Rubberhead
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2021
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- South Carolina
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- Hunted
- South Carolina, South Africa
My third season with a double rifle as my everyday deer gun is winding down giving me a chance to reflect on the past three season.
To start with, I don’t need a double as a deer rifle. Lever action and bolt guns had served me perfectly for 45 years. Matter of fact, switching to a double is a limiting factor. I went from a bolt gun with a 2.5x-8x scope and a capacity of 5 rounds to a double with a 1.5x to 5x scope. I felt comfortable with my previous bolt gun out to a range of about 200+ yards. The range of my new gun is down to around 100 meters. If the scope isn’t a limiter, then certainly barrel divergence is. I was okay with that – I’m definitely in the Method Stage in my growth as a hunter.
I didn’t need a double but I wanted one.
I wanted to add the poetry, arrogance and mental stimulation of double rifle hunting to the 140 days of deer season that I get every year. So you know, I don’t stalk around the Southeastern US in a camo pith helmet pretending to be an African Adventurist. My deer double is very much a whitetail gun. It’s a medium-bore, rimless caliber, over/under with a single trigger, and a scope basically, the total antithesis of an African Dangerous Game Double Gun or, mathematically, a (DG)².
Browning built and marketed guns like mine for the North American market in the early 1980’s but the response was tepid so they only made them for a few years. These guns were bought by investors not hunters. The message from North American big game hunters was clear – we don’t need a double rifle. Investors held them for a while hoping for a big payday that never materialized so they’ve been slowly leaking into the market for the past 10 years or so. That’s when I made my move.
The first season with the deer double was nearly a complete washout. Constant summer pop-up thunderstorms keep the ground saturated then a pair of tropical events flooded my favorite woods. I needed at least one deer in the freezer, so I decided to shoot a young 8 in late November but the cartridges I’ve used for 25 years failed me.
The buck was walking on a dry ridge that had only recently been exposed by the receding hurricane waters. A mouth bleat stopped the deer and I took my shot but the gun only clicked. I know it sounds made-up but the first shot I took at live game with my deer double was a dud. I cycled the safety to reset the double but the deer was walking again. Another mouth bleat stopped him and a high shoulder shot from the over barrel stopped him for good.
Again, I know how this sounds. In my, then, 55 years of life, I never had a rifle cartridge fail before, but it happened the first time I took a hunting shot with a double. Yep, it is unbelieve but it is also 100% true. I switched manufactures during the off season and was ready when the second season with my deer double opened.
I passed up a handful of shooter deer but, in mid-September, I started getting midnight photos of a muscled up 8-point that had my interest.
I waited for the next new moon to knock him off his nocturnal pattern but, once I was in the stand I didn’t have to wait for long for the deer to make his daylight move. A satellite buck walked through first, crossing a grassy road, but the big deer wasn’t far behind him. I took my usually high shoulder shot. The deer’s front collapsed but he drove himself with his back legs. He made a surprising distance using only his back legs. I stopped that with a quick second shot.
The bloodless nick on the point of his shoulder was the first shot. The follow-up that finished him instantly is more visible at the base of the neck.
I was already starting to plan my first trip to Africa and after a bad experience with the shoulder shot decided to focus on taking heart shots. Besides, at this point I was beginning to trust the gun’s accuracy enough to take a more focused shot. I got my chance with a mature, early November buck that was out looking for does. I posted it here, but I ran the crosshairs up his leg squeezing the trigger in the middle of the Vital V. He ran but not far. It was high rut and I found him by following my nose.
With two deer in the freezer, I spent the rest of the season looking, fruitlessly by the way, for a giant. I spent 8 days of my summer in Africa but opened up the current season with a plump meat deer. It was unusually cold for September and I was not dressed for the wind and cold. I tried a heart shot but shivered when I pulled the trigger. In almost every case, my brain takes a snapshot of exactly where the crosshairs are when the gun goes off. The snapshot for this deer showed I had pulled the shot to the base of the neck. He flopped without taking another step. This his how he fell...
Most recently I had crawled into a stand that I relocated during the off season. I moved it to look over the backend of a hidden peach orchard but it’s on the bank of an old clay mine. The opposite end of the clay pit is in view but it’s a 175-yard shot. I never intended to make that shot, especially with a 5-power scope, my focus was going to be on the much closer orchard but as the evening sun ducked under the clouds it lit up the long grass on the opposite bank. I could make out straw-colored antlers of a bedded buck in the straw-colored grass. I swung my legs around to the other side of the stand and used my hand to keep the gun from banging on the metal railing. I never even covered that part of the shooting rail with sound-deadening material because I never intended to shoot in that direction. Before the buck stood up, though, I had time to consider my shot. It was a long way but with my growing confidence in the double and the tight groups at 100 yards, I was convinced I could make the shot. Before I was mentally ready the buck stood up and walked down the slight bank to the pooled edge to take a drink. He gave me a broadside shot. I’ve already bragged that my brain takes a snapshot at the moment of recoil but I have no idea where that shot went. My internal camera didn’t work. The buck looked unhurt as he ran along the edge of the water. Google Earth shows he ran about 20 yards where he stopped to course where the sound and come from. My internal camera snapped a picture of a perfect heart shot when I shot the over barrel but I lost sight of the buck. I followed up finding several tea saucer sized puddles of blood about 10 feet apart but connected by unbroken squirrely lines of rich, red blood. Without a pumping heart, though, the trail turned into just spotty clumps. A friend with a tracking dog lives only a couple of minutes from my deer club so I backed out and called him. He and his sweet beagle were there in less than 15 minutes. The deer had gone less than 100 yards. The only reward the beagle asked for was to lay across the dead buck.
Our season runs through January 1st and I’ve got two bucks in the freezer so I’m in the “looking for a giant” phase of my deer season. I hope to add an epilog to this thread in a week or two…
To start with, I don’t need a double as a deer rifle. Lever action and bolt guns had served me perfectly for 45 years. Matter of fact, switching to a double is a limiting factor. I went from a bolt gun with a 2.5x-8x scope and a capacity of 5 rounds to a double with a 1.5x to 5x scope. I felt comfortable with my previous bolt gun out to a range of about 200+ yards. The range of my new gun is down to around 100 meters. If the scope isn’t a limiter, then certainly barrel divergence is. I was okay with that – I’m definitely in the Method Stage in my growth as a hunter.
I didn’t need a double but I wanted one.
I wanted to add the poetry, arrogance and mental stimulation of double rifle hunting to the 140 days of deer season that I get every year. So you know, I don’t stalk around the Southeastern US in a camo pith helmet pretending to be an African Adventurist. My deer double is very much a whitetail gun. It’s a medium-bore, rimless caliber, over/under with a single trigger, and a scope basically, the total antithesis of an African Dangerous Game Double Gun or, mathematically, a (DG)².
Browning built and marketed guns like mine for the North American market in the early 1980’s but the response was tepid so they only made them for a few years. These guns were bought by investors not hunters. The message from North American big game hunters was clear – we don’t need a double rifle. Investors held them for a while hoping for a big payday that never materialized so they’ve been slowly leaking into the market for the past 10 years or so. That’s when I made my move.
The first season with the deer double was nearly a complete washout. Constant summer pop-up thunderstorms keep the ground saturated then a pair of tropical events flooded my favorite woods. I needed at least one deer in the freezer, so I decided to shoot a young 8 in late November but the cartridges I’ve used for 25 years failed me.
The buck was walking on a dry ridge that had only recently been exposed by the receding hurricane waters. A mouth bleat stopped the deer and I took my shot but the gun only clicked. I know it sounds made-up but the first shot I took at live game with my deer double was a dud. I cycled the safety to reset the double but the deer was walking again. Another mouth bleat stopped him and a high shoulder shot from the over barrel stopped him for good.
Again, I know how this sounds. In my, then, 55 years of life, I never had a rifle cartridge fail before, but it happened the first time I took a hunting shot with a double. Yep, it is unbelieve but it is also 100% true. I switched manufactures during the off season and was ready when the second season with my deer double opened.
I passed up a handful of shooter deer but, in mid-September, I started getting midnight photos of a muscled up 8-point that had my interest.
I waited for the next new moon to knock him off his nocturnal pattern but, once I was in the stand I didn’t have to wait for long for the deer to make his daylight move. A satellite buck walked through first, crossing a grassy road, but the big deer wasn’t far behind him. I took my usually high shoulder shot. The deer’s front collapsed but he drove himself with his back legs. He made a surprising distance using only his back legs. I stopped that with a quick second shot.
The bloodless nick on the point of his shoulder was the first shot. The follow-up that finished him instantly is more visible at the base of the neck.
I was already starting to plan my first trip to Africa and after a bad experience with the shoulder shot decided to focus on taking heart shots. Besides, at this point I was beginning to trust the gun’s accuracy enough to take a more focused shot. I got my chance with a mature, early November buck that was out looking for does. I posted it here, but I ran the crosshairs up his leg squeezing the trigger in the middle of the Vital V. He ran but not far. It was high rut and I found him by following my nose.
With two deer in the freezer, I spent the rest of the season looking, fruitlessly by the way, for a giant. I spent 8 days of my summer in Africa but opened up the current season with a plump meat deer. It was unusually cold for September and I was not dressed for the wind and cold. I tried a heart shot but shivered when I pulled the trigger. In almost every case, my brain takes a snapshot of exactly where the crosshairs are when the gun goes off. The snapshot for this deer showed I had pulled the shot to the base of the neck. He flopped without taking another step. This his how he fell...
Most recently I had crawled into a stand that I relocated during the off season. I moved it to look over the backend of a hidden peach orchard but it’s on the bank of an old clay mine. The opposite end of the clay pit is in view but it’s a 175-yard shot. I never intended to make that shot, especially with a 5-power scope, my focus was going to be on the much closer orchard but as the evening sun ducked under the clouds it lit up the long grass on the opposite bank. I could make out straw-colored antlers of a bedded buck in the straw-colored grass. I swung my legs around to the other side of the stand and used my hand to keep the gun from banging on the metal railing. I never even covered that part of the shooting rail with sound-deadening material because I never intended to shoot in that direction. Before the buck stood up, though, I had time to consider my shot. It was a long way but with my growing confidence in the double and the tight groups at 100 yards, I was convinced I could make the shot. Before I was mentally ready the buck stood up and walked down the slight bank to the pooled edge to take a drink. He gave me a broadside shot. I’ve already bragged that my brain takes a snapshot at the moment of recoil but I have no idea where that shot went. My internal camera didn’t work. The buck looked unhurt as he ran along the edge of the water. Google Earth shows he ran about 20 yards where he stopped to course where the sound and come from. My internal camera snapped a picture of a perfect heart shot when I shot the over barrel but I lost sight of the buck. I followed up finding several tea saucer sized puddles of blood about 10 feet apart but connected by unbroken squirrely lines of rich, red blood. Without a pumping heart, though, the trail turned into just spotty clumps. A friend with a tracking dog lives only a couple of minutes from my deer club so I backed out and called him. He and his sweet beagle were there in less than 15 minutes. The deer had gone less than 100 yards. The only reward the beagle asked for was to lay across the dead buck.
Our season runs through January 1st and I’ve got two bucks in the freezer so I’m in the “looking for a giant” phase of my deer season. I hope to add an epilog to this thread in a week or two…
and asked me to fire a couple of shots.
