Fall. The leaves are tuning color, the temperatures have cooled off, and the days are getting shorter.

Deer season is upon us once again. By now most of you will have hung your deer stands, checked your rifle's zero, and are making those last final purchases of whatever gadget will help put that big buck down.

But what kind of deer rifles do the shooters at steelchickens use?

My hunting rig is starting to look a little bit worn, but I just can't stand to replace her. She is an older Ruger model 77 with the tang safety, chambered in good 'ol 30-06 caliber. The wood stock is covered with dozens of small dings, nicks and scratches. The inside of the stock has been waterproofed. Some years ago I intalled a one inch recoil pad and shortened the stock to fit me while wearing a heavy coat. My scope is an El Paso made (steel tube) Weaver K-4W. I love that wide angle view! Rounding out my rig is a 1 1/4 inch leather military sling. As for loads I use 165 grain spire points on top of 47.2 grains of IMR-4064 powder. I keep the gun sighted three inches high at 100 yards, which give me a nice flat trajectory out to about 300 yards.

So what are the rest of you hunters shooting?

.243 Savage with 95gr Nosler Partition bullets.

97 Ford Van. I don't even have to leave the road or climb a tree. They run out to me.

7mm WSM browning a bolt with a leo 4-12x40AO on top, thatll shoot just over a MOA at 1000 yards with handloads.... 120 gr hornady ballistic tips for blacktail here in cali, and 150 gr scirrocco's for elk an muley's

my rifle befor was a savage 110dl in 243, its now my HP standard rifle in 7mm BR

BTW, deer season around here ended 3 weeks ago, and on that day, a real nice 2x3 fell, as a well placed shot from 250 yards away cleaned out his sinuses

Ruger Mark ll in .270 Win, military sling with a 3x9 Nikon Monarch scope, started out as a .280 Rem by the time I got it shooting the way I wanted I could have bought 2 Remingtons. Use 130gr Nosler Partitions with either H or IMR 4831. Didn't get drawn the first time around, got a first come first served tag for Unit 36C, Whitetail only, opens Nov. 7th.

Jim Beckley wrote:... by the time I got it shooting the way I wanted I could have bought 2 Remingtons.

But think of all the fun you would have missed!

Shots at deer down here in the south swamplands are not very far, even if you could see the deer 100 yards away odds are no clear shot would be presented.

My trusty old Mossberg 500A 12 gauge loaded with either 00 Buckshot or with the rifled barrel shooting slugs or a .45 cal inline smoke pole and finally the old compound bow and arrow are my deer slayers. All great for quick thick brush deer slaying. Lots of guys here still feel the need to shoot 7mm Mag or .300 Mags for some reason, must be bolt envy or something. Just seems like a tad bit of overkill when taking shots way out there a whopping 70 yards in the clearing

Now I just need to find some time to actually do some hunting!


Dee

Do you remember that movie with Tom Cruise the line was You had me at hello? Well for some reason I always wanted a .280 Remington. I was in a gun shop in Mesa called the Pistol Parlor and I was admiring the wood on this one rifle and I ask the clerk what the caliber was and he said "It's a .280 Remington". It had me at .280 Rem, out came the credit card and after testing just about every 7mm bullet out there with different powder charges and overall lenghts, that's when the tears started. At that time Ruger barrels had a rep as being either benchrest quality or fence post material. A trip to the gunsmith for barrel floating, trigger job and bedding, a new barrel, and to find out that both lugs didn't match up. That's when the tears really came. The good news is that it shoots now!

TC Contender .35 Remington.... after all you only need one shot

Have a few but the favorite is an old commercial Mauser action rifle made by National Arms Co. in 1953. My father-in-law gave it to me almost 10 years ago now as a "welcome to the family" present (he doesn't have any sons) and told me the story of it being given to him by his father. That old .270 isn't good for any better than about 2" for 3 shots at 100yds even with tuned handloads, but I dearly love it. The locktime feels like about half an hour compared to Rem and Savage guns due to being a Mauser, but it still gets the job done.

Winchester M70 Stainless .30-06, Leupold 3-9x, 165 & 180 Nosler Ballistic Tips pushed by I4350. Used for deer and elk.

Wifes rifle: Win 70 Featherweight .308 Win. , Leupold 3-9x, 165 Sierra BT with H335.

Love those featherweights,mine is in 7mm-08.Leupold 2x7.Sie 140 @2900.Great for packing deep into the Ozark Mts.Most of my hunting is done with a Ruger SB 44mag.Hornady 240gr XTP. 20gr. 2400.I will be bow hunting in the morning with Mathews Q2.

My daughter has ended up with my first high powered rifle. I bought that Remington model 700 ADL in 1979 when the local hardware store went out of business. The cost, including tax, was $205. She is chambered in .243 and wears a Redfield 3x9 scope. I have no idea how many deer and jack rabbits that gun has accounted for, but a truck load would be a safe guess. The last half dozen deer have fallen to Speer 105 grain bullets, which seem to hit a little harder than 100 grain bullets. Of course, some more "field research" in order!

Half hour lock time, Jason? I know that one! Of all the guns I could take hunting the one that usually goes is a Springfield 03A3 in 30-06. After the Remingtons the lock time seems more in line with a flint lock. Hits hard though, almost as hard as my Jeep Cherokee which has accounted for deer, pheasant, racoons and an owl.

Last year I took the high power silhouette gun out for antelope so I could say it really was a Hunter Rifle. It's chambered in 6.5-250 and was loaded with 130 grain Nosler Accubonds. I had a solid shot on an antelope and the thing was shooting a foot over its back at and estimated 200 yards! I looked down at the scope wondering what the H@!! was going on and saw that the turret cover was gone.

Aw, s#!t. The antelope ran off to tell its buddies what a lousey shot I was and I walked back to where my son was waiting. I looked at Geoff and the bulb went on.

"Hey, Geoff, do you know where the little cover for this knob is?"

"Un-huh."

"Where"

"In the garage."

"Hey, Geoff, what does this knob do when you turn it?"

"Click, click, click."

"Thanks, Geoff."

It doesn't pay to swat 'em when they don't understand. I just took his hand and we walked over the hill. We'll try again for an antelope this week end with the 6.5-250 but I'm not leaving the gun in the work stand over night this year.

As I have posted before, our Sillhouette Club at Ben Avery runs a sight in service for hunters before the season starts each year. Interesting enough the most accurate rifles right out of the box is a Savage, especially the old wood stock ones, I think they are a 110. They can shoot alright but they are just flat out butt ugly. I was in the Sportsman's Wharehouse the other day, they had a few upgraded Savage rifles in their rack, if they didn't look like a pig with earrings I don't know what does.