Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,746
- 5,824
It's been an interesting three months. Started out in September with a bear hunt here in Washington, and a salmon fishing trip to Alaska. Hunted hard for mule deer in October. Went out for elk & whitetail in November. Lots of miles on the boots - wore out my old hiking boots and had to replace them a month ago. A few new brush scratches & dings on the ol' pickup. Lost my radio antenna to a branch yesterday - while I was moving the truck and listening to the Seahawks actually beating the Arizona Cardinals in Arizona. Dang it.
Blooded the .375, which pleased me to no end. It's a great rifle. Carried it for two days of bear hunting. Made good hits on two bears. Carried it for three days of elk hunting - never had a shot opportunity. Could have dropped several mule deer bucks, had they been in season. Amazing numbers of them running around during elk season. I like this .375 H&H Number One. The cartridge is great, and the rifle is superb for hunting. Short, handy, quick to the shoulder and very accurate out at 300 yards. Am also very impressed with the 260 grain Nosler AccuBond. It performed as expected, which is to say, it performed very well. The old 2-7x Redfield could use an updated replacement, but it's not bad. Just not up to the standards of today's scopes.
Despite being pretty sure I wouldn't be hunting with a lever gun this year, I did get out for a day with the .30-30 Marlin for mule deer, when I knew I was going into the brush. No shot opportunities, but it was a pleasure to carry the little iron-sighted lever gun and I knew it was perfect for the job. Am hoping to draw a doe tag next year and make the Marlin my primary rifle for that hunt.
The old .30-06 M1917 was used more this year than it has been in quite a while. My son shot his bear with it. A buddy, new to hunting, carried it for three days during mule deer season and doggone near took a coyote with it. I carried it a couple of days for whitetail in eastern Washington. With the 21" barrel, lightweight Bell & Carlson glass stock and that dandy little 6x Leupold, it's a great general purpose hunting rifle that carries easy and produces useful accuracy out at 300yards, despite the 90 year old barrel & action. Was good to see it afield so much this year. I haven't hunted much with it in the past five or six years.
Also hunted a lot with the .300 WSM Win Model 70. Carried it for eight of the nine days I hunted mule deer. It's heavy, but I was hoping for and anticipating a longish range shot. The Winchester excels at long range accuracy... Perhaps next year.
All those rifles will get a thorough cleaning, and will get safely tucked away now. It's time for me to turn my attention to steelhead fishing, goose hunting, maybe a bit of upland game hunting, and I might possibly get out for turkey as well.
Other guns that saw some use, but won't get put away just yet are my .22 Marlin 39A, which I carried only one day for grouse, and the .44 S&W 629 which was my nearly constant companion throughout the season.
Elk, deer and bear seasons are wrapped up for me at this point. Time to put away the big guns, and shift focus.
Regards, Guy
Blooded the .375, which pleased me to no end. It's a great rifle. Carried it for two days of bear hunting. Made good hits on two bears. Carried it for three days of elk hunting - never had a shot opportunity. Could have dropped several mule deer bucks, had they been in season. Amazing numbers of them running around during elk season. I like this .375 H&H Number One. The cartridge is great, and the rifle is superb for hunting. Short, handy, quick to the shoulder and very accurate out at 300 yards. Am also very impressed with the 260 grain Nosler AccuBond. It performed as expected, which is to say, it performed very well. The old 2-7x Redfield could use an updated replacement, but it's not bad. Just not up to the standards of today's scopes.
Despite being pretty sure I wouldn't be hunting with a lever gun this year, I did get out for a day with the .30-30 Marlin for mule deer, when I knew I was going into the brush. No shot opportunities, but it was a pleasure to carry the little iron-sighted lever gun and I knew it was perfect for the job. Am hoping to draw a doe tag next year and make the Marlin my primary rifle for that hunt.
The old .30-06 M1917 was used more this year than it has been in quite a while. My son shot his bear with it. A buddy, new to hunting, carried it for three days during mule deer season and doggone near took a coyote with it. I carried it a couple of days for whitetail in eastern Washington. With the 21" barrel, lightweight Bell & Carlson glass stock and that dandy little 6x Leupold, it's a great general purpose hunting rifle that carries easy and produces useful accuracy out at 300yards, despite the 90 year old barrel & action. Was good to see it afield so much this year. I haven't hunted much with it in the past five or six years.
Also hunted a lot with the .300 WSM Win Model 70. Carried it for eight of the nine days I hunted mule deer. It's heavy, but I was hoping for and anticipating a longish range shot. The Winchester excels at long range accuracy... Perhaps next year.
All those rifles will get a thorough cleaning, and will get safely tucked away now. It's time for me to turn my attention to steelhead fishing, goose hunting, maybe a bit of upland game hunting, and I might possibly get out for turkey as well.
Other guns that saw some use, but won't get put away just yet are my .22 Marlin 39A, which I carried only one day for grouse, and the .44 S&W 629 which was my nearly constant companion throughout the season.
Elk, deer and bear seasons are wrapped up for me at this point. Time to put away the big guns, and shift focus.
Regards, Guy
