Who hunts with a single-shot rifle?

[H&Hhunter]

I sight my deer hunting rifles in at fifty yards. That is the average distance I shoot deer at. At this stage of the game my long distance shooting is over.
Occasionally I'll shot a deer out there at a hundred yards or so, but that the top for me. To old to be dragging deer to far.

If most of my shots were 100 yards and in I’d be using iron sights almost exclusively. Back when I was killing 100+ hogs a year on my lease in Texas I got to where I was almost exclusively using iron sighted rifles as most of my hunting was either pushing thick cover and snap shooting or spot and stalk into fairly close range. I got so comfortable and fast with iron sights that a scope started to be nothing but a clumsy burden for my style of hunting.

 

[Highland Lofts]

The 350 legend rife is sweet. The 180 grain bullets drop three inches at a hundred yards from where the 150 grain bullets hit.
I'll use both bullets and see which performs the best on deer.

 

[AK Hunter]

Everyone that shoots a muzzle loader does.
I normally hunt with a 350 Legend AR but I never have needed more than two shots & never used more than 5 rounds in a entire season.
I have seen other hunters put 5 rounds in one deer. I saw one guy hunting with a western style pistol shoot 5 rounds, reload & shoot another 5 without hitting anything but the ground. He was shooting at a group of does & I was watching the leaves jump all around them every time he shot. LOL

 

[AK Hunter]

I've got you beat. My first deer, a doe mule deer, I shot five times through the chest with a Model 100, .308 Winchester semi-auto because:
1. I didn't have the knowledge or experience to know that I'd hit her hard with my first shot.
2. I'd been told by "old timers" that unlike the 30-30s they "used to have," a .308 Winchester would "knock a deer down."
3. I'd been told by those same "old timers" that a deer "always" runs downhill if they're hit. And that doe ran a good 50 yards uphill while I kept putting bullets through her chest.
Luckily, she stopped running and just stood there while I was trying to shove a fresh magazine full of ammo into my rifle. Then, just as I was about to shoot her a sixth time, she tipped over, and slid back downhill a few yards.
You could cover all six of the bullet holes in the right side of that deer's chest with your hand. The other side of her chest however...what a mess!
At any rate, I'm an "old timer" now (74), but you'll never hear me spewing such nonsense like the 3 listed above.
BTW, I also have a 30-30 that I killed a doe mule deer with. It didn't "knock her down" (just like those "old timers" said), and she did run about 80 or 90 yards downhill before collapsing after being hit in the side of her chest. But I was about 40 years old by then, had killed quite a number of mule deer, and had enough experience to know when a mule deer has been hit hard.

You can tell if a deer is hit hard enough by the tail. If it up when they run shoot them again, if it's down they are going down.

 

[.308 Norma]

You can tell if a deer is hit hard enough by the tail. If it up when they run shoot them again, if it's down they are going down.

Uh huh. I read Ol' Yeller" too.

 

[Zoer]

I got a ruger 7x57 over the summer , after a fair amount of load work i got it to shoot 175 NP inside an inch ,, going to take it Elk hunting next week ,,hoping it will be a lucky rifle

 

[xphunter]

Like a few others here, I hunt with a single-shot specialty pistol a lot!

 

[Meeks36]

Always used a single shot 12 & 410 growing up. To many houses around for rifles. But I always brought something home. Make you take your time and make that one shot count.

 

[xphunter]

26 Nosler


6.5 Creedmoor


22GT


6.5 PRC


280AI


25 Creedmoor


6-284


7mm Dakota

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Those are some far-out pistols. What is that tag hanging from a couple of them?

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Is a 24-V still a single shot? Didn't use the 20 gauge barrel, but I did put two .30WCF slugs into Mr.Cougar. Only one was needed. With an ejector, and some adrenalin, a single shot is pretty darn fast. Called him in within 30 yards.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Never met a turkey that required more than one shot.

 

[xphunter]

Those are some far-out pistols. What is that tag hanging from a couple of them?

drop charts

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Mrs. Bear required more than one shot, but a flintlock can be reloaded amazingly fast from a paper cartridge.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

drop charts

Just what I suspected, but wasn't sure.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Ugly sauce
What state are you hunting in?. Between the bear and the cougar you saved atleast sixty or more deer a year.

Cougars average fifty deer a year and bears are a known for killing a lot of deer fawns.
Coyotes will kill a deer fawn a every day when raising their pups.
Your Savage model 24V is a simple shot in my opinion.
What caliber is it on top?
I use to use a 22lr ‐20 gauge about forty years ago for squirrel hunting.

My doctor pasted away about six years ago and I found him a model 24 in 223 - 20 gauge for deer hunting. It came out of Alaska.

Is the bear a brown phase of a black bear?

I have a H&R Handi-Rifle in 243 that I bought for deer hunting just over three years ago and I have been averaging five deer a year with it. I did get a double on two does a couple of years ago and could of taken a double on two does last hunting season but didn't want to take two of them at the time. We already had a couple hanging.

 

[xphunter]

Just what I suspected, but wasn't sure.

I have my drop chart for that gun, based on the environmentals, I am hunting or competing in. I typically do them in 25 yard increments, then go to 10 yard increments after a grand.
The 160 AB minimum impact velocity is 1800 fps, and at 600 yards that is where that threshold is at.
This XP-100 is set-up for elk hunting right now.
In the picture above with the buck antelope I was running 140's and my drop chart would have been maxed out right around 25 yards further.
I just had multiple hard copies in my pack, pockets, and billfold the day I hunted antelope last year with it.
The wind data is set-up for a 10 MPH FV wind.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Ugly sauce
What state are you hunting in?. Between the bear and the cougar you saved atleast sixty or more deer a year.

Cougars average fifty deer a year and bears are a known for killing a lot of deer fawns.
Coyotes will kill a deer fawn a every day when raising their pups.
Your Savage model 24V is a simple shot in my opinion.
What caliber is it on top?
I use to use a 22lr ‐20 gauge about forty years ago for squirrel hunting.

My doctor pasted away about six years ago and I found him a model 24 in 223 - 20 gauge for deer hunting. It came out of Alaska.

Is the bear a brown phase of a black bear?

I have a H&R Handi-Rifle in 243 that I bought for deer hunting just over three years ago and I have been averaging five deer a year with it. I did get a double on two does a couple of years ago and could of taken a double on two does last hunting season but didn't want to take two of them at the time. We already had a couple hanging.

North Eastern Washington State, up in the NorthEast corner across the border from Idaho and Canada. Google "Monumental Mountain", them's my stomping grounds. Also "Hanlon Mountain" and "Molybenite Mountain". And, the "Harvey Creek drainage and grizzly recovery area".

That area is crawling with cougars, but you never see them. After a fresh snow, cougar tracks everywhere. That one I shot was only the second one I had ever seen up there. They are hard on the deer. I called a big grey tom in to within ten yards, but didn't know he was there! I stood up to pee, and he comes bursting out of the bush next to me and runs up a hill. Came close to getting a shot off, but he kept zigging and zagging every time I was about to shoot.

Wolves have replaced the coyotes up there, they have really had an impact on the deer and elk. The deer/elk hunting is not so great anymore, but I go anyway.

The 24-V is .30WCF over 20. I load the Hornady 165 grain .308" BTSP in it, picture perfect expansion at .30-30 velocity.

Actually on that bear, brown-phase black bear, I saved a little girl. !!!! It had become a camp-robber, very unusual for the bears up there. I suspect it was a re-located bear. So I got stopped walking by these people's camp, asking me if I was looking for a bear. Yep I am. Well this bear was going into their camp and raiding their kitchen, and they were having trouble scaring it off. And, they had a seven year old girl/child in camp. How's that for the "recipe for disaster"? But they didn't want to get a bear. (too much work!) So I shot it, but it was quartering away, and I hit it too far back (my excuse anyhow) and gut shot it. But she went down, and bawled, rolled around and then took off across the circk. So I had to follow her into the thick brush, find and finish her off. The brush was so thick it defected two of my shots, but each time she dropped again, making me think I'd hit her. In the end, with one of the guys from the other camp behind me with his 12 gauge, I walked up on her and finished her off from a couple of feet away. It was quite an adventure. And the Jeager never missed a beat! Reliable as any modern gun. (but not even a .600" ball plows through the thick stuff!)

 

[Highland Lofts]

I never hunted up in the north east area of Washington state but I'm sure it is a nice area.
I moved out here 22 years ago from Broome County New York.
I bought one huntlicense here in Washington state. I'll never buy another.
I fly back to Upstate New York every year for a month of deer hunting.
This will be the third year I have been taking my grandson back there for two weeks so he can go small game hunting.

He is really excited to head to New York tomorrow morning for his two weeks.
If I have a free day I want to take him to see the statue of liberty.
Every year I take him to museums.
He really liked Howe Caverns and the Coal mime tour in Scranton Pennsylvania.
Hanford Mills tour up in East Meridith New York was fun too.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I bought one huntlicense here in Washington state. I'll never buy another.

I understand. I have no choice, unless I stop hunting...!!! If I knew the back country, and the good places to hunt in Idaho and Montana, I have considered putting out the bucks for out-of-state licenses, in those states. But when I add in the cost of traveling around to scout out potential hunting spots, on top of the license fees, really just can't afford it. And finding the time to just cruise around potential hunting spots...! (what is "affordable" depends a lot on the wife-person though)

You are lucky to be able to go back and forth that far to hunt!!!

I was born in Lockport NY, if you know where that is.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I've been to Lockport several time years ago. We use to take the kids to Darian Lake amusement park thirty years ago when they were small. I fly back to Syracuse with my grandson tomorrow morning, later this week we will take a ride north - west of Glen Aubry and see if we can find a few places to hunt over that way.
November 1st the unsold doe tags go on sale over the counter so we will pick up another eight of them.
It cost me right about $1,100 for our two round trip tickets from Seattle to Syracuse for small game hunting and my round trip ticket from Seattle to Syracuse.
I bought a new Traditions single-shot rife in 350 legend and a bunch of ammo for it and several hundred Dollars for traps and trapping supplies.
My out of state hunting licenses, doe tags and trapping licenses cost meright around $500.
Then I will miss six weeks of work so that will cost me $5,000.
It's only money the memories my grandson will have are worth every penny.
He will have the furs we catch and have tanned for years.

 

[Hookeye]

Trying to figure out how Im gonna change the bbl on my Ruger #3 and make it a .35 remington.
Been hunting w MZ and Ruger single shots for decades.
Single shot doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I've been to Lockport several time years ago. We use to take the kids to Darian Lake amusement park thirty years ago when they were small. I fly back to Syracuse with my grandson tomorrow morning, later this week we will take a ride north - west of Glen Aubry and see if we can find a few places to hunt over that way.
November 1st the unsold doe tags go on sale over the counter so we will pick up another eight of them.
It cost me right about $1,100 for our two round trip tickets from Seattle to Syracuse for small game hunting and my round trip ticket from Seattle to Syracuse.
I bought a new Traditions single-shot rife in 350 legend and a bunch of ammo for it and several hundred Dollars for traps and trapping supplies.
My out of state hunting licenses, doe tags and trapping licenses cost meright around $500.
Then I will miss six weeks of work so that will cost me $5,000.
It's only money the memories my grandson will have are worth every penny.
He will have the furs we catch and have tanned for years.

Truth! Yeah, those fee's aren't bad, and the air-fare doesn't sound bad considering the distance. And yes, for the grandson, priceless. My grandson is just coming of age to take hunting seriously, but the younger grand-daughter wants to go just as bad, if not more, so I'll have to start taking both one at a time. Hey...more hunting for me!!! The Grandson is very quiet in the woods and doing great when I take him out...but you know how "chatty" little girls are, so that will be more of a challenge.

 

[Hookeye]

It rather annoys me when folks say " make the first shot count ".

Or how a single shot supposedly reinforces this.

IMHO one always makes the first shot count. Type of gear doesnt matter.

And yeah, if things dont go as planned.....you can reload a Ruger #1 pretty speedy.....so Ive heard LOL

 

[Hookeye]

Truth! Yeah, those fee's aren't bad, and the air-fare doesn't sound bad considering the distance. And yes, for the grandson, priceless. My grandson is just coming of age to take hunting seriously, but the younger grand-daughter wants to go just as bad, if not more, so I'll have to start taking both one at a time. Hey...more hunting for me!!! The Grandson is very quiet in the woods and doing great when I take him out...but you know how "chatty" little girls are, so that will be more of a challenge.

Glad you are taking them
My kids went along varminting when little. Fishing was their thing. All girls, none of them really shoots. None hunt
The one that might, has health stuff.
So w that being genetic.....no grandkids comin along.

Im the last.

No big deal. Not even bummed. But do understand that being able to share the outdoors w a kid or grandkid would be quite a gift.

My hunting bud doesnt have kids. So me an him are the last of our group. Only 2 cousins still hunting.