It seems no matter what the rifle and off-the-shelf cartridge is, there are only two basic questions. Question #1 Can it cleanly kill a deer? Question #2 How much does it kick?

Once those questions are answered in the affirmative (Yes) to the first question and “very little” to he second question, then it is logical to want to know what the rifle is, right?

Is the cartridge a;

A. 308 Winchester

B. 30-30 Winchester

C, 243 Winchester

D. .270 Winchester

It has been my experience that children will receive the 30-30 Winchester in a Marlin rifle to deer hunt and it works. The .308 and .270 recoil much more.  But if you have a .243 Winchester like I do in my Ruger American Rifle, then you can have a great deer caliber for less than $400 dollars and it kicks so little that even a young hunter won’t complain a bit. Photo below.

In a previous article I wrote about the 90 grain .243 E-Tip below that mushroomed to twice its size.

With a scope, this rifle can kill deer out to 300 yards with a 90 to 100 grain bullet. On varmints with 55 grain bullets, it is hard to beat. It will be used on my southern deer hunt this fall.

If you look at categories I have listed for articles under rifle and bullet tests you will see lots of my writing on the .243 Winchester and the Ruger American. I just love the cartridge and the rifle. You will too….

If you reload, chances are that  you may never own a .243 because hand loading lighter loads in any cartridge exists. But if you stay on off-the-shelf cartridges then the .243 is it!

Be safe! Good Hunting!

© 2015

When I was hunting in Africa with my son Jason, we were fed delicious meat snacks called Biltong. It is dried meat that has marinated in special seasoning like our American Jerky.  Below is Impala from our hunt being skinned and prepared for both mounts and for our meals. Some of this meat finds its way to becoming Biltong, a prized South African snack food. Here we will use whitetail venison instead of Impala.

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It is akin to Jerky but Afrikaner’s would say that Jerky does not come close to the excellent flavor of Biltong. I expect that I will have venison in my freezer this year as I am hunting down south were the deer are very plentiful. So I want to try and make this Biltong recipe that I received from a friend that grew up in South Africa and now lives and works here. You may want to give it a try….

Ingredients:

5 lbs  game meat

red wine vinegar

coarse salt (I use Kosher salt)

whole coriander

black pepper

bicarbonate of soda

For this weight of beef or venison use:

2 tablespoons coarse salt

1/2 cup of coriander (if you have a mortar and pestle, you can crush them slightly)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup brown sugar (I omit this, but I know some people add it)

1 teaspoon bicarb soda (I have made the biltong without this, however it does tend to keep the dried meat a little softer and easier to cut)

Mix the above ingredients thoroughly.

Cut the meat in strips (approx 1 – 1/2 inches thick), diagonally along the grain

place the cut meat in a large glass bowl

sprinkle with the vinegar to wet the meat

sprinkle your made up biltong mix over the meat

thoroughly turn the meat over with this mix, so that all the pieces are properly coated.

cover the dish with clingwrap and place in the refrigerator for approx 24 hours.

At the end of this time, discard any bloody fluid that has leaked out of the meat.

Make a 50/50 mix of the vinegar and water in a bowl.

Rinse the meat in this mixture quickly to get rid of the excess salt.

My friend uses paperclips that I have opened up to hang the meat. A washing stand placed on a shoe tray makes an excellent drying rack. Some folks make a cardboard drying box with a small fan and a 60 watt light bulb. Some hang the meat with string or thread using a large sewing needle. It will take roughly 4 to 6 days to dry hard on the outside and still be somewhat soft on the inside. More or less to your liking. I have a food dehydrator so I am going to use that.

I found a website that goes into great detail for larger quantities of Biltong

http://www.africhef.com/Biltong-Recipe.html 

Enjoy!

I am a believer in the copper bullet for hunting with high velocity cartridges such as the .243 Winchester with 90 grain E-Tips. The E is for Expanding!  It is as accurate as all get-out!

Mushroom at 20 yards 1/2 inch mushroom below.

Weight before: 90 grains

Weight after: 89.9 grains

Weight retention: 99.9%

For contrast there is a 100 grain Speer Hot core boat tail lead bullet with gilding copper jacket shot at left of the all copper e-tip.  The lead bullet exited the wood but was not recovered.

If your rifle is scoped with a single crosshair it is valuable to sight in your rifle at Max Point Blank Range (MPBR) for hunting so that all you need to think about is taking the shot, in most cases. MPBR is the maximum distance that your rifle bullet will fall three inches below the point of aim or rise above point of aim by three inches. By using the JMB ballistics program for Trajectory below you can calculate bullet drop and rise if you know bullet speed, the ballistic coefficient of your bullet. Set the target height at 6 inches and the vital zone radius at 3 inches in the spaces provided in the calculator. At the last part of the calculator check the box for Elevation correction for Zero Range and the box for Zero at Max Point Blank Range. Hit Calculate. The results will show the height of your bullet at its highest (three inches) and the MPBR distance where it is 3 inches low. The Savage 11/111 7mm Rem Mag with Nosler 140 grain E-Tips I am testing has a MPBR of 294 yards and the bullet reached its 3 inch max height at around 140 yards.

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

Typically at 100 yards the bullet will hit the target at 2.5 inches high or so and peak at around 140 to 150 yards for a fast spitzer bullet traveling above 2800 fps.

At 25 yards your bullet will hit the bullseye. At 50 yards it will hit an inch high so if your shooting in the thick stuff your bullet will be right on target and the deer will never know what hit ’em. Or if you have to shoot farther you are good to go by staying in the Vital area.

Give it a try!

Good Hunting!

It is when we do what we are supposed to, out of good habits, that success comes our way. But we don’t always practice what we preach, me included. So we redouble our efforts and they can pay off. Sometimes!

Deer’s Primary Detector is Smell! 

So watch your wind carefully.So watch your wind carefully. Yes I said that twice. Or be above it. You can never be too scent free. Deer do not need to see or hear you to get out there. Smell is all it takes. Clothing and you favorite smell ridden hat does most of the betrayal. Keep your clothes scent free and in a plastic bag with scent killer or pine/fir needles

Keep getting detected by squirrels? They chatter a warning!

My guess is that you are not wearing face camo or a face mask. Get a face mask pronto because deer aren’t stupid and depend on other animals to sound the alarm. For years, I never figured that one out. With a camo mask I have squirrels feeding within feet of me.

What if you get on your deer stand and it is very windy?

This is not a good time to see deer while on stand as they often hunker down in very windy deer woods. At some point high wind may drive them to be in fields or small clear-cuts so they can see with their eyes too. Stay mobile and I believe still hunt (slow movement watch steps)  is the best option into the wind. During the rut, by walking in the wind, you can sometimes smell a deer and its tarsal glands. Keep gun at ready. Never take safety off unless game is in view and it is safe to shoot. For Safety; Discuss options with hunting partners in advance.

What if wind is blowing where you want to still hunt? Change your position to hunt into the wind. Or get above the wind in a tree stand. 

Wind is swirling during your hunt? This means that wind can give away your position. But use it to your advantage by staying clean, wear scent killer, while on stand place estrous scent (only if during rut) nearby to overcome your smell. (Never on your clothes)

Note: 2016 – NH Fish and Game no longer want you to use urine based scent as they believe Chronic Wasting Disease elements called prions can be present from unregulated deer farms. Look for Synthetic non-urine based scents while this CWD issue is of concern.

I drew a big buck toward me by being clean and placing doe in estrous and mature buck scent 20 yards apart with me in the middle. The buck was bedded 150 yards away in a thicket. All that buck knew was that there was a rutting buck with an estrous doe in that bedded bucks bedroom. He was madder than heck that another buck was in his turf and came to investigate. I shot him at 40 yards in his bedroom.

Let scents do some work for you during the rut.

While you do your best to minimize your own scent, place estrous scent in the wind column where you want bedded bucks to smell it. Place your ground stand laterally 90 degrees 50 to 100 yards away if hunting on ground.

Bowhunting? Use a spray bottle after you are in your tree stand. At 4 mph the wind will blow 1 mile in 15 minutes, a half mile in 7.5 minutes etc. Trust me, the bedded bucks that are 200 yards away will smell that spray scent in 1 minute and use its ears to hear any activity. Follow up with a soft grunt call to peak his curiosity. Don’t overdue the grunt call. Less is more.

During the Rut. If you are overlooking a field where deer are feeding, let the deer themselves pull bucks from cover. Don’t betray your location unless a buck you are interested in shooting is walking away. If so, a single grunt can turn a buck back towards you. Grunt calls work. It is best to have a soft callng grunt device and a louder device.

Best for last:

Grunt, rattle and beat the heck out of trees to call in aggressive bucks. Check on line for videos for techniques. I killed a nice 8 point with that technique and a 800 pound bull moose.  And watch that wind!

Good Hunting!

If you want to maximize your chances of seeing deer during deer season, then hunt where the deer are. Below is the QDMA Deer map at both the national level, state level and by county to see deer density. In New Hampshire, state wide there are less than 15 deer per square mile in most parts of the state according to the QDMA map below. The further north you go there is even less per square mile. The coast of NH is where the deer density is highest along with hard to hunt heavily posted land.

http://www.i-maps.com/Qdma/frame/default1024_ie.asp?C=48449&LinkID=0&NID=0&cmd=map&TL=100000&GL=010100&MF=11000

Deer hunters bring dollars to many far reaching towns. As the deer population is strictly managed at very low levels in some states, hunters find other places where game is more abundant and managed equally for hunting opportunities. QDMA (Quality Deer Management Association) is an organization that brings deer science to the forefront. I am not a member at this time but will consider a future opportunity.

NH Fish and Game provide a Hunter Harvest Summary that tells of where the deer are by past harvest records.  http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/documents/2014-harvest-summary.pdf

It is August and a great time to place your tree stands for hunting.  I was doing some research and found that this QDMA hunter placed a human silhouette in his stands by cutting it out of a 4×8 T111 panel. It helped in both hiding himself from a rear approach and got the deer to accept the camo form later to be replaced by the hunter. More, that he piles brush in the rear of his stand so that deer must cross in the visible range.

https://www.qdma.com/articles/deer-stand-tip-let-shadow-man-hunt-your-stand

On the .375 a Reader Writes…I have recently acquired a .375 Ruger GG,Guide Gun and was wondering if you’d be kind enough to share load data? I’ve read your reviews on this cartridge and some of the loads mentioned. I would greatly appreciate your assistance in getting started, especially with reduced power practice loads.

Kind regards,

Joe

Ed wrote back:

Congratulations! You have the rifle that can take the Planet’s game, if you reload, from rabbits to elephant. I can honestly shoot full power loads Nosler or Hornady 260 or 300 grain loads in my t-shirt when standing or using African shooting sticks and I am an older man. The gun pushes more that it kicks. Using the best recoil pad helps to reduce felt recoil up to 50 to 70%. Reduced Load data is hard to find or in fact for some loads non-existent. Are you familiar with .375 H & H Magnum “reduced load” data by Hornady? If so, that data may be helpful like it was for me. Unfortunately, I cannot share exactly what worked in one rifle that may not work in another one. The heartening part I found was that taken in baby steps, I never had a problem in working up a load and you shouldn’t either. I killed a red deer doe at 190 pounds on the hoof at 50 yards with the 225 flat nose with a starting load. She went 20 feet and piled up with a hole in her heart the size of my thumb and it exited the doe. There was so little recoil and the report was without the mighty crack of the rifle that my guide 200 yards away never heard the gun go off. It was like I was shooting my muzzle loader.

Mid-power loads are already published. Look into the Speer 235 grain Hot Core as a mid load and extrapolate starting loads, if you are so skilled.

It is when I am at the bench hunched over the rifle and locked in so-to-speak that can hurt, so I use a Simms Limbsaver® shoulder pad and a Pachmayr Decelerator® recoil pad to make the felt recoil so tame. You have found a great rifle and cartridge. Wow is it accurate! Enjoy! Good Luck! You will be just fine if you are a veteran reloader.

Good Hunting!

Bear season is around the corner in September here in New Hampshire. Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for meat, fur and lubricating/protection oil/grease for your gun metal and leather and for cooking and frying and so much more.

Bear Meat

Bear meat like pork contains the Trichinella parasite thus the meat must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. I have eaten bear bear burger in chili and found that to be excellent. I am not a large fan of the meat per se but when cooked correctly and at the right temperature it is a great protein meat. I would use my pressure cooker to exceed the temperature needed and to tenderize it.   See from http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/bear_recipeguide.pdf

Bear Fur Rugs

Bear fur rugs are excellent if initially cared for after the kill by salting the hide and fast processing by a taxidermist.

Bear Grease & Oil

My brother was interested in making a bear grease years ago from a New Hampshire bear he killed and it worked well for leather and lubricating his rifle. The key for making the grease or oil is slow processing at lower temperatures so as not to cook/fry the fat at all. Here is a Wild Edible blog that provides the details. http://www.wildedible.com/blog/bear-grease-rendering-lard

Hunters for centuries used bear grease to lubricate and protect metal from rust and to soften and protect leather. Some say it is a great cooking grease too but I have never used it.

Bear Grease has been used for centuries by Native Americans and Settlers for

• Waterproofing and conditioning leather
• As a lubricant and anti-rust agent for metal and gun parts
• Oil and grease for pastry making and for frying.
• Making Soap
• A great fire starter.
• Medical; for Dry or Chapped Skin
• For light as in lamp oil

The great part about rendered bear fat as a grease, the experts say, is that it does not require refrigeration but can be frozen too. Bear oil can also be part of the render process and it remains as an oil at room temperature.

So there you have it! Try doing more with your bear this year! © 2015

I just penned a very short article on muzzle brakes and believe that they are necessary on very large bore rifles such as .338 Lapua Magnum and the 50 Caliber’s but having said that, the best recoil tamer is a “state-of-the-art” recoil pad such as those tested and proven to significantly reduce recoil. I have tested Limbsaver™ SVL® and Packmayr Decelerator® slip-on type or precision-fit replacement pads. I have not only tested them, I use them every time I go afield or to the range. These pads can and do reduce felt recoil up to 70%. Yes that means that you can shoot a 30-06 and have it feel like recoil from a .243 Winchester. An investment here is for a lifetime of easy shooting! So go get one!

http://pachmayr.com/home/

Below a slip-on version and I own one and love it!

http://www.limbsaver.com/product/airtech-slip-on-recoil/

New from Limbsaver is the Airtech shown here as a slip-on with up to 70% recoil reduction. I have tested other Limbsaver pads and will ask to test this one. I am already a believer in the Limbsaver products for rifle and for Bow and Arrow so Check them out.