Category Archives: Big Game Hunting

Articles about Big Game Hunting.

My Labrador Retriever Puppy for Hunting and Family

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There are many outdoor friendships we have and my best hunting friend is my dog. We have had several dogs over the years. Our newest is a female Labrador Retriever we named Bella.

Bella is going to be my hunting dog (ducks for sure) and family dog for my wife and I. We got her from an purebred breeder at the age of 10 weeks old. She is now just over 12 weeks and growing like a weed on “Miracle Grow”. She chews on everything and especially likes my leather shoes. She is heavy into the investigative phase sticking her nose into everything and eating what I can’t get out of her mouth when outside. All that said, she is very loving and loves to have her belly rubbed. She is growing so fast in fact that i must increase my education and her training now! Accordingly I have a few dog hunting books now and ordered DVD’s and some dog training supplies which I will discuss later. The most important thing is to love  Bella and get me up to speed in the training department. More to come…

Good Hunting!

© 2020

The .375 Ruger Makes Me Smile; Talking with Larry Weishuhn…

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In 2018, my readers knew I was hunting Texas at Wildlife Systems, Rocky Creek with Larry Weishuhn (Mr. Whitetail). Larry invariably had a friendly smile and soft Texas drawl. Photo below Larry’s buck antlers for rattling made my NH antlers look small!

I mentioned to Larry that I left my Ruger M77 Hawkeye Africa rifle in .375 Ruger home. Larry pipes right up, “shot a number of deer with my .375 Ruger, you should have brought it”!  Love that cartridge! Me too, “I’m thinkin” Now (November 2020)  I am taking the .375 Ruger back for a Trophy Deer Hunt to Texas — lots of land to self distance!

I recently sent an email to Larry:

Hi Larry,

You and I have championed the 375 Ruger for years certainly for me since 2012/2013. I have written dozens of articles on the .375 Ruger as part of my Ruger M77 Hawkeye African Rifle.

Here are just a few of my articles. I shot hand loaded 260g Nosler AB’s at 600 yards prone “High Power Practice” full power and my groups were 3 ½ inches at 600 yds and 3/8th inch 3 shot at 100 yards. As a handloader “the .375 Ruger makes me smile”. Sounds like the title of a new article!!

https://www.nhrifleman.com/hand-loading-the-375-ruger-for-deer-bear-moose-and-cape-buffalo/

https://www.nhrifleman.com/the-375-ruger-cartridge-a-handloaders-dream-cartridge/

https://www.nhrifleman.com/reloading-the-375-ruger-changed-me-by-ed-hale/

https://www.nhrifleman.com/best-deer-bear-moose-bison-cartridge-for-handloaders-with-375-ruger-in-a-ruger-m77-hawkeye/

https://www.nhrifleman.com/the-375-ruger-enough-cartridge-and-accurate/

https://www.nhrifleman.com/ruger-375-buffs-cant-get-enough/

 

Robert Ruark always said; USE ENOUGH GUN and the .375 Ruger does that splendidly.  I am taking my .375 Ruger to Rocky Creek in November.

AND LARRY E-MAILS BACK

Ed,
THANK YOU SIR… Great articles!
Perfect choice for Rocky Creek! In my opinion!

I’ve taken elephant, hippo, several African and Australian buffalo, African lion, and plains game on down to blue duiker; in Europe
roe deer, fallow, red stag, mouflon, ibex; in North America a near 11 foot brown bear down to whitetails.. Still my one most favorite round with which to hunt the world. Have shot it out to 700 yards.

I do like your new title!

All the BEST,
Larry

*********

 Larry notes that he uses factory Hornady Ammo for all his hunts.

I on the other hand have almost never hunted game with a factory load of  any caliber and derive great satisfaction from hand-loading my own rounds customized to each rifle. 

Each to his own, right. Larry is a good friend and a world class sportsman!

You can find Larry on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/larryweishuhnoutdoors/

Happy Birthday Larry!

Perhaps I got that reloading bug from Jim Carmichael of “Outdoor Life” Fame. I recall that Jim had a 458 slug taken from a bull elephant that he harvested and said that it was in such great shape that he could hand-load it again. Jim was a great shot and at the time reloaded for his bench rest competition, as I recall. Being of an engineering mindset hand loading is a great hobby!

Just yesterday I loaded up some more .375 Ruger rounds with SR 4759 (now out of manufacture) with an additional grain of powder with Speer’s 235 grain Hot Core Bullet made famous by Vernon Speer. Molten lead poured hot with the copper jacket is near enough to bonded in my book. I achieved around 2200 fps, my secret deer load goal and shot a 3 shot one inch group at 100 yards. Why 2200 fps? Because, I believed that out to 150 yards I would still get decent mushrooming and delivered energy with this reduced load in a semi-spitzer and still have hit that big buck with the .375 diameter “Hammer of Thor”!  Yet the recoil was just a bit less than a full power 30-06 shooting 180 grain ammo. 

It is interesting to note for the technical folks out there that in 2005 Chuck Hawkes, the owner/managing editor of Guns & Shooting Online  first published his formula called Killing Power Score or KPS where the frontal bullet area (.1104 for the .375 vs .0745 for a .308) was instrumental in the calculation along with BC and bullet speed. The .375 has more frontal area and thus if you can control speed and BC you can customize your so called “Hammer”. 

Below is a big bull moose with a smaller rack that I whacked with a 300 grain Nosler AB with a load of RL-15, the bull dropped in 2 steps at the shot. The wind was blowing up to 30 mph and the thermometer was in the teens. With Wind Chill being well below zero I was happy to have this bull in my Leupold VX-6 crosshairs.

800 pound Newfoundland Moose October 2019

First reduced load harvest was fat Red Deer with Hornady’s now defunct 220 grain FP traveling around 1500 fps. At 30 yards I got full penetration and the deer fell dead with a heart shot.

Below is my New Hampshire bull taken with the .375 Ruger and 260 grain heads. My partner followed up with his .308 Winchester. 

Below is an 800 pound Bison, a one shot kill with the .375 Ruger and 260 g Nosler AB. The bull was moving fast at 100 yards but felt confident at the shot. He fell dead as a door-nail entering a rear rib and up thru the heart and lungs, broke the far shoulder and kept going. We were lucky as all get-out to have a skidder nearby to load in the truck.

The .375 Ruger, Larry and I agree is one cartridge for the World!

Good Hunting!

© 2020

 

More 375 Ruger Reduced Load data for Deer and Black Bear – Updated

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These websites below offer experienced hand loaders more research options for powders that provide reduced loads in the .375 Ruger for deer and black bear. I use magnum rifle primers in load development to ensure complete ignition. Carefully work up new loads inspecting each case after firing. I do not advocate the data in these websites but provide them for your information and fun to read articles.

https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.375+Ruger.html

I do read that A 5744 works well in the .375 Ruger for reduced loads though I have not loaded or shot it.

375 Ruger Reduced Loads from Chuck Hawkes with A5744 Powder below and grain weight loads.

https://www.chuckhawks.com/reduced_big_bore_loads.htm

IMR 4227 used in Handloader Magazine for 375 Ruger

https://www.handloadermagazine.com/reduced-rifle-loads

Hodgdon Reduced Rifle loads below using the 60% rule with H4895 powder below.

https://hodgdon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/h4895-reduced-rifle-loads.pdf?_ga=2.52837998.715241781.1595099969-1370190430.1595099968

I am lucky to have purchased one of the last cans of SR 4759 powder and am successfully using that for my deer hunting load development for .375 Ruger.

Good Shooting!

 

375 Ruger Deer Hunt Prep In The Lone Star State – Update

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I booked another Texas Trophy Whitetail Hunt with Wildlife Systems and Greg Simons out of San Angelo, Texas.  I hunted there 2 years ago with great success. It’s a 3.5 day hunt! Its a great hunt for young and old and see lots of beautiful whitetails.

I am returning there for several reasons but most of all the chance to hunt large racked 4.5 and older Whitetail deer on 25000 (25 thousand) acres on a low fence cattle ranch. I have a 30-06, a 6.5 Creedmoor and my 375 Ruger to choose from in my gun vault. All of these are great but the hand loaded Ruger M77 Safari Rifle is my choice in .375 Ruger. But will bring the Weatherby Vanguard Weatherguard in 6.5 Creedmoor and 140 g Factory loaded Nosler AB as back up rifle.  Hand-loading this .375 Ruger cartridge is easy. I still have some SR 4759, now out of manufacture, in my safe for reduced loads but you can use “Accurate 5744” powder if you look it up. I will be shooting 235 Grain Speer Hot Core bullets in Semi-Spitzer with a muzzle velocity of 2200 fps. At 100 yards the energy delivered is just over 1900 ft-lbs. Plenty of power! Given this is a big bullet with a .375 surface area I expect deer to fall to the shot instantly if I do my part. Accuracy is about an inch at 100 yards and recoil is easy on the shoulder.  My readers know that I took this rifle to Canada for Moose last year and took a bull with 300g full power Nosler AccuBond loads. A one shot kill! Lots of meat put a smile on my face.

In addition to the Trophy deer, I am allowed 2 does for management purposes.

We get up to a hearty breakfast and take 4×4 Off Road Side x Sides to one of  many stands somewhere in the 25,000 acres. Texas hunts deer from from remote feeder stations throughout the 25000 acres. Without these feeders, the hunter would be met with thorns, prickly pear cactus and the occasional rattle snake thus making the risk level for hunters higher than necessary.  Back for lunch and then back to a different stand for the afternoon. The number of deer seen each day numbers in the 20’s and bucks that are eight pointers seen are often over 10 per day. Mature bucks did not get old by being stupid but in those 3.5 days, you will see them. Last year some nice wide and high racked bucks were taken so this year looks great too. Chances to harvest one is real!

Above is my 2018 Trophy Whitetail which scored 144 3/8 B&C points. I did harvest 2 does as well. I had the boned meat shipped back. The meat was tender as all get out!

I hope to do something similar if it all works out and I have a measure of luck and skill. I will have an opportunity to rattle too since I will be hunting in the rut in mid November.

More later.

Good Hunting!

© Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Best Loading Powders With Nosler Big Game Hunting AccuBond or E-Tip Bullets for 6.5 Creedmoor

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The 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge provides extremely fine accuracy in today’s big game hunting rifles and is easy on recoil. As a big game cartridge it provides ample energy and penetration in the 120 grain, 129 grain and 142 grain Nosler AccuBond and solid gilding copper E-Tip for deer, bear, and elk and has taken moose as well as numerous African Plains Game species.  I love Nosler’s!

The Nosler AccuBond™ is a world class polymer tipped bonded core boat-tail bullet which mushrooms extremely well from 1800 FPS to 3200 FPS. I took a bull moose last fall with the 300 grain AccuBond out of my Ruger African in .375 Ruger resulting in a one shot kill at 100 yards. See the  Moose Hunt here using the search tool. The moose stood as my friend says, transfixed, for just a few seconds and collapsed right there. The bullet mushroomed to nearly 3/4  inch and piled up under the hide on the far side.  Ok, back to the Creedmoor.

https://www.nosler.com/accubond-bullet

The AccuBond is already a short or long range bullet but for those who want to reach out beyond say 400 or 500 yards, Nosler has the AccuBond LR with extremely high ballistic coefficients to maintain killing energy at ranges of 700 to 800 yards in many cases. Of course you would need to practice at those ranges to ethically hunt.

Hand loading this cartridge is identical to most bottle neck cartridges such as the .270 Winchester or .308 Winchester.

Powders that work extremely well for Nosler bullets are Reloader 15 (RL-15) and IMR 4895. My go-to Hunting Powders! I will say that H4350 is a fine powder for long range target at say 600 yards.

In fact for the 129/130 grain bullet,  RL-15 powder is the most accurate providing 2810 fps out of a 24 inch barrel and is the most accurate of the several powders Nosler tested. I have burned more RL-15 powder that most.

The E-Tip is lead free but only offered in 120 grain bullets for the 6.5 Creedmoor. It is sports a solid gilding (alloy) copper body with a polymer tip. For those who prefer lead free, this is a fantastic bullet that maintains virtually 95% of its weight as it mushrooms. Reloaders are advised to work up loads for this as a starting load and work up your load. IMR- 4895 is perhaps the best powder for energy and accuracy for the 120 grain head. Most of todays all copper bullets are pure copper and can leave copper deposits in the barrel at  high velocities making cleaning sometimes more difficult. Not so with the E-Tip as it is a harder copper alloy coined as gilding copper.

 

Load some today and see what I am talkin’ about.

Good Shooting!

 

 

 

A Hunters First Shot in the Field

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A Deer Hunters first shot is invariably the best shot because the game is not moving or not moving much. Most hunters do not get a second shot if the first missed. More than that, your first shot also comes from a cold barrel. If you have noticed at the range that your first shot drops 2 inches on average or shoots left or right but when your barrel warms after a few shots and groups nicely but different than the first shot. Throw out the nice warm barrel group unless you are competing. It was that first shot that counted. Now 2 inches left right or up or down at 100 yards IS STILL A KILL SHOT provided your rifle crosshair or front bead was on the vitals such as heart/lung area.

That said, unless you are willing to spend time to determine why your cold shots are different, such as the barrel is not free floating or bedding issues, then I would use my rifle as it is and not worry about the cold shot difference of say 2 inches. Where cold shots come into play is at much longer shots of say 300 or more yards. If your cold shot is consistent then make the sight adjustment for it if that makes you feel better.

Many hunters including me have a sort or wobble as they aim and squeeze the trigger. If I am free standing and no rest, or a minimal rest, I often find my rifle dropping as I am on target or supposed to be if I aim for say more than 5 to 10 seconds. This is why I begin aiming at the top of the kill zone and wobble with gravity to squeeze the shot off. Example; I aim at the top of a baseball size target to start. If I am shooting off a rest then I can get on target up vs down right away. The other thing I have noticed is that even a steady v rest can produce left/right minor swings as I breath. These swings or sways are bad for long distance shooting if you don’t practice.

The nastiest thing to experience from a trigger, besides most often being heavy, is one that creeps and is not crisp at the sear. Get it fixed! You will be so happy that you did. Accuracy comes from paying attention to aiming details at the rifle. Yes of course the aim point needs to be correct but it all adds up with what you did at the rifle when the shot rang out. Example: cheek weld, scope not too high, low, forward or back too close to your eye. Not yanking the trigger. They do add up… Train for the shot. Again use those snap caps and work the action such as a bolt.

Think Deer!

Good Hunting!

© Copyright 2020

Rifle Hunters: How to get ready for deer season!

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Here in the northeast we hunt deer in the woods, mostly and not from fields or blinds as many in the south and west do. We often take stands or “still hunt” thus a shot at a deer may appear without the use of a bipod or tripod. What do you do?

A REST TO SHOOT FROM

Well, the best option without a  pod is to find a tree or branch to steady your shot.

In fact, if you are taking a stand or stopping for a moment, be sure to stop in a place where the trees, saplings and limbs offer a place to steady a rifle should a shot present itself, especially if you are not carrying a pod. There are many pod rest types on the market. The most popular are the bi-pod and tri-pod rests.

I have a mono-pod that doubles as a walking stick. But even then, I leave it in the car at times. Secondly, you can practice shooting offhand at the range and learn to use your sling to steady your shot. I do this offhand shooting at no more than 50 or 60 yards.

CLOTHING

It is best to practice with the clothing you are going to hunt with. The key here is that you want your rifle to smoothly come to your shoulder. Some recoil pads hang up on clothing so be sure to check. And who, knows you may find your scope too far away with bulky clothes. Check first!

KNOW  YOUR TRIGGER

Thirdly, you can learn where your trigger breaks with practice so you know when the trigger/sear will go. Have your rifle trigger tested for weight. It should approximately be (for hunting) between 3 and 5 pounds. I believe that less than 3 pounds creates an opportunity for an accidental fire, and more than 5 pounds and you keep pulling and pulling as seconds pass while your deer melts into the brush and your shot is lost. Trust me I have been there and done that. Practice, Practice, Practice. The use of a SNAP-CAP fake cartridge helps you practice your trigger. Most sporting goods stores have them or can get them for your cartridge and caliber.

KNOW YOUR TARGET

You should 100% identify a deer, and know where other hunters are and what is in front of and behind before aiming your rifle at the vitals of a whitetail deer.

TRAIN WISELY

NH Fish and Game has lots of great training material to keep you and those around you safe. Taking the Hunter Education course again is a great refresher if you haven’t been in the woods hunting in a while. Safety First!

https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/hunter-ed.html

GO GET EM’

Hunting whitetail deer is my favorite pass time! I hope it is yours as well! See you out there!

Good Hunting!

 

 

 

Meat Scare translates to Hunting With Your Family

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I have lots of wild meat in my freezer, but even I felt the domestic meat shortage in my gut at a recent visit to the supermarket. It is not really a shortage as it is workers who have contracted COVID-19 and shut meat plants down. It is that sense of loss though that gets families thinking of hunting for their own meat/protein in the wild. I grew up in a hunting family because my mom and dad lived and grew up in the depression era where meat was scarce.  My dad in his 20’s was skinny as a rail as was his father. Baked beans was the protein supplement with whatever meat you could get. We are in fact omnivores but require protein for part of our diet.  Meat provides the bulk of that protein. 

The easiest game to learn to hunt, cook and eat is the Squirrel, particularly the grey squirrel. Hunting them with shotgun or .22. I prefer to hunt them with a .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Later you can hunt deer, moose, bear, ducks, geese etc.  as many do and get lots of delicious meat for the table.

I was at the supermarket yesterday amid shopping during the Pandemic and the pork section 20 yards of meat was totally empty, and beef was picky. Woke yet! Those that are woke, are looking to get Hunter Education Certified so they can hunt and harvest for meat.

The whitetail deer, is the animal most sought for food here in America and there are families who consume it as nearly 100% of their meat diet. 

Processing a Deer for food? From the hunt to the table, read below.

Do it Yourself Processing New Hampshire Deer at Home

© Copyright 2020

 

Excalibur Matrix Grizzly Crossbow; Muzzy Broadheads and Lumenoks on Wild Boar

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My recent hunt in Maine was the first opportunity to hunt and harvest wild boar with the Excalibur Matrix Grizzly Crossbow.  Broadheads used in the hunt were razor sharp Muzzy fixed 100 grain 3 blade heads with trocar cut-on-contact tips.

The combination performed flawlessly.  The Grizzly crossbow  is a 200 pound, 305 fps recurve crossbow. It is an older but proven model and easy to load and unload.

 

It is priced to sell right now at around $499.00. I purchased a later kit to make the bow a bit quieter.

I began the hunt with my flintlock which turned out to be finicky to fire. My backup was this crossbow and it did a marvelous job at 20 yards providing full penetration and exit with an immediate blood trail.

The scope was set with the main crosshair at 20 yards but had triangle yardage marks on the vertical scope line out to 50 yards. I think that 30 yards would be my personal max without a very steady rest and a rangefinder.

The Muzzy broadheads come in a pack of 6 and also come with practice blades for $31 bucks. Proving in these broadheads for flight was an easy proposition with the, easy to pull out, practice inserts.

MUZZY-3-Blade-100-Gr-1-3-16-034-Cut-Broadhead-6-Pk-225-Free-Practice-Blades

I tried other compound crossbows that were much faster but so much harder to load and cost way more.  As an older and smarter hunter, I knew that 300 fps is fast enough for the whitetails and boar I was after (excellent delivered energy) and that I could load it faster and easier.

A feature of this crossbow is to  also unload it easily in the field after a hunt. Here in New Hampshire you can’t have a cocked crossbow in a moving vehicle. Most other compound crossbows require you to shoot the bow into a target butt you keep in your vehicle. A pain the butt, pun intended.

The knocks on my arrow/bolts are Lumenoks and they work well to see them as they follow the lighted knock to your game hit and are easy to locate after. A word to the wise, if you want Lumenoks then purchase them installed on your arrow/ bolts already from  the factory. I had a difficult time removing old knocks that were epoxied in.

All in all the wild boar never knew what hit them.

Good Hunting!

© Copyright 2020