I couldn't agree more. I'm always hoping for a broadside shot to avoid damaging the front legs. In his book, Larry Benoit called it "One in the boiler works", which meant a double lung and heart shot. Even if it's just the lungs the deer can't go very far. In my case, these small Florida deer are no match for a double lung hit from a 12ga. Hornady SST slug. Not one of my deer in recent years has gone more than 40 or 50 FEET ( not yards ) and follow up shots are never needed.
My go to rifle all day long my trusted old 30-06, I asked the question a few days ago, what's the 411 on these new copper bullets, I'm a old school guy, being that said in know technology grows in leaps and bounds, but if my fire arms aren't used by our military no matter what era they gave service I won't touch them,Folks, I like to think deer season is just around the corner, (but I really think it’s because it’s 96* outside and forecast is for 100*+ all next week) We need something to take our collective minds off the heat and drought so I thought it might be a good idea for everyone who wants to participate to tell us about your favorite deer hunting tool, whether bow, rifle, shotgun, or handgun. Post a pic if you have one handy.
I’ll go first ! This would be my custom .280 Remington on a Remington Model 700 action with a Bartlein barrel, Timney trigger, and HS Precision stock, the only custom rifle I’ve ever commissioned. It wears a Nikon 2.5x10 scope with the BDC retical. I figure an old guy should have at least one custom gun in his lifetime.
Lots of guys love them and I can only give my experience with them. In my 2 guns I tried them in a ruger77 RSI in 250 savage and a custom Mauser 98 in 7x57. The accuracy was not as good as my cup and core handloads (I hand loaded the Barnes copper solids also). Not terrible but not as good. The deal breaker for me was the level of copper fouling left in the bore. After 30 rounds accuracy went right down the crapper and required extensive scrubbing of the bore to remove copper residue. Performance on game was good but again not any better than my old cup and core bullets. In addition to get maximum expansion with copper bullets you must drive them fast in comparison to lead. When they fall under about 2500 fps expansion suffered. Just one old hunters experience. Oh almost forgot. They are about twice as expensive as cup and core bullets.
Thank you for replying, that's what I had heard and understanding that it leaves a lot of copper residue or copper in the bore, I'm going to stay with good ole ball amuniton, thanks again again
Couldn’t tell by your screen name !
. Craig Boddington said the .260 Remington was the perfect deer cartridge. Although I shoot it’s bigger sibling, a .280 Remington, I tend to agree. I could use it from now on and be happy, but my youngest son absconded with mine.
I don’t mind shooting at game with them, but I dread sighting in off a bench.
thanks, ofcourse shooting at a familiar gun range from bags helps, i can do about 2 moa in the field unless i have a good rest. The rifle impresses everyone tho! its easy to get dazzled by all the modern chassis rifles,custom barrels, and fancy bedding jobs. But at the end of the day thats a rifle from the 60s that was used relentlessly over those decades and with factory inletting, no glass, no pillars.
Sometimes guns just shoot. I have an AR that has an upper by one company, a lower by another that started out as a .223/5.56 but my friend and I rebarreled it to a 6.8 SPC. It’s like a lazer, everything I point it at dies. It is my go to for coyotes and pigs. I’ve killed a couple axis deer with it too. My friend painted it in camo with a rattle can, then I put a different (black) handguard on it so it looks like hell but shoots with anything else I have.
