Every year, my whole cabinet of deer rifles erupts with cries of “Take me!”
One of the hardest things I have to do is come up with a final list of what’s going and what’s staying. Normally, I’m thinking about it starting 1 August as I’m pulling out rifles for sighting in. I usually have a final cut by 1 October. This year, the list was finalized before 15 June. The reason was Chemo. Yeah, I know, everything has something to do with Chemo. It is what it is. In this case, I had to make some hard choices last year in order to just make it out. One of those was resolving to put off a lot of projects and stick with the tried-and-true. As a result, I had more than my normal fair share of unblooded deer rifle projects that needed to be let out.
What I decided to do was leave home all my security blankets. Usually, I take one or more rifles that have proven track records. If one of my experiments fail, I’ve got something with known performance to substitute. The Ruger Hawkeye in 30-06 is at the top of that list. That’s what I nailed the buck with last year. Not only was it the biggest buck I’ve had in quite some time, but I shot him at 200 yards, a personal record. The second rifle I would put in that security blanket category is The Mauser from Hell, a sporterized KAR 98 that took me forever to get working properly, but has consistently put down bucks, right in their tracks.
So what is going with me?
I don’t start a deer season without my Go-To Savage 99 in 308 WIN. It comes out for The Opener (except last year) and it only shoots bucks. Once my buck tag is filled it goes back in the case and it’s been doing that drill since 2003. I use H4895 under a 165-grain Hornady SP and I download it to hot 300 Savage levels.
Last year, I decided to keep it boxed up for Opening Day, because I was expecting a major downpour and I hate to expose that rifle to the elements. Instead, I brought out a relatively new TC Compass in 7mm-08. I was not disappointed in either the forecast or the hardiness of the Compass. It also went with me to Florida over the winter for a successful boar hunt. It’s coming back out with me. I have only taken a doe with it so far. However, this rifle put both doe and boar down with industrial efficiency. It eats Hornady 139 Interlock SP over Varget.
Now for the real experimental projects. First off, my buddy O.T., had gone blind and was fixing to die. I offered to buy his deer rifle off him and managed to pay him way too much. That’s what friends do in a case like that. It is a custom Mauser in 25-06. He said it was a laser beam using either 100 or 120 Remington Corelokts, but I had a hard time getting it to perform. I finally managed to kill a doe with it, but she ran a good long way before succumbing. I had other projects and moved this one off to the side. Folks on here were talking 25-06 a while back and it got me thinking again. I bought some Speer 100-grain Hot-Core and tried it out over Memorial Day. I got spectacularly good groups, and I figure those over a full-house load of H4831sc should do the trick.
Rifle #4 has a long history. It’s the Whelenizer, my Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen. I retired it a decade ago after taking 10 deer in 10 previous seasons. The main reason for taking out of the rotation was, although it killed deer, it did not kill them any better than a 30-06. It was just such a lot of fuss for what was usually the last freezer-filler of the season, that I put it on the shelf and started trying new things. This year, I am bringing it back with a new 180 Speer RN load over H4895. Velocities are more like a hot 35 Remington. I hope to try it out at fairly close range and see how it does.
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