Pennsylvania Game News - December 2009 - 60

Even today’s bolt actions have gotten in on the brush gun act. Ruger makes an 18½-inch barrel Mannlicher, as well as a 20-inch carbine. Remington has its 20inch barrel Model 7 in a fiber or laminated stock, and other manufacturers offer relatively short rifles weighing around seven pounds. These firearms combined with cartridges such as the .260 Rem., 7mm-08 Rem., .308 Win., .358 Win. and others make some effective rifle/cartridge combinations. I’ve heard from several hunters that barrels less than 22 inches don’t pack as much velocity and energy as their longer counterparts. In truth, when using spitzer bullets, the velocity loss is roughly 30 fps for one inch of barrel. So if we take a .308 Win. with a 180-grain bullet at 2,650 fps from a 22-inch barrel, the loss by using an 18-inch barrel is about 120 fps, which is about a five percent decrease. The energy loss would be about the same, and I’d bet a week’s pay that there isn’t a deer on the face of the earth that would notice a five percent drop in energy. Actually, the bolt gun was a pretty fair brush gun more than a century ago. Rifles such as the Mannlicher Schoenauer and Mausers in a short barrel chambered in 6.5mm, 7mm and 8mm cartridges, with their long round nose bullets, were extremely effective. To really take advantage of these firearms and cartridges, a good complementary set of optics is necessary. Many hunters have overshot their game with traditional open sights due to the fact that at the shot, they were looking over the rear sight (and inadvertently raised the front sight) to see the game better. Not to mention the fact that it takes far more time to Fun Game answers: opossum, falcon, mink, gobbler, porcupine, osprey, bittern BARN OWL accurately line up the rear sight (that is at least 12 inches from your face), front sight and target, as compared to an aperture or a scope. Some folks use a receiver aperture (peep sight), to where all they have to do is look through it and only center the front sight with the game. The aperture prevents looking over the sight and the game isn’t partially blocked from view. Many more hunters have gone with a good fixed compact 2½x, 4x or a variable 1-5x, 2-7x or even 39x model scopes with small objective lenses. Short, light scopes from Tasco, Weaver, Burris, Leupold and several others add an optical advantage, as well as light gathering ability, that certainly outweighs what little weight or size they may add. For those of you who are magnum fans, I’ve found that the belted and short magnum cartridges are not a good choice for carbine length models. The powders (plus the volume) that are used for these are slow burning, which tends to give a lot more muzzle blast/flash than with .30-06 length/ volume cartridges. The magnums are best left with their longer barrels to do what they do best at longer ranges. So whether you pick a lever gun such as the Marlin 336 with its side ejection, the later angle eject Win. 94 or the Browning M81 BLR (20-inch barrel) and mate them with optics and the newer ammunition, bolt or pump carbine, you’ll certainly be ready for that buck in or out of the woods. I have a couple of favorite brush guns myself. My Marlin Guide Gun, with its 181/2-inch barrel in .45-70, with a Lyman rear aperture and white bead front sight when loaded with 300-grain bullets is good out to 200 yards. My Savage M99 20-inch barrel Mannlicher in .300 Savage with a Weaver 2½x scope loaded with 180-grain spitzers gives me complete confidence out to 200 yards. In the whitetail woods these so called brush guns have done and continue to do the job. GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - December 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - December 2009