The Hunting Category
Good rifle for teenage girl
My daughter is about ready for her first deer rifle, but I’am not quite sure which direction I should go. All of my other kids have a Marlin 336 in 30-30. For here in East Texas most of our shots are no more then 100 yards, and she will not want anything with recoil. With…
Survival Rifle Ammunition
It was the last weekend of regular deer season, saturday night. A long time member of the deer lease drives up to the camp, and backs his truck up to the scales. That is usually a sure sign that there is a deer in the back of the truck. They get the doe weighed and are stringing it up to skin when I walk out there.
As the skinning of the deer proceeds, there are a few of us standing around helping and watching. The topic turns to the cost of ammunition and bullet performance.
Like a lot of hunters, I tend to buy the cheapest ammo on the shelf – and that is usually Remington Core-Lokt. Over the past 14,,,, 15+ years Core-Lokt is about all that I have bought and shot deer with. During that time I have had no complaints. There is usually a hole going in and a larger hole going out.
The guy who shot the doe goes on to talk about Remington Core-Lokt and how he has since switched to Winchester softpoints. The rifle the guy used was a 270,,,, I dont remember the exact make or model. After talking for a little while, the person who shot the deer said that he has not been happy with the performance of the Remington Core-Lokt lately and that he felt it may not be expanding like it should. So he switched to the Winchester softpoints.
I can say one thing about the doe that was being skinned, there was a massive amount of bruising, bleeding and tissue damage. It was like the whole area where the bullet went through had residual damage to the surrendering tissue.
Those late season bucks
Season drawing to an end? Have not taken a deer yet? If you play your cards right, there is no reason not to get a deer towards the end of deer season.
Here in Texas regular rifle season has passed and we are now in muzzleloader and youth season. Youth season is for anyone age 16 and under to be able to hunt deer. Adults have to use a muzzleloader, anyone 16 and under can use any legal means – bow, rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader.
Up until this year, muzzleloader season and youth season lasted for 1 week. In 2011 Texas Parks and Wildlife extended the season to 2 weeks.
One thing that is really nice about late season hunting, the bucks tend to flock together. The rut is over and the does have been bred. Unlike humans that might go to a sports bar for a drink, the bucks look to find food.
During the rut the bucks have expended a lot of energy and lot a lot of weight. Now its time to eat and put some weight back on before the heart of winter arrives.
While the does were in estrus, the bucks were chasing them hot and heavy. This means that the doe did not have a lot of time to eat, because they were too busy either trying to get bred, or trying not to get bred.
My Remington Model 700 is back
A couple of years ago my Remington model 700 started shooting funny. 1 round would hit to the right, the next round would then hit straight up from zero – both rounds would be around 18 – 24 inches from zero. At first I thought it was the scope – so I replaced the scope and the problem was still there. I tried different types of ammo, and the problem was still there.
One day I noticed that stock had warped and was touching the barrel. When the rifle was new the barrel was floated, so that you could slide a dollar bill between the stock and the barrel. But now, the dollar would not slide under the stock at all.
Fast forward about two years – and during that time I have not taken a single deer. A buddy of mine is over at my house, who just happens to work on firearms. I tell him about my rifles problems – and he tells he that he has a spare stock and a spare target trigger. So my buddy takes my rifle with him.
A couple of weeks later I get my rifle back, but it needs to be sighted in before its used for hunting. This past weekend I take the rifle to the camp and fire off a couple of rounds – and its hitting dead center just like it was years ago.
This morning I took my Remington model 700 in 7mm express / 280 out on a hunting trip. It was not until I held that rifle again, that I realized how much I missed that rifle and how well it shoots.
My Remington 700 BDL Mountain rifle is 16 years old. In the past 16 years I have taken more East Texas whitetail deer then I can count. The first deer was a small 4 point sometime around 1994 or 1995. The next few were some spikes and does in the following years. In 2000 I went through a rather nasty divorce and did not do much of anything for a few years.
The last day of deer season is tomorrow
The last day of deer season is tomorrow, and how I dread thee. Like the passing of dusk and dawn, from one day to the next, from spring to summer, from fall to winter, so deer season must also pass away. The does will venture to spring and have their fawns, and I hope to see next season.
Like all other things in life, so deer season has to come to an end. But regardless of the facts, its still a sad time of year.
This deer season has been a good one – my son got a nice 8 point whitetail that weighed in at 156 pounds and my kids and I made several trips to the lease. There was one evening my daughter and I were getting out of the stand, and the coyotes started howling. I thought it was a beautiful music to my ears, my daughter not so much.
December 30 2010 evening hunting trip
This evening my wife and I decided to go out to the lease and get in a stead – but before we did, we had to go get the pit from the deer camp. The Friday before opening weekend, my son and made a trip to the deer camp and brought my pit out there for everyone to use. Its a home made pit, made out of a 250 gallon butane tank and a 150 air tank. The cooking surface is 6 feet 9 inches long and 29 inches across.
My son-in-laws birthday is towards the end of December. So we made a trip to the deer camp, got the pit out before deer season is over, and now we can cook for my son-in-laws birthday.
One of the reasons “why” we wanted to get the pit out of the deer camp, is that after the season is over, some undesirable people like to go in there and steal stuff. So far we have had a saw, and a set of antlers stolen. What kind of scum bag goes into a deer camp and steals antlers,,,,,.
Stockpiling ammo for a long term survival situation
Last week my buddy and I were talking about stockpiling ammo for a survival situation – this is when something happens to cause society to break down. Examples are civil unrest, some new disease, climate change,,,,,, something that causes the fabric of mankind to unravel. In general we talked about stockpiling 308, 223, 7.62×39, 22 long rifle and shotgun shells.
My buddy stockpiles 2 different types of ammo for his 308 rifle – ball and hunting ammo.
Ball ammo – is your target round and urban defense round. When my buddy goes to the shooting range, he will shoot ball and most of his magazines are loaded with ball ammo. The plus side of ball ammo, its cheap when compared to the more expensive hunting ammo.
Hunting ammo – this is the ammo your going to be using to hunt deer, moose, elk, wild hogs,,,,, whatever goes in your neck of the woods. Currently my buddy stocks some kind of expensive Hornady ammo that cost something like $35 – $40 for a box of 20.
Instead of stockpiling 2 different types of ammo for my DS Arms FAL, I’am thinking of stockpiling 1 type. This would be something good for hunting, but does not cost a small fortune. My current deer hunting round is a Remington Core-Lokt in either 30-30 or 7mm express / 280 Remington. Over the years I dont know how many deer I have taken with the Remington Core-Lokt. On thin skinned game like the whitetail deer, its very effective.
November 20th 2010 hunting trip
Friday evening my kids and I talked about if we wanted to go hunting Saturday morning and Saturday evening, or just Saturday evening. The agreement was made to go just Saturday evening – in part because we had a birthday party to go to at noon.
Saturday morning rolls around, we sleep a little late, get up, get our morning shower and breakfast. From there we started getting ready for my grandsons 2nd birthday party.
Behind the library in Jasper, Texas there is a fenced in park with 2 covered areas, bathroom and a play ground. Its a nice place for the family to have a birthday party, or just take the small kids to go play. The whole are is fenced in, so you don’t have to worry about the smaller kids leaving the park.
Everything went well at the party, I brought along a small grill to cook hot dogs – so we had cookie cake, cake and hot dogs to eat.
Around 1 pm or so we loaded up and headed back home. Between 1pm and 2:30 I played some Left 4 Dead 2.
Best rifle and shotgun for survival
If you were going to pick two firearms – 1 small caliber rifle, 1 medium or large caliber rifle, or a shotgun, which firearms would it be? These do not “have” to be considered survival rifles or a survival shotgun, but firearms that you may shoot with all year long. The two firearm combination should be diverse enough to take everything from small game to the largest game in your area. Someone that lives in Alaska and who might run into a grizzly bear will have different rifles needs then someone that lives in Texas or Florida – because there aint no grizzly bears in Texas or Florida.
The purpose of a “survival firearm” is a little different then a Main Battle Rifle (MBR). While an MBR is designed for the military and combat, survivalist need something that is not expensive, very reliable, and effective for harvesting wild game. Which would be the better invest, a single M1a or 3 Marlin 336s in 30-30? Price is a factor here. For certain people money may not be an issue. But for most people, dropping $1,000 into a single rifle is just not feasible.
Marlin model 336 and Marlin model 60:
Marlin model 336 – chambered in 30-30 is more then adequate for just about anything in the southern United States. The recoil of the 30-30 is not excessive, the ammunition is popular so it can be found just about anywhere, the ammunition is not expensive – so its not going to cost a fortune to stockpile 30-30 ammo, the rifle itself is not expensive – so buying more then 1 is not going to break the bank.
Lets just say that I like the Marlin 336 so much, that all three of my sons have 1. In all, my family has at least 4 Marlin 336 rifles.
When a new rifle cartridge is developed is does not take long for the public to form an opinion. From there the cartridge will take off and get popular, or its going to be forgotten about and will fade away to history. The popularity of the 30-30 is a testament to its reliability and stopping power for deer sized game. If the 30-30 was not an effective round, it would not be as popular as it is today.
Thoughts on hunting post SHTF
During the great depression of the 1930s, whitetail deer and wild turkey were almost hunted to extinction in certain areas around the USA. From what I understand, the East Texas wild turkey was hunted to extinction levels, and birds had to be imported from other parts of the nation to restore the population. The same thing happened to the whitetail deer population in East Texas. The one animal that does not seem to be affected from hunting is the wild hog. Even though the majority of the 50 states has an open season on wild hogs, their population is still thriving.
One of the big differences between wild turkeys, whitetail deer and wild hogs – is the amount of off spring that can be produced. Deer and turkeys reproduce once a year. Wild hogs are like rats, they reproduce all the time.
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