Second Time to Texas- I need a Cowboy Hat made in the USA

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I had a nice wool felt cowboy felt hat. It is a Red Head Brand from Bass Pro/Cabela’s. I bought it maybe 5 years ago. I checked the tag inside. Sure enough Made in China. I  nearly vomited! I have stopped wearing it and will soon destroy it.

I have purchase a felt Stetson made in the USA below. At this juncture I need to know where a product is made! I hope you do too!!

Quality felt hats are often crush-able and can be reformed if needed with the use of steam and if you desire more of a western cowboy look, you can roll the edges upward with some steam applied and let it cool and dry to shape. Next is a bandanna to make the western cowboy look.

STETSON Men's Bozeman Felt Hat

Good Looking Hunter! Look the part!!

 

 

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!

 

Campfire Peach Cobbler in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven

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Camp Dinner was over.  Y’all want some dessert? The Texas hunt camp cook said; “I have some Peach Cobbler cooking in the fire yonder”. “Where?”  We asked as we looked into the fire? We could barely see some metalic pot covered in coals. The cook reached into the fire with a metal hook and pulled the cast iron dutch oven from the fire as if pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Lodge Cast Iron 6 Qt Dutch Oven product image

Peach Cobbler is a sweet moist cake like mixture with sliced canned peaches and syrup suspended within the cake like mixture. It was so delicious, piping hot from the fire. I was fascinated. I am going back to Texas this year but I can’t wait for my peach cobbler.  I have purchased  a “Camp” dutch oven so coals can be placed both over and under the oven. Today most folks use store bought charcoal to cook with these dutch ovens. Out on the range, chuck wagons used flour, some sugar and canned peaches mixed together. It works fine!

Today some folks use white or yellow cake mix to add instead of flour and sugar but either works fine.

Betty Crocker Super Moist White Cake Mix, 6 Pack, 16.25 ozGold Medal, All Purpose Flour, 2 lb

Every cook has his or her recipe for Peach Cobbler. Many use butter or crisco to grease the oven. Today you can buy aluminum trays to line the oven for easy care. The peaches are added first. A 10 or 12 inch 4 to 6 quart oven can use 2 cans of peaches, followed by flour or cake mix. Next is to fold-in the cake mix with the peaches taking care to be gentle. Some folks add other fruits too such as chunk pineapple. Next is to put dash of cinnamon a few pads of butter on top if you like and close the lid.

LIGHT THE CHARCOAL

Use a chimney starter like the one below to get your coals glowing hot. How many? Say 10 coals for the bottom of the oven and 12 coals for the top.

 

Kingsford Grilling BB0466 Deluxe Charcoal BBQ Chimney Starter, Grill, Silver

It takes about 45 minutes at around 350 degrees to cook a peach cobbler but it is recommended to rotate the oven a quarter turn every 15 minutes so there are less hot spots. I like to see the top of the cake caramelized a bit. Your the chef so you make the call. Serve with  a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Wow!

Check out the web for tricks and techniques!

 

Good Eating Y’all!

 

 

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!

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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!

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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!

 

 

 

Refurbishing an old JC Higgins Sears Roebuck 22 Single Shot Bolt Action with CCI Quiet ammo.

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An 80 year old model J.C. Higgins Sears Roebuck 22 Single Shot Model 103.18 rifle came back into my life. It was the one that I cut my hunting teeth on as a boy of 11 yrs old. It could shoot 22 Short, 22 Long and 22 Long Rifle ammo and it was very accurate. It was a great woodchuck rifle! Across the street from my home was a 100 acre field full of chucks! I was in boyhood heaven! My father would give be two high velocity 40 grain bullets to shoot at chucks so I had to make them count.

It came back into my life from a relative who had it, but it was in poor condition as the barrel was showing lots of  surface rust. Decades ago the plastic butt plate broke and was replaced with a red rubber boot type that today was found disintegrating. Back in the 1960’s I carved the front of the stock to have a cooler European for-end, but never finished it or stained it. I have recently been re-acquainted with it because of its versatility, shooting shorts, longs and long rifle 22 cartridges.  This little single shot was made for garden pests around the farm besides plinking.  I decided to finish the refurbishment project of long ago and give the rifle a place of honor.

The first thing I did was to point the rifle in a safe direction, open the bolt (it was empty) checked the bore and cleaned it. Safety first! Not as bad as I thought. After cleaning I ran a bit of JB Bore-bright through it. It polished well. I decided to disassemble and inspect it in detail. Again, not as bad as I thought. I sanded the barrel exterior with 400 grit sand paper removing the dovetail sights (with a punch and hammer) and polished the barrel with steel wool for bluing.

I used Birchwood Casey Super Blue. It worked great with 2 coats.

 

Westlake Market, Birchwood Casey Super Blue Liquid Gun Blue Plus 2 Disposable Absorbent Pads for Gun Restoration Projects

In between bluing, I sanded the stock, replaced and ground and installed a new plastic buttplate.

 

I stained the rifle stock with some brown gun-stock stain I had on hand from my flintlock build,  and after drying I put 2 light coats of Helmsman Varnish on the rifle stock. I didn’t want it glossy, just enough to protect the finish, after all this is a working rifle.

Now it looks so much better and ready for quietly plinking or garden varmints!

 

 

The rear sight was in poor shape and not the original one that was on it. I broke the bank for 14 bucks to put the original dovetail rear sight on it.

I was surprised that there were some parts available for this rifle on-line! Perhaps you may have an old rifle that needs some TLC.

Below is my back yard 25 yard test shot with CCI Quiet-22. It is very quiet and works very well with this rifle. I am a CCI fan! I was only 3/8 inch off with open sights. It’s the first shot that counts!

Final test shot with CCI Quiet

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Good Shooting!