Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bob's Model 44

My buddy, Bob, died this past winter. He was an outdoor writer and magazine editor.

Out of estate I managed to snag a minty Ruger Model 44, and swore I'd put it to good use. Bob would have been proud. I nailed a buck with it last night-- 80 yards, perfect shot, took out both lungs and the top of the heart. The only down side is that this is the first season in almost 40 years that I haven't been able to call Bob to tell him.

Anyhow, I thought I'd at least let y'all know.



Downside: I took the shot at 1718 last night with about 30 minutes of legal hunting left. The buck ran down into a ravine, and we didn't get the carcass out until about 1100 today. I tried going down there with an ATV, and . . . it was quite an adventure.

More later. I'm due to go back out to fill a doe tag.

looks like a nice setup. that scope looks just right on that gun. nice buck too.

Way to go!

Congratulations, and Bob would be pleased to know you used his rifle

You did something great there. You kept your friend's legacy going the best way possible. Good on you.

Nice rifle and one with a personal history. Doesn’t get much better. Hope you get to use it for many seasons...

hope there wasn't too much coyote saliva on the carcass.

This. How did you keep the dimoc, ur, varmints off it Sha?

Well, just to be my armchair butthead self:



Skip going to celebrity dink kill breakfast feast at waffle house next morn at 7am

Go get deer


Or, better

Go get lanterns and some neighbors, relatives, pizza delivery guy and retrieve deer 45 minutes after kill

Or,
Confuscious say. High shoulder/spineshock breakdown shot, deer no run 400 yards into abyss

I thought Confucius said
"He who stands on toilet, gets high on pot."

Confucious say

.444 marlin

Not .44


😄

them ravine deer are a beeotch. years ago (thank god) i was hunting in a nice little laurel patch up on top of a mountain. one side favored the truck and the other, steeper, deeper side did not. last day, no buck and about 3PM i decide a fat doe is good enough. bad idea. 45-70, 300gr HP right through the lungs. deer was facing the truck side, turned around and running and sliding like an MF'er down the steep side about 200 yards blowing blood out everywhere. had to wedge it up against a tree to gut it and about killed myself getting it up to the top of the mountain again. dragged that mf'er til well after dark by myself. and this was before cell phones worked worth a schit. pretty sure i had a flip phone tmobile or some schit that had a range of about 100 yards from a tower. my brother was ready to call the search and rescue guys and was worked up. i get that fuggen thing down to the truck about 630 and he says "all that for a fuggen doe?" i had to agree.

Just ribbing the OP

Anyone that's killed a few whitetails will experience one or a dozen doing that. lol


I had one run off a 100ft bluff.

By myself had to drag it 20ft at a time switching back and forth. This was before atv days.

What I shouldve done is just cut the backstraps out and left the rest for the maggots.

And as rem141 above, all that for a slick head doe.

I shoot the fuggers in the neck now or high shoulder. I don't care about 'meat loss'
Chicken is .49c a lb and tastes waay defuq better. 😄

Confucious say:

Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day

Nice buck, shaman. Good on you using your friend's rifle.

Actually, if I'd dropped it in its tracks, I'd have had almost as hard a time getting it out.

You'd think that after 40 years, I'd not have put a new stand up overlooking a ravine, but . . .

I'm really going to have to rethink that stand location.

In the past we've been able to rely on my S10 Herschwagen. It has a winch on it, all you have to do is run a line down the hill and the deer comes up with just a touch of a button. However, just before season, the mechanic called me and said it was time to put the S-10 down for good.

We tried to do the recovery with Supercore's ATV. However, there was way too much intervening brush, and we both about died trying to get it out. I got the ATV down to with 20 yards of the carcass in the dark, and had to abort. This AM I had too strong sons to help guide me out. It was an easy half-hour job.

Thanks for sharing this! Your friend would have been proud.

Confucious he ded

He ded way before gunpowders

Confusion is alive tho.

Mike

No Uberlaunch and wench? Where is assfault angle?

Congrats!!!

Wonderful way to honor the memory of your friend.

Good job!

You don’t need to call Bob, he already knows and is smiling down upon his friend. I would be willing to bet that Bob was with you when you got up that morning before your hunt and was with you the entire time......probably laughing at the pickle you got yourself in with your ravine recovery. 👍

Bob's last deer was a doe on a ML hunt a few years before I met him. It was in the Shawnee Forest over by Portsmouth.
He said he was about 2 ridges over from the truck when he met up with the deer. He had her dead to rights. It suddenly hit him how far away he was from the truck.

His solution?

He mounted the 45 Cal TC Hawken and got a good sight on her and yelled "BANG!" The doe got this terminal look of fear in her eyes and took off.

we're all thinking the same thing. LOL

shaman put a good hit on it,

No ass shot and 5 miles of cable not needed. 😀

Shaman; way too cool getting a buddies rifle back "in the field" god bless you.

All the best.

GRF

Very nice! Killin something with a rifle with some history to it always makes it a little more memorable. Know all about some tricky recoveries, according to my old man a few areas here at my place and some of the others we hunt rival any jungle he treked through in Nam on his government sponsored trip there!

The fingergroove 44 is an awesome little carbine!!

Those are a great, deer-killing machine. If accuracy starts to slip, first thing to check is whether the bolt through the stock that holds the rear receiver mount has loosened. Also, glass bedding the gas block can go a long way toward accurizing those carbines.

"My new liver hurts assfault, can't you drag it out? Wait...take your clothes off first so you don't get dirt and blood on them."

When I read shaman's other post, my immediate thoughts were the same

Shaman,

Good on you, and good on Bob. May that 44 claim plenty more (and easier) deer in years to come.

Congrats on blooding your deceased friends Ruger .44 carbine.

Took my first ever deer, a young buck, with one like it,

Shot it in the butt too, more specifically aimed at and hit base of the tail.
First shot, bullet penetrated through the length of the deer and stopped just beneath the hide at front of shoulder.
Second through both lungs and out the off side.

Choked a little as I read your story, shaman. My fishing buddy and great friend passed a couple months ago.

You did your friend proud. Good on ya.

I've got more details, pics, and such from the hunt.

They're up on my weblog here:



Bob's Model 44 and the Buck