Minimum .50 cal load for whitetails

[roundball]

The older I get, the more content I am to let them come to me  

I enjoy getting set up comfortable in a low, safe, warm natural ground blind built with materials from the location...bundle up, stretch out my legs, thermos of hot coffee, another of hot soup...and keep my eyes peeled.
Deer move through the oak ridge looking for acorns like they always do...add in the rut factor and the big boys come through the oaks looking for the ladies like they always do.

If I'm lucky and catch a shooter by surprise with a Flintlock, that's great.
If all I see is a flock of turkeys scratching through, or a fox trotting through on his way somewhere, I still enjoy the morning in the woods.

[northmn]

When the leaves are dry and they are hanging in the thickets still hunting don't work well in my neck of the woods.  Especially if they have been spooked or there's a bit of frost on the leaves.  Sometimes in damp weather it works.  Can't say I have better shots doing that than off a stand as deer have been shot next to the stand.  However one can take a chair as been mentioned and kind of move around every half hour or so, making a minimum of fuss.  But we are pretty much limited to sit and wait.  Fields are popular as deer will sometimes congregate at fields.  This year I have not seen a deer either in my fields or my In-laws.  In a lot of localities, woods are found in small patches and deer tend to congregate in the woods.  Where I live fields are found in small areas and woods are everywhere.  One reason I plant food plots and try to make my woods more attrative than the square miles of woods around it.  I have been playing sight games lately also, but even a shorter rifle has a pretty long plane as compared to a modern centerfire.

DP 

[Dan]

The noise made in dry leaves by slow methodical movement of feet is more disturbing to the hunter than quarry.  Squirrels make that sound on fall days, but there is no rhythm to what they do.  Be a squirrel if you can't be mist.  Dress light, it is strenuous work.   

[KentSmith]

This year - 75 yards quartering away, severed spinal column blew through the heart, out the ribs cage breaking a rib and exited the body - 10 point buck - 55 grains in a 50 caliber barrel. 

Last year at 80+ yards through rib cage both lungs and lodged just under the hide using 50 grains with a 50 caliber barrel - different gun.

If you get good accuracy don't see any reason to change my load for hunting - 0-80 yards that is.

[roundball]

"...quartering away, severed spinal column blew through the heart, out the ribs cage..."

10 pointers are nice for sure.....were you shooting down from a treestand?

[rich pierce]

I seem to recall that Lewis and Clark, etc carried 3 pounds of lead per pound of powder.  On a .50 round ball that would equate to 60 grains of FFG.  I think we like more power than the old-time hunters did.  They were probably better hunters/trackers etc than most of us will ever be, just from experience.  Or hunters back in the day realized they had to pay for and tote everything.

[Mike R]

I seem to recall that Lewis and Clark, etc carried 3 pounds of lead per pound of powder.  On a .50 round ball that would equate to 60 grains of FFG.  I think we like more power than the old-time hunters did.  They were probably better hunters/trackers etc than most of us will ever be, just from experience.  Or hunters back in the day realized they had to pay for and tote everything.

...or they carried an excess to guard against loss--the standard ammo supply throughout the 18th and at least early 19th cent was 2 lbs of lead for 1 lb of powder---BUT, we have to remember that period powder has been shown to have been much less efficient than modern BP, that the 2:1 ratio also must account for priming and it must account for spillage.  But I agree with your basic premise: the old timers typically used less powder than we do today. Old Tenn gunsmith Bill Walker told Horace Kephart that his charger for his .53 rifle held 60 gr as a standard load--but he double charged when anticipating the need.

[northmn]

Actually when I think back on my still hunting experiences which in the last 40+ years has been somewhat rewarding.  I shot a deer last year getting out of its bed still hunting.  I would not be very complacent about caliber as I have had probably the toughest shots while still hunting as they tend ot be offhand, when I hunt a field and have longer shots I use X sticks.  Mostly I have done so with a lever 30-30 but have gotten 2 deer with a long bow and recurve still hunting as well as with a 44 pistol. There have been a lot of easy shots, but not always broadside.  I pass on running deer unless out in the open and Texas heart shots.  I guess one could be very fussy, but it would defeat the purpose of still hunting as I do so when stands do not pay off, as now which means I may start walking.  Some shots in Oak woods have been longer, some very close.  Right now the deer are very spooky which makes it harder.  Were I to pick a rifle for this type of hunting I would pick the 50 as minimum.  The powder charges would not necessarily have to be much above 70 grains of 3f but considering the variety of shots that would be my pick.  Now that I am older, like Roundball, Its nicer to let them come to me, but I did a bit of walking in my younger days before sore feet made me more patient and got a few deer that way. 


DP

[Daryl]

I've taken a stand when deer hunting, but am always more successful with still hunting.  Finding a buck's/doe's track and stalking him/her works for me, but then, I've not hunted Whitetails, which are primarily 'game trail' animals - apparently.  Mulies are a different breed for sure.  They will follow trails at times or through some terrain, while most of the time, just go where ever they please.  Stalking them is about the best way of coming up with a freezer of meat on these. A .45 will work, indeed has worked well for N. Hunter, member of this forum, but I prefer a much heavy ball - - of course.

[Dphariss]

There is a difference between shooting and hunting.
Stands/blinds will work in specific circumstances but Mule deer are not Whitetails.
This year with the reduction in numbers just finding a deer or either species to shoot is a chore.

Dan

[Mike R]

There is a difference between shooting and hunting.
Stands/blinds will work in specific circumstances but Mule deer are not Whitetails.
This year with the reduction in numbers just finding a deer or either species to shoot is a chore.

Dan

Come south!  We are crawling with deer, but short on public access hunting.  The "Texas" model of stand hunting has taken over from more traditional [elsewhere] still hunting.  I miss the old ways.  Maybe one reason use of the longrifle has not taken off locally is that you can't handle one easily in a box stand, so common hereabouts.  I am the only one in my "deer club" [read 'hunting lease' group] that hunts on the ground.

[Dan]

No shortage down here in Florida either.  Rumors say they abound in the Mississippi swamps.