Straight case in the "Shotgun Season" I assume?
My son is on an acreage between Adel and Earlham, IA. He is using a 375 Winchester and a 444 Marlin for Deer these days, both in Marlin lever guns.
I keep after him about taking one of my Shiloh Sharps (a real rifle) home with him to use........maybe one day.......
The 120 should do the job with horsepower to spare. Maybe your friend can come up with a lighter bullet "Express Load" for his rifle, depending on the twist rate in his Sharps.
I had a Farmingdale made Shiloh with a 1:20 twist that shot a 350.00 grain bullet well.
Received and returned your PM.
Thanks,
Chris
I think Iowa just changed the law to allow .357 bottle neck rifle cases and above. I'm old fashioned and shoot 12 ga. slugs,
I just loaded some 200 and 225 grain bullets in a 35 Whelen for the guy who leases the ground of the guy who wants to bring his Sharps back out. We are about 5 miles east of Winterset. Earlham is in northwest Madison county and Winterset is in the dead center of the county.
The guy who owns the land; we call him Doc since he was an ER doctor for years, got the urge to bring the Sharps back out after his lessee started shooting the 35 Whelen. Actually, I don't see a thing wrong with the .375 or the .444 for Iowa deer. Most shots are under 75 yards. Although, Doc has a pretty big valley on his place that is several hundred yards wide. I don't know that Doc has the eyesight to make a 300 yard shot anymore.
He does have some stories of guiding in Montana as a young man and using a converted Eddystone in 35 Whelen to finish off wounded grislys for clients. He claims he lived with the Crow or the Cree indians (I don't recall which) and since he was white he would guide the white clients. This would of been in the late 1960's. I did see the Eddystones. One he had in 35 Whelen and one he said was a 35 Whelen Ackley improved. I don't really know how you can improve a 35 Whelen.
The guy is a character and lives somewhat like a mountain man when he is in Iowa. He does all of his cooking on a wood stove. His wife makes him go to Florida for the winter so he either shoots the first season or he needs to get a land lord/tenant license.
I'll have to get a better look at his Sharps to see just what it is. I doubt he knows what the twist is. He wants the 300 to 400 grain bullets so I assume he has shot them before and was happy with the results.
kwg