Thinking about a bush gun...
- Thread starter kolik1
- Start date
I can totally relate regarding Ruffed Grouse lol.
Stopped to check my GPS and... BOOM! the super ninja bird busts out of the bush next to me.
That's a wake up lol.
Btw if I owned single shot back then I would have probably bagged the bastard but I had a pump shotgun loaded with slug and buck.
My so-called dedicated bush gun is a Ruger Frontier 358 with a 16.5 " barrel.
In the five hunting seasons carried it has done well, however after reading on another thread in this forum that a 16" barrel loses over 400 fps at the muzzle compared to a 24" barrel I'm thinking the bullet must be dribbling out the barrel..... how did it kill anything I ask ??
In the five hunting seasons carried it has done well, however after reading on another thread in this forum that a 16" barrel loses over 400 fps at the muzzle compared to a 24" barrel I'm thinking the bullet must be dribbling out the barrel..... how did it kill anything I ask ??
I saw that post... And it is bu77$hit... I cut my Handi rifle .358 (rechambered .35 Rem) down from 22" to 18" and lost less than 100 fps using the exact same batch of reloads... I don't believe that those other four inches will account for triple the loss that I experienced... Perhaps 200-250 fps... You can make that up (if you just gotta) with a hotter load... I read this all the time about the HUGE losses in velocity when cutting barrels down... I have more than a dozen shorties and I tested everyone of them before and after... There is some loss in velocity, but not nearly what you read about... I think a lot is just regurgitated internet drivel.
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- Location
- AB foothills
It wont. But, it is a sunray post, what did you expect? 90% of the time he's wrong.
I always take two rifles on a hunt. One is a scoped rifle (2-7x zoom) for when I sit and watch over a valley and the other is open or peep sight for when it is heavy rain or snow and a scope is not good. It also means I have a back up if one gets damaged.
My back up (or bush gun) is a 7-08 Remington barrel screwed into a small ring Mauser. It uses the Remington sights mounted on the barrel, plus a Williams Foolproof. I much prefer the peep, but I also zeroed it with the Remington open sight. Then I made a witness mark, and slid the sight down out of sight. It is a back up rear sight. It handles well and I can hit what I can see out to about 75 yards. The limit is my vision, not the rifle.
My back up (or bush gun) is a 7-08 Remington barrel screwed into a small ring Mauser. It uses the Remington sights mounted on the barrel, plus a Williams Foolproof. I much prefer the peep, but I also zeroed it with the Remington open sight. Then I made a witness mark, and slid the sight down out of sight. It is a back up rear sight. It handles well and I can hit what I can see out to about 75 yards. The limit is my vision, not the rifle.
Well, if I fire it and the darn bullet rolls out the barrel and drops on my foot, I'm gonna believe him !
Seriously the last deer it shot dropped in its tracks...
Hoyt Id be interested in knowing how you went and seeing some data. ive recently been reading into how much velocity is lost with actual before an after tests with same ammo especially..
would be cool to make a thread with your experiences on this. or if your not into that shoot me a pm .
I'd like to know which calibres on what rifles an barrel length before an after aswell as your velocitys b & a.
much appreciated
WL
I use my .35Whelen with 225gr RN for "bush" hunting or Stalking thick gulleys..
every so often I do pull out the Win 94 .375Win with peep sight for even thicker stuff or sit an wait etc. a 220gr FN in that at 1800fps works just fine.
cheers
wl
every so often I do pull out the Win 94 .375Win with peep sight for even thicker stuff or sit an wait etc. a 220gr FN in that at 1800fps works just fine.
cheers
wl
Thats one way of looking at it. The other way is that OFTEN there is an opportunity for a fast second and third shot. If you have a lever action you can make one well aimed shot and then IF needed a second and a third.
If you have real evidence that "You rarely get more than one GOOD shot in the timber" I may reconsider. But I know I have missed a shot and with a bold action I was not able to get a second shot at a buck I could still see. And I used my savage 99 and fired all six shots and killed two wolves. I reckon with a single shot I might have got one or maybe not.
.35 seems to be awesome, however the 30-30 gets almost identical performance and is available all over the place with decent selection. The Federal Fusion 30-30 170gr is on par with regular .35 round and carries more power down range to boot.
I can see where the attraction is though. If I had a bunch of guns I would definitely looking at a .35 or 45-70 to add to the collection. However my first centerfire will be a 30-30.
I just wrote out a long reply, hit the wrong button and lost it all! I don't have the will to write it all again (the air was blue with cussing for a couple minutes)... so very briefly;
Most of my barrel "bobbing" has been with H&R Handi rifles... once I battled my OCD for control and stopped chasing peak, optimal performance from every caliber (and crunching numbers and making spread sheets etc...) I realized that these guns are extremely nice handling with short barrels... some of them started as 22" standard barrels, some were 24" heavy barrels and two were 26" barrels (.25/06 and .280 Rem)... one was a 32" BC .45/70 that got trimmed to 26"... the calibers bobbed to the legal minimum of 18" were .22 K-Hornet, .221 Fireball, .223, .22 BR Remington (rechambered Hornet), .22/250, .243, .260 (barrel stub with Shilen barrel from 26" to 20" yet to come), 7mm-08, 7X57, .280 (26" to 20"), .30/30, .308 (24" to 20"), .30/06, .338F (barrel stub with Krieger barrel 26" to 20"), .358/.356 Win (rechambered .35 Rem and cut with the rim), .35 Whelen to 20", .357 Maximum (rechambered from .357 Mag and from 22" to 18"), .44 Mag and .45/70. In general, I developed loads and tested the barrels BEFORE cutting and then used the same batch of reloads to test after cutting... general observations were that there was a loss of 90-125 FPS for a 3-4" bob; some a little more, some a little less, but that is a pretty good reliable median IME... generally you loose MORE velocity with the smaller, lighter, faster calibers than you do with the larger, heavier, slower calibers for the same amount of bob... For the most part accuracy actually improved after the bob, but this could be attributed to an improved crown (I'm making no assumptions)... My fly in the ointment was two .308 heavy barrels that started at 24" and went to 21" and then 18"... I lost 250 fps from the 6" bob, but accuracy went to hell in a handbasket... I eventually scrapped the barrels, when I could not find a load that would give satisfactory accuracy (at least for me)... I subsequently settled on 22" in a heavy barrel .308 and have an excellent load with very good accuracy. If I can find the spread sheet, I will send it via PM. If you are interested, I have some pics of bobbed Handi's, but I wont bore the folks on this thread.
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Thanks for that brief reply, spewing about hitting the wrong button but I know all about that!!
Pretty interesting an you've definatly done enough calibres to cover what I would be interested in..
also the part about you losing the OCD about trying to squeeze every drop out of cartridges got my ears pricked too..
I may be better off sending you a PM so in due time il get around to it.
cheers mate
WL
Pretty interesting an you've definatly done enough calibres to cover what I would be interested in..
also the part about you losing the OCD about trying to squeeze every drop out of cartridges got my ears pricked too..
I may be better off sending you a PM so in due time il get around to it.
cheers mate
WL
sharp shooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Essex county (Ontario)
Have a browning Auto 5 with a Hastings rifled slug barrel that works pretty good as a bush gun.....
