Pygmy

Slowhand...Last I knew, TC was still making aftermarket tang peep sights for thier sidelock guns like my Hawken and your Renegade... I sure like mine... I opened the aperature up to make the peep bigger...Makes a very quick and accurate sighting system.. I think I shoot it better OFFHAND than I do even my scope sighted rifles.. Probably because the traditional style muzzleloaders were designed for off hand shooting..

Slowhand..There was NEVER a muzzleloader season concurrent with the early bow season, at least not in the southern zone...It may have happened in the northern zone, that's not my baliwick.... It was in the early 70s when muzzleloading rifles ( and handguns, .35 cal or larger) were first legalized for deer in the southern zone, but it was only in the shotgun season... Eventually the muzzleloaders were allowed in the late season, after shotgun season ended... If an early season is instituted, I'm all ready for it, with the only front loader I have ever used, my 1973 vintage TC Hawken .50 cal. fitted with a tang peep sight, cuz my old eyes don't work too well with regular v-notch open sights anymore... Peep sight still works fine, tho.....

I'm not aware of any semi auto .303s... I'd be REAL surprised if Bill's rifle isn't one of the bolt action SMLEs that were used for so many years by the Brits and thier colonies.. With surplus ammo, corrosive primers are often an issue..Be sure to clean the rifle promptly after each use with hot water or an ammonia solution ( Windex works well) to dissolve the salts from the primers, unless you are SURE the ammo you are using is non corrosive.. Most .303 surplus stuff IS corrosive..

Well... Good luck, Doc... Yeah... I know what you mean... Being RUSHED into such decisions would take a lot of the joy out of it.. I was fortunate.. When rifles were legalized in my county I had already been hunting with them in other states for 40 years....

I have never crimped any of my centerfire rifle ammo ... I full length resize all my casings and have never had any problem with bullets moving, either with a semi ( M1 Garand) or some cartridges with fairly stout recoil ( .338 WM, 9.3 x 62)...

Don't give up hope yet.. As I remember when they opened up Steuben a couple of years ago, it was close to deer season before we knew for certain rifles would be legal...

Live in Steuben County NY.. I hunt annually in Steuben County NY ,Tioga and Potter Co. PA, and Ontario Canada.. When my hunting trip "war chest" allows I hunt points west , north and south..... So far I have hunted in Alaska, four different Canadian Provinces, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Iowa, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maine... I fish many places, but the places I fish the most often are The Canisteo River, The Cohocton River and tributaries, Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake and Honeyoye Lake...

Target and varmint applications call for high power scopes.. However, for real life hunting situations, you'll be better served with a lower power scope.. Some people choose not to take shots at moving game, but in the deer woods many of us are completely capable of making good shots on moving game... A good quality fixed 4X scope is an excellent all around big game scope for deer sized game up to moose .. I have killed whitetails, caribou, antelope, moose and mule deer at distances from 300-400 yards with my rifles and 4X Leupolds, and never thought I lacked for any magnification.. My favorite deer rifle wears a 2x7 Burris.. I always keep it set on 2x...My HI MAG scope is a Leupold fixed 6X on my long range rig, a .280 Rem... If I need to check the critter out a little closer, I'll use my 8 X 42 Liecas or my 20X spotting scope..The 6X will certainly maintain a good crosshair on the critter out way further than I have any business shooting..

Another option is to mount a long eye relief scope on the rear sight... Personally, I'd rather mount a peep on the reciever and use the M94 for what is is really designed for..A light handy carbine for deer sized game at woods ranges.. With my old eyes, I have trouble focusing on conventional open sights, but a peep sight works just fine for me.. There is nothing wrong with a side mount, like Culvercreek uses, or the LER scope, but I consider both systems somewhat of a compromise...

I also have a .260 rem. but it is in a "handrifle" , a Rem XP100 pistol... I have taken a number of deer with, and as far performance goes, it is so close to the 7mm08 that there is no point in discussing the difference.. The only disadvantage I see in the .260 vs 7mm08 as a deer cartridge is availability of factory ammo.. I handload all my centerfire ammo, so it's not an issue for me, but the 7mm08 had a considerable headstart on the .260 before it became available as a factory cartridge, and the .260 lags far behind the 7mm08 in popularity..Hence, there is not a great variety of factory loads offered for it, and ammo availability might be an issue in some areas..

Yes, indeed, I hope the great majority of shotgun hunters are responsible...No offense to you or any other responsible hunters, shotgun or otherwise... However, I have spent every opening day in the woods in NY since 1964, and many opening days in PA....Some mornings I have counted gunshots, until perhaps 10:00 am when I would get bored... In Steuben County before rifles were legalized, I would typically hear between 200 and 300 shots by 9;00 AM on opening day... A large percentage were volleys of 4-5 shots.. Since rifles were legalized, I might hear 40-50 shots in the same timeframe, MOSTLY single shots..There still seem to be lots of deer around... My conclusion is that with everyone using shotguns, there is a LOT more lead being flung around... So shotguns are supposed to be SAFER than rifles...??... OOOPS.. There I go..I said I was not going to argue that any more.. Sorry <blush> It won't happen again...

Doc... There are no flies on the .243 as a deer cartridge...However, the .243 is basically a "dual purpose" round which serves well for varmints and also does a decent job on deer... Since you already have your .223 to cover the varmints, you might consider moving up to something that will handle slightly heavier bullets for a pure deer cartridge.. I would recommend the 7mm08... Recoil with 120 or 140 grain bullets is noticeably less than with .270/.280/30-06 class cartridges... Most powder charges are 45.0 grains or less... It doesn't kick much more than a .243 but packs considerably more punch.. IMHO it is close to the perfect cartridge for deer sized game.. It is easy to reload for and in most rifles superbly accurate..

Okay, Doc..Hehehehe... Your point is well taken, my friend... A prophet I AIN'T...<grin>.. An unsafe hunter is an unsafe hunter redgardless of what instrument he uses.. We'll just have to wait and see what happens... I'm getting too old and crotchety to argue the point...

There are plenty of areas in adjacent Pennsylvania ( and other states) with similar population densities where rifles have been used for years with no catastrophic results.. It is simply a change, and people are uncomfortable with change... For Instance... Sunday hunting.... THE SKY IS FALLING ; THE SKY IS FALLING..!!.. Rifles in the Southern zone... THE SKY IS FALLING ; THE SKY IS FALLING..!!... Legalizing Crossbows... THE SKY IS FALLING ; THE SKY IS FALLING... In year or so after these changes, nothing will be much different and it will have been a NON -event....

Since rifles have been made legal here in Steuben County, I hear SO many less shots... Instead of 5 shot volleys being the norm, you hear 1 shot... The occasional volley comes from the guys who are still using thier faithful old pumpkin slingers.. Nobody will ever convince me that that shotgunners spraying slugs all over the countryside is safer than than hunters shooting 1 or 2 shots from scope sighted centerfire rifles.. Check out the stats... Most hunting accidents ( whether with rifle or shotgun) occur WITHIN effective shotgun slug range... Most often under 100 yards... The old saw that rifles are unsafe because the bullets travel SO much farther doesn't hold water... The type of hunting accident where a projectile comes a long distance out of the blue and strikes someone is SO rare, that it is insignificant, and it could just as easily happen with a shotgun at 500 yards as a rifle bullet at 2000 yards.. I feel a lot safer sharing the woods with rifle hunters than I ever did with shotgun hunters...And I have been hunting deer here in NY since 1966....

Thanks, Steve...I see my home units ( 8T, 8X) are rated medium and high...

Setters... I have used the same 150 Hornadys that you have used and currently am using Win 150 Powerpoints... I have had some issues with the soft tips deforming but I'll be darned if I can see any real problems.. They feed and group just as well in my rifle as pristine tips do.. I HAVE loaded some Nosler 165 ballistic tips.. They will not deform and shoot as well as the 150 soft points, at least in my rifle.. I'll probably continue to use the powerpoints..As far as can see, the deformation is a cosmetic issue, rather than a functional or accuracy issue, as least as far as hunting dependability or accuracy is concerned..

Fasteddie... Good to hear from a fellow admirer of the M1... I trained with it in basic training... If I had to go into combat tomorrow, I would not feel undergunned with the Garand, even against today's "spray and pray" assault rifles.. An example... The Somali Pirates off the coast of Africa... Considering the size of thier boats and their weaponry, I suspect that a large ship could be quite well defended with a half dozen riflemen armed with M1 Garands..

Shotguns, like rifles, are individuals...Some shoot ceratin projectiles very well, and others not so well...For 40 years or so, until the state of NY saw the error of its ways and allowed us to use rifles, I hunted deer with shotguns and slugs... Back before the days of rifled shotgun barrels, a 6" group at 75 yards was pretty good...There were a few smoothbores that would group inside 4-6" consistently at 100 yards or a little farther... Most of them that I remember were Ithaca Deerslayers.. Once rifled slug barrels became readily available, groups shrunk.. The Rem 1100 that I used for 20 years or so had a 21" fully rifled barrel and would group from 2" to 4" consistently at 100 yards from the bench with Win BRI 2 3/4" slugs... In my experience the lower velocity sabot slugs tended to group better than the high velocity or 3" slugs, but as I have said, every gun is an individual..

Since rifles have been legalized here in Steuben Co. I have carried my M1 Garand a few times each season, but I have not had a shot with it yet.. I bought some 5 shot clips for it to make it legal under NYs 5 shot mag requirement for semi autos for big game.. I am confident with it up to 100 yards, and hope to bag a deer with it soon.. My loads are a military equivalent with H4895 and a 150 grain softpoint at around 2700 fps..

The 25-06 WAS considered a wildcat until about 30 or 35 years ago when Remington started chambering factory rifles in 25-06 and it became a standard FACTORY offering.. Same thing happened to the 22-250 and a number of other cartridges , like the 7mm08, the .243 Win and others.. And, yes indeed you can run a 30-06 case into a 25-06 die and neck it down.. I see no real need to go through that at this point in time, since there is is plenty of properly headstamped 25-06 brass to be had, but there is no reason you can't do it if you want to, or if you have a bunch of 30-06 brass that you have no other use for..

I load all my centerfire rifle ammo..I have several rifles that have never had a factory load fired in them... I enjoy working up optimum custom loads for my rifles and then taking game with them.... It adds another dimension to my enjoyment of the hunt..

I have never boresighted..I simply fire my first shot at a large target at very close range ( perhaps 20 feet)... That tells me which direction I need to move in... I then move back to 25 yards and zero dead on..Usually this takes no more than 3 or 4 shots.. Then I drop back to 100 yards and fine tune it, if necessary...

Have you considered buying a quality used scope..??.. I have four Leupolds and the most I have paid for one was $160.. The lifetime guarantee follows the scope, no matter how many times it changes hands... I have never had any trouble with any of them, however.. I bought two at gunshows ( $125 ea) one from a felllow on a talk forum ( $160) and one from a friend who was selling a lot of his hunting gear ( $100)...