Whitetail options

[Boolseye]

I have three deer rifles sighted in for the upcoming season, two will be throwing jacketed but my Mauser is set up with the Lee Karabiner (about 235 grains of flatheaded glory) over a charge of H450, for somewhere in the 16-1800 FPS range and MOA accuracy. Somehow I doubt a Vermont whitetail could withstand that blow, only thing missing is a scope. Any iron-sight, CB deer hunters out there?

[richhodg66]

Quite a few of us. That cast load will work great, I'd not hesitate to use that if I was confident in my ability to shoot it well at the ranges I was likely to see deer..

[ChristopherO]

In my mid 50's, but still hunt deer open sited more than with optics. If you are practiced and have a good rear fixture, say an aperture site, then you should do very well.

[Texas by God]

I'm limited to low recoil rifles this season, so my peep sighted 44-40 with home cast 200 gr flat nose ammo is my gun of choice. I also have 30-40 and 38-55 rifles with peep sights only, but they are a little rowdier than I should use at present.

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[John McCorkle]

Range and your eyesight would be the limiting factors....what distance you typically get shots out to?

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[koger]

I think it is an excellent boolitt to hunt with. I have a bunch of them cast up and loaded in my 8x58 with a stout load of IMR 4198. Shoots very accurately, recoil aint bad and the rifle is a pleasure to carry. With my alloy, that bullet weighs 245 gr. I am hunting some fields, one my maximum shot is 100yds, and the other one, is clear out to 500yds. I will be taking the 8x58 Rolling block with express sights, and it is dead on out to 150 yds. Farther than that I will also have my 6.5 x284 Savage I built, and 500 yds off of cross sticks aint that hard.

[Lonegun1894]

Most of mine have iron sights, but I try to get as close as I can, so irons are more of an advantage than optics would be.

[Friends call me Pac]

My first deer with cast was with a peep sight.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?261218-Well-it-didn-t-bounce-off&highlight=didn%27t+bounce

[rking22]

All depends on you, the load is fully up to the task. Are you comfortable with irons at the realistic distances you will see? I have been hunting with open sights and one with a peep for the last 20 years or so. I enjoy using vintage rifles and most have good sights which I am competent with. So, yes , I hunt with open sights.

[yeahbub]

My approach to the 8x57 is to paper patch conventional cast .30's, chief among them are the Lyman 311466 and 311041 backed by 3031 or 4895. I've been playing with AA 5744 which is certainly capable of getting to 1800fps or more, but the jury's still out on that one. Cast of 1:1 WW:soft lead, the velocity/accuracy threshold will be maxed out somewhere in the neighborhood of 2100fps with the, what is it, 9.4" twist. I figure there aren't any Midwest whitetails that will shrug that off.

[dverna]

We tend to overthink killing deer.

[yeahbub]

We tend to overthink killing deer.

HAH!! Without a doubt. I remember all the articles I read about hunting deer and what was "needed" to bring one down humanely. Those writers had me convinced MAGNUM POWER was the only way. I also read somewhere that the .30-30 out of a 10" Contender was perfect deer medicine, but out of a 20" rifle, the .30-30 is marginal at best. What, will they bounce off? The .30-30 has a hundred years of effective use behind it. BP .44WCF was popular too. Deer have been taken routinely from before the days of the Pennsylvania rifle.

[Boolseye]

Most shots around here are under 75 yards, all dense woods hunting.
thanks for your responses.

[bmortell]

last year i tried going with no magnified optics and had to pass up good shots cause i couldnt count horns enough to tell if its legal. so not doing that again. could carry binoculars too i guess, but i know if i did id only get enough time to use the binoculars then pick up the gun and the deer would be behind trees or something.

[Boolseye]

That's my only issue too, early AM and PM when it's tough to see in the cover.

[444ttd]

win m94(35/30-30) with williams fp aperture
1898 spr armory(30-40 krag) with redfield 102k aperture
98 mauser(8x57) with lyman aperture
91 argie(7.65x53) with redfield aperture

[Winger Ed.]

I think it'd be fine unless you've been reading too many of the gun comic books,
and have been convinced only the latest magnum will do.

I used to hunt in the Texas Hill Country and unless you were on a cleared out fence line, the ranges were normally 75-120 yards.
I used open sights on a .30-30 and .45-70 there because I could acquire a sight picture better and faster that was walking along.

Farthest I every had to track one was about 3 steps.