Forum rules
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.
Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
I got back this afternoon from 3 days on the mountain. This is the last week of deer season so I set the Model 64 aside and pulled out another classic Winchester - a pre-64 Model 70 in 30-06. It has been a rough season with health problems. I have only been able to make short walks so I have been hunting along the road with everybody else. Regardless the spirits of the hunt smiled on me this morning. My partner joined me this morning and we were going to go in a canyon that he killed his buck in last week since he had seen 2 other legal bucks there. There were 2 other groups of hunters already there when we pulled up so we went up the road to a Forest service road along a mountain top.
My partner spotted a doe down in the canyon at our first stop. They are in the rut so we kept looking. Then I spotted another doe further up and she was soon joined by 2 more does and lo and behold a buck! I went back to the truck and got the rifle and my pack. The buck was in the brush so I got set up in the prone with the rifle resting over the pack and cleared the grass and weeds in my shooting lane. I ranged the does at 384 yards. We watched and waited for the buck but he did not show for a long time. My partner finally spotted him feeding at the top of the little ridge they were on. I laid the cross hairs on the top of his back and sent a 130 grain TSX cross canyon. The buck collapsed and kicked enough to fall into the brush. The range of the shot was 406 yards. We drove around to the top of his ridge, went down and he was right there. Better yet you could see the highway down the canyon below. Very nice for old guys who aren't to healthy! We boned him out and I took him down to the highway and my partner went back up and brought the truck down. So I got one in spite of all the set backs this year. I am a happy camper!
That is a nice looking deer congrats. That is an incredibly long shot I cannot even imagine shooting that far.
Where I hunt in Michigan my longest shot is maybe 60-75 yds. Congrats.
Andrew: He is a real gun freak with way too many guns to shoot or clean.
Thanks, fellows. This one did mean a lot. For me, hunting is not the important thing, it is the only thing. To not be able to hunt was very discouraging.
As for the shot, I normally won't shoot that far. I will only do it when everything is perfect and I can't get closer. Prone with a rest is as good as it gets. Normally I don't shoot at anything much past 300 yards.
OS, I am very happy with the Barnes bullets. I also killed two deer last year with the 130 TSX. All three dropped in their tracks. These are my loads with Varget and they chronographed right at 3100 FPS. I have been using X bullets since 1995. My wife and I have killed over 30 deer with Barnes bullets. Most from a 264 Win Mag and the rest from a 6MM Rem and the three with the 30-06. My wife killed the buck in the picture below with a 6MM 90 grain X at 2800 FPS. They work!
