The American Deer Hunter

By Francis E. Sell

The American Deer Hunter is the result of a great amount of experience in hunting with an extraordinary degree of success. The content represents the determination to set down the hard facts and the effective equipment and means for stalking and shooting the white-tail and his cousins. The book is highly original in its presentation. It is in no sense a rehash of previous discussions or formulae. The author deals at all times with actual problems of locating, maneuvering, and shooting and with the guns employed.
The discussions are based on circumstances of reality in the relationships of deer, environment, hunter and gun, not on preconceived or synthetic situations.
Here are interesting and important data on deer habits and on speeds and gaits.
Here also is an extensive treatment of selection and care of weapons for deer hunting; the killing and dressing of game; and even on clothing for the deer hunter. All told, it has a wealth of material useful to both the veteran hunter and the novice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Release date: Mar 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780811767293

Book preview

WOODS

CHAPTER ONE . . .

Rifles For Deer Hunting

THE AMERICAN deer hunter is not restricted in the choice of breech mechanism his rifle may have, for each one of four different actions will chamber cartridges suitable for his sport. The user of each type of action can be expected to register one or more lively reasons for his choice. Some of the reasons are purely personal, which does not decrease their validity, and others are based on advantages sufficiently apparent to merit more than passing consideration. In our survey of the rifle actions we’ll try to marshal a respectable showing of apparent characteristics, and from that point onward the reader is expected to reach his own conclusions. And those conclusions will, of course, be supported by incidental evidence, much of which will relate to the cartridges used for deer shooting.

Each of the four rifle designs—bolt action, lever action, slide action, autoloading—affords basic hitting accuracy that ranges from very satisfactory to superlative. The bolt action is capable of the greatest accuracy, and is also the least rapid in operation. Faster, in the order named, are the lever action, slide action and the autoloader. Their accuracy is appreciably less than that of the bolt action only at the longer shooting ranges, and this disadvantage is slight because 95 per cent of the shooting in deer cover is had at short and moderate ranges.

The accuracy of the bolt actions, as exemplified by Model 70 Winchester, Remington’s 720, and various custom rifles built around Mauser, Springfield and Enfield military actions, is measured at l½″ to 2¾″ groups at 100 yards. The lever actions may manage a group of 3″ at 100 yards. The slide action and autoloader, represented by Remington models, are capable of 3½″ groups at the range. At 200 yards the bolt actions will group in 3″ to 5″; the lever actions in 6″, while the slide action and autoloader will go to 7″. This comparative data should convince us that the largest group is well within the requirement of practical field accuracy.

For the average hunter, the manually operated rifle action would probably be the best choice. With it there is less dependence on fire-power and more on accuracy. The autoloader, which is commonly mis-termed an automatic, brings with it the very natural temptation to spray the landscape, especially when the hunter is beset by excitement. That same person would place a much greater value on each shot if it had to be preceded by a manual routine. The autoloading action is a good one for the level-headed hunter who cannot forget the importance of one-shot accuracy. He would know, regardless of the action he’d use, that the prime object is to make a clean kill with one shot and that the sole advantage of the semi-automatic action is to allow a second quick shot, if necessary. This is seldom the attitude of the once-a-year hunter and for that reason alone he had best use one of the manually operated actions; if he misses with the first shot, the second, if it is afforded, will not just be one in a wild string of rapid fire.

The slide action, also termed pump action, is an excellent rifle for woods hunting. Anyone can learn to operate it swiftly and surely after very little practice. The Remington rifle of this design is well stocked and has much the feel of a fast-handling shotgun. It is a logical choice for the hunter who uses a pump action shotgun during the upland bird season. The skill he has acquired in using the shotgun will pay off when he hunts deer with a rifle of similar design.

In this day of limited bags and short big game seasons it is essential that the deer hunter should utilize the skill he has gained in other types of shooting. This skill may be acquired while using the shotgun or in off-season small game and vermin shooting with the rifle. Such shooting can point the way to the type of rifle to be selected for deer hunting. The off-season vermin sniper usually fires a bolt action rifle, and it is a mistake for him to change to a deer rifle having a different action just because he feels that the bolt action, to which he is accustomed, would in some respect be inadequate for his new pursuit. If he’s wise, he will hunt deer with the familiar bolt action. The feel of an action he already knows will do more to insure success, for him, than another and possibly more suitable design. This pre-acquired familiarity is even more valuable than any rated capability of the cartridge itself.

Whether he realizes it or not, this expert shooter of vermin is well on his way to becoming a successful deer hunter. He has learned much in handling his bolt action woodchuck rifle, things he’ll not have to unlearn when he seeks deer with a similar rifle. In fact, he is in the position to transfer a perfectly good set of shooting habits to the new activity. His method of getting the sight picture, letoff and motions for reloading are already subconscious acts. The rifle has become almost an extension of himself, used as naturally as he uses his hands. It is obvious that if he should then choose to use a rifle of strange design each act of sighting and firing would become a conscious one and the fine coordination of the expert rifleman would be largely lost. Then, added to these unnecessary complexities would be that of another kind of target, which is likely to be moving. This hunter has all the ingredients for a sorry performance. It should be apparent from this that the person who hasn’t previously used a rifle of any kind is far more free to consider the merits of the different actions in relation to the type of shooting he must do in the deer cover.

Now we approach the study of factors which might render one action superior to another in actual woods hunting. Or, what is the best woods rifle? Before that question can be answered, it is well to consider the kind of shooting the rifleman must do. How fast do deer move when they are put up in heavy cover? That’s a question which has priority. Another is: What length of time does the hunter have to get on the target and make the shot? I found answers to these questions by hunting deer with a stop watch.

We cannot be greatly concerned with a deer’s top speed, which is about 45 m.p.h. That speed may be attained in the open, seldom in the woods. We must be interested chiefly in woods speeds, for that is where most deer are hunted and killed. In determining such speeds, under hunting conditions, there are several factors which must be taken into consideration.

Bucks are slow to leave cover during the rutting season; they are more curious than apprehensive. Those timed while their horns were in the velvet were mindful of their sensitive antlers and were somewhat slower than they would be during actual autumn hunting season, when the antlers have hardened.

A deer uses a variety of gaits in eluding the hunter. Progressively faster, they are: a creeping walk, a trot, high bouncing jumps and a short bouncing run. While hunting with a stop watch I was repeatedly impressed by the fact that the hunter can have a definite degree of control over the gait the deer takes when it is put up. When I made a careful stalk the deer would leave the cover quite slowly, but with a careless approach they’d go out wilder and faster. In the more open country they are inclined to get up farther away and move out slowly and cautiously.

I detected a forked-horn buck creeping through an opening among high ferns at the rate of 100 feet in 20 seconds, a speed of 3.4 m.p.h. A spike buck which was jumped on a brushy ridge covered 50 feet in 5 seconds to gain the protection of a clump of huckleberry brush. His gait was a trot, at a speed of 6.8 m.p.h. Another, a three-pointer, really extended himself, making 75 feet in 5 seconds, or 10.22 m.p.h. A second three-pointer I jumped on a fairly open ridge skimmed downhill in short, close bounces and was clocked at 17.04 m.p.h.

Those speeds are representative of fifty-five deer timed, ranging from yearling does to bucks which had survived several hunting seasons. The territory in which the study was made is hunted steadily, but not excessively. A heavily hunted area might show higher speeds. However, we now have some essential information concerning target-speeds the deer hunter can expect to encounter. Two of the three deer that moved faster than a walk were visible for 5 seconds and the third for 8 seconds. Our problem is to select a rifle with which we can get on these fast-moving targets with killing effect.

The proper fit and weight of a deer rifle are specifications of real importance. Any dimension of the piece which interferes with fast, smooth mounting and firing imposes a serious handicap on the type of shooting peculiar to the deer covers. Much of the firing will be of the variety known as snapshooting and that technic cannot be mastered with a rifle that is unwieldy in any detail. Substantial weight in a deer rifle need not cause the piece to be clumsy, and we do need a certain amount of weight to achieve the best net result.

The hunter will carry his rifle many miles as against each time he fires it at game. Ease of carrying is desirable, but it should not be achieved to the exclusion of other factors. On the face of it, it would seem that snapshooting might best be done with a feather-weight rifle, but nothing could be farther from fact. No proficient snapshooter has developed his skill while using an ultra-light rifle. Yet, feather-weight deer rifles are made and sold on the theory that the average hunter is so soft-muscled that a heavier rifle becomes an intolerable burden before the day is done. At most, there is only two or three pounds difference between a feather-weight rifle and one having sufficient weight to offset normal firing recoil. I hardly believe that the few extra pounds of rifle is beyond the carrying ability of the average hunter. As a matter of fact, the hunter who is not in top physical condition should carry the somewhat heavier rifle. His shots will be less affected by muscular tremors and recoil will not be so sharp and nasty as to induce flinching.

I distinctly recall a hunt with a man who was an all-out convert of the lightweight rifle school of thought. The barrel of his custom-built deer rifle was much more slender than standard and the stock was hollowed out until it was little more than a shell. The job weighed just 6¾ pounds. It was just the ticket for woods hunting; no more of those heavy rifles for him! Then the test arrived. Coming up out of a canyon, after working his way through a tangle of windfalls, he was completely winded. When he gained the top of the ridge a nice buck jumped up 60 yards away. The shot was not beyond his ability to make, but the heavy breathing brought on by his recent exertions made it completely impossible to keep that lightweight rifle steady for the instant needed to get the shot away. I’m sure that a heavier rifle would have done much to counteract that hunter’s temporary unsteadiness. As it was, his light rifle could not resist reproducing every physical bounce and thump he generated.

We must always keep in mind the fact that a rifle is designed to deliver its bullet to a specific spot on the target, not into a general area. And that when target accuracy is the only requirement it is always achieved with distinctly heavy rifled firearms. On the other hand, a so-called close shooting shotgun is not distinguished by its weight; it may even be in the featherweight class and be a superb target gun. But that gun’s accuracy is accuracy by another standard and one which applies to other game targets, other hunting techniques. The greatest practical accomplishment of the shotgun is to deliver a 30-inch pattern of shot to the target; some shotguns do this better than others, but it is not because they weigh more.

We’ll now consider a further advantage that comes with using the moderately heavy rifle in deer cover. The first shot at our game is a very important one, but, unfortunately, it does not always come off to best advantage. There may be the opportunity for a second shot, even a third. These following shots are usually more difficult to make than the one which failed, for then the deer is likely to be moving faster and is also farther away. In taking these belated shots we need every advantage the rifle can supply, and it is then we discover that the moderately heavy gun is not disturbed by recoil and the act of reloading to the point of disorganizing the shooting effort. This greater stability of the rifle permits a shorter time-lapse between shots and is a factor that has contributed to many a second-shot kill.

The deer rifle should weigh no more than 9 pounds. This is the limit of weight for carrying comfort and it also represents the practical maximum for firing stability. The minimum weight for such rifles is 7¾ pounds. The difference between these weights is little more than a pound, but it should provide enough room for differences of opinion and physique. The rifle that weighs as little as 7½ pounds is not particularly disqualified as being on the light side, especially if it does not chamber a deer cartridge of maximum power. This combination seems to be the greatest concession that should be made by the hunter who really requires an easy-carrying rifle and also one that will settle down for the first shot, and possibly a second one.

The woods hunter must give considerable thought to the fit of his rifle, and that involves dimensions of the stock. American factory-built rifles have stocks of basically good design and they will fit the shooter of average physique. These stock measurements are about as follows: 13″ to 13½″ from trigger to center of buttplate; drop, 2¾″; pitch, 3″. The height of the comb is suited to the use of metallic sights and will also serve when a low-mounted scope is used. The hunter who definitely requires changes in factory stock measurements can have the alterations made by any competent gunsmith, or he may have the ability to do the job himself. It is well not to rush into this matter of stock modification before it is known for certain that a change will benefit the shooting. This rifle is to be used for brush shooting and any change that is made must contribute to ease of handling in the woods.

Gun-fitting should be done when the shooter is wearing the clothes he will wear in the brush. The rifle which fits well against a shoulder clad in clothing of light or medium weight will seem entirely too long in the stock when used in conjunction with bulky hunting coat and heavy undergarments. This finding indicates that the stock which might be too short for some kinds of shooting is the one that is best for snapshooting in heavy cover. There, the long stock slows the gun-mounting motions to such an extent that the hunter is compelled to take shots after the deer gets well under way. A faster-handling rifle would perhaps give him a shot while the game is still standing, or moving out slowly.

In considering the requirements for a brush rifle, we have explored several important aspects without specifying calibers or models. Now we’ll see how well certain rifles and cartridges are adapted to the job at hand. It is natural for the hunter to want a rifle with a reputation for clean killing in the game fields. The rifles we are about to examine are thoroughly field-tested; they are models and calibers which are most suitable for use in average deer territory.

The Model 71 Winchester and the Savage 99RS are representative of the lever action deer rifles. In pump action there is the capable Model 141 Remington, and Remington also supplies the autoloader, its Model 81. The bolt actions to consider are the Model 70 Winchester and the Model 720 Remington. These factory models all meet the requirement for a moderately heavy deer rifle. The only other rifles to consider are in the custom-built group of bolt action arms, which utilize the military actions of the Mauser, Enfield and Springfield. These rifles usually chamber factory-loaded cartridges, and if the gun-smithing is of good quality they make excellent rifles for deer.

The Savage Model 99RS weighs 7½ pounds, and is designed to fire two cartridges of Savage origin, the .250-3000 and the .300. The .250-3000 is a fairly good deer load, killing cleanly on most shots. Its 87-gr. bullet, driven at a muzzle velocity of 3000 f.p.s. (feet-per-second), does not give the necessary penetration for the quartering shots, those made when the game is moving almost directly away from the hunter. These are apt to be wounding hits with this light, fast bullet. The 100-gr. loading in this caliber provides a little better penetration; it is driven at 2810 f.p.s., but it still has many of the failings of the 87-gr. slug. Both are easily deflected by brush and neither can be considered the best deer cartridge in the Savage lever action.

The .300 Savage cartridge has two big game loadings. The 150-gr. bullet is driven at 2660 f.p.s., making this cartridge ideal for the more open shooting, as well as short range snapshooting in heavy cover. This slug will reach the vitals of a deer in all except going-away shots, then it would wound. In the 180-gr. loading, at 2380 f.p.s., we have a compromise cartridge which is slightly better in heavy cover and almost as good as the 150-gr. in open shooting. It is reliable on all shots up to 200 yards, which is sufficient for our purpose.

The Savage which handles these cartridges is well stocked for offhand shooting in the woods. This is a hammerless lever action with a trigger guard safety. Some hunters state that this safety is not as fast as it should be, but if this is a fault it is a minor one of an otherwise fine rifle. It is a good arm on which to mount a scope sight, as the cartridge cases eject from the side. The scope may be mounted very low over the barrel, a good feature whenever a scope is used.

Another popular lever action deer rifle is the Model 64 Winchester. This is the modern successor to the Model 94, of which over a million were sold in a period of thirty years. The Model 64 weighs about 7 pounds, a fairly light rifle but also one which does not chamber the most powerful deer cartridges—the .25-35, .30-30 and .32 Special. The .25-35 in this model is exceptionally accurate, but it is not a rifle for the average brush hunter. Only for the expert woodsman will it kill cleanly. The bullet must be very accurately placed in a vital area and straight-away shots must be avoided. The 117-gr. bullet is driven at the modest speed of 2280 f.p.s. Due to the bullet’s good sectional density, as well as low velocity, it penetrates well and is not easily deflected by twigs. A deer hit anywhere in the shoulders or chest cavity usually drops before it goes far. The accuracy of this cartridge makes it a good killer to about 200 yards, but only at the hands of an experienced rifleman.

The .30-30 and .32 Special cartridges may be considered as one load in point of effectiveness on deer. Both carry a 170-gr. bullet, with velocity of 2200 f.p.s. for the .30-30, and