This fall I harvested a small young wild turkey.  I gutted, skinned and froze the bird for a fall treat. Kids weren’t coming for Thanksgiving dinner but came over later.  Accordingly, I thawed and cooked the turkey for my wife and I. I stuffed the bird with carrots, celery and granny smith apple bits mixed with Bells seasoned butter and bacon fat for adding flavor only. 

I like using hickory smoked bacon to replace the skin of the bird when roasting. It does a great job holding in the moisture. I baked the bird at 350F for 1 hour and checked the temp with a power thermometer at 140 so I kept the bird in till it reached 160 and it coasted up to 165 F. Done! The bird was on the slender side. So, I found some wood skewer sticks to help prop the bird as it cooks. 

I added 2 cups water to the pan as I began to cook the bird. And was able to make a thick gravy from the pan drippings. Oooh La La!

I was amazed how much meat this young turkey produced. Enough to feed 5 people. What was special is that the legs and thighs were tender too. Besides the breast meat.

OMG sooo moist, tender and flavorful! The bird was killed with a broadhead, so no pellets to look for.

Is a smaller bird more tender? Maybe so!

Good Hunting!

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This ballistics get test is for those hand-loaders that are considering owning a .375 Ruger or already own one as I do.

Questions You May Ask

Can a .375 Ruger cartridge be easily hand loaded down for deer and bear? 

Is this bullet fast enough, powerful enough at a reduced speed for the New England deer and bear hunter?

To test these questions, I shot a reduced load 235 grain Speer Hot Core Semi-spitzer (almost a round nose) into 10% FBI Ballistic Gel at 2138 fps at point blank range to simulate animal tissue damage. See the video’s below. 

Recoil is similar to a muzzleloader, but perhaps the ballistic gel didn’t think so. Check it out!

Further examination of the gel in my kitchen sink below. My wife had just finished a batch of mustard pickle preserves as it is a very active kitchen. Note: No mustard pickles, onions or cauliflower were injured during this exam!

I was very impressed, after seeing the cavity expansion in the 235 grain bullet track in the first 10 inches on entrance.  The track was straight, actually exited all 32 inches of the block suggesting that the bullet easily held together.  No bullet fragments were observed. Black gel burn marks were observed in the first 10 to 15 inches of the bullet path. 

Because mushrooming of lead occurs as low as 1800 fps I would not exceed 125 yard shots. Great for mixed hardwood and softwood terrain. Most shots are taken at around 50 yards in New England North Woods.

Velocity and Energy Table Below

Great deer and bear round for sure and likely moose too, even with reduced loads. Accurate? 1 inch or less at 100 yards..

Reduced Loads here.

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

Good Hunting!

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Each big game animal hunt in far off place has its own check list. Common to all hunts is clothing, safety, communication, hunting laws, and tools to care for game meat and a way to get your game back to your car or truck.

Getting lost or turned around in the north woods happens every day even by experienced hunters like you and me. 

Clothing

Clothing is perhaps the most overlooked area. Camo or Orange depends on laws and timing of the hunt. Dress in layers so that after the sun comes out and you climb a hill you don’t sweat. In the deer woods, wearing a white or a tan colored shirt as an under garment should be avoided. Folks over the years have been killed or wounded as a novice hunter thinks its a deer tail or even a deer. I like green and darker colors so that if I have to change a layer, I am color safe. Today there are many choices of jackets and pants. You want them to keep you warm but able to breath and wick moisture away as well as have some water repellency. Socks should be thick enough to keep feet warm yet fit not too tightly in boots. Boots are vital so spend money and get the best for your feet. Water Proof and Warm. Hats are essential in cold weather as much of your body heat is lost via your head and neck. I was able to harvest a moose in Newfoundland just because I paid attention to clothing and a thermal head and face mask. The wind was blowing at least 20 mph every day and gusts to 30 mph making it feel below zero. It was only October!

Safety & Survival

Safety is having piece of mind that you have covered all the bases. Maine Hunter Ed Offer a checklist that is comprehensive. See the websites below.

https://www.hunter-ed.com/maine/studyGuide/Survival-Kit-Requirements-for-Maine/20102201_150873/

Click to access maine-survival-kit.pdf

Today hunting bullet designs are changing rapidly especially rifle bullets.  Accordingly, a mechanism of ballistic gel is used to see the potential terminal ballistic damage done to the gel as it simulates wild game body parts and fluids. One can see the track voids left in the gel to signify the radial damage to surrounding tissue. Historically, water or  melon like a water melon, or containers of water was used to demonstrate the power of the round but had difficulty capturing the bullet damage track or level of penetration. Thus standards and gel formulas were created.

Below was a pistol bullet track in gel. Note the larger track damage at the entrance.

From www.gundigest.com

The gel often made of either clear 10% silicone gel like the FBI uses or a 10% amber gelatin to track and recover the bullet. If you look at my last article, you can see the tremendous and violent track done in the first 10 inches and often throws the 20 pound gel block in the air and in slow motion it wants to explode with very high velocity rounds. That is a lot of bruised meat!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mjiqGPwrIwA

On entrance to the gel the bullet may encounter bone thus experiments are performed at different speeds and different bone-skin or skin and no bone. Most of todays bonded bullets will mushroom.  Monolithic copper bullets, on the other hand, are designed to open and flare like a banana peel into petals. And some of the peels flare like an aircraft propeller while others fold to either make a mushroom or some are designed to peel and detach to make a mother bullet that peels off the smaller copper petals to radiate additional bullet damage. 

Those of us that see faster bullets, see gel blocks correspondingly explode thus giving the impression that faster is better. That is partially true, but if your deer meat is all bruised and blood shot from your super fast bullet, then it won’t look or taste well after cooking. Will it? Thus ideally we want it all, a fast (dead right there) kill, but less blood shot meat and more edible deer meat to eat. Right? A compromise is needed and that means you need to try the bullet on game too. 

Gel test to simulate a long range hit is also important. What does the wound track look like at slower long range velocities like 1800 fps. Did the bullet mushroom or flare as advertised? What about bone? All this needs experimentation and examination to reach an edible conclusion if we are going to cook it.

Good Hunting!

©Copyright 2021

New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine will soon be testing hunting bullets for the 6.5 Creedmoor made by Hammer Bullets Advanced Technology. Check out their website by clicking on the logo.

As I wrote in a recent article, copper bullets are aren’t just for California. They have no lead and have penetration and weight retention features even for their so called light bullets e.g. 85 grain bullets clocking 3400 fps and seemingly drop big game as if hit by lightning.  Yes, and we all like that!

My cleaning issue has historically been that some brands of copper bullets smear the barrel. This patented design offers more than reduced fouling of the barrel. It offers;

Higher and consistent velocity

Superior accuracy

Less engraving pressure

Less barrel heat and erosion

Minimal game waste

I look forward to testing a range of bullets for my 6.5 Creedmoor soon and sharing the results with you. Who knows, it may turn your thinking more towards copper for hunting… We shall see!

Good Hunting!