Hunting & Fishing Hunting on the Edge(338)

Tikkablk

Private
Minuteman
May 21, 2018
16
36
Have been testing and putting through a few rounds on targets, steel and goats getting things right with a awesome load worked out shooting the 285gr ELD-M, I was running Berger Elite hunters 300gr but had mixed results in terminal performance with some penciling through. I needed more instant dead before they hit the ground ammo and the 285gr eld sure does that if you don’t mind pelt and meat damage.



Asked a mate if he was keen on a meat hunting trip into spot X but because of the week days he had work commitments. Oh well solo mission again and my trusty hound dog.



5am we left the truck park 45 minutes latter the dog was winding I pulled him off and carried on 5m-10m and looked back up the bank 5 red hinds only 20m away. By mid day we were at our campsite set up tent and set up the 338 Edge for some action. Didn’t take long before spotting red hinds 340m- 1300m with most of them bedded down. We needed water so if we do that I might as well shot a delicious yearling hind since they are in the same area. Job done easy 360m shot, we headed over boned it out into ziplock bags and dropped back down into the creek and put the bagged meat in there to stay cold.



During the trip we spent a lot of time glassing seen plenty of deer even 5 fallow deer that aren’t that common in this area, all of the grass everywhere is chewed down, also heaps of goats too for long range practice ( aim small miss small ).

Shoot another deer and spook a couple more on the climb to retrieve the meat was a common experience this trip. In the end we had 6 deer from 360m to out past a K for 5 days on the hill.



The best shot was the last shot on a hind in a group of 6 from our camp, she was ranged at 1046m with a up hill 14 degree inclination from the Geovid HD-B which the same ballistics out to 800m after that you need a APP or a Kestrel ballistics meter. The Kestrel gave me a 27.8 MOA hold and 1 MOA hold for wind, set the bipod on top of some logs to get the rifle elevated enough and dialup the turret, next move the dog around and down the hill a bit and put his Mut Muffs on to save his hearing, go back re-range hind and adjust turret if needed, adjust magnification to max 16 power, now the most important job steady rifle and squeeze the trigger.

Boom then 1.5 seconds latter a solid hit with hair flying of the hinds shoulder. The easy part done, now to find a deer over a km away in amongst trees on the side of a steep hill. I yelled out the the dog to come and said it’s his job now find a hind.

On the way up and over the dog stalked onto a hind 4m away and he was 6m in front of me, with no time to waste and meat on the ground we are in a hurry and spooked it then bolted. On the climb up we spooked another 3 deer, on the sidel across we spooked 4 more yearlings before getting to the downed hind smacked in the exact spot I was aiming at.



First deer 360m



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Fallow deer below our camp



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savs and coffee for lunch



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Red Deer bedded down



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479m hind



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Easy shooting, 480m to top of clearings



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A small scubby red 8 pointer 660m



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This Vizsla is pretty soft and doesn’t like the cold.



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1200m to top of pic



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The long range hunting essentials, I poke the walking stick into the ground and sit the binos on top for steady glassing than free hold.



specs

Rem 700 ultra mag rebarreled ,to a 26” 1:9 stainless fluted ultra match barrel 338EDGE

McMillian hunters edge carbon stock

Gen 1 terminator T3 brake

TriggerTech special

ATACR 4-16x42 F1 MOAR in a Spuhr ring mount

285gr ELD-M @ 2900fps with retumbo



This rig has now taken 20+ this year



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The dog backed away from the canon wearing his Mut Muffs ready for the shot.



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The 1046m deer it was a relatively easy find thanks to the dog and a quick kill.



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Exit wound damage from the 285gr eld-m 338Edge it still had 1860 f/lb energy remaining at that distance of 1046m.



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Beautiful country out there, and great shooting. Where are you hunting? I assume in Europe somewhere.
I‘ll have to try that 285 ELD M on hogs, then maybe deer. I have a 338 Lapua build that should be complete in a few months.
 
Our government treats all of the mammals as pests in our public conservation land.

The only native mammals are bats and marine mammals like seals, dolphins and whales and because we have no predators other then human hunters to keep the numbers in check the government will use helicopters shooting them and what doesn’t get shot will be poisoned with 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) and use 80% of the worlds supply.



So us ground hunters must thin the numbers down or the government will step in and kill everything.

In this area the deer numbers are high as it is quite hard to walk into multiple river and creek crossings. I just take the best meat off each animal which is back steaks and rear leg meat and leave the rest for the wild pigs, hawks and the wasps. The pigs don’t taste very nice because they live on all the goat and deer carcass I shoot in there 300+ goats and 40+ deer just for this year alone and in this area of about 12,000 acres that anybody can hunt in.

Back in March before the COVID-19 six week lockdown the dog and I flew in and out on a two week trip we bought out 150 kg/ 300 lb of back steaks and leg meat. Only in our country we waste so much meat left on the hill. It’s hard to leave meat to rot but the alternative is poison everything and take nothing for years to come.