Today’s Top Five and More From Deer Blaster
Category: article
Mar 17th, 2022 by Keith Worrall
Modified Mar 17th, 2022 at 10:48 AM
Today’s Top 5
How an IL 137 became a 168 – in 1 second! ????
How about that freaky buck! MI’s Chris Kallgren shot it in IL in 2004, WideOpenSpaces.com recently had the story:
> …opening morning of firearms season dawned with perfect conditions. It was 25 degrees and a light dusting of snow….
> While his hunting buddies prefer to sit all day, Kallgren feels like the mid-afternoon is more of a lull time, at least in his experience. …he decided to head to a stand located near the back of the property.
> Unfortunately, as he made his way to the stand he kicked up 6 does which promptly left the area. …he headed for his stand anyway and settled in to wait. Luck was on his side, and the does returned roughly half an hour later. They split up into 2 groups on both sides of him and circled back to the direction they came. Then they all bedded down.
> This ended up being fortunate…because about an hour later a buck came in and stirred up the does. “I did not put binoculars on him because it looked like he was moving quick. You just know when a deer qualifies as a shooter, and I knew, so I didn’t want to take the time to glass him.”
> Because the buck was rutting and it looked like he could disappear at any moment, Kallgren took the 100-yard quartering away shot when he had the chance. Kallgren knew the shot had been a good one….
> Upon first glance he started second-guessing his decision to take the deer, as it didn’t appear to hit that 140″ mark. The buck’s left side was hidden among vegetation and leaf litter so he couldn’t yet see just how special it was.
> “I thought: Oh, gosh, I thought you were better. I picked up his antler and I thought, Oh, my goodness. Holy cow, look at you, you are something special!”
The main frame scored around 137″ but the extra “antler” – it sprouts from the same pedicle – has 2 crab claws and an extra 31″ of antler. It scored 179 2/8 gross and 168 6/8 net non-typ.
Does the new Seekins Havak HIT rifle break the mold?
GunsAmerica loves it and when you hear why, you’ll want one too:
> …an absolute stunner in the bolt action category. Hold onto your hats, this one is going to create some waves.
> The magic is the fact that the HIT is a switch barrel rifle, using a singular tool. At a base price of $2,100. A simple barrel swap rifle at $2,100 is unheard of. Much less one that works well.
> And then we really get into the special sauce that Seekins has put into the HIT. First of all, the simplicity of changing a barrel. The barrel is retained by a single cam lock, held in place by a T-15 screw. There is no requirement of torque, a simple screwdriver does the job. Loosen a single screw and the barrel threads on or off by hand. Which is so insane to contemplate from a world of previous rifles it’s hard to fathom.
> The bolt obviously requires a head swap to go between calibers. .308 has different case head dimensions than, say, 6.5 PRC. Is this where they get you? No. Somehow, Seekins has also created a bolt that lets you swap bolt heads COMPLETELY TOOLLESS. If you have ever taken apart a Remington 700 bolt, you know how preposterous that sounds. But they did, and it works. After you do it once or twice, the Seekins bolt head change takes about 30 seconds with just your hands. Insanity.
> The best part? Seekins has made the barrels open source. You are in no way limited to the barrel offerings of just Seekins, they will send the prints to anyone you like. Which for me is absolutely massive.
> I have particular tastes in bolt actions, which often means I am stuck at the custom shop. In my usual environment, I prefer a barrel length that is very short compared to factory offerings. I actually like 6.5 CM out of 16″ or 18″ barrels, which no one has on the shelf. With my new HIT, I can reach right out to my barrel master at Craddock Precision and have one made. Seekins guarantees the barrels to headspace by just screwing them on as long as your barrel maker can follow the specs and hold the tolerances.
> I can have a short 6.5 CM for training here, and a full 22″ barrel for times I need to maximize velocity. I can have a heavy barrel for longer range days and a light one for hunting the mountains. Any of which I can swap in about 2 minutes.
> The stock is a folder and locks up like a bank vault. It also wraps around the bolt, preventing it from moving. Not a small detail. The stock features tool-less adjustments for both length of pull and cheekpiece. No more spacers you put in with screws, another huge bonus. The bottom is flat for barricade shooting, and the grip is AR compatible.
> Out of the box, the HIT wears a Timney trigger set to 2.5 lbs. Fully adjustable, this is a fantastic trigger. But it is also Rem 700 compatible, which means aftermarket options galore.
> The amazing part for me, however, wasn’t the raw accuracy. It was how easy that was to get. Many times, with a test rifle I will shoot it a lot just as an adjustment to the gun before we group it. Get a feel for this particular gun and its quirks. I needed none of that with the HIT. With just a few stock adjustments, on the range, the HIT felt like it was custom built for me.
> Our .51? That was the second 5 rounds I ever shot with it, after taking 5 to adjust the scope. Having done a lot of this over the years, that alone is near unbelievable.
Writer of that review is an ex-Special Forces guy so he dang sure should know! Here’s a quick Instagram video of a barrel swap – amazing.
Why it’s good to scout now.
> …in March, the woods look exactly like they did in Oct and Nov so I can see what the deer were up to last fall and anticipate some of next fall’s action too.
That’s the bottom line on a good post on Fieldandstream.com. Here’s a little more:
> Because food sources can change so drastically, even between now and fall, my Mar scouting sessions focus on 2 key spots: bedding areas and terrain funnels. The best beds are those where the buck has laid in a specific spot so many times that he’s altered the landscape. I’ve found dished-out beds devoid of leaves or debris with multiple piles of droppings in or near the bed. I know these lairs are ones a buck is faithful to, which is critical information to have come fall.
> Storms can drop trees that shut down one funnel and create another, or a logging operation can create habitat that wasn’t there the year before. As I walk out ditch and creek crossings, benches, habitat edges, and other funnels, I keep a constant watch for buck sign. Rubs and scrapes, which are still easily visible in Mar, will always tip me off to the preferred travel routes….
The very best deer stands I’ve hung over the course of the last few decades almost all came directly on the heels of spring scouting missions.
A great tape is the key to single-pin sights.
Good post by Ken Piper on Buckmasters.com – a few highlights:
> …I use a single-pin moveable sight. My aging eyes love the clarity and simplicity of the single-pin design, and the vertical stance of the pin helps me stay on track left and right.
> If you haven’t considered using just 1 pin, give it some thought. With today’s fast bows, you can likely use that one pin out to 30 yards and never touch the adjustment wheel. Also note that more than 80% of all the bucks in the record books were taken under that distance.
> Having to use a sight tape is the only real disadvantage I’ve encountered using single-pin, wheel-adjustable sights. When you get the tape right, you can dial those sights to the exact yard if you so desire. The trick is getting the exact right tape.
> …I shoot, shoot and shoot some more. What you’ll find is the difference between one tape and another is so small that it takes a lot of shooting to say for sure you have the exact right one. I’ve often started off with one tape in the spring only to adjust up or down a few sizes by the time I was shooting regularly and more reliably.
…I don’t use the tapes included with the sight…. I use the correct included tape to make my own that have bold lines every 5 yards instead of every yard like the preprinted tapes. They also don’t have tiny numbers. I mark every other line with a large, single number to designate distance: 2, 3, 4 and 5 for 20, 30, 40 and 50 yards. The lines in between those (the half-distances of 25, 35 and 45 yards) are left blank.
I print them on waterproof label paper you can get online, and pretty much everybody who sees them wants to know where to get one.
How crazy is this!
@wildgamefreaks posted:
> This deer had some twine caught in his antlers – now that he is shed he is wearing them as a necklace.
That crazy or what! ????
News
1. WV hunters killed 1.5% less deer this season.
2. UT: Air rifle bill intro’d in legislature.
If passed the DNR would decide what animals could be hunted with it. Speculation is just small game for now.
3. ME: Sounds like Sunday hunting is back on the docket.
Been attempted 35 times in the last 45 years….
4. FL opened a new WMA for hunting.
> …Tate’s Hell – St. James Island is an 8,182-acre area in Franklin County. It will offer hunting opportunities during the 2022-23 season for deer, wild turkey, wild hog, migratory birds and small game.
5. NC DNR starting 4-year deer study in 2 counties.
> …working collaboratively with NC State U and other partners to research wild deer ecology across urban and rural portions of Durham and Orange counties. …called the Triangle Urban Deer Study, will explore many deer ecology factors including deer mortality, deer abundance and human perceptions of deer.
6. BC: Study advocates thinning blacktail herd…
…to achieve “ecological restoration goals.”
7. PA: 3 charged with poaching more than a dozen deer.
Somerset County in late 2020, the article says.
8. HI: Axis deer moving into towns due to drought.
9. AK: 460-yr-old bow found in in Lake Clark National Park.
54″ and they think it’s spruce:
> …found under 2′ of water…the bow is estimated to be 460 years old, ranging in origin between 1506 and 1660. The real mystery lies not in how old the bow is, but where it came from.
> …might not be of Dena’ina origin. After consulting with Elders and comparing the bow with similar artifacts from that time period, experts believe the artifact has more in common with a Yup’ik or Alutiq style bow.
10. DC: Will the Biden administration ban lead ammo…
…in all National Wildlife Refuges:
> The Sportsmen’s Alliance sounded the alarm concerning the Biden Administration’s settlement talks with radical environmentalists over hunting and fishing on National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), and it now appears those concerns were indeed warranted as government officials recently revealed that settlement talks have included the banning of lead ammunition and fishing tackle throughout the system.
> “The administration is needlessly negotiating away millions of acres of land and opportunities for hunters and anglers to participate in the activities that finance a great majority of the already underfunded refuge system,” said Evan Heusinkveld, president and CEO of the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “America’s sportsmen deserve better. They deserve a seat at the table and a say in how the lands they financially support are used.”
That group is 1 of 40 opposing the settlement talks.
11. Europe now saying birds of prey impacted by lead ammo.
Bear in mind there’s way less gun ownership and hunting there.
12. 2A stuff.
DC: Did the Dems and Rinos just expand federal gun control?
> Democrats’ $1.5 tril omnibus spending package…includes provisions that constitute “a serious expansion of federal gun control,” according to the National Association for Gun Rights.
> Currently, almost all firearm sales require a background check…. Purchasers who are tagged as having a criminal background barring them from possessing a firearm are tagged in the system and are not allowed to carry out the purchase.
> However, [the new law] takes this system much further…an attempt to buy a firearm while legally barred from owning one can be met with criminal investigation. “Over 95% of all NICS denials are false positives, which means all local and state police would be required to investigate law-abiding citizens when they’re wrongly and unconstitutionally denied the right to purchase a firearm,” NAGR said.
DC: Is Congress trying to rein in the ATF over silencers?
AL gov’nor signs Constitutional Carry law.
The 22nd state to do so. GA is near the finish line, but seems like FL Rinos won’t get it done.
NY state senates proposes bullet tax to fund “gun violence research.”
CA: TSA finds loaded pistol in Dem lawmaker’s luggage.
> …the firearm was detected by an X-ray screening machine in what was described by Cooper’s Capitol Office as