Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Hunting deer with season with single shot?

Blaser K95 in 6.5x55 Swede.

LA & MS have a primitive hunting season that allows single-shots at .35 caliber & above if it has an exposed hammer (Ruger #1's unfortunately not allowed because of that last criterion). I'm going to hopefully get to try out my 1885 that I got my gunsmith to put a scope on in early November:



I really like my Ruger #1 in 303 British so I've been thinking about using it again for the modern gun season since I haven't shot it in a couple of years:



I have a .275 Rigby RSI that I want to hunt with as well so which one I choose will probably be determined by how often I get to go. Too many options...not enough free time:



All of the single shot calibers I own are capable of taking a deer. So I often let the scope or iron sights and the location I'm going to determine the one that I take. For me, it's usually not a question of whether I'm going to grab a single-shot. Most of the time the question is which single-shot am I going to grab:

TC Pro hunter 7mm 08 will be on the list this season.

Merkel K1 in .308
130ttsx

Likely a No 1 in .30-06 and the Browning 78 in .35 Whelen for “primitive weapons” season

"LA & MS have a primitive hunting season that allows single-shots at .35 caliber & above if it has an exposed hammer (Ruger #1's unfortunately not allowed because of that last criterion). I'm going to hopefully get to try out my 1885 that I got my gunsmith to put a scope on in early November:"

That has always been a puzzle to me. Ruger #1s are single shot rifles and there were some single shots back in the day that did not have an exposed hammer. The Sharps Borchart easily comes to mind. I wonder what nitwits came up with the idea Ruger #1s should be excluded? Maybe you single loader hunter should lobby and raid hell with the Game & Fish departments and try to get the Ruger included in the list. I know I'd be raising unholy if I lived where you do.
PJ

I have hunted deer, bear and elk with my Rugers, but perhaps not this year...





Regards, Guy

Stainless Encore with 24" MGM 7.62x39 barrel. Good old factory 24" 7mm-08 barrel for a back up. Also, a Contender Carbine with 22" MGM in 357 mag.

The last I read, for the “primitive weapon” it has to have an external hammer.

I’ll be hunting (if I go) with my knight kp 1 in 45-70.

well, let me see....

Ruger #1 in 270 Win
TC Encore with a 23" MGM barrel in 444 Marlin
TC Encore with a 23" MGM barrel in 500 Linebaugh
TC Contender with a 10" barrel in 30 Herrett
TC Contender with a 10" barrel in 357 Herrett

i also use '91 - '98 Mausers and 1898 Springfield Armory (i forgot to use the finish nail in the inside the cut off pin) as single shot.

I've got three 1885's that are legal so I guess I never worked up the enthusiasm to deal with politicians & government bureaucrats to try to get them to change the rules. My only Ruger #1 that is legal caliber-wise is my 9.3x74r. Being a non-resident hunter, I don't know if they would value my input too much anyway. On the plus side they let me shoot a lot of deer if I wanted to. I never come close to using all of my tags. But I agree that the exposed hammer requirement doesn't make a lot of common sense. No Ruger #1, Blaser K95, Merkel K3/K5, etc. allowed.

Hunt all manner of game with Ruger #1's

These two were the only other Kipplaufs being promoted here for a deer season hunt. That’s too bad. Kipplaufs are extremely under-appreciated for single shot hunting here in the U.S. of A.

While heavier than an aluminum frame Blaser or Merkel Kipplauf, the long-discontinued, sturdy steel frame, Thompson Center TCR83 Aristocrat nevertheless makes for a pretty agile stalking rifle, and much more affordable too:

I like single shots a lot & your TCR83 Aristocrat is a very nice-looking rifle. But the occasional complaint I have about it and the kipplaufs is that many of the ones I see for sale have right-hand buttstocks with a cheek weld. So do most of the Browning B-78’s.

As a right-handed person who shoots left, I prefer a neutral buttstock that makes the rifle more ambidextrous. I know it’s possible to get a neutral stock it’s just that it often takes extra effort or expense. I think that’s one of the reasons I favor the Ruger #1 & the Winchester 1885. As a personal preference, I don’t want my single shots to be hand-specific and it seems that some other models often are.

Ruger #1A 6.5x55 for sure, possibly the Martini Cadet .357 Maximum.




Have a Ballard Pacific that I'm in process of fitting three barrels to, .32-40, .40-70 and .40-65. If I get the .40-70 barrel fitted in time it'll get a walk in the woods, ditto the .32-40. (The .40-65 is a beast at 7 pounds just for the barrel, when finished it should top out at 13-14 pounds which I sure as hell am not gonna lug around much!) But alas, I have to blood my M1903 NRA Sporter too....

Killed one of the deer I killed last year with my No. 1B .308, so it probably won’t be back in the rotation this year. I will definitely use my 1A in 7X57 and possibly my Encore in .25-06 AI.

for the last 25 years i have used a Ruger #1 and around the last 20 years of the 25 years a custom Ruger #1 -1B S.S. 257 Weatherby mag. 27 inch Brux barrel shoots a 103 gr. Hammer bullet at 3680 FPS average and this rifle is vert accurate with a Nightforce scope too.

Success. Can make some jerky/sausage/pastrami now without fear of completely running out of meat.

Not a rifle, but my hunting weapon of choice is a single shot 14” T/C Contender handgun in 7-30 Waters.