I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game
such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.
Quote from Outdoor Life “Legislators in New Jersey introduced a bill last month that would change the state’s regulations for hunting on private land. Assembly Bill 3732 calls for an expanded safety buffer that would prohibit hunters from nocking an arrow or carrying a loaded weapon within 450 feet of any occupied building in the state. A3732 would also require private landowners in the state to notify neighboring landowners before they could be allowed to hunt on their own land.”
Recently, I had a buck in my sights standing offhand. Darn it, I could not steady my crosshairs. I was not confident of a kill shot, and did not try the shot.
He saw me, and moments later… he melted away.
” We will meet again” I thought. “He is not going any where so maybe another time we will meet again… and I’ll be ready.”
I set up a stand in the same area the very next day. A double rainbow appeared where that buck stood just a day earlier.
Success comes in many forms. Letting that buck go was a success in my ethics and… I was rewarded with this glorious double rainbow. Yes, can you see the second rainbow?
The rainbow had significance that this hunter can understand.
I enjoyed that view till the rainbow disappeared.
Perhaps a rainbow will grace your stand too. Yes, I’d perhaps rather seeing the buck again, but I did enjoy the rainbow.
Many hunting families have been freezing wild game for a century. But what if you lose power? What if your meat is tough? Some families “hot can” or “hot pack” meat too. What advantages do you have if you “pressure can” or “Hot Pack” some of your game meat?
The major reason to hot pressure-can aka “hot pack” meat is that it does not need a freezer or electricity, tenderizes meat substantially and can be consumed right from the jar.
Most everyone uses a Ball Mason Jar because the jars are cost effective and proven. When canning is complete (often takes 90 minutes) and cool the lid becomes vacuum sealed during cooling.
This is essential to preserve and seal the meat from bacterial growth.
Stored in a cool dry area, this food can be stored for 2 to 5 years as long as the vacuum seal is maintained.
“Best practices” followed from canning books like this one, will eliminate losing the seal and your meat to spoilage.
I began hot canning because I had many pounds of tougher cuts of meat that gathering in my freezer. And wanted to can some chicken breast for fast meals like chicken noodle soup, pot pies, and chicken salad.
Hot Canning allows me to tenderize the meat and add spices and vegetables. I also can game burger and chicken breast.
I use this T-Fal canner ($155 dollars) among many other models. A great Christmas gift too! It takes the mystery and fear out of hot canning can get you to the next step with saving food cost and canning your game meat and poultry too.
If your like my family, we pull the best wild game cuts of meat like backstrap and steak or sausage from our freezer first. This often leaves tougher cuts to languish or worse, get buried in our freezer. I have gathered pounds of these harder-to-use-cuts like stew meat and burger. I purchased the hot pressure canner a few years ago, and am thrilled with its ability to tenderize cuts and add herbs and spice to them for sumptuous flavor enhancement, all in Ball Mason jars.
The result is tender moose, venison, and wild boar stew meat and burger that is now instantly ready for stroganoff, and burger for Shepherds Pie, Chili and dozens of soup recipes like Moose, Venison, and Duck, Goose, Chicken Noodle Soup. Further, that we find chicken breast on sale and hot-can or raw-can it in chunks too.
The perfect deer hunting tree stand location can become burned out if you use it too much. Dependence on a single tree stand for day to day hunting, places increasing amounts of human scent in that area. Your Busted!!
Smart hunters know that wind is a key factor whether on the ground or up in your tree stand. If deer are expected from the west and wind is blowing your scent toward them. Your stand time will be wasted.
Experts say, deer can smell 500 to 1000 times more than a human.
Here is a great article I found on-line by Mike Hanback. Check it out!!
The biggest advantage of muzzleloader season in NH is that the deer are calm and have not altered their feeding and bedding habits.
As regular firearm season approaches deer find places to hunker down and are more warry. The other big advantage of muzzleloader season is that does are coming into estrous and bucks are moving more. Stay warm. Dress in layers. I carry a small day backpack. Have my license, a pen, a sharp knife, drag rope, first aid kit, hand warmers, water and snacks and a phone or communications device.
I tell family specifically where I am hunting. Perhaps you should too!
If in camo, I wear an item of orange like a hat or camo orange vest. Deer don’t see orange, but people do. Deer see movement!
I enjoy cooking and eating my venison, and thus gut my deer asap after tagging, and open the cavity to cool it as soon as possible to preserve that meat quality. I do not hang my deer more than a day or so before cutting. I like to vacuum seal my meat or burger. It will last for a few years in a freezer and over time will often lose more wild taste and even tenderize some cuts. I have begun pressure canning too and it tenderizes the toughest cuts.
Perhaps it is time we stop whining about recoil! Fix it!
Honestly, the fastest and least expensive way to reduce felt recoil from big game rifles is to install a slip-on or grind-to-fit recoil pad that was scientifically designed to reduce that instant whack to your shoulder. Yes you can use a heavier rifle. Not me. Or a thread on device to your barrel, sure to give you an ear-ache. I’ll pass.
I have used both Limbsaver™ and Pachmayr Decelerator™ pads for the past 20 years to my great relief. I owned a heavy recoiling Ruger M77 in.338 Winchester Magnum and still own and use my M77 African in .375 Ruger. One was fitted with a Limbsaver SVL Pad and the other was fitted with a Pachmayr Decelerator. Both cut my felt recoil by approximately 50% or so. Below is a video from Limbsaver.
I shoot these big guns off-hand in my t-shirt because the recoil is more of a push than a whack, thus making it easy for the shooter to absorb the recoil almost painlessly.
Even more, you can reduce felt recoil on your young son or daughters deer rifle too. A 6.5 Creedmoor/260 Rem shooting a 120 grain bullet at 3000 ft/ sec creating about 14 ft/lbs but with a state-of-the-art pad the felt recoil is nearer to 7 lbs of felt recoil, less than a .243 Winchester. Below is from the website;https://shooterscalculator.com/recoil-calculator.php
My wife Susan and I have been vacuum freezing game meat for years. In October 2019 we put 300 pounds of Moose and 150 pounds of wild boar in the freezer. In 2021 we learned the hot-canning method used by many hunting families for stews and such in glass Ball Jars.
If you enjoy eating the game you hunt and like to preserve and tenderize your meat, read on.
We processed and vacuum sealed all the meat at home.
In 2019, we expected large summer 2020 BBQ gatherings, so we made burger patties and put large numbers of patties in vac bags.
And as we all know, COVID changes our lives forever. We still had lots of frozen moose burger and stew meat. What to do?
Part of my reason to continue to hot can was that my stew meat came out-of-the-jar so tender that I could cut it with a fork. And it cuts down mealtime prep. to minutes. Wow!
For stews, I then cooked/steamed or quickly pressure cooked fresh carrots, potato, onion, celery etc., then added the hot canned stew meat. I used the juices to make a flour gravy adding herbs, salt and pepper. Sooo Delicious! Yes you can “can” your veggies too.
This month, October 2022, I booked another Newfoundland Moose hunt as part of my bucket list. What to do with another 300 pounds of moose meat? I still had 20 or so pounds of that frozen moose burger I wrote about at the beginning of this article?
I decided to hot-can the frozen game burger too, like all those patties we froze plus all the burger intended for pasta sauces. The frozen burger would have be ok for longer freezer storage but the meat became so buried in the freezer making it very hard to find.
Accordingly, I gathered all the frozen moose burger, about 20 pounds and hot canned it for use in my delicious pasta sauces, “shepherds pie”, chili recipes, biscuits and gravy, meat pies, meat tacos, mince meat pie, and so much more. Hungry yet? I sure am!
I used a T-fal Pressure Canner below with Pressure Control, 22 Quart volume. But you can use any large canner. You will need Ball jars and lids.
There are other brands and styles, but I like this one because it is so easy to use.
T-fal Pressure Canner
I thawed the moose in large pots meat of cold water. Here is a basic recipe video.
I highly recommend purchasing a canning book like this one below, to become educated for safety and have delicious recipes.
In the past year 2021, I successfully hot canned venison, wild boar, chicken breast, moose and now moose burger.
After canning, you can label like this above with Avery labels.
Making a pocket field card for a specific load and bullet will aid in improved vital zone bullet placement.
The card is really a drop or trajectory table with wind and energy at a specific laser rangefinder game distances your looking to shoot.
I used my Nosler 300g AccuBond to create the table below for my moose hunt with the .375 Ruger. There are many ballistic calculators on the market. I use JBM Ballistics Trajectory calculator (free on-line). It works great!!
The pocket card you take into the field will look like the card above. Wind drift is in inches with a 10 mph 90 degree crosswind. I zeroed for 250 yards. Go to the website below and experiment.
You can select your bullet from this software’s drop down menu, enter the bullet muzzle velocity, zero-range, wind, elevation, vital-zone radius and many other parameters for the table you will create.
Trajectory
Input Data
Manufacturer:
Nosler
Description:
Accubond™ Spitzer
Caliber:
0.375 in
Weight:
300.0 gr
Ballistic Coefficient:
0.473 G1 (ASM)
Muzzle Velocity:
2550.0 ft/s
Distance to Chronograph:
10.0 ft
Sight Height:
1.50 in
Sight Offset:
0.00 in
Zero Height:
0.00 in
Zero Offset:
0.00 in
Windage:
0.000 MOA
Elevation:
0.000 MOA
Line Of Sight Angle:
0.0 deg
Cant Angle:
0.0 deg
Wind Speed:
10.0 mph
Wind Angle:
90.0 deg
Target Speed:
0.0 mph
Target Angle:
90.0 deg
Target Height:
40.0 in
Temperature:
40.0 °F
Pressure:
29.92 in Hg
Humidity:
50 %
Altitude:
0.0 ft
Vital Zone Radius:
5.0 in
Std. Atmosphere at Altitude:
No
Pressure is Corrected:
Yes
Zero at Max. Point Blank Range:
No
Target Relative Drops:
Yes
Mark Sound Barrier Crossing:
No
Include Extra Rows:
No
Column 1 Units:
1.00 in
Column 2 Units:
1.00 MOA
Round Output to Whole Numbers:
No
Output Data
Elevation:
7.540 MOA
Windage:
0.000 MOA
Atmospheric Density:
0.07925 lb/ft³
Speed of Sound:
1095.8 ft/s
Maximum PBR:
302 yd
Maximum PBR Zero:
255 yd
Range of Maximum Height:
136 yd
Energy at Maximum PBR:
2658.9 ft•lbs
Sectional Density:
0.305 lb/in²
I found that my rifle zero is best set for 250 yards as it allows for max point blank range with a vital zone radius for moose at 5 inches. Basically the size of a ten inch pie plate.
By experimenting with muzzle velocity, wind, altitude parameters in the JBM software, you will better understand how your bullet will perform as it speeds its way to the intended game.
Moose hunting provides an opportunity for lots of delicious meat and maybe a large rack to display in remembrance of the hunt.. I have been blessed with successfully hunting Newfoundland moose bull in October 2019 and a New Hampshire bull several years back, neither had great racks. Below is the New Hampshire moose.
So I am trying for a larger mature bull (more meat) with perhaps a larger rack. We shall see.
This new moose hunt is expected to be a river hunt using the Gander River Canoe or some say Gander River Bay boat. Newfoundland moose hunts are in September and October and are prime times for crazy weather.
I shot my last bull, quartering forward, in Newfoundland in a late September snow squall with 30 mph zero degree windchill. A one-shot kill at 100 yards with a Nosler 300g AccuBond. My bullet did not exit and was recovered under the skin on the far side after wrecking the lungs. He stood for just a few seconds before collapsing where he stood..
You’d think that I had dozens of rifles to choose from but in truth I have only 5 rifles. Two are muzzleloaders. My really big game modern rifle is the Ruger M77 African in .375 Ruger. I hand load it. My bullet of choice is the 300 grain Nosler AccuBond™ because it is a tough bonded bullet and has a high ballistic coefficient and a superior sectional density for long range hunting. Below left is the Nosler 260 grain and right is the 300 grain AB.
I like the 308/30-06/7mm/.270 type cartridge or greater for moose hunting. No, you don’t need a .375 Ruger, but I have one in my gun safe and it is accurate as all get-out. I shoot it very well.
For those not familiar with the .375 Ruger, it is slightly more powerful than the .375 Holland and Holland of African fame for Cape Buffalo and is a non-belted round.
With a state-of-the-art recoil pad, it reduces my .375 felt recoil by approximately 50%, like a .270 Winchester.
These recoil pads like the Pachmayr Decelerator™ and Limbsaver models are excellent and tames my .375 Ruger very well.
I can shoot it off hand, in my t-shirt. Get one of these pads today and stop whining about recoil!
Many Newfoundland bogs, that are prime moose habitat, are hundreds of yards in size and you need a rifle to reach out and maintain speed and energy.
I use the BOG Deathgrip tripod below for longer range shots. I have shot it prone and accurately out to 600 yards.
My scope of choice is the Leupold VX-6 3-18. What a combo! Below are the ballistics as calculated by JBMballistics.com with a muzzle velocity of 2550 fps with the Nosler 300g AB. Zeroed for 250 yards. With a 20 mph wind at 45º angle. The .375 Ruger with this Nosler AB bullet delivers over 2000 ft lbs. at 450 yards. Wow!
Wind at long range becomes a serious factor, understand your limitations. If you have a heavy wind at 90 degree crosswind angles, keep your shots at much shorter ranges. Quartering wind or wind blowing at you is a better situation, but you may need to move for a better shot opportunity. A trajectory and wind table printed in your pocket can be helpful.
Just like my Labrador retriever, my rifles and especially my 1776 50 cal. Pennsylvania flintlock, needs exercise.
So I took it out for a fun walk at the range recently to ensure all was clean and in working order.
The lock mechanism also needs to be regularly lubed and inspected for rust.
And the barrel needs to be periodically cleaned even if not used. The sulfur residue from black powder is hard to totally remove, and can cause weak sulfuric acid to form, resulting in rust in sufficient quantity to lose accuracy. Unfortunately, many of us learn that cleaning lesson the hard way, including me. I cleaned and swabbed my swamp barrel several times over a year leaving a coating of oil in the barrel. Thus far, I have put a pound of black powder through it, so the barrel, like a frying pan is cured.
Off to the range I went, .and bench rested two shots at 50 yards at 3/4 inch, below.
My Pennsylvania Flintlock amazes me every time. Several years ago, I created this rifle from a very high end Chambers Kit in honor of Jacob Dickert who was the the most prolific Lancaster, PA master rifle maker of the American Revolution.
Below a boar I took with this rifle a few years back.
