You are absolutely correct, Dale.

Thanks for that post.

Bob

[WinMike]

My most fun critter of note was one of the many deer pillaging a friend's apple orchard. I'd always wanted to shoot some sort of bigger game with a revolver bullet I'd cast, sized and loaded. For the record, it was a 260 gr. NEI wad cutter in a S&W Mdl 25 (45 "long" Colt) at 35 yards. Made a very satisfying thump, and a decent-sized buck staggered 3 steps before he fell.

But my first critter was a bear. I was just out of high school and borrowed a family friend's Mdl 94 in .32 Special, to go deer hunting where we lived in N. Idaho. He gave me a handful of shells that he'd cast and loaded, but I have no idea of the bullet or the load.

Short version: spied a bear climbing a steep hill on the other side of a canyon, at a guesstimated 250-300 yards. A deer license then also allowed bear, so I aimed about several feet above him, and just as I shot, he stopped, looked over his shoulder. The bullet amazingly hit him just behind the shoulder. He rolled down the slope, and was impaled on a tree (my buddy says the fall and the tree killed him, not my shot).

We hiked down, cut down the tree, hung, skinned him out and spent the night looking at a hanging bear carcass watching us. Only the light of a fire that we kept burning kept the night critters at bay......dude, they have fingers and he looked like a bloody zombie just about to come to life......

Yeah, I know....in retrospect, it was a shot no responsible hunter should have taken....can I plead "callow youth?" I've had several chances since, but that was my first, last and only bear.

[runfiverun]

instead of shot i was using a cardboard card on top of the powder and walnut tumbling media and a piece of printer paper elmers glued on top to shoot bee's.
they looked ugly but would kill a bee right well.
my and my brother were out by the fence and around our blooming cherry tree, shooting all these bees and the supply seemed endless.
untill our neighbor come home and investigated the foomf sound from the back yard.

he was a titch bent as he had a beehive.

[x101airborne]

Tell him like I tell my neighbors with dogs. You like em so much? Keep em on your side of the fence.

[292]

I am using cardboard wads with a drop of LLA to seal the over the shot wad. If things go as planned I'll kill a deer with the M29 this fall.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
My first critter with my Marlin 336 32 Win Special ( I was 17 ) was a muskrat. Fred and I had been out for several hours trying to jump a fox down in the Paw Paw river bottoms. Came across a muskrat sitting on his hind legs on the ice next to the flowing water doing a face cleaning. Fred says " Mike you shot anything with that yet? " So I sat down in the snow, levered a round into the chamber and squeezed off my shot. That muskrat disapered in a red haze leaving just the two feet and partial legs sitting on the ice.
Mike in Peru

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Rake!

[Leslie Sapp]

Have you ever tried to find a bumble bee


Yes- I instigated a hunt for the carpenter bees that infest my lumber barn. My wife and one of her friends got pretty good at folding them up like tiny doves with a couple of .22 pistols and ratshot.:redneck:

[Harter66]

Ducks for about 2 seasons are the only thing I have whacked that wasn't w/handloads. The 1st critter w/naked lead was dove w/a 410. Next was a cotton tail w/a 38.

Sadly the only critter I've whacked w/my own cast, self loaded boolits was a headshot armidillo w/a 45 Colts RBH and a load intended for a 250# hog to 50yds.

[Wayne Smith]

instead of shot i was using a cardboard card on top of the powder and walnut tumbling media and a piece of printer paper elmers glued on top to shoot bee's.
they looked ugly but would kill a bee right well.
my and my brother were out by the fence and around our blooming cherry tree, shooting all these bees and the supply seemed endless.
untill our neighbor come home and investigated the foomf sound from the back yard.

he was a titch bent as he had a beehive.

You do know the difference between a bumble bee and a honey bee, don't you? No honey bees, no cherries. Bumble bees fertilize the flowers, too. Thus no bees, no cherries.

[RugerFan]

My first kill with reloads was marmot taken while caribou hunting in Alaska in 1989 (the caribou lived to see another day). That was with my Rem M788 .308 loaded with 180 Sierra SBT and 4064 (still have that gun).

My first big game kills with reloads was a sitka blacktail buck and doe on Admiralty Island, Alaska in 1990 using the same rifle/load. That same combination also nicely dispatched caribou, dall sheep and a grizzly bear the next year.

I first began dabbling with cast boolits during that time frame and my first kill was a snow shoe hare with a Ruger SBH .44 mag (240 gn Lee SWC and light charge of Unique). I also shot a bunch of bunnies and squirrels with homemade shot shells. That consisted of a light charge of 700X, pre-crimped gas check, about ½ oz of 7 ½ lead shot, another pre-crimped gas check and a roll crimped case mouth to hold it all in. Worked very well.

My first cast boolit big game kill was a whitetail doe taken in Georgia with that same M788 .308 with a Lyman 311291 propelled by IMR 3031. Also shot a boar hog that same morning.

That M788 is in semi-retirement, but I do break it out a shoot a little every now and then.

[44man]

Yes- I instigated a hunt for the carpenter bees that infest my lumber barn. My wife and one of her friends got pretty good at folding them up like tiny doves with a couple of .22 pistols and ratshot.:redneck:
I tried that with my .45 but either they are too tough or my shot was to big! [smilie=1:I used no 9.
I use a flat stick to whack them, like hitting a rock. Surprising how many hit the grass and fly away.
A neighbor has a log cabin, weekend retreat and his entire house is covered in screen because squirrels eat the wood, something about the spray that was applied. There must be a billion carpenter bees around the place. They get under the screen. A few years and the whole house will collapse! :drinks:
I have an old WW gallery smooth bore .22 that works great but those little shells are EXPENSIVE. Darn near as bad as .410 shells.