eagle rider

To tell you the truth, I have lways considered them too heavy in construction to be optimal for deer. But what you are telling me is that they perform just fine and they are super acurate. I would consider trying a box and see how the do. I shoot Knight Redhot Muzzleloader bullets which are made by Barnes. They are terrific in the smokepole. I know many who use Barnes, but it all seems to be for bigger game than deer. I've alwys sought an acurate rapidly expanding bullet for deer that shed a lot of energy into a lightweight, thin skinned carcus. It seems that everyone I ever spoke to about Barens bullets on such animals talk about tracking animals sometimes pretty far distances. I've done really well with Sierra and Nosler over the years. Again, I am willing to try them. Who knows if they are that good, I'll buy some stock in the company, LOL.

Nice, the 280 is a great round too. Years back it was first billed as the 7mm Remington Express. It is a true speed demon and definately an unbelted magunm equivalent. A buddy of mine in Western VA hunts exclusively with that caliber and is never disappointed. It is genuinely incredible the speed we can get out of the newer powders and the more optimized bullets. Its getting to the point that you don't have to be shooting magnum rated cartridges anymore. I've never loaded up Barnes Bullets, but I know a husband and wife team in Wyoming who swear by them for elk. They always seemed too beefy for Northeast deer and bear.

it's 30-06. I always used 165 gr bullets in 30-06, I tried these based on some on line posts I read over the last year. I am really shocked by this printing,

Just sayin'..... Brought the new XCRII to the range to fine tune the zero. WOW! Using the 150gr Nosler BT loaing with 61.5 gr of RL19. Three rounds,.... ONE HOLE at 100 yards. As much as its a bit on the homely side, this dog will hunt.

That would be a good choice. We were hunting box stands across agricultural fields. Mostly soybean. It was a great time. I will fish out the pics. We paid to have teh meat butchered and packed there.

Excellent many years back we hunted the Bostick Plantation two years in a row. Its awesome deer hunting down there. I would love to do it again. I shot two yonger bucks a doe and three hogs the first year. The second year a big buck a doe and three hogs. Its awesome long range hunting too. all three bucks were last light at 200 plus yards. I used a 300 Wby Mk V. Good optics were a must!!!! We were there in late October both years. It was awesoem hunting, great acomodations and great food. I have to see if I can still find the pics and post them.

Pygmy & Hunter! I hear both of you. Like I said this hoiliday is a tough one because we miss guys like them so much, RIP!!! Hunter I use a 2-7x 32mm with a low rings on my 35. I don't think I've ever taken the scope past 2x. I've awesome in the brush. The 41 will do you good in SC. Where are you going in SC? I hunted there twice. I love it down there.

This holidy in particular is hard for me because guys like our fathers were among the truest of patriots. Another good one passed this year, my uncle and god father, a USN Submarine Vet from the Korean War. He was also a NYPD 9th Pct cop. Lou Gherrig's Disease got him! He was a big time duck hunter on the south shore.

I took my bear with the 35 rem at 50 yards,..... no problem. He was 250 on the paw. I think mid velocity with heavy weight bullets designed to rapidly expand are great inside 100 yds. A little lighter at reduced velocity gives a bit better trajectory if the shots eek out a bit longer. Its probably terrain dependent. We hunt hill hardwoods, plenty of in close opportunities and plenty out to 200 yards.

Yeah the speed demon rounds do take a toll. Even with the 30-06, I load it down to around 2600 FPS (and could prob go lower).

You might be right. A 300 Wby Mag with a 150 gr bullet will make a mess of a deer. Lots of bruised, bloody meat. The exit wounds can be massive. When I used to use a 25-06 out past 100 yards when the velocity would fall off a bit, the damage was all internal. It would make soup out of the chest cavity with almost no damage to the meat whatsover. The 35 Rem is slow and heavy, not as heavy as the 444 or the 450. It doesn't produce nearly as much kientic enegry as the 300 Wby at those ultra high velocities. I would imagine they are more explosive on impact.

the trip' 4 is a beast! I always feared too much meat damage going that big. The 35 does just fine by my standards. Its got a lot of foward mass and just seems to drop them without destroying a ton of quality cuts along the way. I do like the 444 a lot. When I was a kid I read a story in the American Hunter about a guy who hunted Nile River Crocs' with that 444 from canoes. I was intrigued by the 444 ever since then.

MooseMike, I'm sorry for your loss. Was he a hunter too?

Hey thanks guys. We all have some great deer hunting memories I guess of parents and brothers and friends some long gone. I never step into the deer woods without remembering some. Some to this day still get a chucckle out of me like it was yesterday. Deer camp is a special place that only hunters can appreciate. That 03A3 Battle Rifle was his prize possession in his collection, which wasn't all that big. I could never understand why he never really reached for that model 99 or the Vanguard 25-06 (which I feel in love with). I guess to him it was like an old friend. Who knows maybe it reminded him of Marine buddies that never made it off the beaches or out of the jungles. I always meant to ask him why, but I never got the chance. They were a rare bread, those old devil dogs, that rifle and his K-Bar were two things he never let out of his sight. Its weird that the Greatest Generation is now all but gone. I read somewhere that one of those guys meets his maker every 45 seconds. I do believe they saved the world. Anyways, that's way off topic. We were talking about our hunting rifles...... I'm on desk duty this week so I'll be bouncing in and out a lot. Maybe some of you guys will be writing in.

I think its awesome hunting with old military rifles. My Dad used to use an old Smith Corona 1903A3 Springfield with the iron battle site. He shot a lot of deer with it too. I could never get him to actually admit it, but I'm pretty sure that he actually carried that rifle in WWII. Maybe it made its way back through the Pacific somehow broken down in a duffle bag on his train ride back east in 1945. He had four other deer rifles, an old Remington 700 (300 Win Mag), a Savage 99 (300 Savage), a Weatherby Vanguard (25-06 which I have now), and a Remington 740 (270 Win). Still all my memories were him dragging that 1903 into the woods every year on the land I still hunt. My Mom still has that rifle in his old safe at her place down south. I can recall him hitting one small buck (basket six) at 200 yards with the iron sites on that rifle. The shot just seemed kind of routine to him. Maybe for an old time Marine Corps Rifleman it was kind of ordinary. I was a kid just walking through the woods with him that day. We were watching a bunch of does in a field we have now renamed the "murder hole'." They were about 100 yards out it was a cold late afternoon the day after Thanksgiving. I was drinking hot cocoa from an old tin thermos. All at once he rasied his rifle in a direction that was 90 degrees to the right of where the does were and KAPOW. The sound of the shot ringing out surprised me. We walked through the field to the edge of a mixed hardwood line up against the foot of a steep hillside and there was this little six pointer. He used a handloaded 150 gr Sierra bullet. It was a pin hole going in with a golf ball size exit wound. Sorry, the Garand story brought me back 32 years ago in time. I miss that old New York Deer Hunter.

Pygmy, that's awesome. I think Patton said that the M1 Battle Rifle was a big part of us winning WWII. Its cool that you hunt with one.

Its a walnut stock, correct?

nice, I always loved that rifle. The 700 is a workhorse. Its an XCR, so its not "pretty" to look at. It can take a pounding though.

So we all have a do everything rifle (30-06) and a good brush gun back up 35 Rem or 30-30 lever action)! Must be a great plan if so many of us have gone the same way. My 30-06 is a Remington 700 bolt action, I'm guessing most everyone has the same kind of set up?

standing food plots are not hunting over bait.

I do the same, the 30-06 is my treestand sitting rifle. When I'm sludging through the swamps or still hunting in thick cover I always take the 35.

haha, sorry. My orig 336C was a 30/30 win. I also sold mine when I needed cash. I regret it to this day. I replaced it with a 35 as soon as I could. I will never give up that 35. I know the pain.

who's with me on this one????? No matter how many more "sophisticated" rifles a hunter can own, these mighty midget venison charmers are the bee's knees' in the northeastern deer woods. I hate to say it that my old 35 Rem Model 336 C makes the trip to deer camp every year. There's nothing better in the swampy, mucky, brushy boot snag than this old girl. Mine has a 2-7x on it and I don't think its ever been past 2x. It drops deers pretty much in their tracks. The 35 cal bullet weights and diameter have no trouble carrying the mail all the way to the buck pole. I even used mine in Maine for black bear, she's a bruin slayer too. The round doesn't make a wagon load of hamburger and stew meat. Most off all, if the deer are spooky, the crank-fire repeater can burp up a fresh cartridge while your eye stays on the cross hairs the wole time. Don't get me wrong, if I'm stand sitting I love a flat shooter bolt action. But for still hunting and deer drives, the 336 C is hands down a better choice in my mind.

the hole that printed at 5 o'clock was a flyer?

Developed a great load for it, 61.5 grs of RL19, Nosler 150 Ballistic Tip, WLR primer and Fed Brass. COAL is 3.341. It's only doing 2770 but its a tacdriver! Clover leaf groups all three rounds touching each other at 100 yards.