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

Since I'm the OP, I kind of hate being the turd in the punchbowl, but after reading through all this, I realized my own experience was worth mentioning.

I have not done much pussyfooting in the deer woods recently. The lingering neuropathy in my feet will probably preclude it for at least this season. However, I did do quite a bit of time early on in Ohio and Indiana. There really was nothing better than 12 Gauge. Even when I moved my hunting to Kentucky, I still tried to spend at least one day playing Buckeye old-schooler.



I give you 3 examples:


This is a Remington 1100 with a smoothbore barrel and rifle sights. This is my first and overall favorite. I used to shoot everything with this: dove, turkey, trap, skeet-- albeit with different barrels.



Mossberg 500 with rifled barrel. What the 1100 could do at 50 yards, this one could duplicate at 100 yards. It is my turkey gun most years.



When my buddy, Big Bob, died, I inherited "Luigi." It's a Stoeger SXS with Mauser sights welded onto the rib. I still haven't had this one out.

It dawned on me that we've kind of had this discussion before:



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JBabcock
Campfire Regular

Reged: 12/07/02
Posts: 560
Loc: Auburn, Wash.
Re: Brush Guns [Re: shaman]
#1062925 – 10/30/06 07:35 AM

I think the whole concept of a “brush gun” is nothing more than a myth.

I use my bolt actions for all hunting, including heavily wooded terrain. There, I can pull the trigger on it just as fast as I can any other kind of gun. And most times, you only get one shot. I can run the bolt fast enough if needed.

shaman
Campfire Ranger

Reged: 12/28/02
Posts: 1368
Loc: Neave, KY
Re: Brush Guns [Re: JBabcock]
#1063018 – 10/30/06 08:37 AM

Then I would not change a thing. Some things just work. You’re lucky enough to stop right where you are. Me? I gave up all my other vices, and I got married. I got bored with college football, I’m lousy with cars. It was either deer rifles or a saltwater aquarium.

I personally find that when I walk out to one of my bow hunting stands with my bolt 30-06 and my beanfield scope and try to hunt, I keep hearing sniggers. It may be just the wind. It may be my imagination but it might be the deer. On the other hand, I have a hard time seeing the other end of my pasture without binos. As a result, I’ve got to pick a venue and take a rifle to hunt it.

Probably my best overall deer rifle is the Savage 99 in 308. If I was going somewhere where I did not know what I run into, it would be either my primary gun for deer-sized stuff or certainly the backup. It comes as close any I would have to the one-gun rifle. The Winnie bolt gun in Ought-Six comes in #2, but it has a big honkin’ scope on it leftover from my days using it as a varmint gun. Close-in, you have your choice of which small patch of hair you want to see.

I am a hunter that shoots, rather than a shooter than hunts, so I don’t have all that many closets filled with deer rifles, but the subject of what makes a good deer rifle intrigues me. It’s a fascination instead of an obsession. I can quit at any time, honest.

The Shaman’s Myth of the Brush Gun– the real one

You’re right in the end: the brush gun is really just a myth. On the other hand, I can pick up my 1100 and a fresh box of Sluggers and walk into the cedars and something magical happens. The deer are sniggering as much as ever, but for one brief Saturday afternoon I’m away from the shaving mirror and me and the brush gun can slip into the woods.

I can stalk the deer and when I look down that 1100 is still as bright and shiny as the day I bought it. The Remington Sluggers are just as green, and as long as I stay along the ridge, and maybe angle downhill a little bit and don’t try to go back it can be like twenty-something years ago back in Hocking Hills on Opening Day. The only thing missing is the stray shots zipping through the treetops. Those I don’t miss at all.

Of course the 1100 is starting to get a little dented, but I’m not wearing my reading glasses. I don’t see the wear on the stock, or the lines on my hands. Along about sunset, I start trudging back up the ridge and as long as I do it slow enough the myth keeps working. Finally, I get back home and put my brush gun up on the rack next to Moose’s Garand and Angus’ Mosin Nagant– my sons don’t seem to mind the weight. They’d schlep a boat anchor through the woods if they thought it would get them a deer.

Once in a great while I catch some deer laughing a little to hard or too long out there in the cedars, and it makes the trip worthwhile by reaffirming the myth and topping off the freezer. KY rifle season ends, and I don’t feel bad about not buying an Ohio tag and joining the orange army the next Monday for the start of shotgun season. I put the 1100 away and don’t think about it until next year.

The most successful deer hunter I ever knew used a .30-30. Course he didn't let bag limits get in the way of his fun and routinely killed 4-5 bucks every season. He had killed well over 200 bucks right here in NY before he died. Those who don't use one tend to underestimate their effectiveness and suitability for woods whitetails. I have many scoped bolt actions from which to choose but most often a .30-30 will be in my hands if I'm going to hunt the woods. It will do everything that needs doing to kill whitetails.

Everybody I knew that put up numbers like that used a 22 mag

When they pass out tags like penny candy, and even to the point they let family pass them around, there must be a lot of Deer to be killed …. It can’t be all that difficult to pad your numbers with 5-7 Does per year.

Sounds more like shooting than hunting. Similar to Doves, which is a shoot more than a hunt.

Use the same one for up close as you would for out far.

Easier to make a short shot with a longer range set up than it is to be handicapped with a short range rig on a longer shot.

That last paragraph should be graven in granite at the foot of Mt Rushmore.

Killed quite a few "woods" deer from whitetail does to 300-pound mule deer bucks with the .30-06 and 200-grain Nosler Partitions. Not all were 50 yards or less, but all well inside 100.

Used this combination because at the time a bolt-action .30-06 with a 4x scope was my only big game rifle, having lost some others due to a divorce. Had long known the .30-06 was a fine all-around cartridge for Montana game, but didn't realize quite how well it worked with that one load until using it.

It worked very well on whitetail does without ruining much meat at all, and also shot lengthwise through a big mule deer buck facing almost directly away.

Of course, it also worked well on elk--which is the main reason I started loading it. But also killed one pronghorn doe with a rib-shot at 250 yards, and she dropped quickly as well--with the same minor meat-damage.

All of which is one more factor about why the longer I hunt, the more I've started disbelieving all the agonizing rifle loonies often go through to pick the "perfect" rifle and cartridge. This may seem like heresy, but there it is.

Geedubya,

Nice old double!

Who made it?

Have mentioned before that I had a Sauer hammer drilling in 12x12/.30-30 for a number of years, which worked very well on game from deer to birds, both ducks and upland.

Aside from the open sights, it also had one of those flip-up tang aperture sights some older German break-action guns feature. At 100 yards, standard factory 170-grain loads shot 2" high--which was perfect.

John

Killed quite a few "woods" deer from whitetail does to 300-pound mule deer bucks with the .30-06 and 200-grain Nosler Partitions. Not all were 50 yards or less, but all well inside 100.

Used this combination because at the time a bolt-action .30-06 with a 4x scope was my only big game rifle, having lost some others due to a divorce. Had long known the .30-06 was a fine all-around cartridge for Montana game, but didn't realize quite how well it worked with that one load until using it.

It worked very well on whitetail does without ruining much meat at all, and also shot lengthwise through a big mule deer buck facing almost directly away.

Of course, it also worked well on elk--which is the main reason I started loading it. But also killed one pronghorn doe with a rib-shot at 250 yards, and she dropped quickly as well--with the same minor meat-damage.

All of which is one more factor about why the longer I hunt, the more I've started disbelieving all the agonizing rifle loonies often go through to pick the "perfect" rifle and cartridge. This may seem like heresy, but there it is.

Never did I imagine a SxS hammer gun chambered for the .30-30. KUDOS!