Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A Close-in Deer Rifle

I'll take this for a walk in the woods any day. Custom build on a tweaked #1 action. 300 Savage

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For slipping through the woods:

My favorite is a 21" barreled .358 Win with a 1.1-5x24.

The one I use the most is a 22" barreled .308 with a 3-10x42.

Occasionally I'll carry a .35 Rem 336 with XS ghost ring.

The one I should carry, is a lightweight AR in 350 legend with a 1-4 scope with a 2 point sling....but I'm just a bolt junkie and didn't talk myself into carrying it last season.

Low light is a problem with iron sights around here. Our days are very short during deer season. Rain and overcast skies almost every day shorten them even more. In thick woods under those conditions, a scope adds significant hunting time to each end of the day.


Okie John

A long time favorite of mine is this 20.5" barreled Model 70 9.3x62, which works just as well on a buck 250 yards across a muskeg as it does on a brown bear at 5 yards. With 286 gr partitions any angle is a good angle, and they don't wreck meat badly. I switch back and forth between the Talley peep and a scope. Last year I discovered the Trijicon Accupoint 1-4, which has proven to be my best woods scope by far.

Very important considerations. Low light would for sure be an influence during my intended use.

That is sweet.

You are correct, Pappy. The thing is that alpine hunting conditions require much the same features as those of the OP's, only the terrain is more vertical. Both favor short, light, well balanced rifles. I had seen pictures of 1903s for years and thought the bolt handle being amidship would make the rifle awkward and clumsy. About 4 years ago I ran across this one at an estate sale and picked it for some reason. When I did, the clouds parted, the sun shined through, and the birds began to sing. The thing felt like a fine shotgun for upland birds...like it was a part of my arms.

This handling characteristic is the common element for alpine and stalk hunting in close cover. There are many rifle configurations that meet this characteristic and the M-S is only one of them. I have several others that generally fit this description but the M-S is my favorite.

There's a beauty, right there. I have another, similar setup on an old 721 action. 9.3x62



I wish it had a straighter comb, but it isn't a deal breaker as it sits & the recoil impulse rolls it quite nicely back & up.

I have been using a Rossi 92 in 45 Colt. I needed a scope due to aging eyes or wear glasses, I chose the former, a 2x Burris scout scope. The little carbine is light and hits hard. My thick brush is seldom thin enough to see more than 50 yards and mostly less. It is so thick you have to cut trails through it before season so you don't have to crawl through it. It is a feat to sneak up on them in their beds.

Hunting the western edge of the Adirondacks ALL of my deer rifles are suitable for close in.

Two Savage 99s. And sometimes you can get more than one shot off when surprised up close with these (been up to 4 on running deer, and yes I got the deer, a well broken in 99 can be fast!):
1923 99F type 1, 30/30, takedown, 20 in barrel, Redfield receiver sight. And this 100 yr old rifle is very well broken in.
1956 99F, 300 Sav, Williams receiver sight.

Two short action bolt guns. These are the one-shot rifles:
Kimberly Montana, .308, Leupold VariX II 2-7x33.
Remington 700 Classic 300 Sav, barrel cut down to 22in, VX2 2-7x33.

You know, I've been cogitating about the comments in this thread, including my own. Looking back over my last 50+ years of hunting, I have used many different rifles to kill a lot of deer. Some were specialized, most were not. I can't say that I ever failed to take a deer with one rifle when I would have taken it with a different type rifle, at least I can't think of one right off.

I think it is as much to do with the shooter's familiarity with the rife as the rifle's characteristics. In the early 80s I pieced together my first 7X57 using a Mark X action and a blem Fajen full stock. It was heavy and of medium length, but I carried it exclusively for 2 or 3 years and kinda 'grew' into it. I ended up making shots on running deer with that rifle that I still hardly believe. Being familiar with your rifle can make up for a lot!

Lots of amazing rifles and stories in this thread!

"Close-in deer rifle" for me is a Ruger American in either 7.62x39 or 300 BLK with an Aimpoint Micro H1 red dot sight...or 4x scope. May go with the Trijicon Accupoint 1-4 as well here some day.

Just started using their 3-9x40 with amber triangle/post reticle and like it a lot. It is currently on a 1948 Winchester Model 70 which is of course not a close in deer rifle

I have never had a carbine that fit me so perfectly as the Husqvarna 456 and when I shoulder, it is looking at the target as an extension of me. No, the action isn't anywhere as smooth as my Mannlicher-Schoenauers but, it comes on target quicker and is lighter. I load the .30'06 to .300 Savage or .30-30 velocity, if not using cast bullets, for my close in hunting.

Marlin 1895GS .45-70



Pair of 7600 Carbines running a fall trapline (.30-06 and .35 Whelen)




7600 Carbine .35 Whelen, Marlin 1895GS .45-70, Remington Model 8 35 Rem, Browning Model 71 Carbine .348 Win

A stalking rifle sure reads like a synonym for a still hunting rifle. It isn’t the way most of us hunt deer these days because if most of you are like me, walking around in the woods during deer season just gets “your” deer killed by another guy on a stand somewhere up ahead. Anyway, a good stalking rifle needs to fit. My 99F .300 Savage fits me way better than my bolt actIon 7mm-08, yet I’ll use that bolt action because I’m a sniper type, not a stalker. As mentioned the cartridge choice is unimportant provided it is adequate without being over powerful. Brush deflection happens, so something that is reasonably fast for a following shot I’d think is a plus. The Benoit guys did pretty well with 760/7600 carbines with peep sights and the ability to keep the rifle shouldered chambering a second round and the lighter weight of those carbines I’m sure was a consideration.

I see you had the smith ditch the ears on the receiver, a handsome choice, and I wouldn't be surprised if it helps the accuracy, simplifies the bedding anyway.

Very nice.

I wish Ruger extended their scope base back over the action. I like that.

DF

"It was unclear to me why Sell picked what he did, except to say I dig the idea of a fast-mounting, fast-swinging rifle. However, I don't know how a Mannlicher stock figures into that. I also wonder the choice of 6.5X55 over something a bit beefier like 308 WIN. When building up a short-range deer getter is y'all's preference for small and fast or big and slow."

Man y long years ago when I lived in California, I did most of my deer hunting in the northwest corner of the stat which is thick rain forest. One rifle was a badly bubbaed 1903 Springfield, another a 94 Winchester 30-30 and later a 1903 Mannlicher in 6.5x54. Then in late 1960 I went in the Air Force and did very little hunting until I became a civilian again in 1964. I hunted with the Mannlicher way up at the rain forest again but also in other parts of the state that was more open. There I used a 30-06 most of the time. In 1968 I moved to Nevada and hunted with the Mannlicher much of the time. I just loved the light little rifle especially at the higher lattitudes. I was a heavy smoker at the time. In 1975, after a successful hunt north of Elko, I stopped at a gas station in Elko to gas up the truck and have a well needed pee. When I got back the little Mannlicher was gone. Stolen. I tried for years to find another but no such luck. I got job transfer to Arizona which gave me a noticeably higher paycheck but could not find a replacement rifle. I saw quite a few that were nice on the outside but corroded bores from using corrosive primed ammo.
One day I saw an ad for a Ruger 77 RSI with a fairly low price so I called and went to take a look. It was chambered to the .308 and it was in very good shape. I asked the guy why the low price? Is there something I should know? He said, "It don't shoot worth schitt." I asked for details which he gave but I'd decided I'd buy that rifle regardless. You see I'd looked at a light switch on his wall, closed my eyes and snapped the rifle to my shoulder and opened my eyes. The crosshair was smack dad in the middle of the button for the switch. I tried a few more times with the same result so I decided that rifle was coming home with me. We talked reloading and hunting a bit and $200 poorer when I left with the gun, scope, several boxes of factry and twice fired brass plus the reloading dies and a very big grin on my face. It's the rifle I've posted about that took a little over two years to find a load I could hunt with but I did and that rifle has been hunted hard. I've taken deer with it from about 30 feet to 250 yards and no way will I sell that one. My wife tried to claim it as hers so through a stroke of luck found number two That was her rifle About a year after that I fell into another and just couldn't turn it down. I would love to find one more, but in 7x57 as I've been playing with that cartridge for a while. The other three are all chambered to the .308 Win.

PJ

A little off the beaten path here, but the scaled down T/C Seneca makes a fine little rifle for the thick stuff. This one's a .45.

Ruger made a non-cataloged run of tang safety 77 RSIs in 7x57 in 1986. #770-828xx is on a shelf somewhere. Lipsey's also has sold their limited runs of stainless RSIs more recently.