Ready for Deer Season

[Charlie Sometimes]

Deer season starts next week, and I am going to take my Marlin 1895SS out. Breaking tradition- not using my Model 70 Featherweight 30-06 for the first time in YEARS. Going cast boolits only this year! :grin: Got to hunt in a different place, too. They have been timbering around here all year, and I doubt that there will be anything close to the house. :sad:

Got this rifle earlier this year at a gunshow and it had some exterior rust. Cleaned it up, and put a Redfield 1 3/4x-5x Widefield on it. I will get around to having it reblued it next year, I guess, or maybe duracoated. :confused:

This rifle is really a good shooter with cast boolits- I love it! I put it on the bench to check my zero this afternoon, and volia!

The left to right stringing is my fault- everytime I levered the gun for another round, I had to move it, and with my ever so agravating left eye sight issues, it looked a little diferently distorted. That, and the cross hairs covers the center at 75 yards! :lol:

Anyway, I think this is sufficient for my purposes come Monday morning. I'd venture to day that I won't be shooting until well after daylight, so eye issues aside, I can get one bullet hole accuracy! :bigsmyl2:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c164/BaptisteBrown/Charlie%20Sometimes/45-70target11-19-10.jpg

[madsenshooter]

Well, good luck too you. Up here, the DNR is just finishing the annual round up and the targets will be painted on their sides within the week.

[Old Goat Keeper]

Hey Charlie Sometimes that be minute of deer! Did you cronograph that load? Just curious how fast that Trail Boss is tossing that boolit.

BTW, our season here in PA starts the week after yours does.

Tom

[home in oz]

Ours is the end of the month!

Good Luck to you!

[northmn]

Looks good to me. I just finished up out deer season and got a young one and a good eater. Shot a few with cast boolets in 30 cals. The 45-70 with the 322gr Gould HP is also very final on deer, even with BP. Ah so many rifles so few deer.

DP

[Charlie Sometimes]

Don't have a chronograph- I need to get one someday, though.
This one falls into a Trap Door classification load- not even close to a Lever Gun class load in power.

I used the Hodgdon recommendation for Trail Boss of filling the case, remove the powder that your boolit would take up, and that establishes your maximum load. I reduced by 10% for a starting load and that is where I ended it. It shot so well, I didn't see fit to increase the charge. I am guessing that it is around the low end of 1100 to 1200 fps range.

I used the same charge under the Lee 457-405-F and it shoots nearly as well, but I haven't fooled with that boolit as much yet. Under it, this nearly fills the empty case. I have loaded a couple of other larger boolits and compressed the charge, and not had any real significant recoil increase. Feels a little more stiff, but nothing to complain about in my Marlin, but is getting noticeable in a Ruger #3.

[Loudenboomer]

Charlie the deer I shot in my avitar was taken with my mod 70 fwt 30-06. I like the Lee 340 in my 45-70 also. My win 86 shoots nice groups with 17 gr of old Herters 164. at about the same speed your shootin. It'l thunk deer real hard up close.

[excess650]

I've hunted in areas where they were still timbering. The deer like to hide in and feed on the brush. Likewise, I've watched them watching log skidders, so don't be surprised if there are more nearby than you think.

[home in oz]

Your target looks like "minute of deer" to me...

[Charlie Sometimes]

Neighbor is still hunting in the timbered area- he has seen only one doe, and not much else.
I've seen two! :lol: :sad:
There is so much mast that the deer are scattered to the winds, I think.
They have their pick of what and where to eat- if the squirrels don't get it first.
If we had not been so dry this year, the mast would have been even better by what I have seen.

These guys are using a dozer- no skidders, and are about done with the 200 acres my neighbor has.
The timbered areas will be good next year, and for the next 10 or so, when the under growth starts building- the deer will have more to eat and the cover will be better.

That's 1/4 inch grid on the target- more like "minute of squirrel". :bigsmyl2:

[Charlie Sometimes]

Total failure this year. :sad: For the 2nd or 3rd year in a row, the weather was terrible- we had lots of wind and rain to end November, and then snow, wind, and COLD air the whole first half of December. Deer were either non-existent, scattered out too much, or hiding from the early winter weather. This seems more like January than December. We're 30 degrees below normal.

Lots of mast this year (could have been better), but last winter must have taken a bigger toll than thought around here. TV news reported that the statewide deer kill was down 33% from last year, and that was low too, IIRC.

I guess I'll have to wait until next year to use this rifle on a deer, but by then I'll have my Ruger #3 in 38-55/375 Win. finished. :bigsmyl2:

[jnovotny]

What about that global warming? Sorry to hear about your bad luck. That is why it is called hunting and not killing. Still is hard on our egos have only one day left in my season and it was a miserale son of a gun out there today.

[home in oz]

Yep, only saw birds, the deer were still wearing their invisibility suits....