eagle rider

Now this ought to get folks talking,...... Gonna look to make my 7400 into a brush gun, hehehehhehehe, but in a dual purpose kinda way. Setting up for a 180gr Speer Hot-Cor with 58 grs of RL19. Should get me up around 2700 FPS. It will only be 4.1" low at 200 and be a sledge hammer the whole way with more than 2900 foot pounds at the muzzle!!!!! Hence the dual purpose. Can work well in the tree stand with nice deep shooting lanes and still be heavy, and not so speedy that it will be easily deflected in the thick brush getting to and from the stands.

best of luck with it, its a really nice bow!!!!!

I use a 117 gr Hornady SST for deer. Its very acurate and extremely devistating on hollow organs. It does not damage the meatmuch at all. I foun dthat the bonded (Interbond) version of the bullet works in a more meat frinedly way than the locked (Interlock) version. The SST Interlock is just too explosive on deer. It sheds weight way too fast. I was actually considering hunting with the 25-06 this season. I use a 25-06 Weatherby Vanguard Sporter, nothing fancy, but its a tack driver!!!!

Knight Big Horm, with a 240 gr Fusion Bullet. Deadly!!!!

Love the 35 Whelen, I think its a true unsung hero. Col Townsend Whelen knew what he was doing when he developed the big 35 as a brush gun cartridge for big animals that should fall down quickly. A guy who retired from my job moved to Maine and uses that round for moose, deer and bear up there. Says' he nevr had to shoot anything twice and nothing ever went more than ten steps. Uses a 180 grain Sierra I believe for deer and puts them down in their tracks every time. He has it chambered in two bolts, a Remington CDL and a Ruger Hawkeye as well as a Remington Semi Auto that he used to use when he hunted with us in the Catskills. I can tell you that 180 gr bullet spit from that 35 was a show stopper every time. The round makes a distinctive sound too. Impressive rifle. I have one in a semi auto (750) and absolutely love it. I don't think a moose would stand up too long witha 250 gr partition bullet going through its boiler room.

Mine just came today. No card, no regs book, just the tags.....

really, McMillan, I will take a look at them. I was thinking having the whole finish stripped and then painted OD green with black and red spider webbing. B&C will do that for like $75, but its a 12 week wait!!!! SO nothing will happen prior to end of the season.

Still the backup is priceless. Hey's heres an off kilter question,.... I have a Vanguard that I sent out to have the stock dipped. The stock looks great but its kind of slick to hold, almost like an uncheckered wood stock would be,..... any advice on how to cure that. I was thinking about taking a stab at spider webbing it, but I don't know how that might look. Thoughts????

I think you'd be using yourself as bait, LOL.....

Pigs are horrible mounts, I just did a European with the skull, its sitting on the desk in my squad room. On Haloween it wears Dracula Wig, on Thanksgiving it wears a War Bonnet, X-mas is a Santa Hat, New Years Eve is a Top Hat, Cinco De Mayo is a Sombrero, July 4th is a Revolutionary War Hat. Suffice it to say we get a lot of mileage out of that Pigs Skull, not to metion all of the cop jokes,..... LOL

Now you can't expect me to give up my pig spot that easy. Rifle county near Cortland. No sows with him. He did charge then gave me a broadside shot at 75 yards. 35 Whelen made short work of him. 250 gr. Hornady Interlock liquified his heart. We've seen them often.

Deleware county, I hear is full of them especially on the PA border. I guess porky can swim!!!! The boar I shot tasted good, then again there was plenty of BBQ sauce on him. They can get big and nasty. This guy was just under 300 on the hoof.

I had one for six years and never got the card. I will prob call the DEC this week it..... I'll let you know what I hear.

I've done it in the past 50/50 chance of having it work. I agree the key is rubber gloves. They've mainy brought in younger deer when its shooting light.

we lease 1500 acres, 1100 is huntable (the rest is underwater, yikes). We 12 ladder stands on it.

nothing yet...... Hoping for Monday. Hey did you get a Lifetime License Card, looks like a credit card with your license # on it?

moosemike, what was the backup?

wow, that sucks,... breaking a bolt! The value of a backup rifle is worth its weight in gold if you need it. My hunt in VA would have been done if I had no backup.

It was an accident, but the guide was handing me the rifle, instead of having me use the haul line on the blind. It was a ranch hunt and the guides didn't hunt with rifles, the set us in stands and we waited for deer to travel through. Some guides won;t loan their rifles due to liability issues. My experience is that guides have become more weary of liability issues.

Let me give you an example why a backup is needed from Virginia LAST season. Nothing dangerous, just deer and coyotes,...... Getting to a box blind on a tower, the guide climbs the ladder behind me to hand me up my rifle, as the door to the blind began to swing shut in the wind, the scope caps were off and the objective lens went into the corner of the door. The metal rain edge on the underside of the door scratched the crap out of the lens and made the scope unusable (actually heard the scretching sound). For the rest of the hunt, 2.5 more days, I used my backup rifle and was fine. If I didn't have a backup rifle, my hunt would have ended right there. Incidentally, the guide covered the cost of the scope and threw me an extra $20 for ammo to re-zero the rifle.

Years ago the NYS Hunting accident report were vastly swayed in favor of accidents during deer season occuring in Shotgun Counties over Rifle Counties. I like rifle hunting a lot more than anything else. Gongrats to Cortland. Solon, the 270 will do you just fine for deer. No worries there.

Yeah, I agree. A couple of years ago a boss from my job decided he was gonna work on his bucket list and saved his OT for a year. He went to Alaska. His choice was a 300 Wby Mag in an Ultra Lightweight Mk V. He's only about 160 soaking wet and 6'2" So you can imagine the A$$ Whipping this gave him. His back was an old Ruger 77 30-06. After watching him try to zero at 200 yards (the distance the guide liked to set clients up on brownies) and realized he was too squeamish about the recoil, the moved to Plan B and used the 77. The guide broke out a box of 220 gr A-Frames for him to zero and hunt with and that is what he took his bear with. Bottom line, gotta to disconnect the pump station quickly on something that when pissed at you will be looking to tear you apart. Shot placement is the key. I do think in part that is way 30-06 has been a success, most people can handle the recoil. Plus the newer rifles have really nice pads right out of the box. I can tell you on my XCR, which is really light, I feel about as much recoil as I do on a 30/30 lever gun with no pad. There is just o need to punish yourself.

I think I go for costal brownies, I'd invest in a new Model 700 XCR II in 300 Win Mag. I'd work up a loading with a Nosler Partition 220 gr, and top it with a 4-12x40 Nikon Monarch UCC with a BDC. I'd use a 1 piece Leupold base and rings. My back up would be my Weatherby Mk V Deluxe Outfitter. Same glass and hardware is already on that one.

Pygmy, that is outstanding!!! If I was ever fortunate enough to hunt North American Dangerous Game and my guide showed up with anything smaller then my rife to back me up,..... I'd give him my spare rifle to use. Here's a question to ponder, if you were hunting costal brown's what would be your primary and back rifles?

I thought it was, its kind of an interesting cartridge, its the hunters brush gun in a way.