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

I'm thinking you and Fury01 are right. Thanks.

We have filed square every round front sight we ever found on any of our guns.

That said for 30 yards you almost don't need sights at all. I've done fine with a shotgun bead and no rear and smoothbore with round balls to 30 or 40 yards with an old 1800s musket.

And whether you have X or Y front at 30 simply really isn't going to make a difference. Only 2 things that help would be big enough rear ap to have light to see. And bright enough or contrasting enough front to see, rather than shape.

Love this pic!

This rifle/scope pic is the main reason I went with the Trificon AccuPoint 1-4. Love the reticle!

I shot a mule deer from less than 10 feet with my Hawken cap-lock. I was sitting on the ground, leaning back against a tree.

I don't think that's what Sell had in mind, but it worked out fine for me.

Here's an alternative bead application for those of you who are divorced, or soon to be, or want to be: Take your wedding band, cut a chunk out of it and hammer it flat. Then knock the cheesy brass/plastic bead off your front sight, file the sight face to support the hunk of gold, solder it on, then finally file it into either a fat round bead or a flat squared-off Sourdough-like image.

I hit upon that years ago when smarting from a recent divorce and wondering what to do with that accursed wedding band. It worked pretty damned good (and I chuckle every time I look through the peep at that sight and think about how much it would piss her off if she knew what I did, her being anti-gun which she hid from me before the wedding).

Seriously, real gold on the front sight has a warm glow to it that catches the eye without being shiny/bright, and being gold it'll never tarnish no matter what. I've since then done a few more front sights from that source, and for a couple for fellas here on the 'Fire. So many in fact that I had to source more scrap gold to continue it. Beats the hell out of the base metal brass-colored stuff the sight companies use.

Real-for-real ivory is another good material. Scratch up some in the form of old piano keys, and substitute in the manner I described above but with epoxy. Beats white plastic. I honestly don't know which I prefer, both "shine" in poor light and stand out in bright light without refracting.

At the other extreme, I killed one running whitetail at 20 yards with a fixed 6x scope. This was quite a while ago, when hunting in pretty open country in eastern Montana. Didn't expect to get so close to one, but a buck got up out of some tall grass, and I got the rifle up quickly--and the reticle on the back of his neck. At the shot he crumpled--and the rifle was chambered for that lousy .243 Winchester--which at the time many hunters thought was "too fast" for close ranges.....

Yeah, I killed a mule deer doe at around 10-12 feet with my first drilling, an outside-hammer Sauer made around 100 years ago--a 12x12/.30-30. Was in kind of a similar situation, sitting near a haystack, and the deer basically walked right up to me. It had flip-up open and aperture sights, but didn't need 'em....

Has anyone mentioned a 357 Magnum lever gun or single shot?

Last Muley I shot was with my .257 Roberts at around 10 yards. All the planets were in alignment. I'm standing against a rock face and down wind, with the sun at my back. I just waited for him to look away and shot him quartering away.

That was the fattest wheat field Muley I ever brought home and also the last. Even that Muley was considered "too gamey" by my family, and so I quit hunting them.

However, all is not lost. On occasion, my better half, after perusing the freezer will ask/tell me "you are going to get another elk, right?"

A rem model 7 in either 7mm08 or 308 would be perfect.

My similar experience was with an original M1861 .58 Springfield rifled musket. In the woods adjacent to the Antietam Battlefield, I figured it was apropos for the occasion. (Said woods have since been absorbed into the National Battlefield Park, so no more hunting there.) Sitting on a stump after sneaking in a couple hundred yards over the course of from daybreak to mid-morning (I remember getting a late start because of stopping for breakfast at Denny's and not being able to take position well before first light - sometimes you're forced to still hunt whether you want to or not) the bushes rustled and out stepped a dandy buck. From about 30 feet away I leveled that thing on his front-facing chest and drove that big chunk of lead out his off side behind the leg, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. I never saw so much blood sprayed into the bushes before, or since. My only thought as I field dressed the creature was "they used to shoot people with these things...."

In the main area I hunt I have about a 1/2-1 mile walk through thick woods, bogs, and steep terrain, and that puts me at the edge of an open field where 2-300 yard shots are possible. So the ideal rifle/cartridge for me is one that can handle a 15-30 yard off hand shot if I’m still hunting and also be able to handle a relatively long shot from a rest. For the past couple seasons a Kimber Montana has served pretty well. It’s a pleasure to carry through the rough stuff, but the extreme light weight is also something of a challenge when shooting. Two new to me rifles I hope to hunt with next season are a Ruger 1A and an RSI.

Mounted a 6x fixed on an 1100 years ago. Just to become more proficient with scope and quick use. It took awhile to learn to shoot doves with it. but IMHO it sure helped my brain and scopes work a lot better/quicker...

Here is a picture of a Marbles copy of the Redfield Sourdough. This is on my Marlin 1894 .32 Magnum.

This sight will often look black, depending on the light.

Depending on where you hunt there is a place for the bead and the post sight.

Francis Sell told us you needed a small bead to shoot small targets.

I have found that up close a bigger bead sighted so the bullet hits the center of the bead is best. 

Where I am hunting there is no opportunity for a shot over 100 yards and not often further out than 75 yards.

Blaser R93, 16" barrel, Red dot, 308 Win.



ya!

GWB

I use a model 94 set up just for strolling through wood lots of small timber stands.

Yep, and yet a lot of hunters are still convinced "irons" are quicker. Finn Aaagaard disproved that in one of his American Hunter articles years ago.

I also killed a running boar about 20 years ago with a 6x--at 10 yards....

I much prefer a low power scope to iron sights.

I like 3.5x10 power scopes, keep scope on low power in case something jumps up.

Hilarious! And, good info. I just need to find an old piano now.