Hunting in Thick Brush

[Rascal01]

Huh? Hunting brush in SE AK? All the guys I knew up there hunted the little buggers from a boat. Worst part of their day was maybe wet feet from getting in and out of the boat on the beach. Nobody wanted to trudge through the brush up there. Way easier to beach comb. Brush guns where I grew up were 30-40 Krags. 220 grain round nose bullets were the pill of choice. No one ever considered a real brush shot. But sometimes the stray branch or twig could be in the way, even in a clear cut. I don't really know if the size/shape of bullet really mattered, or helped. The vast majority of the old war horses had been shortened to carbine length so they handled pretty well in brush, if a scosche on the heavy side. Weaver K4's were the norm so they had a little range without giving up the short distance visibility. The Krag was a legend for the old timers. They are hella good rifles.

I read in one of Elmer Keith's books that the Kraft 220 grain bullet was a super penetrator, and the Krag was often used on fishing or charter boats to kill sharks.

No experience myself with the Krag myself.

A pal of mine showed up ne day with an 8mm Mauser. I had a scrap section of "bullet proof glass" that should have stopped just about any small arms fire. His Mauser shot right through it with surplus ball ammunition.

 

[JohnnyMac]

Huh? Hunting brush in SE AK? All the guys I knew up there hunted the little buggers from a boat. Worst part of their day was maybe wet feet from getting in and out of the boat on the beach. Nobody wanted to trudge through the brush up there. Way easier to beach comb.

That's generally how it starts.....with beach combing, but when there's no deer on the beach or 20 other boats doing the same thing, it was more fruitful to just buck up and start trailblazing. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to trudge the brush either, but between work, family, life, weather I only got a few chances a year to hunt and had to do what I had to do.

 

[Topaz454]

Maybe it's just me but I would drop the Bambi reference. Good presentation.

 

[HaveGun]

In my area, you could be either shooting 500 yards, or 15 yards in heavy timber. All in the same day of hunting. Heck within a few hundred yards of walking.

My brother loves the long range stuff and has a rifle capable of taking an animal at 600 yards. His last bull elk was shot in brush at 30 yards and point shot. You never know around here due to such varied terrain.

My ideal rifle will be a .308 bolt-action with an 18" barrel and 2x7 scope. Short, light, and handy. Plenty accurate out to 500 yards.

 

[DeanMk]

This is the last deer I took:

View attachment 738052

26" octagonal barrel .30-30 - not a brush rifle, but I shot the buck at something like 20 feet - sitting very still on a stump while it walked by me pursuing a doe. I could have thrown a rock at it. Most of the deer on the west side of the Cascades are shot at very close range. Only once have I shot a deer that I really needed a rifle instead of a handgun (although I have never actually used a handgun for deer).

A large caliber handgun like a .44 or a .45 would do just fine as a brush gun and be more handy than any rifle at the distances I see most deer at.

Very true. I shot my deer in Dewatto at about 30-40 feet with a 7mm Mauser....



...my only concern with a handgun round is the bullet.
Handgun bullets tend to be built lighter than rifle bullets, IN GENERAL.
My fear would be that the bullet would fall to pieces the first time it struck a bone.
If you can acquire a bullet that will hold together in medium-large game, then you might have something.
One reason why I liked Federal's old "P44E" load.
It was a .44 mag with a 300 grain "cast-core" bullet, which was a big fat hard lead slug. Pretty sure that one would've held together whether black tail, elk or bear.

 

[The Heretic]

Very true. I shot my deer in Dewatto at about 30-40 feet with a 7mm Mauser....

View attachment 738838

...my only concern with a handgun round is the bullet.
Handgun bullets tend to be built lighter than rifle bullets, IN GENERAL.
My fear would be that the bullet would fall to pieces the first time it struck a bone.
If you can acquire a bullet that will hold together in medium-large game, then you might have something.
One reason why I liked Federal's old "P44E" load.
It was a .44 mag with a 300 grain "cast-core" bullet, which was a big fat hard lead slug. Pretty sure that one would've held together whether black tail, elk or bear.

The deer in western Oregon are not large and a 240 gr JHP from a .44 mag would penetrate well enough to put them down, but the JSP bullets seem to hold together better. For bear, there are various bullets and ammo that have thicker jackets and heavier weights than the standard 240 gr JHP - I have older brown bear defense .44 mag loads which have an older Barnes 300 gr thick jacket @1300 fps. I also have various loads for my .460 mag which are meant for larger game that I would not hesitate to use on elk within an appropriate range.

 

[DeanMk]

FWIW, deer in Western Washington aren't all that large either.
If you find one 120 lbs. or over, you found a big one.

 

[Quirt Evans]

Really, when you're talking about .44Mag, the JSP/JHP bullets, in general, offer little to no advantage except getting you to spend more money.
A good hard-cast Keith style bullet will easily give all the penetration one could hope for.
Even a hot loaded .44Special will take down an Elk no problem, with good placement.
Western Oregon deer,, pshaw, a .44Special will shoot thru them end-for-end, they're hardly any bigger than a big dog.
In the old days bazillions of deer, including lots of large Mule Deer, were brought down with .38-40s and .44-40s with black powder loads and lead bullets. Those loads were pip-squeaks compared to a .44Mag.
The animals today are not any tougher than they were in 1880.

 

[DeanMk]

There's a lot of truth in that post.
In the days before there was a .30-30 round or a Winchester 94 to fire it from, the favourite deer rifle amongst most hunters was the '73 Winchester in .44-40.

 

[jbett98]

I put down a crazed Romney ram sheep that assaulted a 92 yr old neighbor using my '73 Winchester 44/40.
I got him right behind the ear as he was running away from me. He knew what I was going to do.
He was dead before he hit the ground.

 

[DeanMk]

...and now, part 2...