MikeHanback.com

Will an Orange Box Make You Buy Ammo?

This article in Businessweek says that defense contractor Alliant Techsystems (parent of Federal ammunition) hedges against a wind-down of the Iraq war by courting weekend warrior hunters:

The goal for…the $4.6 billion defense contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is to coax more dollars out of the shrinking ranks of hunters using brightly colored boxes, loud ads, and promises of premium-grade ammo made better by "lethal science." What ATK is trying to sell is, in short, a deadlier shot… ATK is all about buzz. Federal Premium boxes show pictures of the type of animal each round is designed to kill, from squirrels to mule deer. The box for ATK's Fusion brand is bright orange with flames encircling the brand name.

Will that make you buy it? Maybe, because their sales are up.

IMO Federal does not need a marketing gimmick. I have shot a lot of Premium over the years, it's kick-ass for deer.

Slug Gun or Pistol Cartridge for Deer?

Hey Mike: Great blog! I've been a Hoosier deer hunter for over 30 years. Although bowhunting is my passion I still use a gun when the season hits. I've been using an old (faithful) Mossberg 600AT smoothbore pump that I purchased new in 1982. I'm considering retiring it for a new gun. As you know Indiana has been slug only (except for pistols & muzzleloaders). But now we can also use rifles with pistol cartridges of which caliber choices appear to be .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Special, etc.

Any suggestions for a new deer gun (under $600)? My shots are usually 125 yards or less. I shoot only mature bucks & does. Much of the time I hunt more than a mile from the truck. Should I buy a new rifled slug gun (I am considering a Remington 870) or go with one of the pistol cartridge rifles and if so, which one? Scope & ammo suggestions? Thanks, David B.

P.S. Here's a picture of the last buck I shot with my old Mossberg while still-hunting in 2007. I was going to pass on him because I had seen 2 larger bucks during bow season (one with a large drop-tine!). But after watching him for a few minutes I said, "He's 10 yards away, he's broadside, he would make a nice mount, I may not see either of the big boys again, he's less than 70 yards from the truck". He has 14 points and gross-scored 141 3/8.

David, for starters great buck, all your reasoning was right on, brother! I’d like to have a dollar for every time I’ve waited for a bigger buck I saw earlier in the year only to get skunked. My motto now: Seize the opportunity if and when a good buck is in range; no waiting! Most of you bloggers who hunt by that creed will be happy this fall :)

As for the gun, from what you tell me, with shots out to 125 yards, the 12-gauge Remington 870 pump w/rifled barrel would be a no-nonsense, dependable, great choice. Top it with a Nikon 3X-9X Slughunter scope. Use a 2 3/4-inch slug, like the Remington Copper Solid or Winchester Supreme Partition Gold.

Coming from a centerfire rifle state, I do not profess to be a shotgun expert, although I have tested more and more slugs in the last few years. The sadist in me finds shooting the shoulder-thumpers to be good fun :) I say unequivocally that the aforementioned rig will put the hurt on those Indiana deer, and have David ready when one of those 170- to 200-inch Hoosier giants comes along (notice I said when not if, gotta hunt positive man). I know we have a bunch of skilled slug-gunners on the BIG DEER blog—your thoughts and advice for David?

I confess to knowing very little about those pistol cartridges. Anybody in Indiana or elsewhere ever killed a deer with one? If so, which caliber would you recommend?

In-line Muzzleloaders for Deer

Hello Mike: I was wondering what in-line muzzle loaders you like and use? Now is the time to get ready for the fall! Thanks, Lance

I’m shooting two .50-calibers right now. Remington Genesis (picture) and Thompson Center Encore, both topped with Nikon scopes. T/C guns dominate the market and for good reason (reliable, rugged, accurate) but I like my Genesis too. Either brand is a good choice. Your load and especially your bullet are more critical.

Stuff any new magnum with the max recommended charge of Pyrodex or Triple 7 pellets; the latter definitely burns cleaner, but some rifles like Pyrodex better (accuracy). I used to say tinker with 100 to 150 grains of Pyrodex to see which propels a bullet best, now I just go with the max load. Any variance in groups is negligible, and more powder=more velocity.

Bullet is the key. I have had trouble finding a good one that blows through an animal, hence no blood trail, hence hellacious tracking job. I have no doubt that lots of fatally-hit deer run off and are never found each year. BTW, I smashed the buck in the picture in the shoulder at 50 yards; he ran 200 and started up a ridge! Zero blood, we had to decipher running tracks in the dirt. I was lucky to find him and I had to shoot him again. I will never use that copper-jacketed bullet again :(

Ken at my gun shop has advised me to try Dead Center bullets. These saboted lead bullets with a cavity behind a polymer tip are designed for complete penetration and then greater blood trails. Heck, I’ll take any blood at this point. If they work like that and Ken assures me they will, I will be a Dead Center fan for life.

Your thoughts, please, on muzzleloaders and especially bullets. Which do you use? How do they perform—good, bad, ugly? 

4 Gun-Safety Rules (to live and hunt by)

Tiger McKee, director of Shootrite Firearms Academy in Alabama, wrote this on the Tactical Wire yesterday:

Most everyone who studies the use of firearms for combative purposes should be familiar with Jeff Cooper's four basic safety rules:

All guns are always loaded. Each year numerous people are shot with "unloaded" firearms.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Every instructor I know, including myself, has had a negligent discharge. If you handle firearms long enough you will too. The key is, as long as the muzzle is pointing in a safe direction, you don't put a hole in something you can't afford to buy or pay for.

Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target. This is a simple concept. If your sights are on the target your finger should be on the trigger. Once they come off the target your finger comes off the trigger.

Be sure of your target. Never shoot anything you have not identified, and be aware of what and who might be in front, behind or surrounding your target.

Pound these into your brain. They apply anytime you’re with gun, whether in a buying, self-defense, range, or hunting situation. Remember them always!

Rifle-Shooting Deer: 3 Results from a South Carolina Study

A few years ago biologist Charles Ruth of the South Carolina DNR analyzed 493 rifle deer kills on a hunt club on the coastal plain. 3 interesting study results:

Hunters used more than 20 calibers, from .243 to .30-06 and bigger. As to how quickly deer died or ran after the shot he said, “There was no apparent relationship with increasing or decreasing caliber size, or the differences in velocity or energy.”

So you don't need a moose cartridge to kill a deer :)

Based on that study, Ruth recommended the shoulder shot. One hundred and seventy deer shot in and through the scapula ran an average of 3 yards versus 50 yards for 152 animals shot farther back though the lungs.

More than 350 deer shot with soft-point, fast-expanding bullets traveled an average of 27 yards; 58% of those animals dropped in their tracks. Conversely, 84 deer struck by harder, slower-expanding bullets went an average of 43 yards, with 40% going down on the spot.

So, while either type bullet will drop and kill a buck inside 50 yards if you hit him right, you are just as well off buying a $20 box of standard ammo with good old soft-points rather than spending double the money for a premium loading that works better on heavier game like elk and bears but not necessarily deer. The $20 or so you save will buy a few more gallons of $5 gas so you can get out to your deer spot a couple of extra times this fall.

So, with this in mind, what is your deer caliber/bullet, where do you try to hit them, how far do they usually run?

Sneak Peek: Remington R-25 Deer Rifle

BIG DEER NEWS: At the NRA convention last weekend Remington formally introduced its Model R-25, a modular repeating rifle designed for us deer hunters. This ain’t your grandaddy’s buck gun, lol, but I believe it’s destined to be a smash hit with today’s hunters, esp. the under 50 crowd. Take a look--wouldn’t you like to nail a 10-pointer with it? BTW, AR-platform rifles are the fastest-growing segment in the gun industry.

The R-25 has a 20-inch barrel that's free-floated. I have not handled one yet, but I hear it’s well-machined and balanced. It comes in .243, 7mm-08 and .308, all of which can wallop a buck (though .243 is light for me). 4-round magazine. As you can see this is not a black gun, but wears a Mossy Oak finish. MSRP: $1,500.

I talked to Remington man Eddie Stevenson. He is going to hook me up with a R-25 in 7mm-08, and I am going to top it with a Nikon scope and kill a buck with it (or try to) on a TV hunt this fall. Ed tells me the rifle is a tack-driver, that I could drop a deer out to 300 with it, though I will try to get closer for kick-ass footage. We’ll see. It’s gonna be fun, old-school bolt-guy with this new breed of deer rifle. Who knows, maybe I’ll smoke BIG DROP-TINE with the R-25, how radical would that be :)

Federal Premium Loads, Trophy Bonded Bullets

I knock like mad on a walnut stock as I post: Every deer (as well as a few elk and this Alaska moose) that I have shot with a Federal Premium load and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (TBBC) has gone 70 yards or less before piling up. Several bucks have buckled on the spot. I did put three 225-grainers from a .338 Win. Mag. in the moose as he churned up a red willow flat in the Wrangell Mountains, trying to buck lead and get away, but he didn’t make it far. Damn, tough animal. Big too. Walk up to a dead bull and it looks the size of an old VW hippie van.

That is the kind of performance I expect out of a center-fire hunting load and bullet, and that is why I do not blink when I shell out $40 or more for a box.

I can’t imagine a bullet performing better that the TBBC, but I will test Federal Premium with the new Trophy Bonded Tip. The boat-tail bullet (photo below) has a polymer tip, jacket bonded to the core for superior weight retention and a solid copper shank to crush bone. That sounds sweet for elk and moose, but it’s not overkill for whitetails either. IMO, there is no such a thing as overkill for deer, not when that monster 10-pointer (w/drop tine?) steps out and you have the one shot in your life to score big. Why not use the best bullet you can?

Federal is offering some 15 Premium loads with the Trophy Bonded Tip. Five jump out and I expect them to be kick-ass for deer: .270, .270 Weatherby and .270 WSM with 130-bullet; 7mm Rem. Mag. with 160-grainer and .30-06 with 165-grain Trophy Tip.

Buckshot for Deer?

We've talked a lot about rifle bullets and shotgun slugs recently, so what about buckshot? Do any of you hunt with it, either by choice or necessity? How well does it kill a deer? My curious mind wants to know.

Be a Better Deer Shot (4 ways, with gun)

I was going back through some old files and found these tips I’d written for a magazine, I don’t even remember which rag. They are pretty dang good if I say so; if your rifle/slugger is on and if you don’t freak with buck fever, they will help you drop hammer perfectly on a big 10-pointer (or a fat doe, better eating :)

• Think about a shot before it happens. You probably haven’t been doing that, but you should. Settle into a stand and look around for ridges, ditches, trails and edges where a buck might show. Check shooting lanes and holes in all directions. Use your range finder to determine the yardage to spots where you might kill a deer. If you’re stalking, anticipate where a buck might jump up or come out of the cover, it helps to keep you ready. 

• Forget uphill/downhill if the angle up or down to a buck is less than 45 degrees, which it almost always is. Hold dead on a deer’s lungs and kill. 

• On rifle shots past 150 yards, I glass leaves and brush around a buck to determine if I need to compensate for the wind. If it appears blowing only five or 10 mph, I hold dead-on. But if it’s whipping noticeably, I hold the scope’s crosshair slightly into the crosswind, either a bit forward on the shoulder or back on the ribs depending on wind direction. There is guesswork here, but you’re smart and can handle it. Don’t over-compensate; just hold into the wind a little, it will push your bullet into a deer’s boiler.

• Few tree-stand hunters use a rest. Why not? Long shots from a 20-foot perch can be tough. My trick: I screw a couple of screw-in steps on either side of the tree I’m in. I don’t know why, but I like to stand up and shoot a deer, so I screw the steps at a height where I can ease up, ease the fore-end of my gun over the step and nail that 10-pointer (or fat doe) in one smooth motion.

Gotta gun tip, let's hear it (we’ll do archery another time).

KS UPDATE: Scopes Legal on Muzzleloaders

My friend Mike Pearce of The Wichita Eagle reports that KS wildlife commissioners voted 4-3 to allow scopes on muzzleloaders during the special September buck season.

One commish said scopes would make it easier for hunters with poor vision to aim and shoot deer more accurately. I agree, no-brainer.

One commish who voted against scopes said, “With these new muzzleloaders all you're doing is extending the regular firearms deer season by two weeks." I am for scopes, but I agree with that too. Years ago here in VA people started using high-tech, scoped muzzleloaders during the special blackpowder season in early Nov. Heck, now everybody takes their vacation during muzzleloader season, which falls smack in peak rut. A ton of bucks have been killed and other deer are spooky as hell once the regular gun season rolls around in mid-Nov. So yes, modern muzzleloading does basically extend your rifle season, both equipment-wise and hunter-numbers wise.

I have not seen this reported, but the new regulation will also take some mischief out of the woods. Most KS hunters are good people, but there have always been rumors that some guys put removable scope mounts on their muzzleloaders for the Sept. season; they walked in and out with scopes off and popped on the optics once they were on stand and hunting a buck. I can’t confirm how widespread this was, but I am sure it happened some, a few bad apples will always cheat. But moot now.

The commissioners also voted 7-0 to allow crossbows during the regular KS rifle season. The crossbow companies are happy today and the vertical bow groups are steaming I bet.