Mallards

When I was a young man, I used to walk Catahoula lake, or the creeks and sloughs in other places, hoping for a shot at a mallard drake.

Nowadays, they are wandering around my driveway.  With a pellet rifle, I could be eating mallard three nights a week.

Fortunately for them, I don't feel like plucking a duck.

The .357 Revisited

The younger generation is learning what we learned twenty-or-so-years ago.  The .357 magnum is a hoss when properly loaded and shot from a carbine.

Out of a Marlin 1894, the bullets shoot into the front sight (a 6-moa dot) with boring regularity, and they hit the steel plate hard enough to foul it on it's chains, necessitating going downrange to unwind the target from it's stand.

That bullet is a custom, 180 grain, tumble-lube, gas-checked, wide flat nose bullet that a bunch of us designed on the Cast Boolits forum several years ago.  It was designed for the .35 Remington cartridge, but several of us stuffed it into a .357 magnum case with a stiff dose of L'il Gun powder.  And something magical happened.

That bullet runs out of the Marlin at something over 1600 fps and that wide flat meplat hits like the hammer of Thor.  You'll note that the boy said they'd have to walk downrange to un-foul the target from its stand.   I know that particular range, and it's about 80 yards from the firing line to the gong.

It's a great load, out of a light, handy, short carbine that gives sufficient energy out to 100 yards for whitetail deer and hogs.  The .357 magnum and the lever carbine are a great woods-cruising combination.

Is the .30-30 Winchester Outdated?

When I read that title, my first thoughts were "Not Hardly".  The .30-30 Winchester continues to sell lots of ammo over the years.  It's a handloader's dream, and it's a cartridge that screams for cast bullets.  That long, lovely case neck, moderate velocities, good bullets, moderate recoil, and the handiness of a short lever action carbine all conspire to make the .30-30 Winchester one of the best cartridges ever made.

As it turns out, the author of the article agrees with me.

Why do people keep going back to the 30-30? Because it is a time-tested and proven cartridge. Hardly any other hunting cartridge has remained as popular for as long as the lever action in 30-30.
Regardless of what the engineering department of a gun company can dream up, regardless of what new cartridges hit the market, the 30-30 Winchester remains effective on whitetail deer-sized game.
Simply put, the 30-30 Winchester remains popular because it works.

I currently own four rifles in that caliber.  Three lever-actions and a single shot.    It's a handy caliber, ammo is found everywhere, and it takes deer-sized game with authority, out to about 150 yards.

My Time With A Muzzleloader

During the mid '70s, U.S. sportsmen discovered a resurgence in muzzleloading rifles and shotguns.  Many states opened early "muzzleloader" seasons to give sportsmen a chance at early season deer hunting.  About that same time, the re-enacator folks saw an increase in their ranks.  Some folks really enjoyed studying the era of the trappers from the late 1700's, early 1800s that opened the American West.

When I got out of the Army in 1979, I re-established contact with my hometown buddies.  Louisiana had just opened an early muzzleloading season, so I decided to take advantage of it.  However, I knew nothing about front-stuffing a rifle or using charcoal as a propellant.  A good friend of mine took me down to the local sporting good store, the old Security Sporting Goods on 3rd street in Alexandria, and hooked me up with a rifle.  The one I chose was a Thompson Center Renegade, in .54 caliber.

What I liked about it at the time, (and still do) was its dark furniture. It's not a flashy rifle, but it is extremely workmanlike.  While it has the double set triggers, the nice walnut stock and the traditional appearance that we associate with that era, it also had a coil spring lock, and was rugged as hell.  My rifle was not intended to be a showpiece, it is a working gun.

After I got used to the loading/firing routine, I settled down at my leisure and started learning to shoot the darned thing.  After just a little while, I settled on a load consisting of 60 grains of Goex FFg powder, a .530 round ball, ad pillow tick patching.  I used common Crisco for my lube.  After I adjusted the sights for the point of aim, I found that when I did my part, the rifle would put the ball in the black at 100 yards.

Only accurate rifles are interesting, and I was interested.  My eyes were still good enough to use iron sights, and the iron sights on the Renegade were very good.  One day in mid October, I came home from work and got out the rifle to play with it.  A crow landed in the pasture about 125 yards out and looked at me as I loaded the rifle.  I held on the base of his chin and touched the set trigger.  That .530 round ball had hit him in the chest, plowed right on through, and made one hell of a mess.

I carried that rifle on the early muzzleloader hunt, hut didn't get a chance to shoot it.  Several weeks later I was hunting with a buddy and a yearling doe presented herself, so I took the shot.  The ball entered her ribcage, blew through both lung, and dropped her right there.  And, that was my standard experience with that rifle.

Don't let anyone tell you that a round ball won't take deer.  Folks used to ask me why I carried the front-stuffer and uneducated folks would scoff at my choice of arm.  Simply, the ball weighs 230 grains, almost half again as much as a modern sporting bullet of 150 grains.  And, while the average hunter hopes his bullet expands to a half-inch, my round ball starts out over that same half inch.  Round balls (and cast bullets generally) kill differently than modern expanding bullets.  When a modern expanding bullet hits a game animal it starts dumping energy.  The good ones expand and dump lots of energy, the ones that fail don't.  It's an age-old story.

But, when a round ball hits an animal, it brings all the energy it's got with it.  It normally just shoots through unless it hits bone.

I carried that rifle for the better part of two decades and never lost a deer to it.  I was hunting in the piney woods and swamps of central Louisiana and it never failed me.

On one of the last hunts I made  with that rifle, about 1998, I was hunting with Junior Doughty on his family land.  He put me on a stand behind the old home place, looking down a small logging road.  About nine o'clock, a herd of does came down the hill.  One of Junior's dogs had followed me to the stand, and he barked at the deer and scatted them.

I figured that if I sat tight, they'd try to re-herd, and that's pretty much what happened.  I  noticed a young doe looking at me over a yaupon bush about 50 yards away,  so I put the front sight at the base of her neck and touched it off.  She fell backwards, kicked once and expired.

When I autopsied her later, I found that the round ball hit her where I was aiming.  It traveled down the length of her spine, shattering bone as it went, then turned before it got to her hind quarter and left her just ahead of her left hip.  That ball traversed about two feet of bone and deer.  It would be pressing hard to say that it didn't have enough penetration.

Shortly after that hunt, I joined a lease where the shots were considerably longer, so I put the Renegade away and started using more modern firearms.  It's not a knock on the Renegade, it's just the nature of southern hunting these days.  If I were to hunt a piney forest these days, I'd likely take a rifle that shot cast bullets, or I'd take the Renegade.  It would work just fine, out to about 150 yards.  They worked just fine 150 years ago, and they'll work just fine today.

Bench Mystery

Occasionally, I stumble into things on my loading bench that I simply can't explain.  Mysteries, as it were.  I always learn something from these mysteries, but I admit this one has me scratching my head.

As I mentioned yesterday, talking about the .243 Winchester, I had reached into the drawer where I store loose .243 brass and dropped a double handful into the tumbler to clean them.  When I took the loose, clean brass out of the tumbler, I happened to find a cartridge that plainly wasn't a .243 Winchester, and I admit when I found it, I was perplexed.  I set it aside on the bench and proceeded to prep and load the empty .243 brass.

It had ridden around in the tumbling media for several hours with the empty brass, and I set it aside on the bench to ponder while I reloaded.  At first glance I thought that somehow a loose .30-06 cartridge had gotten in the .243 drawer, because the empty .30-06 cartridges are in the drawer below the .243.  But, the more that I looked at the cartridge, the more I wasn't convinced that it was a .30-06.  Then, I convinced myself that a .35 Whelen had gotten in somehow, but that would be odd, because I don't own a .35 Whelen of any type.  The .35 Whelen is a good cartridge, and we may talk about it in the future, but I simply don't own one.

So, I got out my reading glasses and decided to look at the headstamp.  I consider myself to be pretty good at cartridge identification, but this one had me stumped.

Click, if you must, on the picture for a larger image, but the headstamp plainly says orma 9.3 x 62.  That set me back on my haunches.  Until I googled it just now, I had never heard of the 9.3 x 62 Mauser.  I had never even contemplated such a thing.

Designed in 1905 by Otto Bock, it was originally fit into the Model 1989 Mauser bolt-action rifle.  It was never a military cartridge, but has been used extensively in Europe, Africa, and Canada as a heavy thumper.  It fires a .366 inch, 250 grain bullet at 2550 fps and is considered very adequate for most large game, worldwide.  As the Wiki page says:

The 9.3×62mm is ideal for eland, zebra, giraffe and wildebeest, and most who hunt in Africa consider it a viable all-around cartridge comparable to the .338 Winchester Magnum, the 9.3×64mm Brenneke, the .375 H&H Magnum and the .404 Jeffery. The 9.3×62mm has taken cleanly every dangerous species on the continent. Though it is of smaller bore than the legal minimum for dangerous game in most countries, the .375 calibre, many countries specifically make an exception for the 9.3×62mm.[2][3][4] The 9.3×62mm is considered adequate for European and North American game that may become dangerous, such as feral hogs and the great bears.

So, the question remains; how the hell did it get on my bench.  I didn't know about the caliber until yesterday, I didn't even suspect that there was such a thing, but yet, there it is.  The second question is what do I do with it.  I've been jonesing lately to build an odd caliber rifle, but I was thinking about something like the .250 Savage in a nice, light package.  To be honest, I've never considered a heavy rifle, suitable for heavy game and the great bears.  I admit, I'm pondering.

How the hell did that cartridge get in my tumbler?  I guess I'll never know.

Ammo

I see an article over on Business Wire that says that the market for ammunition is forecast to grow over the next five years.

The increase in defense expenditure for military modernization programs in developing economies, high rate of participation in hunting &sport activities, growing number of female shooters and rise in demand from private end-users for home/personal security, are some of the key factors driving the global small caliber ammunition market. Heightened civil conflicts and rise in terrorist activities across the world are expected to further increase the business prospects for the ammunition industry.

The global small caliber ammunition industry is expected to see civilian (self-defense) market to gain momentum mainly on account of personal safety/security concerns amid rising civil conflicts. Hunting, shooting & sports market followed by military/armed forces sector is anticipated to be key business domains that will drive towards a high market share (by value) for ammo manufacturers over the forecasted period (2016-2022).

I've been corresponding with Alan Davis, over at Widener's.  For those of you who don't recognize the name, Wideners is an outfit that sells lots of stuff, including reloading components.  We've both lived through ammo shortages and we know how hard it can be to enjoy our sport when we don't have the ammo to expend.  There are only three or four large ammo manufacturers in the US (ATK, Remington and Winchester come to mind), and a host of smaller outfits.  Some you've never heard of because they produce niche ammo for the military markets. And, of course, we import a lot of ammo.

The simple fact is that there are only two ways to get ammo.  Buy it assembled, ready to go.  Or, you can build it yourself.  I've talked a lot about ammo and handloading in these pages.  While I'm not an expert, I am certainly a practitioner.

You can accuse Warren Buffet of a lot of things, but one of the things that he does very well is keep his finger on the pulse of the economy.  If he says ammunition is going to be a hot commodity over the next several years, it behooves us all to pay attention.  Go read the link above.  Buffet believes that ammo is going to be hot, that governments are going to be buying a lot of it.  Production capacity is finite and wars are greedy, and supplies might be limited.

Now might be a good time to stock up on components.  I'm not calling for a general scare or a fools rush on the local ammo store, but it might be a good time to check your stocks and build a reliable supply.  If you haven't taken up handloading yet, now might be a good time to consider it.

I'm just saying.

Another Convert

Christians are happy when a person is saved, and hunters are happy when another person sees what we're really all about.  This feel-good story is about a California photographer who decided to make a photo shoot about hunting, and had an epiphany.

I am totally a so California girl, I thought hunters were barbaric, blood thirsty, gun lovers. What Ive learned moving to Idaho is hunting has nothing to do with violence or aggression. It’s a little like farming or gardening. People protect and care for their chickens and their vegetable plants, only to end up using them for food. Also, hunters support conservation of wild places and laws that protect wildlife populations What I learned with Harlee’s family is that they want to know where their food comes from, have clean lean meat, they eat the whole animal, and share the meat with friends and family. I still would never be a hunter, but my perspective has shifted and learned hunters are more knowledgeable and thoughtful about animals and nature.

Of course, when you have a photo subject as alluring as this, it's easy to see the beauty of hunting.  Here's the model, with her dad.

Here's another one, just because.

Nice elk, beautiful country, ad a wonderful photo opportunity.

That's a feel-good story all around.

Deer Stand

Today we moved my box stand to the family property.

One son, two grandsons, and a family friend.  Now, I'm set for deer season.

That Old Handi Rifle

I've changed my hunting area this year, getting closer to home, and the simple fact is that I don't need a long-range rifle.  Indeed, my longest shot will be on the near side of 75 yards.  I surely don't need a flat-shooting .25-06, nor a hot loaded .243, nor even my old trustworthy 30-06.  So, I was perusing my battery this year for the deer rifle of choice, and my eyes fell upon my old .45-70 Handi-Rifle.

The .45-70 is an old cartridge, originally adopted by the US Government as a centerfire rifle cartridge in 1873 as the round for the 1873 Springfield rifle.  Originally known as the .45-70-405, it threw a 405 grain lead bullet to about 1400 fps.  The .45-70 is a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and handloaders have to be careful when they're loading the old cartridge.  It's one of only a few that are loaded to different power levels, depending on the action type.  A modern Sharps, or Ruger #1 can handle a whole lot more pressure than an original trapdoor Springfield, and handloaders should be careful when loading this cartridge.

Regular readers know my fondness for the Handi Rifle, a single shot rifle built by Harrington and Richardson, it's chambered in a variety of calibers and are very useful game-getters.  I've written about my Handi Rifles before, at my domain site, and if anyone's interested they can click over there and take a gander.

So, I took it out of the cabinet for a closer look.

Very basic rifle, not unlike similar rifles that were used on the frontier long ago.  Some say it's almost a direct descendant of the Frank Wesson rifle, a crack-barrel poor man's rifle.  Mine isn't even scoped, instead I mounted a Williams peep sight on the rear of the barrel.

At 7.5 pounds, it's not a light rifle, but at 37 inches, it's handy.  When you're throwing a bigh honking 405 grain bullet, you don't want a light rifle.  When you're pushing that big lead bullet at almost 1600 fps, it'll rattle your teeth.  The load below is interesting, but I can't recommend that anyone try it, simply because it isn't listed as a viable load these days.

You won't find that load in any of the reloading manuals today, indeed I found it several years ago, and even then, it's below minimum.  However, today IMR 4895 isn't popular in the old government cartridge and you won't find many loads for it.  This load is safe in my rifle, but cautious handloaders will check their manuals before trying a load in their rifles.  Again, the .45-70 is one of those cartridges that can be loaded mild or wild.  If you load a wild cartridge in a mild rifle, it might come apart on you.  Be careful in handloading for this old cartridge.  The usual caveats apply.

I think that the old Handi Rifle might be just the ticket for my new hunting area.  I'm certain that the rifle and the cartridge are capable, they've been taking game for over 100 years.  The question, is am I capable?  We'll see.

Getting Ready

It's past Labor Day now, and it's time to start getting ready for the hunting season.  Ill be hunting on family land this year and I've got some catching up to do.  I need to bush-hog and set up my box stand, and Dad's tractor hasn't had a good battery for several years.  We've been jumping it off, and that's not the answer.  So today after work I went out to the family land and got the battery out of that old tractor.  I'll swap it for a new one tomorrow during my lunch break, and on Saturday I'll go out, fire up the tractor and do some mowing.

Hopefully, by October 1st I'll have my box stand set up and the feeder working.  That'll give the deer six weeks to get used to the mowed grass, the box stand and find the corn on the ground.  Our land is in Area 1, so my season doesn't start till November 15th this year.

I might ought'a get a hunting license too.  That might be a good idea.

The Hunting Hat

A proper hunting hat is a very individual sartorial choice.  Based on individual needs, climate, terrain, and temperature, the hunting hat might simply be a billed baseball cap, or it might be a fur-lined cap with ear flaps, made of natural or synthetic materials.  For years I wore a standard baseball cap, but learned that I needed a brim that would keep rain off the back of my neck.  (Yes, folks, it rains in Louisiana.)  While I'm not apt to be out in the driving rain, I might certainly find myself in a sudden shower, or more likely in a misting rain.  I don't like ear flaps, generally because as I've approached my dotage, I've become increasingly more deaf.  I don't hear things that I used to hear, and I don't need anything covering my ears.  If it's that cold, I'm going to build a fire.

However, several years ago I found a hunting hat that suits me to a tee.  Right down to the core.  It keeps my head warm, is fairly stylish, and sets the proper tone for an old man in the woods.

It's some sort of outback hat, but the manufacturer's tag is lost to the ages.  It's in some sort of camouflage, which I don't find absolutely necessary, but which seems to be de rigeur for hunting hats.  Still, I wish I knew who made it, because I'd order a half-dozen in various colors or camo patterns.  Still, I understand that the hunting hat is a very individual choice.  For me, that outback is the proper hat.

More Deer Cam

We're having plenty of fun looking at the game camera and this little buck shows a lot of promise.

That's a nice, shootable 6 point, probably two or three years old.  And, he's coming out right at the end of the legal shooting hours.  According to the app on my phone, absolute sunset on the day in question was 6:22 p.m.  We can hunt one-half hour after sunset and that deer came out at 6:47 p.m., fully five minutes before the end of the legal shooting hours.

That mirrors my experience with shootable bucks.  You've got to wait until the last possible minute of legal shooting hours.  Of course, once the rut starts, all bets are off, but if I had to bet on one buck that we might convert into venison, I believe this one is the best bet.  And, there is nothing wrong with a little basket-rack 6-point when you're converting deer into suppertime.  The season for this little buck starts on November 16th, and hopefully we'll get some more photos so we can pattern him.

In the Game Cam

We put a game camera on the little acreage that the family owns and caught some pictures of a really stunning deer.  About 200 yards behind Momma's house.

That's one of several that's using the feeder.  He's often joined by a younger 6 point.  And a couple of does.  Rut hasn't started yet, but we have at least two big bucks using the feeder.

From the Stand

No, I didn't make meat this morning, but I spent several enjoyable hours in the deer stand.  Here's what I see when I'm sitting there.

I'm sitting in a chair, looking at that shadowed area down the pipeline.  The rifle is sitting on a bag on the window ledge.  If Bambi walks out, I'm ready to convert him to venison.  This isn't hard hunting, indeed, some would say that it's not hunting at all.  It's deer shooting, but it's a real common way of turning deer hide into food.

Milady and I have plans for two Halloween parties tonight, and I have to be ready to party, so I think I'll get a nap.  If you'll excuse me, my easy chair is calling me.

Final Prep

I could talk about politics, but that's so gauche when the hunting season is upon us.  I've got the truck partially loaded, and the final gear stacked by the door.  Checking my list to make sure I don't forget anything.

Goatwhiskers reminds me in comments earlier to not forget cartridges.  Good call, Goatwhiskers, but when I posted that the cartridges were already on the butt of the rifle.  There are nine in an elastic Allen cartridge holder and those nine should see me through the season.

I did leave my day-ruck off the list and it's going in the truck.  Things like a handheld GPS, a pair of Nikon binocs, a fawn bleat can call, a roll of toilet paper, some small wire-ties for affixing deer tags, and a small first aid kit.  All that will be left to do tomorrow will be to get my part of the noon meal out of the fridge, throw the day ruck into the truck, and fill my thermos.

I'll let y'all know tomorrow how it turns out.

Out of the Woods

I went out to the deer lease this morning to look around and do battle with red wasps.  When I opened the door of the stand, there were six big nests inside the box stand, and I gave them something to think about with a dose of Wasp & Hornet spray, then two big foggers in the stand.  I'll go back next week and see if they've decided to vacate.

Then I drove around to my feeder and filled it with corn and put fresh batteries in the timer.  Looking back toward my stand, I took a picture to evaluate my camoflage.  This photo is taken from the shooting lane and is 110 yards from the stand, which is in the middle of the photo.

Can you see the stand?  It's way down there in the sunny spot.  Of course, you can click the picture for a better look,  but I'll zoom it for you just a bit.

If you look closely at the center of the photo you can see two square eyes.  Those are shooting windows and I'm not happy that we can see them.  I'll have to add some camo to break up those square corners.  One more picture and you'll see what I mean, but the photo is starting to break down at this magnification.

It's not bad, but it's not great.  I need to do something to break up that outline.  Square corners are a bad idea in a woodland environment.  It screams Man-Made and though that stand has been there for four years, and the deer are used to it, every little edge I can use is one I'll use.  I have some ideas to break up that outline and we'll be looking at those ideas in the next couple of weeks.

Hunting Season

Hunting season opens with a whimper hereabouts, gradually settling in over several months.  Dove season opened Labor Day at noon, the traditional opening of the hunting season.  Archery season for deer opened in my area last week, and today is the opening day of squirrel season.  The duck hunters have had one split of teal season and they're working on blinds getting ready for the opening of big duck season.

Squirrel season opens this morning, statewide.  It will remain open until February 28th.

Deer season opens for the regular gun season at various times in various areas.  Locally, the regular gun season opens November 16 in Area 1, but it opens where I hunt in Area 2 on October 26th.

I'm not squirrel hunting this morning, but I am going to the lease.  It's way past time to start prepping my deer stand and I haven't been out there since I injured my foot last January.  I'll probably need to do battle with red wasps in my deer stand, but modern chemistry has given me an upper hand.

I'm heading to the woods.  Y'all enjoy your Saturday.

My Deer Stand

Fooling about on Google Maps today, I decided to go look at my deer stand.  When I cobbled that stand together, I put a roof on it made of green corrugated panels made of fiberglass.  They've held up well over the years and I think that they make a dandy roof for my stand.

I hunt land in LaSalle parish, LA, and I doubt that the landsat satellites take much interest in it.  However, I scrolled my way over to the lease today and looked at the pipeline, and I was amazed that I can see my deer stand from the satellite view.

 You can click on the picture for a larger view, but the four little green pixels at the end of that thumbtack is the green fiberglass roof of my deer stand.  Ain't that cool?

Here's the view out the window of the stand.  In another few weeks I'll get up there and start preparing for the upcoming season.

That's one of my favorite places on God's green earth.  And, you can see it from space.

The Ugly Rifle

Termite asks, in comments

Which rifle will be your "go-to" this year?

Probably the Ugly Rifle.  I haven't made meat with it yet, and I'd like to do that before one of the grandkids absconds with it.

You can read all about it here.   The Ugly Rifle

Enjoy.  It's about time for me to fire up the pit. 

PETA Drones

Next, this bit of silliness.  It seems that PETA plans to use drones to track hunters.  According to US News:

The group says it will "soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves" and that it is "shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds."

You do understand that we're armed?  With guns that shoot down things?  Let PETA fly one of their silly little drones over my deer blind and they're liable to wonder where their drone went.  I, of course, will know nothing about it, and if they come on the land to look for it, they'll be charged with trespassing.