The Firearm Blog

The Google Street View photo taking van ran over a deer in Rush, NY while capturing every moment of the encounter on their 360 degree camera system.

The images have since been removed by google.

Hat Tip: Reddit via. The Daily What via. Gizmodo.

Stag Arms have a new 6.8mm hunting AR-15 called the Model 7 (Hunter).

Model 7 (Hunter). Click to expand.

The rifle features a 20.77″ 1:11 twist barrel, 2 stage match trigger, 5 round magazine and a Hogue pistol grip. Stag Arms has the price listed as $1,055.

Although I have not read an evaluation of hunting performance for commercially available 6.8mm SPC, the round produces similar energy to the .30-30 at the muzzle and offers significantly better downrange performance than the .30-30 or 7.62×39mm. Whitetail deer should be no problem.

More info @ Stag Arms

Next year (2009) Winchester Ammunition will be will be introducing the Winchester Super-X Power Max Bonded and the Winchester Supreme Elite Bonded PDX1.

From the Super-X Power Max bonded press release:

Super-X® Power Max Bonded™ is specifically designed for the whitetail deer hunter and takes the time-proven jacketed bullet design to a new level of performance at an affordable price. Winchester’s proprietary bonding process welds lead to a copper alloy jacket where the two act together during expansion for improved penetration and retained weight.

It will be available in .270 Win, .270 WSM, .30-30 Win, .308 Win, .30-06, .300 WSM and .300 Win Mag.

From the Winchester Supreme Elite Bonded PDX1 press release:

The new Winchester Supreme Elite Bonded PDX1, which was chosen by the FBI as their primary service round, is now available in a full line of popular handgun calibers. The PDX1 is engineered to maximize terminal ballistics, as defined by the demanding FBI test protocol, which simulates real-world threats.

It will be available in .38 special, 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP. UPDATE: Full press release after the jump.

Hat Tip: Outdoor wire
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Sean @ Everything Hunting has written detail instructions on how to butcher deer yourself.

The price of butchering a deer ranges from $75-150. I don’t know about you, but that is a little much when you can butcher your own for free in about 4 hours. If you are content with paying someone so that you don’t have to worry about it then you have more money than me.

More here.

John Snow @ The Gun Shots does a lot of hunting. Here are a couple of posts about his recent hunting trip:

Going Long With The Uselton Warbird and Swarovski Z6

Kessler Canyon: Colorado Mule Deer Hunting At Its Best

I got a good laugh from the comment by Jim on The Gun Nut’s blog

The vast majority of American hunters/shooters couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn @ 100 yards offhand, yet we set our guns up (even slug guns and muzzleloaders) with scopes the size of the hubble telescope (just in case) we need to shoot @ a deer on Mars.

I spotted this rifle over at longrangehunting.com. Is it anti-air artillery or a deer rifle?

Built by a New Zealander … they sure know how to build a cool rifle.

Click to expand the photos

Beautiful scenery

The rifle has a custom suppressor with a muzzle break! Here is a close up:

I assume the “404″ refers to the 404 Jeffries.

my suppressed 7mm/404 which weighs 20 pounds all up, and pushes a 180 grain Berger at 3350 fps.

Expert Village has published a series of deer hunting videos on YouTube.

The first is entitled “How to Hunt: Deer Hunting Tips : Hunting as a Sport”.

To view the rest of the videos scroll through these search results.

Mossy Oak have launched a new camo pattern designed for …

… hardcore whitetail hunters who hunt from an elevated position. Treestand offers whitetail hunters the ideal camouflage solution for altering their silhouette among the bare limbs of a tree in late fall.

Some photos


The press release

Mossy Oak, the industry leader in camouflage design, is proud to introduce its newest pattern, Treestand, designed specifically for hardcore whitetail hunters who hunt from an elevated position. Treestand offers whitetail hunters the ideal camouflage solution for altering their silhouette among the bare limbs of a tree in late fall.

“Hunting whitetails from a tree is one of our favorite pursuits here at Mossy Oak,” said founder and CEO Toxey Haas. “If we took the time to add up all the hours that our staff has spent in a treestand over the years, we’d probably wonder just how anything gets done around here. But it is exactly that dedication to the sport that helps us bring you a pattern as effective as Treestand.”

Nearly 20 years ago, Mossy Oak introduced the original version of Treestand and revolutionized the way we look at camo by being the first to incorporate tree limbs into a pattern. Almost two decades later, Treestand now utilizes digital technology to exactly reproduce the details and subtleties of actual tree limbs laid over the neutral tones most commonly seen when looking up through bare trees.

“This pattern was specifically designed with the elevated hunter in mind,” said Butch English, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mossy Oak. “Treestand is built to defeat the ‘deer’s eye view’ of looking up through the limbs of bare trees. Our new Treestand pattern is the ultimate camo for the over 12 million hunters that hit the woods each year in pursuit of whitetails.”

Looks alright.

How far would you go to enjoy 12 gauge shot gunning without disturbing the neighbors?

Wendell Diller has invented a lightweight shotgun barrel extension that is about 5 feet long!

When Sean Coffey’s honker call pulled a flock of geese within range, paraplegic Dave Guzzi swung his shotgun with a 7-foot-long barrel and dropped one of the geese dead.

There was a moment of stunned silence — and not after the goose tumbled out of sky. The morning stillness was barely disturbed when Guzzi pulled the trigger on his extraordinarily long shotgun.

The sharp blast of the 12-gauge was replaced by a muffled fzzzttt. Sitting just four feet away, I was struck by how the shotgun sounded like a loud air rifle. Guzzi, who lives in Burnsville, laid the experimental shotgun between his legs and waited for more geese.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” he said of his gun.

Apparently it is also useful for deer hunting.

More here.

Deer like pumpkin From Kit

John and I went hunting two days ago and saw ONE deer. This morning on one four mile stretch of road in town, I counted 14 does and 1 buck. Clearly we just need to go out into our own yards to fill our tickets. I dunno whose yard that is in the photo – somewhere on the north side of town.

I’ve tried, but I can’t warm to the .243. It’s billed as having three great attributes: it’s death on varmints, it’s adequate for

deer-sized big game and it is a great cartridge for young hunters because of its moderate recoil. I think it is a poor second-choice-if that-for any of these tasks.

More here.

I must say that I agree with the following comment by Ben on the blog post

Well, if everyone had money to dedicate to a varmint rig and a deer rig then yes, going with a .22 and a .25 or 7mm would make perfect sense. However, since this isn’t always affordable some people split the difference and find that the .243 fits the bill. 55-70grns for varmint, and 85-100grns for deer.

As for the .243 being too big for varmints – a .222 is too big for most varmints, realisticly a .22lr is all you need to kill most varmints – people just like the high powered .22’s because they reach out considerably farther – so too does the .243. And if you’re looking to save coyote pelts it can expend energy in a hurry, unlike the heavier .25’s.

At the end of the day though, if you’re hunting armored deer or Wile E. Coyote then yes, by all means you certainly need more than the little 6mm.

The Box O’ Truth has tested various cartridges to see what penetrates brush the best. As I hunter I found this is a *very* interesting read as it has been something I have wondered about many times.

Sometimes a deer will be behind a brush and only allow a narrow area for a hunter to place a bullet through. Even then, that bullet may hit a branch. Some old deer hunters used to say, “Those high velocity spitzers will be deflected by branches, but not my old .45-70. It’s a brush-buster!”

More here.

Hat Tip: ACE

Slaton @ Gun Shots discusses long distance (100-200 yard) slug hunting:

I started deer hunting with a slug gun. Well, let me qualify that. It was actually an old side-by-side Stevens, and back in college, just before the deer opener my buddy and I would drive to an abandoned railroad culvert.

We drew a deer silhouette on a piece of large cardboard and stood back about 30 yards. For ammo, I used discount Foster slugs-I don’t even remember the brand. If we put a hole anywhere within the silhouette, the gun was pronounced “on.”

More here.