should never have gone to the range with AL.

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
one of my hunting buddies, (AL) who has been rather successful had a 303 enfield jungle carbine for several decades.
800px-Jungle_Carbine.jpg

jungleq.jpg

He had used that carbine for many years to hunt deer very successfully, he bragged for years how his old 303 smacked the CRAP, out of our Florida deer, that rarely go more than 120lbs.
now keep in mind, the ranges where he hunts seldom exceed 40 yards and 50 yards is a rare long shot, most shots are taken at under 40 yards , in very thick brush.
sawp1a.jpg

sawp2a.jpg

sawp3a.jpg


sawp5.jpg

hes killed dozens of deer with that 303,jungle carbine for several decades ,but he had never been to an actual rifle range, he had always set up a beer or coke can on a dirt embankment, backed off about 20-to-25 paces and tried a shot from about 35-40 yards and having hit the coke can, felt 100% sure the rifle was still correctly sighted in, like it had been for years, he had me load the ammo to match factory velocity's ,
http://www.speer-bullets.com/ballistics ... spx?id=107 with these 180 grain soft points, http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/defau ... fle&Source
over 45 grains of WW760,In my enfield it shot 2.5" 100 yard groups with iron sites off the bench,
but I totally ruined his confidence in that rifle when I made the bad mistake of taking him to a local range, for thirty years or more he had simply placed an old bottle or can on a hillside, backed off 30 or so long paces and fired at the target, with a high probability of a hit! occasionally he needed two shots to hit the beer can, but that was rare.....well I took him to the range and all his 50 yard targets had nice reasonably tight groups using the issue iron sights that measured about 3" in spread,the problem was most of the holes in the paper were key-holed, or profiles of the bullets ,it was obvious some, even most, bullets went thru at an angle or even side ways, he was very upset.....we pointed out that he had been very successful with the gun, even if it did tend to allow the bullets to tumble, end over end which the paper target clearly showed..
so far hes not been able to locate a replacement 303 British, caliber jungle carbine barrel for his carbine, and careful inspection shows the rifling is all but worn away, in fact it is so shallow, and the bores so eroded, its basically useless!
improper cleaning,improper storage,general abuse, improper solvents and corrosive primer ammo use by previous owners, long before he bought the rifle at a yard sale 30 plus years ago, sure didn't help either.
so again Id say what you use on white tail deer is not as important as your ability to place shots consistently on the intended target
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was talking with AL recently and he reminded me of one of our hunts where we used muzzle loading rifles back in the 1970s.
back then hunting was extremely important to most of the guys I associated with,
and only the hard core guys owned and used muzzle loading rifles.
we waited and planed the opening day hunt, all year.
Well we had planed the black powder season deer hunt for months and got to discussing it,
at work, and details of the hunt, several weeks prior to the season,
well I'm not 100% sure of all the circumstances involved,
as I was not paying much attention as I was working at the time,
in the engineering office of AT&T where I worked,
but the discussion was between several of us engineers over several hours time,
and over several days.
but at some point one of the lower level management type (FRED) in our engineering office basically invited himself along on the opening morning day deer hunt,
and we knew he had never been on a hunt of any kind or owned a muzzle loading rifle,
or any rifle for that matter.
Nor hunted deer, before, and while we would not have minded teaching the guy,
if he showed any interest in the weeks prior to the season opener
,his insisting on being included without us ever having seen him shoot a rifle or express any interest in hunting ,
or him knowing all that much about hunting or us about him in general seemed to be very odd.
Once he expressed an interest several guys suggested we schedule a bit of range time to get him familiar with any rifle he owned or might purchase.
he showed no interest, saying he knew everything about hunting and use of a front stuffer from books he had read!
well we explained where we would be and we expected to be there at 4:30 AM on opening day and if FRED, chose to meet us there,
we assured the guy, that we would show him the area,
but he would need to get all the licenses , permits game area stamps some decent clothing,
a black powder rifle and accessories ,projectiles,primers ,lubricants, cleaning supplies, powder, and bring his own food etc....
we really didn,t expect him to even show-up, as he was rather well known for B.S.
and he failed to confirm or even ask questions,
over the last couple of weeks before the season.
so we basically forgot about the conversation.
well we drove out to the management area opening day at 4 am,
and there was FRED, with a brand new never having been loaded or fired 45 caliber hawken rifle he had purchased,
at the local walmart, standing by his car at the agreed time and location.
well he had no black powder, primer caps or projectiles for his 45 caliber hawken style rifle ,
as he said he purchased the rifle the previous evening,
and the clerk said they were temporarily out of powder and caps ,
and he even failed to buy any 45 caliber ,mini, or maxi ball projectiles ,
because he had assured the gun-shop clerk WE would have all the required components, if we were serious hunters....
well one of the engineers nick named "SMOKEY" and I decided we would at least get him loaded up and instructed in the very basics,
I cleared his bore with a cleaning rod, and solvent soaked patch then dried it with several more patches, and loaded about 75 grains of 2f powder poured into the barrel and rammed down a patch then showed him how to place a #11 primer cap, cock the rifle and fire it into the ground without a projectile to verify it fired.
smokey then proceeded to load 80 grains of 2f powder place a greased patch and from some place produced a 45 caliber ball he loaded and seated and rammed home in the bore,
(only later did I find the ball he had loaded in the greased patch,
was excess tin foil from his packed lunch, rolled up from the excess tin foil he had a lunch sandwich packed in, smokeys lunch.)
well we got our rifles loaded, , which were all 54 and 58 caliber BTW,
and walked into the access fire break road , that led into the management area,
about 300 yards and FRED says he thinks that location was fine,
as he wanted to stay with-in the immediate area near the parked truck.
we were not going to argue, as we wanted to get hunting,
and if he wanted to stay near the truck that was fine with us!

well several hours passed while we still hunted the area, seeing several DOE DEER,
but no legal bucks, and about 3 pm, we started back to the truck for a late lunch as it was miserably hot that day..
as we got close to the trucks we could see several DOE DEER ,
that we had seen numerous times ,walking several hundred yards ahead of us down the fire break road
(the path of least resistance for both man and beast in the heavily wooded area)
and we could see FRED sitting in a low tree stand,
over hanging the edge of the fire brake roads edge,
taking a aim at the DOE DEER, (WHICH WERE NOT LEGAL GAME)
at about 40 yards away,
well before we could do much FRED fired,
the does bounded away rapidly and as we got up to the location FRED, was at,
he told us that we must not have used enough powder when we loaded his HAWKEN,
because even though the rifle fired, he swears he saw the rifle ball streak out and bounced off the deers butt!
and hit a good 15" from the spot he aimed at on the deers chest!

we were DOUBLED OVER LAUGHING AND NEARLY ROLLING ON THE FLOOR AND < LAUGHING OUR SELVES SILLY...
we assured FRED he just must have missed,
or got his powder wet... and he just needed more range time and practice,......
and it only got better.... when we heard later that FRED was at a local gun shop,
trading in his new 45 caliber for a new larger caliber muzzle loader in 50 caliber,
while he assured the clerk he had seen that 45 caliber balls just bounced off deer!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Al finally replaced his jungle carbine , with a nearly new 7600 remington slide action in caliber 270 win, he got a great deal on at a local pawn shop ($430) as he got invited to hunt out west by some relative of his!
rempu.jpg

we went to the local range yesterday at 8AM and to his (and MY) amazement he could regularly hit the black at 50 yards with his new rifle, so hes happy as hell !
( I can,t help grin at the idea, wait until he finds out that the ranges will EXCEED 50 yards out west)


RELATED INFO
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/p ... rchID=4005

viewtopic.php?f=97&t=4560

http://handloads.com/loaddata/default.a ... er&Source=

BTW Ive used 56 grains of IMR 4831 a 215 federal primer and a 150 grain speer bullet on a bunch of deer with exceptional results
270wing.jpg

groups similar to this at 100 yards off the bench are common

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/i ... =000211605
 
Last edited by a moderator:
two days ago, AL went back to the PAWN SHOP, where he bought the rifle, looking for a scope and found this used Leopold scope available for $400, it looks new but its used,
I thought he would choke but after looking up the new price he offered the guy $350 and bought the scope ,
we installed in and he went to the range this morning, and came back smiling, that load of 56 grains of imr 4831 under a 150grain speer bullets we hand loaded produced 1" hundred yard 3 shot groups for him

http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/325418 ... icle-matte
btw for the few guys who don,t hunt, its not at all uncommon to pay $200-$600 for a decent scope!
and trust me a truly decent quality scope that costs less than about $300 is hard to find,
and a scope costing more than $600 is very common once you demand good quality optics
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top