Re: beater gun, or not?

Posted by Billy NY on November 15, 2006 at 15:39:02 from (205.188.117.14):

In Reply to: beater gun, or not? posted by Tim Shultz on November 15, 2006 at 13:11:58:

For all intent purposes I'll assume the 710 is a variant of the 700, not that familiar with the model, not having owned one. However, a very good friend of mine bought a 700 in .30-'06 a few years ago, and I have witnessed a few nice kills, sometimes we'll sit in the same stand, has a little room, 3 sections of some old pipe scaffold built into a double trunk tree. It seems to fit him well he certainly shoots accurately with it, think he's got an inexpensive tasco 3x9 scope on it.

Last season, his dad was using it, may have treated it like a beater, knocking around on the quad with it or something. Well that's ok, can't say none of us did not do similar and or careless things as a kid either. My friend shot at one, it was off, did not have much time last year so he kind of put it aside.

I was on him all year after the season, (we hunt quite a bit together, between my place and his dads there is 200 acres to hunt) to bring it down, clean the bore, fire some rounds and see what's going on.

Last weekend ( last one before rifle opens here this saturday )he finally brought it down. We drove close to the stand and were getting set up, the stand is 3 tiers high and looks over a corn field, and a whitetail clover patch within 20 yards. Always lots of activity in the afternoon hours. Thar stands a respectable 6pt buck, very typical body size for this area. He's feeding heavily, corn was just combined 1 week ago, and the wind was blowin pretty good, ground soft from rains. So my friend grabs his bow and starts out stalking after the buck, who mind you is in the middle of a freshly cut 7 acre field, but on a shale knoll, so with the wind, moist ground and the knoll giving him some cover, he literally gets within 20-25 yards, stands up slowly and places an arrow into the lung area, it runs 100 yds and drops. I watched this through the binoculars, and I don't think I would have attempted it, knowing that the buck would most certainly run. I was more worried about a botched shot and him not getting within shooting range and still taking a shot, it can be hard to judge sometimes. We are both deadly at 20 yards with a bow, he might be able to do 30, but I won't go beyond 20 myself, yet.

Now, I tracked the blood trail, found the arrow, literally pointing at the buck where he died quickly, then field dressed him in 10 minutes or so, he got the vehicle and we made it back to the stand, to do what we started out to do, which was shoot and check his rifle out, the Remington 700, after being slightly side tracked.

He had used a Leupold bore sighter, made some adjstments, checked and re-tightened the scope mounts. At 110 yds, 1st two were in a 1" group, then the 2nd two were dead center bulls eyes, tack driver groups, one hole on top of the other. That 700 is a very respectable and inexpensive bolt action, especially in .30-'06, which is ideal for whitetail. I use a springfield M1A, in .308 and did fine at 100 yds, then went out to 214 yds, 1" groups, so I can reach out clear across the field to an area cleared a few years back. It's good to get some shots off prior to opening day and get the feel of shooting again, especially when you don't get out much to shoot.

I've also got to be thankful for the food provided, he insisted I take the loins, backstraps and one hind quarter, and I've feasted on it all week, but let him know, we'll be firing up the grill this saturday again when he comes down off the mountain to hunt over here, go figure, shotgun where he lives and rifle here, and there are more houses here. We are fortunate that the herd is still healthy, but between coyotes and who knows what, it's not like it was, they even restricted doe permits to land owners only in this zone. Still enjoy hunting, we have a great place here, lots of food and places to hide, so the activity is constant, thought I'd lose interest after 20 years, but aint happened yet.

I'll bet that round would punch 1/4" steel at 200, my .308 does it with ball ammo.

Replies:

• Re: beater gun, or not? souNdguy 05:48:08 11/16/06 (0)

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