Time is fast approaching

[44man]

Our gun season opens the 21st. I have two deer with the bow so far, in between fixing my daughters roof. Still need to shingle it. I have the .475 BFR ready to go and can hardly wait. At my age though, the season is only hours away. My only problem will be to decide which boolit to try first.
Have any of you shot anything yet this year?

[Bigscot]

I have killed 2 this year so far. The last one had 2 firsts for me. Last week I killed my first deer, a cowhorn, with my .44 SRH. And it was also my first deer with a boolit I cast. I shot it at about 22 yds with an RCBS 250K boolit lubed with FWFL behind 19 grs of 2400.
The amazing thing is I had mounted a new Burris 2x7 ballistic plex scope on it. I had sighted it in with the same boolit but using 23 grs of W296. The scope was moving in the rings so I took it off to try another mount. I looked at the Burris 2 piece Weaver conversion mount but could not put more than 2 rings on it. I then looked at the Weigand mount but was not ready to invest another $100 on mount and rings. I mounted the scope back with the factory rings and used friction tape on both sides of the rings. (A gunsmith recommendation) I took it to the range last Friday. At 25 yds both loads were dead on with the 2400 being the most accurate. I then moved out to 50yds. Again the gun was dead on and 2400 was the most accuate at <1.5 inches. I then tried 3 shots at 100 yds , 1 with the 296 load and 2 with the 2400 load. That group was about 2in. I never made any adjustments to the scope. I didn't even take the caps off the turrets. I was and still am amazed that I didn't have to make any adjustments to the scope and that this boolit shot so well.
I saw the deer coming and got ready. When it gave me a shot behind the shoulder I touched it off. It was angling left to right. The deer started bounding off with the tail up and I tried another shot and it kept going and disapeared into some brush. I went to where it was when I first shot to look for blood and could not find any. I wondered how I could miss at such short range when the gun was shooting so welll. I figured I had pulled the shot. I then followed the path it took and found it about 75 yds away. I back tracked the blood trail and it did not start bleeding until after about 40 to 50 yds.
The boolit hit right where I was aiming and made a caliber size exit hole on the other side just past the ribs. We did not even see the exit hole until dressing the deer and had the skin pulled back. The boolit went through the lungs and the liver.
I was happy to finally kill a deer with this gun a to kill it with a boolit I made is a bonus. Now I want to get one with my 30.30 using a cast boolit.
I could not have done it without the help I got from Cast Boolits.
Thanks Guys,

Bigscot.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Got 1 shot out of my muzzel loader .45-110-478 , hit deer in neck at 98yds. All done except for work & eating till next yr. RATS !

[44man]

Bigscott, that is great. I have done the same thing only once after having a scope off. I also use an LBT WLNGC, 320 gr. boolit in the .44. Blood trails start a lot quicker but even with an arrow, sometimes it takes a while for the blood to reach the ground. You did the right thing by looking because there is almost never blood at the spot the deer was shot at. Any the boolit pulls out with it will be sprayed out away where you won't find it and the best you will do is find some hair and even that is very hard to find.
I double lung shot a doe this year and the arrow went through so fast that it had almost no blood on it. It was stuck 10" in the ground. The deer only went 40 to 50 yd's but I didn't see blood for the first 20 yd's.
BoomBoom, where do you live? do you mean you can only shoot one deer a season? I haven't figured ours out yet, but it is somewhere between 7 and 9 deer a season. Of course that includes archery, gun, muzzle loader and doe seasons.

[44man]

Bigscott, I forgot to mention that I had the same trouble with Ruger rings on a Hunter model. Same scope too and I ruined the tube even with tape. I bought the Weigand base from Brownells for $40 and Warne rings for $21. Solved the problem for me.
I even lapped the Ruger rings, tried rosin, tape, you name it and the scope would slip. The tube even looked crushed. In my opinion, Burris tubes are too soft. I have clamped the devil out of tasco scopes without a mark.

[9.3X62AL]

Only one deer per season here, the "A" zones in CA allow two per season though. 7-9 deer per season.......sheesh!

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
I live in Utah. I could shoot a 2nd deer, if I bought a seperate doe tag. It is a money making sceam of the St. gov.
It is also bad game management, as a biology major w/ over 70 sem. hrs. of graduate work, that is my opinion. The avg. doe goes dry after age 7/8. As they are not birthing fawns, they are a drain on the habitat . They are now larger than the other wet does & force them off the brouse. I have even seen a old dry doe force a 3 point off of buouse.
Good game management would have an eather sex hunt every 7/8 yrs.

[Bigscot]

44 Man
I had a post earlier on how to best mount a scope on the SRH and you stated that you had to use the Weigand mount. That is why I looked at it. I was just hoping not to have to invest another $100 on a mount and rings. If the rings with the friction tape did not work that is the route I would go. If the current set up does not work then I will go with the Weigand mount. The main thing is that I could not believe the scope was dead on after removing and then remounting it. It is accually more accurate than before.

Bigscot

[44man]

Bigscott, I have the old Burris scope and it is very long and heavy. There was no way to keep it from moving. I have used it on many other guns but the Ruger rings are by far the worst for mounting this large scope. The scope still works OK but it is an eyesore.
As long as your scope stays where it belongs it will be OK.
I changed out rings for a friend on an inline, going to a lower set of rings. The darned gun hit dead center first shot. I still scratch my head over that one.

[StarMetal]

44man

I trick I learned from reading Ross Seyfred is coat the inside of the rings with 3M's liquid tape, that's a product used in the electrical business, basically a liquid insulation that dries flexible. He said let it dry and shoot away and be prepared for hard removal if you have ot take the rings off the scope. Don't forget Ross loves those big caliber wrist breaking revolvers, so I'm sure that's where he tested this stuff out.

Joe

[Buckshot]

...........Last year I was talking to one of the drivers whose family owns quite a bit of land in Virginia. Apparently they don't always wait for deer season. Says his dad will shoot one from the tractor seat as he's on his way our to feed their stock and pick it up on the way back in.

I don't recall exactly the 'limit' but he said it was 2 in possesion if you got checked. He said they'd get 3-4 guys in a pickup and shoot their limit on the way out around the property, then turn around and get them on the way back. He said they just cut'em in half ahead of the hindquarters and toss the front end aside. Said they weren't very big and weren't much interested in venison burger.

Here in So. California the hunting pressure is huge. The San Bernardino Nat'l Forest is the most heavily used (for all reasons) in the entire Nat'l Park system of the United States. Add in the heavy mountain residential population with their dogs running fawns, the draught conditions for the past 10 years, and the fires of a couple years ago, and I'm surprised there is ANYTHING wild living in the local mountains.

.............Buckshot

[7br]

AARRRRGGGGGG.... Pressure building. Nephew is asked me to use one of my pistols for hunting. Pulled the Burris scope from my Dan Wesson and put it on the XP100. Pulled Tasco scope and mount from a .22 contender and put it on the Encore (XP and Encore both in 7br, thank you very much). Dad has my .243 which is sighted in, so for a rifle, I have outfitted my contender with a 7tcu carbine barrel. Pulled scope and mounts from son's .22 carbine.

All three scoped guns need to be sighted in. I'll probably be carrying the Dan Wesson, so iron sights need to be checked. Luckily, I have ammo loaded for all. Firearms deer season starts Nov. 30. Opening day of upland birds was Saturday. I have an 18month old weimaraner to work with. Finished painting the house Sunday Eve. Cub Scouts tonight, Hunter's ed meeting Tuesday, Wednesday might work. Thursday is Brownie Scouts for my daughter. (I get to watch the four big brother cub scouts) Friday will be first day of bird season for the pup and I. My temples are throbbing and my fingers are twitching.

All this would have been much easier if I would have gotten a deer during muzzlerloader season.

[carpetman]

7Br--"finished painting my house this evening,cub scouts tonight". What color you gonna paint those Cubs?

[7br]

What color you gonna paint those Cubs?

Blue and Gold, sir, Blue and Gold

[carpetman]

7br--Blue and gold---be sure and sand them real good first,otherwise,the gold tends to run.