Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Heading to camp. later dudes.

Nov 29th through Dec 14th.

I scouted a pretty nice area this morning with good sign. I am willing to drag one out a ways, so it could be promising.

Antlerless only, so I will probably see BuckZilla.

Good Luck!

Hope you all see something to shoot! I am going set up the dark house for spearing tomorrow. Do you still have that red house you built for your boy ready to deploy?

My plans changed. I'll be chasing deer looking critters by Mora this weekend.

Good luck!!!

Thank you. It sounds like we'll need it there too. 6 guys and none hanging yet.

Damn, that is depressing.

I broke out my muzzle-loader today after I picked up a tag for the season at Fleet Farm. I hope to get a 601 zone doe to add to the freezer.

Good Luck on your quests! I won't be hunting again until the 29th when ML opens

What kind of ML are you guys using. I have an older (1993ish vintage) Knight Wolverine that has taken some deer, but am looking at something easier to clean. Fleet Farm has the CVA Optima for 230ish in stainless, and for another 30 I can get a different breech plug to shoot that 209 powder.

Are the break open ML's as awesome as I imagine they would be to clean?

I use a TC Encore ss .50 cal it gets the job done not the best accuracy. Some of the guys I work with love their CVA Accuras and Optimas.

Yes, they are. It doesn't get much easier. I have whatever cheap TC fleet farm sells. It was $220. I loaded a 240gr bullet, 100 gr of 777, and shot it at 50 yards. It was 1" high. So we're the next 4 shots. I never touched the sights once. Moved it to 75 yards, leaned it, popped 2 more off and there were in the bull'ish. Good enough for my bad eyes.

I waited until after X-mas and got a Traditions Buckstalker on sale for like $219.00. This was the Ceracoated model wih the black stock. Awesome deal and awesome shooter. Just an opinion if you don't need it now!

Should have mentioned I got the Buckstalker through Cabelas

That Fleet Farm CVA Optima V2 is looking pretty good at 230 bucks right now. I may have to upgrade my PITA to clean Knight for something a little more "modern."

Tom, you going to hunt the metro with the smoke-pole, or go up north?

Any of the inlines I've had are easy to clean. I just rehabbed an old optima I got at a gun show that appeared to have been left with pyrodex residue in it, and it's probably the easiest one that I have. I have 2 CVA's, and for such a cheap gun, they have a surprisingly good trigger.

I have a Rem 700 stainless .50 cal ML that I bought used and converted to 209 primers and added a Lyman peep sight. Shoots well, cleans easy and is comparable to the new break opens mentioned in cost. Also easy to put a scope on if you hunt in states that permit that.

I have the Encore in .50 cal. It's easy to clean after taking the barrel off. Just be careful if it's wearing a scope. Hot water and Dawn dish washing soap do the trick quite nicely. It shoots like a house afire too! I get inchish groups at 100 yds.

One tip: for good marital relations, DO NOT CLEAN THE BARREL IN THE BATHTUB.

The wife bought me the CVA Optima for Christmas one year. It's the old black/blued. It's very accurate and extremely easy to clean. I see now they are black/stainless and pretty nice looking guns for the price.

I'm still hunting with an old CVA Hawkins just because I'm too darned stubborn to put the thing away until I kill a deer with it,but you can bet my next jug will be an in line. Son runs a CVA gun and it's just a joy to shoot. Easy to clean. 2 50 gr. pellets, ram a bullet and you're good to go. No more measuring, powder vial, mess on my hands. 'Gotta drop a deer with this old .54 so I can get an inline!