Mustangs Rule
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- Feb 4, 2021
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I was sitting against moss covered boulders on the wet/west side of the Santiam Pass in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. There was a downpour and just cold enough that some of the huge raindrops formed mini-slush balls. From head to toe and even fingers, I was wearing my best rain gear.
In my lap was a Sako 75 Finnlight Stainless and Synthetic carbine in 308. Stripped, it weighs 6 pounds 3 ounces. A Winchester 94 carbine weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces.
Except for a few mandatory carbon steel springs, every last part in this Sako is stainless steel. Not so in lesser brands of stainless rifles where too many parts are not stainless.
My scope was a fixed ultralight 2.5X aluminum new era Weaver made in Japan. Fixed scopes are brighter and lighter with one less lens. My hand-loads were 150 grain Barnes TSXFB 30-30 bullets downloaded to 30-30 velocities in this 308. They were accurate, quiet, offered almost no recoil and lethal on deer out to 150 plus yards.
I sat in this “cold soup” for three days before taking a modest blacktail buck. Never once did I need to take my rifle apart to dry it out after hunting in the rain all day. I could use this rifle as a canoe paddle.
I also used this “Rain Forest Carbine” hunting black tail deer in the Los Padres National Forest over looking the ocean on the dense Big Sur coast. The “Pea Soup” salt air fog hung on for most of the morning. Those sunshine allergic blacktail bucks are often still actively browsing then.
The moisture enhances the flavor of their browse.
Visibility could be way less than a 100 feet. The whole time I could hear the sound of crashing ocean waves. This was a perfect rifle for all these conditions, especially for climbing coastal oaks and sitting on their fat comfortable limbs.
My Plains and Prairie Rifle for antelope and open country whitetails and mule deer.
During another period in my life I lived on the prairie near Cheyenne, Wyoming and also in North-western Wyoming near the Path of the Pronghorn Antelope Migration trail on the sagebrush plains.
No sooner did I move there than I was looking for a rifle that fit this land and game. I found it in a pawn shop.
With a fixed 6x scope, my plains/prairie rifle is a standard weight, 8.25-pound, pre-64 model 70 Winchester in 270 with a long 24-inch full weight barrel. It is heavy, stable with an under-barrel lug and a set screw to adjust for specific bullet harmonics.
I used three 48” X 5/8” oak dowels to make my open country shooting sticks. And I have a Whelen sling on it. This rig served very well both on the sagebrush plains and grass prairie where often there is nothing to use as a rest, with the grass and sage often being just too tall for a bipod. Hunting such country one must become an “internal island of shooting stability” with the shots being typically long and the targets size reduced as only the top of a game animal might be above the grass and sage.
Compounding these challenges, late season Wyoming antelope doe tags often went into serious cold and this near 10-pound rifle neutralized my shivers in the strong winds.
My most used shooting position here was of my own design. Sitting upright on my heels with my knees spread apart formed one triangle, then my triple shooting sticks formed a forward triangle and my tight Whelen sling made a firm isometric connection between these triangles. This was high enough to get above most sagebrush and prairie grass.
With practice, even under frigid and windy field conditions, I could assume this position in about 4 seconds and hold a 6 inch group at 400 yards. This heavy rifle had little recoil.
Using the 130-grain Barnes TTSX-BT bullet I felt like I had Bruce Lee roaring out my barrel, clean and mean. By comparison old copper cup and lead core bullets were fat, slower, dirty and incontinent, leaving a lead particle mess behind.
Since leaving the green wet environments and the wide open plains and prairies both of these rifles have become highly regarded safe queens that really increased my hunting success when and where I used them.
My Desert Rifle
Next, for 28 years I lived at 5,500’ in elevation on a Sky Island Mountain range overlooking the desert with its low sandy playas with specialized Burro deer. There were other isolated Sky Islands with classic desert mule deer. My own personal Sky Island went up to 9,000’ in elevation, others were lower and a few at 12,000’.
Those high ones were home to Inyo Mule deer that took over the territory of mostly now gone desert Bighorn sheep. Matching the rocky-jumpy land, these deer became stockier and sheep-like.
Two deer tags/year meant 56 hunts, and this was to be the major deer hunting experience of my life. It was a decade before I found the rifle/caliber which worked best in this high, dry, land where the smaller deer often sought out shelter in dense juicy Bisagra cactus tickets and ancient mountain mahogany groves.
Some of these groves were 1,500 years.
I began hunting desert these desert deer with a .257 Roberts in a Remington 722 but the action was not long enough for heavier bullets. I did buy then sold a lighter 270. It was way more power than needed, and it was hard on meat. A big “No No” hunting in the heat. A 280, 7x57 and 260 all came and went.
In 2001 I bought a 6.5x55 Swede in a Stainless Featherweight, walnut stocked CRF Model 70 that was again being made in New Haven, Connecticut. It became my flat desert/desert mountain deer rifle.
The Swede has incredible prestige and performance potential, especially with long, heavy, high SD round nosed all copper Lapua bullets. They are so perfect when needing to shoot through juicy some thick Bisagra cactus to drop a deer peeking at you from the other side. No such bullets exist for the .270.
The thick Bisagra cactus is filled with wet plant tissue much like Ballistic Gell. These heavy 140 grain all copper Lapua high SD bullets fly straight through. No keyhole-Ing.
If there ever was a contest for the greatest military, civilian, hunting, and target cartridge of all time, the 30-06 and the 6.5x55 would be competing for first place. If sore shoulders from recoil could vote, the Swede would win for sure.
I put one of the simplest most compact and well made American scopes on this “Swede”. A vintage 2-7 Redfield Wide-field view made in Denver, Colorado. I love the 2x up close in cactus tangles.
At 6 5/8 pounds, with a 22-inch barrel it is the best desert deer rifle I have ever owned. Light enough for multi day long tracking hunts, heavy enough for offhand shooting. Lastly the 127-grain long range Barnes X bullet is kind to meat and opens down to 1,700’/second.
All the pieces fit, from close range in thick cover to far away. I left the desert 12 years ago.
Elk Rifle
When I arrived out west 56 years ago, I brought with me a rifle that easterners thought was the best all-around caliber in an unquestionably beautifully made rifle, a Belgium made Browning Safari Grade Bolt action in 30-06.
That was 1970 and the western hunting world for elk had become ruled by speed and power with more and more mass-produced cheaper rifles that shot very well. 1964 marked the end not just for Winchester, but soon for all fine quality American rifles, except for Ruger.
At the dubious light end of elk calibers were the likes of the Remington 7mm mag and even the lighter 264 Winchester magnum. The Middle Elk Hunting rifle zone was ruled by the 300 Winchester Magnum and at the heavy hitter end was the 338-Win Mag.
And then there was Roy Weatherby and his magnums. At least his rifles, though not to my taste, were very well made, and in an odd way attempts at beauty.
I recall being at a Wyoming ranch one time, when the idea developed to go shoot targets at a simple range on the property. Mostly they had Remington 700’s in 7 mag and one had a 700 in the 300 mag. These rifles has seen hard use but all shot well. Upon bringing my rifle out, I got some cat call whistles and remarks about the eastern dudes fancy rifle using a World War 1 caliber.
I followed suit and for too many years. I left my Browning in the safe while going through, two 338’s, a 300 win mag, a super light Kimber 280 AI, and a 35 Whelen.
All gone now. None did anything for me that could not be attained in my 30-06 with new powders, Barnes bullets and Lapua all Copper Naturalis round nosed bullets.
Earnest Hemingway would be overjoyed with them.
The 30 cal 165 grain Barnes TTSX-BT is designed for magnum velocities, while the 30 cal 168 grain TTSX-BT is designed to expand perfectly at 30-06 lower velocities. Even reliably down to 1700’/second. The range of field utility now available in my old 30-06 has become amazing.
But there I go getting stuck in logic not beauty and how that allows me to access the most fundamentally critical hunter's skill of all,,,,patience.
Absolutely nothing is more valuable to a hunter. It opens our eyes to to all the small details which in truth are huge.
So now close to 80 years old, there I sit in some little patch of shade, with my old rifle, wearing a new and better scope. I look at the impeccable hand checkering, the equally excellent wood to metal fit, even with the two graceful barrel tapers, done just for art of it.
I get lost in the beauty of a French Walnut stock that would cost up to $1,500 now and I feel relaxed and totally ‘Elk Lethal” with this old firearm companion of 56 years out to 500 yards.
Just holding it breeds patience in me.
Fortunately, I have two new knees now, and still enjoy crawling. It allows me to feel close to the earth and all my elk have been taken at 250 yards or less.
And my final deer rifle, is a traditional side-lock muzzle loader. With aperture sights it shoots a minute of Tangerine at 100 yards.
MR.
In my lap was a Sako 75 Finnlight Stainless and Synthetic carbine in 308. Stripped, it weighs 6 pounds 3 ounces. A Winchester 94 carbine weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces.
Except for a few mandatory carbon steel springs, every last part in this Sako is stainless steel. Not so in lesser brands of stainless rifles where too many parts are not stainless.
My scope was a fixed ultralight 2.5X aluminum new era Weaver made in Japan. Fixed scopes are brighter and lighter with one less lens. My hand-loads were 150 grain Barnes TSXFB 30-30 bullets downloaded to 30-30 velocities in this 308. They were accurate, quiet, offered almost no recoil and lethal on deer out to 150 plus yards.
I sat in this “cold soup” for three days before taking a modest blacktail buck. Never once did I need to take my rifle apart to dry it out after hunting in the rain all day. I could use this rifle as a canoe paddle.
I also used this “Rain Forest Carbine” hunting black tail deer in the Los Padres National Forest over looking the ocean on the dense Big Sur coast. The “Pea Soup” salt air fog hung on for most of the morning. Those sunshine allergic blacktail bucks are often still actively browsing then.
The moisture enhances the flavor of their browse.
Visibility could be way less than a 100 feet. The whole time I could hear the sound of crashing ocean waves. This was a perfect rifle for all these conditions, especially for climbing coastal oaks and sitting on their fat comfortable limbs.
My Plains and Prairie Rifle for antelope and open country whitetails and mule deer.
During another period in my life I lived on the prairie near Cheyenne, Wyoming and also in North-western Wyoming near the Path of the Pronghorn Antelope Migration trail on the sagebrush plains.
No sooner did I move there than I was looking for a rifle that fit this land and game. I found it in a pawn shop.
With a fixed 6x scope, my plains/prairie rifle is a standard weight, 8.25-pound, pre-64 model 70 Winchester in 270 with a long 24-inch full weight barrel. It is heavy, stable with an under-barrel lug and a set screw to adjust for specific bullet harmonics.
I used three 48” X 5/8” oak dowels to make my open country shooting sticks. And I have a Whelen sling on it. This rig served very well both on the sagebrush plains and grass prairie where often there is nothing to use as a rest, with the grass and sage often being just too tall for a bipod. Hunting such country one must become an “internal island of shooting stability” with the shots being typically long and the targets size reduced as only the top of a game animal might be above the grass and sage.
Compounding these challenges, late season Wyoming antelope doe tags often went into serious cold and this near 10-pound rifle neutralized my shivers in the strong winds.
My most used shooting position here was of my own design. Sitting upright on my heels with my knees spread apart formed one triangle, then my triple shooting sticks formed a forward triangle and my tight Whelen sling made a firm isometric connection between these triangles. This was high enough to get above most sagebrush and prairie grass.
With practice, even under frigid and windy field conditions, I could assume this position in about 4 seconds and hold a 6 inch group at 400 yards. This heavy rifle had little recoil.
Using the 130-grain Barnes TTSX-BT bullet I felt like I had Bruce Lee roaring out my barrel, clean and mean. By comparison old copper cup and lead core bullets were fat, slower, dirty and incontinent, leaving a lead particle mess behind.
Since leaving the green wet environments and the wide open plains and prairies both of these rifles have become highly regarded safe queens that really increased my hunting success when and where I used them.
My Desert Rifle
Next, for 28 years I lived at 5,500’ in elevation on a Sky Island Mountain range overlooking the desert with its low sandy playas with specialized Burro deer. There were other isolated Sky Islands with classic desert mule deer. My own personal Sky Island went up to 9,000’ in elevation, others were lower and a few at 12,000’.
Those high ones were home to Inyo Mule deer that took over the territory of mostly now gone desert Bighorn sheep. Matching the rocky-jumpy land, these deer became stockier and sheep-like.
Two deer tags/year meant 56 hunts, and this was to be the major deer hunting experience of my life. It was a decade before I found the rifle/caliber which worked best in this high, dry, land where the smaller deer often sought out shelter in dense juicy Bisagra cactus tickets and ancient mountain mahogany groves.
Some of these groves were 1,500 years.
I began hunting desert these desert deer with a .257 Roberts in a Remington 722 but the action was not long enough for heavier bullets. I did buy then sold a lighter 270. It was way more power than needed, and it was hard on meat. A big “No No” hunting in the heat. A 280, 7x57 and 260 all came and went.
In 2001 I bought a 6.5x55 Swede in a Stainless Featherweight, walnut stocked CRF Model 70 that was again being made in New Haven, Connecticut. It became my flat desert/desert mountain deer rifle.
The Swede has incredible prestige and performance potential, especially with long, heavy, high SD round nosed all copper Lapua bullets. They are so perfect when needing to shoot through juicy some thick Bisagra cactus to drop a deer peeking at you from the other side. No such bullets exist for the .270.
The thick Bisagra cactus is filled with wet plant tissue much like Ballistic Gell. These heavy 140 grain all copper Lapua high SD bullets fly straight through. No keyhole-Ing.
If there ever was a contest for the greatest military, civilian, hunting, and target cartridge of all time, the 30-06 and the 6.5x55 would be competing for first place. If sore shoulders from recoil could vote, the Swede would win for sure.
I put one of the simplest most compact and well made American scopes on this “Swede”. A vintage 2-7 Redfield Wide-field view made in Denver, Colorado. I love the 2x up close in cactus tangles.
At 6 5/8 pounds, with a 22-inch barrel it is the best desert deer rifle I have ever owned. Light enough for multi day long tracking hunts, heavy enough for offhand shooting. Lastly the 127-grain long range Barnes X bullet is kind to meat and opens down to 1,700’/second.
All the pieces fit, from close range in thick cover to far away. I left the desert 12 years ago.
Elk Rifle
When I arrived out west 56 years ago, I brought with me a rifle that easterners thought was the best all-around caliber in an unquestionably beautifully made rifle, a Belgium made Browning Safari Grade Bolt action in 30-06.
That was 1970 and the western hunting world for elk had become ruled by speed and power with more and more mass-produced cheaper rifles that shot very well. 1964 marked the end not just for Winchester, but soon for all fine quality American rifles, except for Ruger.
At the dubious light end of elk calibers were the likes of the Remington 7mm mag and even the lighter 264 Winchester magnum. The Middle Elk Hunting rifle zone was ruled by the 300 Winchester Magnum and at the heavy hitter end was the 338-Win Mag.
And then there was Roy Weatherby and his magnums. At least his rifles, though not to my taste, were very well made, and in an odd way attempts at beauty.
I recall being at a Wyoming ranch one time, when the idea developed to go shoot targets at a simple range on the property. Mostly they had Remington 700’s in 7 mag and one had a 700 in the 300 mag. These rifles has seen hard use but all shot well. Upon bringing my rifle out, I got some cat call whistles and remarks about the eastern dudes fancy rifle using a World War 1 caliber.
I followed suit and for too many years. I left my Browning in the safe while going through, two 338’s, a 300 win mag, a super light Kimber 280 AI, and a 35 Whelen.
All gone now. None did anything for me that could not be attained in my 30-06 with new powders, Barnes bullets and Lapua all Copper Naturalis round nosed bullets.
Earnest Hemingway would be overjoyed with them.
The 30 cal 165 grain Barnes TTSX-BT is designed for magnum velocities, while the 30 cal 168 grain TTSX-BT is designed to expand perfectly at 30-06 lower velocities. Even reliably down to 1700’/second. The range of field utility now available in my old 30-06 has become amazing.
But there I go getting stuck in logic not beauty and how that allows me to access the most fundamentally critical hunter's skill of all,,,,patience.
Absolutely nothing is more valuable to a hunter. It opens our eyes to to all the small details which in truth are huge.
So now close to 80 years old, there I sit in some little patch of shade, with my old rifle, wearing a new and better scope. I look at the impeccable hand checkering, the equally excellent wood to metal fit, even with the two graceful barrel tapers, done just for art of it.
I get lost in the beauty of a French Walnut stock that would cost up to $1,500 now and I feel relaxed and totally ‘Elk Lethal” with this old firearm companion of 56 years out to 500 yards.
Just holding it breeds patience in me.
Fortunately, I have two new knees now, and still enjoy crawling. It allows me to feel close to the earth and all my elk have been taken at 250 yards or less.
And my final deer rifle, is a traditional side-lock muzzle loader. With aperture sights it shoots a minute of Tangerine at 100 yards.
MR.
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