My Winchester model 70 hunting rifle "project"...FINISHED!!!

[DrMike]

It got its first deer this morning...just a spike, but its meat on the table.

350 yard chip shot, quartering to me...hit him high on the shoulder, he went straight down, dead before he hit the ground.

Pics later...

That is tremendous! Congratulations.

 

[BK]

Looks pretty sharp!

 

[Guy Miner]

"It might be "just a 30-06"...but its mine, and I like it...time and $$$ well spent. This one is the last for me, this 30-06 will serve my big game hunting needs for the rest of my days. I may upgrade my varmint rifle (243) sometime but it won't be anything fancy...I have decided not to convert this rifle to 280 AI...the 280 is just not enough "more" to justify the trouble and costs in my opinion...then there is that ammo availability thing...so, just call me Mr. 30-06"

I think this is a wise move - your .30-06 is shooting great, and is obviously up to the task. A 350 yard kill is nothing to sneeze at. The good ol' .30-06 gets overlooked often anymore, but is still a terrific hunting cartridge. With a good .30-06, and yours is a mighty fine rifle, a man could hunt anything in North America, and do it well.


"I need to figure out where my best chances of getting tags are...any help there would appreciated...because from what I gather the process is not like it is for deer (just go and buy them)...I have plenty of time to figure this stuff out though, I'm starting this from scratch right now ($0 in the hunting fund)"

Most of the western states have a good Fish & Wildlife web site, easy enough to find. Each state has their own set of regulations and their own process of applying for and purchasing tags. Some are easier than others. Some are very much worth the effort. Some coveted tags are VERY hard to draw, or if you just want to hunt with a reasonable chance of success, some tags are relatively easy.

Washington, Oregon and Idaho offer excellent black bear hunting if that interests you, with lots of "color phase" bears. In some areas of Washington I see more blonde, cinnamon and chocolate bears (or combinations of) than pure black bears. Even the black bears often have a big white "V" mark on their chest. Excellent trophies. It's all spot & stalk here in Washington, but can be done. Idaho has the same kinds of bears, and allows baiting.

Washington is over-the-counter tags for bear, elk & deer, but the non-resident tag fees are pretty expensive for what you get. I do think black bear hunting here is one of the best things Washington has to offer.

Wyoming is the only other state I hunt fairly often, mostly because I got an invite there for elk a dozen years ago and got hung up on hunting Wyoming. They do have one mildly troublesome regulation - the wilderness areas can only be hunted with a Wyoming guide. Odd, because I can backpack, hike and fish those same areas without a guide, but if I want to hunt elk or mule deer in the Wilderness areas, I have to hire a guide... Ah well, some call it the "Put a Cowboy to Work" program! It's okay, and I can live with it, just interesting. There's a lot of public land that doesn't have the same requirement, and some private land avail to hunt as well.

Wyoming has a pretty straightforward system for applying for tags. To have better odds, either buy the more expensive tag, or build up bonus points buy buying them for a modest fee. I've done both with success.

Pronghorn hunting in Wyoming is great fun and I learned this year that pronghorn taste GREAT! There are a huge number of pronghorn in Wyoming too - so getting a tag is usually pretty easy.

Eastmans Hunting Journal offers excellent advice on how to apply for tags in most of the western states. http://www.eastmans.com/

Others can likely offer better advice on some of the other western states. They all have something to offer.

Enjoy that .30-06 Win!

BTW - what load did you use on the buck? The 165 Ballistic Tip? I really like that bullet for deer hunting.

Regards, Guy

 

[SJB358]

"It might be "just a 30-06"...but its mine, and I like it...time and $$$ well spent. This one is the last for me, this 30-06 will serve my big game hunting needs for the rest of my days. I may upgrade my varmint rifle (243) sometime but it won't be anything fancy...I have decided not to convert this rifle to 280 AI...the 280 is just not enough "more" to justify the trouble and costs in my opinion...then there is that ammo availability thing...so, just call me Mr. 30-06"

I think this is a wise move - your .30-06 is shooting great, and is obviously up to the task. A 350 yard kill is nothing to sneeze at. The good ol' .30-06 gets overlooked often anymore, but is still a terrific hunting cartridge. With a good .30-06, and yours is a mighty fine rifle, a man could hunt anything in North America, and do it well.


"I need to figure out where my best chances of getting tags are...any help there would appreciated...because from what I gather the process is not like it is for deer (just go and buy them)...I have plenty of time to figure this stuff out though, I'm starting this from scratch right now ($0 in the hunting fund)"

Most of the western states have a good Fish & Wildlife web site, easy enough to find. Each state has their own set of regulations and their own process of applying for and purchasing tags. Some are easier than others. Some are very much worth the effort. Some coveted tags are VERY hard to draw, or if you just want to hunt with a reasonable chance of success, some tags are relatively easy.

Washington, Oregon and Idaho offer excellent black bear hunting if that interests you, with lots of "color phase" bears. In some areas of Washington I see more blonde, cinnamon and chocolate bears (or combinations of) than pure black bears. Even the black bears often have a big white "V" mark on their chest. Excellent trophies. It's all spot & stalk here in Washington, but can be done. Idaho has the same kinds of bears, and allows baiting.

Washington is over-the-counter tags for bear, elk & deer, but the non-resident tag fees are pretty expensive for what you get. I do think black bear hunting here is one of the best things Washington has to offer.

Wyoming is the only other state I hunt fairly often, mostly because I got an invite there for elk a dozen years ago and got hung up on hunting Wyoming. They do have one mildly troublesome regulation - the wilderness areas can only be hunted with a Wyoming guide. Odd, because I can backpack, hike and fish those same areas without a guide, but if I want to hunt elk or mule deer in the Wilderness areas, I have to hire a guide... Ah well, some call it the "Put a Cowboy to Work" program! It's okay, and I can live with it, just interesting. There's a lot of public land that doesn't have the same requirement, and some private land avail to hunt as well.

Wyoming has a pretty straightforward system for applying for tags. To have better odds, either buy the more expensive tag, or build up bonus points buy buying them for a modest fee. I've done both with success.

Pronghorn hunting in Wyoming is great fun and I learned this year that pronghorn taste GREAT! There are a huge number of pronghorn in Wyoming too - so getting a tag is usually pretty easy.

Eastmans Hunting Journal offers excellent advice on how to apply for tags in most of the western states. http://www.eastmans.com/

Others can likely offer better advice on some of the other western states. They all have something to offer.

Enjoy that .30-06 Win!

BTW - what load did you use on the buck? The 165 Ballistic Tip? I really like that bullet for deer hunting.

Regards, Guy

Man, between David and you, you two are going to have people thinking all they need are 30-06's....

 

[nvbroncrider]

I might be falling into that as a friendly left his with me to do some work over the winter.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

It was a 168 grain BT...I'll post pics and tell the story later...going back hunting shortly, hoping my wife can get one with her 270. It will be her first kill...

 

[Guy Miner]

Good luck!

 

[SJB358]

Good luck buddy!

 

[Ridgerunner665]

We only saw does this evening...maybe tomorrow will be her day.


My hunt this morning...
I got in the stand about an hour before daylight and sat there until about 0815 just watching the cows (baby calves are quite amusing) and squirrels...then I saw a deer coming out of the oaks about 450 yards away, put the scope on him and saw it was a spike and first decided to let him walk...but after watching him for about 15-20 minutes the desire to try out my rifle won me over :mrgreen:

By this time he was at 350 yards and would NOT turn broadside at all...so when he turned just a little I held the crosshairs appx. 6 inches over his shoulders and 4 inches into the wind (pretty stiff crosswind coming from about 1 o'clock) and let it rip...when i got the scope back where he should have been, he was nowhere to be seen...but he had been standing in sage grass thats about 3 feet tall. I marked the spot, climbed down, hopped on my trusty steed (Polaris 500) and rode over...there he laid.

I made the shot using Primos shooting sticks placed on my knee (used as a monopod, the legs strapped together), if you've never tried that, I highly recommend it for distance shooting from a stand with no gun rest.

The bullet...168 grain Ballistic Tip.
I've been shooting these bullets for years from the 308 and I've NEVER seen one do what this one did...EVER. The bullet hit high the shoulder, right where I wanted it, but it only penetrated about 12"...I was not able to find the bullet, I traced down the wound channel plumb to the end but no bullet...it went through several inches of spine and appears to have came to rest shortly after that on the left side of the spine...I'm sure there was a bullet there, I just didn't find it or lost it during skinning...and that is the poorest penetration I've ever witnessed from a BT in over 20 years of shooting them...now don't take that wrong, I still say they are the best deer bullets out there...but I no longer think they're suitable for anything bigger than maybe a caribou. I know several inches of spine is hard on a bullet but that BT shed way too much weight too fast under those conditions. The 30-06 launches them 250 fps faster than the 308 did...and that surely did make the difference...again, I still love these bullets, but they don't hold together as good when you start them above 2,600 fps....the near side shoulder was literally mangled (inside), bone fragments all through the shoulder, lungs, and liver...front 1/3 of the backstraps were turned to mush...wasn't a good shot angle, but it was all he gave me to work with...I could have hit him lower, but was afraid I'd end up with spilled guts.

The stand...thats my wife up there, took the pic yesterday afternoon.

The view...from right under the stand, also taken yesterday.

Entrance wound...

And the end result...

 

[Oldtrader3]

An angling shot down the spine axis is really hard on any bullet. I would not expect a .30-06 launched 168 BT to do any better than it did with 12 inches of spine penetration, given that angle and that shot. It certainly killed the deer and I would not consider this as a bullet failure in any case, just my angle on this.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I agree...I'm not calling it a failure at all...It just made me rethink what I think the BT is capable of is all....still the best deer bullet around!

I think I'll try something else for elk though :wink:

 

[DrMike]

That's a great report. I do believe that is good performance given the conditions the bullet encountered. Great pictures.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Forgot to mention it earlier...

Guy,
Thank you for the info on the tags and stuff...I'm heading to the stand again, different stand this morning though.