wildcat junkie

I've shot deer with conical bullets out of a .50 cal TC Hawken. 12ga foster slugs 140gr .284 bullets 180gr .323 bullets 200gr .323 bullets and 243gr .535 round balls over 120gr of FFg. By far, some of the most stupendous knock 'em flat results were from the .535 RBs. I once had one flip completly over backwards onto it's back when shot quartering on at close range. then one were I hit square through the shoulder blades & spine with the 25 cent piece sized flattened ball lodged just under the hide on the off side. Her hide had a football sized split on the offside hind quarter. Although a large RB sheds velocity quickly, it also sheds energy into the animal quickly & on a solid hit it kills all out of proportion to what it says on paper. At 150yds it will still easily pass through any Whitetail on a broadside shot that doesn't encounter a large mass of bone. If it does encounter a large mass of bone the deer is going to drop in its tarcks.

I'd bet that there is more leeway at the low magnification setting.

I once heard a law enforcment official state that the 55MPH speed limit did more to instil disrespect for the law than any other single regulation. People (correctly) felt as though the 55MPH speed limit was not really necessary under most conditions. Indeed, our law makers seemed to have eventually seen the light & allowed higher speed limits in light traffic area. I think the sunrise/sunset regulation has a similar affect, making law breakers out of otherwise ethical hunters. The 1/2 hour before/after rule, if leagal, would have to be used with discretion as far as making a judgement as to whether or not there was enough light to make a shot. If I can size up a buck's rack, in the shadows, at 240yds through my non iluminated reticle, moderately priced Kahles or Leupold scope on 9X, isn't there enough light to make a safe, ethical shot? With iron sights, the limit for me under those regulaions would be whether or not I could see the sights well enough to make an ethical shot even if I could positively identify the target as a legal animal. To me, that regulation is far more restrictive & indicative of "nannie state" mentality than any BO requirements.

Ned Be-a-ty had the harrr-dest paa-aart. Do you think he regretted taking that role?

I once had a 2-7X32 Nikon Monarch. The optics were right up there with the more reasonably priced Leupolds & European scopes. Great value & very capable. I let it go on my M700 Mountain Rifle DM 7mm-08. The only reason I left it on the rifle was because of some cosmetic damage. Every deer that was shot at with that combo died with the 1st bullet. I loaned it to this young man that killed his 1st deer with it from my tri-pod..

CF rifle scopes generally have the parallax adjustment set 100yds. Shotgun/ML at 75 yds & RF scopes at 50yds. The parallax distance is where there will be no shift in POI regardles of eye position. Adjustable objective scope can be adjusted for parallax at any realistic distance that a shot might be taken.

Holy crap. I replace nipples when the flame hole gets much bigger than 1/16". Same with a touch hole on a flintlock. Not trying to be smart a$$ but are the flame holes for modern muzzle loaders normally that large?

Real balck powder ignites much easier & more consistantly than substitutes.

After checking the zero before season, I never clean the bore duing the season. If I get caught in the rain I will run a dry patch through the bore, that's it. A slightly fouled bore will shoot more consistatly for consecutive shots than a clean bore. A clean bore can shoot to a significantly different POI compared to a slightly fouled bore & after the 1st shot, it's no longer clean. I'll admit that I am a bit "anal" about accuracy, but since my average shot is usually about 240 yds. I want a rifle that will shoot 1 1/4" or better at 100yds consistantly. After the season I will again run a brush, then a dry patch or 2 through the bore to remove as much powder residue as possible before using "Wipe-Out" to remove any copper. No oil yet! Oil decreases the effectiveness of the Wipe-Out so the bore needs to be dry & relatively free of excess powder residue. I clamp the barrel with the muzzle angled slightly downward in a padded vise, stuff some loose patches firmly into the chamber, insert the cone shaped tube fitting into the muzzle & give it a 2 second burst. Leave the cone in the muzzle for about 2 more seconds to help the expanding foam reach the breech area, then remove the cone from the muzzle. The stuff will keep expandimg for a few more seconds & ooze out of the muzzle. I have a gallon milk jug with a cut out that I hang from the muzzle. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then run dry patces through the bore from the breech. Repeat the process until there is no more blue (dissolved copper) on the patches. On a bore that was clean of copper fouling before the zero check at the beginning of the season, 1 double application cycle usually does the trick. Check the patches after 20 minutes to see if the patches have turned blue. If you have never cleaned out the copper, it can take several applications. After the copper clean-out, I run a patch soaked in G-56 through the bore & give the bolt/action a spray, then wipe off the excess. I use the rag that now has some oil on it wipe the exterior. I do not oil the trigger group. I avoid dismantling the gun unless I got caught in the rain long enough for water to have seeped in past the stock. Wipe-Out eliminates the scrubbing when removing copper. If you have an old weapon that doesn't seem to group like it used to, try cleaning the copped out of the bore. Keep repeating the process until there is no more blue on the patch after a 20 mnute wait.

All very valid points. Perhaps a better word to discribe the differing eye relief would be narrows. While low magnification will allow more leeway as far as eye relief, generaly, the narrower high magnification eye relief will be somewhere in the short end of the low magnification eye relief envelope. I set my eye relief so that I can get full field of view at high magnification & the wider range of full field view at low magnification takes care of itself. I NEVER leave my variable power setting on anything other than the lowest maginification to allow fast target aquisition on targets at close range which will likely require a quicker reaction. Shots taken with high magnification will in all likelyhood be taken under a situation where there is plenty of time to not only crank up the power, but also to snuggle up to the eye relief. Due to being caught off guard, I took this years buck at about 100yds with the scope still on 3X. That's plenty of maginifcation for that distance or even farther. The biggest advantage I find with 9X is for sizing up the rack on longer shots. Most shots from my tri-pod are in the 200-250yd range. Those long shots have alway been at unalamed deer that gave me plenty of time.

Note that I posed it as a question, not a stement. I agree that the only stats that are relavant would be the mistaken for game, in the line of fire & to a far less extent, ricochet if the angle wasn't significant.

Supposedly, when habitat is pressured and/or there is an overpoulation issue, the ration of buck to doe fawns will skew towards more buck fawns. Just something I read somewhere.

Widespread abundance of acorns? When that happens in my area the deer are widely scattered & seem scarce. In 2000 I had lots of deer around during spring & late summer. By fall they were very scarce. I did't kill a buck that year. acorns were everywhere. The year before was good & the following year was one the best seasons I had. i think that just because you aren't seeing deer, that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't in the woods somehwere.

I shot my best buck yet.8-point, green scored a few inches lower than my best. A bit more spread & mass, longer brow tines,but lost out on G-2 & G-3 tine length. My '09 8-point had ridiculousy long tines for the overall size. Also, at 190#, within 29# of my heaviest buck from '04. I might have him mounted. I'm getting older & this is the 1st buck I've killed since my son started seriously deer hunting with me. He has a very symetrical rack.

Check ypur PM box.

Also, does it have the side rail mounted scope base atatchment holes or are the top of the receiver rings D&T'ed

Holy crap you have something there! That's not a miliary rifle, its an FN Mauser. Do me a favor if you can. Measure the distance of the 2 large action screws in the bottom metal. They should be either 7 5/8" or 7 7/8". Those were high quality commercial rifles made for sale by Sears Roebuck, Monkey Wards, Western Auto, etc. Under appreciated & often can be bought for bargain basement prices. Never the less you have a great basis for some tuning that could make a great shooter. There is no bolt action more reliable than the 98 Mauser. Next to impossible to jam due to the "controlled round feed" design. 98 Mauser actions are highly sought after as a basis for "dangeraous game rifles" because of that.

That makes sense.

Nice buck. Wow, it looks like he really cleaned his clock. What was the cartridge & load?

All of the "improvements" in high tech muzzlelaoders have been brought about to make black poder substitutes as reliable as real black powder. Black powder sustitutes were brough about so that big volume retailers could get in on the market. I still use real FFFg balck powder & shoot .535 round balls that i cast my self that cost me pennies. I can rely on my flintlock unless it is a downpour & when I do hunt in a monsoon, I use my cal gun & apply some clear fingernail polish to the cap after I press it firmly onto the nipple. When I Hunted exclusively with my muzzleloaders from 1983 to 1996, I would not reload them after hunting unless I discharged them that day. I would avoid taking them in & out of a heated house & left them in a gun rack concealed behind the seat of my standard cab pick up. I have never had a misfire or hangfire that I could attribute to anything other han my own error. that is, failing to clear the oil from the breech beforeloading. I did get caught in a deluge with my flinter once & the priming turned to black goo. I should have known better & taken my cap gun that day. I did get the gun to fire after 2X with fresh priming. I have cleanly taken 3 deer that were 150yds or perhaps a little more away & over a dozen more that were closer. A large .535 or larger caliber round ball will take any hooved game as far as iron sight shots are ethical. .490s are limited to about 100yds, .445s about 75 IMO. With an improvised rest like a tree trunk I can hit a beverage can at 100yds reliably. From the bench, with open sights, my .54 flinter would shoot 2" groups at 100yds with atightly patched .535 over 120gr of FFFg & it would knock deer flat with impressive regularity. eldom did I even have to blood trail a deer. If you are getting good results with your traditional ML & your shots oporunities are not beyond the capability of the weapon, there's really no need to switch for some perceived advantage.

Interesting that the .223 round will properly headspace in a 5.56X45 chamber while the 5.56X45 will not properly headspace in a 223 chamber. Would you please post the dimensional case data that would cause this. There is a difference in pressure that has nothing to do with the cartridge dimensions that would effect headspace.

CZ O/U & S/S shotguns are made by Huglu in Turkey. Huglu also makes the higher end DeHann that are identical mechanically. http://www.dhshotguns.com/ The Huglu guns are ecellent quality. Much much better than the Kaun Turkish guns. I had a DeHann OE-2 O/U 20 ga. with ejectors & the S-2 S/S in 28 ga. Very good quality for the $$$.

7.62 X 51 = .308 Win just like 5.56 X 45 =.223 Rem. One is the metric miltary terminology, the other is civilian commecial terminology. No difference as far as the caliber or case dimensions. Military is FMJ, civilian is expanding bullet.

Learn to navigate it & you can print out your own. http://mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm You can toggle between topo, a map that shows roads & public land or sattelite photo. Here's one I use near my home. http://map-pass.mytopo.com/maps/print_mytopo.asp?print=20&scale=2.5&layer=DRG&layer=HILLSHADE&lat=44.721272582191176&lon=-74.76648807525635&orient=0&res=144

If the bolt release looks like this and the bolt body/extractor looks like this, (aside from the "butterknife" handle & custon safety shroud) then it's a 98.