Hunting Season Hindsight

[targshooter]

Well, as many of you are aware, I had poor brush performance from my .44 magnum cartridge this year. I have posted on my choice and target shooting experiences with the successor rifle/cartridge combination, a Remington 7400 synthetic carbine in .30-06. What experiences did you have this year with your rifle/cartridge choices? Any new firearm/cartridge combinations arising from this year's experience? Any particularly outstanding field performances from existing rifle/cartridge combination used? The clarity of reflection ("hindsight is 20/20") is often capable of providing valuable information to fellow hunters in making a choice in either cartridge or firearm, so please share.

[Drew25]

Hi, Targ...what was so disappointing about your 44 carbine's performance, anyway?  Just curious...

My old Browning BLR .358 only had one "brush" encounter with a deer, and that was some pretty light "viney" stuff...but, you know, that was the only deer (out of only a few--seven, maybe) that i've shot with it that ran over 20 yards, or so.  Still, had complete penetration, so it must've been that particular buck that was the issue, not the 225-gr. Speer SPBT handload tht was the problem.

[Dave in WV]

My first rifle was a M760 30-06. I took several deer with it using 165 & 180 gr bullets. I now have a M70 and M77 bolt rifles in 30-06 & .243 respectively. I've never had a failure with either. With the 06 Core-lokt bullets will always work but not as quick as other bullets will most of the time. Core-lokts are not a bad choice. I use only Core-lokts in the .243 and load them to near max loads. The exit hole is the same size as the 06 with Core-lots but the deer drop faster with the .243.

[targshooter]

Drew25,
The rifle performs fine. In fact, that little Deerfield is a great little rifle. It was the inability of the little .44 magnum slug to penetrate very modest brush that moved me back to the higher sectional density cartridges.