Ughhhhh. It’s not like I’m a gun guru. But gawd…there are so many hacks and chithouse experts that finally hit the firing line a week before the season opens up and then the comedy and hilarity sets in. I spend a lot of time baby sitting. This time I had to babysit King Peter. He’s an expert and God’s gift to the hunting and shooting sports. He showed up today with mid grade Cooper rifle in 6.5-.284 which hacked me right off - with jealousy! He’s shot more elk than anyone I know. He gets in close, does his business and he’s got meat in the freezer. But…dammit… he’s NOT a rifleman or a shooter at all! In fact… he sucks!!! He tried to get the beast on paper and wasn’t having any luck so I went over to help him out.
First I had him shoot at a prominent dirt clod half way up the berm so I could see where he was hitting. He started fumbling with the wrong knobs to adjust his scope so I slapped his hands away and did it myself. His next shot vaporized the dirt clod and got him on the paper, about 3” low. Again I tweaked his scope and got him right on the edge of the bullseye. Total rounds fired: 3! Not bad eh? All I need to do is look at your target and I’ll dial it right in - in one go! HAR HAR HAR!!!
Of course I am full of it. Usually it’ll take me 5 or 6 rounds to get a mechanical zero that I’d trust. I looked like an expert shooting coach but I suppose I am as full a beans as Peter is. He’s ready to go hunting in any event.
After I got him sorted out the Range Gander came out and tried to shut me down.
The bloody cheek! I suppose I should have dropped the cease fire curtain and gone out and chased him off but… I was shooting about a foot over his head so he was alright. The noise didn’t bother him at all. He walked straight up and over the firing line and out to the pond behind us.
He must have been a juvenile. By the time you Yanks get a shot at him he should be a grown young adult. It’s actually a kick in the head to share the range with game animals.
The Ruger American The Tupperware Carbine continues to impress. I did a couple 1.5” groups at 200m off the bench with my last practice loads. Couple years back I loaded up 1500 rounds of 77gr. Nosler HPBTs for my gas guns and they were okay. In the little bolt gun…they were magnificent. I dug out some old Berger 70gr hunting boolits and the groups opened up to 3” at 200m…but that might have been partially due to wind and fatigue kicking in.
Friend has a farm and had a deer problem one year, got the permission to thin them out. "223 hollow point does a number on a deer." Round makes a difference. Article of a couple sandbox vets talking rounds indicated about equal one shot performance between NATO 308 and a 175 gr 223 as far as percentage of times one shot did the job.
ReplyDeleteYep. From what I’ve seen on jewtube the gel tests have a well constructed bullet doing the most damage aboot 3 or 4” in. But that’s at the muzzle… what about 75 yards out? I’d think that thing would still be a grenade going off in the chest… but whadda I know?
Deleteyes, grenade. at least up to 100 yards. one shot drops every time. pulverized the shoulder knuckle one time. looked like sand when i opened him up. went on thru to dislocate the opposite shoulder. shot one frontal chest, blew his poor heart to pieces. i shot 55gr soft points. thinking about taking up hunting again. got damn doe keeps getting in my chicken coop eating the scratch grain.
DeleteYou keep talking shit about the ugly little Ruger. The lines of that stock looks like thousands of traditional, classic stocks, to me, with added, handy dandy Traction Topography thrown in, FOR YOUR SAFETY!
ReplyDeleteI have a junky old 18", 308, 1st gen, with marginal, cranky rotary mag. I got a next gen, green stock, with replaceable mag well so that I can use the newer AIC mags, once I can justify $75 (or whatever) for a new AIC, Ruger mag well, plus some mags.
I've never shot it off of a proper rest, just a dead grill I hauled over to the edge of the woods/orchard, logging road. I have a dying bag with gravel on it for my rest. Then with coffee or Pepsi coursing through my veins and my steely (if shaking) nerves, I get less than 3" inch groups with Mil. ball and every factory hunting load I've tried. Sometimes, bullet holes touch each other! My max range is 140 yards, so that's where I make groups. That's also where the back stop is.
I won't be shooting a deer with 5.56 or 223, unless my life depends on it, like SHTF scenario (with an AR pistol or carbine with M193), but a Master Marksman like yourself, could pull it off with aplomb (HA! I used the word aplomb!). Hence, you should go for it. (WHAA! I used the word hence!!). Sorry, I don't know what came over me, a spasm of age or sumthin.
Well who am I to talk about style and panache, eh? I run around in Crocs - so that tells ya what my sense of aesthetics is.
DeleteYears ago I started a pocket sniper project based on the Remington SPS. Groups were unimpressive even after mounting a Shilen match barrel on it. There was a raft of mods that I could have made but I just lost interest. It’d be neat to bag that one of yours up on the bench properly and see what it could do…
Oh yeah, I'm usually shooting in crocs, because our local Timber rattlers and copperheads are uncommonly well mannered.
DeleteHey, it is Tennessee and they accept me. Maybe that's because I have reptilian ancestry. I'm adopted, so I don't know. I've always been compelled to catch the snakes and lizards that end up in my presence. I quit keeping them in aquariums about 55 years ago.
Your 223 is perfectly fine for deer if:
ReplyDelete1 - you're close, and
2 - you hit them in the right spot.
But you already know all this from your 25-06. How many elephants were taken by a 7x57 in the bad old days? At the end of the day it's where you put that pill that matters. Here in Australia, our NSW National sParks & Wildfire Service used to cull Rusa deer with a suppressed 22 magnum rimfire from the back of a car at night in the Royal National Park just south of Shitney. The deer are used to cars, so the rangers would get to within halitosis range, muffled pop and dead, headshot Rusa every time. Rusa are one of our toughest species of deer, but are no match to a 40 grain, 22 calibre at close range.
I would like a Ruger American in 762x39. I have a lot of ammo. The gen 2 is pretty with the fluted barrel and spiral bolt. Threaded barrel. Most guys are claiming near MOA. I'm thinking 3 power red dot maybe ACOG copy. Around $650 American here. Kent
ReplyDeleteI fell, briefly, in lust with the thought of a compact Ruger American Predator, but I have a 16" AR in 7.62x39, with 1x4 Chinesium LPVO (still works, 7 years and counting) so I can't justify a bolt gun. It's accurate, 1.5 to 3 inches at 140 yards, depending on which of 4-6 brands of ammo I'm shooting, of course I didn't make out a DOPE card, that would have been way too smart.
DeleteIt's just hard to justify another rifle. Just bought my dream rifle Winchester M70 ultralight stainless in 6.5 Creedmore Leopold 2.5 to 9 36mm low mount. Superb cheek weld. First two shots one hole 200 yard Hornady ELD 143 grain. Kent
ReplyDeleteI’ve been lusting for a stainless M70 for a decade, but they’re not made anymore with the bolt on the correct (left) side of the rifle. So I’ve had to “make-do” with a Tikka T3x. It’s a soulless, plain synthetic & stainless hunting tool, and superbly accurate. Not cheap like the Ruger, but apart from the dumbass slot-bedding system, there not much not to love. Personally I much prefer the square action with integral recoil lug of the Winchester.
DeleteI’m right handed - but left eye dominant- so while I can use a right handed action, in the extremely rare situation of a case head failure or a blown primer, the gas would blow straight into my eye. Nope nope and nope. I always wear shooting glasses, but it’s layers of safety. No spare eyes ! I replaced the plastic bolt shroud with a steel one when I first bought the Tikka.
Off topic, but I keep reading that the Ruger no 1 action is virtually impossible to blow up. Does anyone personally know of one that HAS blown up???
DeleteAny action can be blown up if you get exceedingly negligent and/or stupid. So far as I know, the modern No.1 can be chambered to of the modern high pressure chamberings. It’s the old vintage black powder single shots like the rolling blocks and trapdoors where you have to be mindful. They are generally not safe with high pressure smokeless loads…
DeleteI think the Tikka bolt is a lot smoother than the M70 so you did really good there. Kent
ReplyDelete