FyrepowrX
12-19-2022, 10:31 PM
Somewhere along the way, i developed a fondness for assorted .25 calibers in contender carbines, and also in bolt guns, and have acquired some assorted varieties that get hunted with a fair bit.
In the contender carbine, through various barrel trades &acquisitions... guess it must have been nearly 20 years ago...i got a22" tapered 25/35 carbine that was a matte finished barrel from the TC Custom shop. It shot well & over the years i tried varying loads, including a dozen different bullets by varying makers, a slight as the 80gr TTSX, up to traditional 117gr RN by Hornady & remington.
This year i decided to use some middle weight bullets in the 100gr range, and loaded up an assortment of test loads with LeverEvolutionpowder. As it turned out, i still never did get to test all those, almost right off the bat the rifle showed a liking for a particular combination: 28.0gr of LE powder, with the long discontinued 100rWinchester Silvertip bullets. (Murphy's law in action right there...it liked the bullet i have the least of.) With those bullets long dried up & seldom seen, I still decided i'd still give it a whirl &try those this year. In the cabinet there was still a partial box with about 75 pcs of those, so even with some used up in sighting &load development, i'll still have enough to load 50 rounds. And in a single shot deer hunting gun, that'll carry me through a lot of seasons. And, I gotta admit...those bullets simply looked cool.
Not that other loads shot poorly; the Speer 100gr HP bullet shot about as well with the same powder charge, and i have a few boxes of those. According to some posts suggested by some other 25/35 fans, that bullet has a reputation for working well at the milder speeds produced in this cartridge. I still never did chrono any, but guessing them to be in the 2400-ish fps velocity range, or thereabouts. Recoil was low, noticeably less than my 30/30carbines.
Our bonus doe season opened Sunday, and i was in a tree well before daylight, about halfway between 2 food plots on my farm, that are about 1/4 mile apart. The gradual downslope between them has mature oak/hickory hardwood timber & we've been burning that area on a2-3 year rotation, which has killed out small undergrowth &brushy trees, to the point it is possible to see over 100 yards. This year with the bad summer drought, vegetation was even more sparse &it was possible to see almost 150 yards in some spots.
The weather was good. minimal wind was in my favor, and temps were in themid-20's, so leaves were crunchy. I could hear deer walking quite away off, and heard something stirring around twice before daylight.
It wasn't until 8:00 or so i got a good look at some deer, first one was a spike buck with forward hooked spikes...he passed about 75 yards out, heading uphill to the plot behind me. About 30 minutes later, a doe appeared, also headed up hill...but on a trail farther out. I guessed her at a bit over a hundred yards, moving slowly. She was far enough away in the timber that had I not been looking at the right place , at the right time, she would have passed unseen. The glass on the carbine is 1.75-6x leupold short tube, and at first i had it on 4x...i turned it up to 6x, used my shooting stick to steady the rifle & find her shoulder in the field of view. Wondering about trajectory, I thought about it for a bit, then held a tad over halfway up her body, and when she paused, i took up the trigger slack.
Contender triggers always surprise me when they go off, as there is no creep orslack, and pull is light...the shot felt good, and she high kicked,made a few leaps...and then i lost sight of her. Unsure of the shot,i sat tight, watching for movement, but saw none.
When things calmed down, i would peek at the area every now & then, but saw no further action. I almost always stick a small pair of binoculars in my pack...except today. In about 30 minutes the sun angle had changed...and i was almost sure i could see a wee bit of a white patch, like that of a deer belly reflecting light through the trees & slight brush.
By then a half hour had passed & i made note of the direction, climbed down out of the ladder stand, and sat out towards the area. The mystery white patch was farther away than i had thought...138steps...and it was indeed the belly of a downed deer.
https://i.imgur.com/m4I91iH.jpg
The shot went a tad low, but still clipped the bottom of the heart, and exit hole was about the size of a quarter or so....exit visible in the pics. She had only made it a few yards after the shot before falling.
I got her back to camp, and after the skinning/quartering, took a bit of the inside loins & sliced them thin, and tossed them in a skillet with butter, garlic, salt, and pepper...and then ate that on a couple of slices of toast. A well & fitting deer camp breakfast.
https://i.imgur.com/ZQlCZ14.jpg
At mid-day I hung around camp, shot a few rifles, and waited for the afternoon to come to head back out. By 3:00 I was about a mile farther north of the morning hunt, perched in a tree on a ridge that has always done well for me....think it was 5 or 6 years ago that in the same spot I got my best-yet buck with a contender carbine in.445supermag on a nice crisp evening.
Sunday afternoon it began to cloud up, and the heavy clouds made it look later than it actually was. I was in the ladder for not quite 45minutes, when I saw a group of does angling up the hill towards my area. At about 90 yards the leading deer turned broadside and lowered her head. I got steady on the shooting sticks, and took up the pull of the trigger & sent a shot. She was absolutely flattened at the shot & dropped in her tracks. Deer exploded in every direction, but she was down & out.
In hind sight I think I held a tad bit high, having been a touch low on the morning shot...the bullet hit the top of the shoulder on my side, and she was done.
https://i.imgur.com/Zgbl6o5.jpg
I paused for a bit, enjoying the cool afternoon....the time had passed very quickly that day. With 2 more deer in the cooler, my bonus doe tags had been filled for the year. I still have a bow tag left , and had a nice buck on camera still, but with things usually a bit hectic around the holidays I don't think I will get back out to deer hunt. I'm pretty much calling the year's deer season done...it was a good one. Before getting down from my perch I took another pic of the carbine...the new phone I have takes better pix than my camera. (Or maybe i'm not smart enough to run the camera properly?)
https://i.imgur.com/KkDrd5p.jpg
I do intend to work some more with the rifle to test some ladder loads with LeverEvolution & some other modern powders , with various100 grain bullets. In other 30/30 based cartridges i've had some smokin good speeds & fine accuracy with AR-Comp, and CFE223, so those will likely get tried as well.
The lack of data has always been an issue for25/35 shooters...most data is for lever gun use, featuring 60/75grain flat points, and 117gr round nose designs. I have used the traditional 117gr Round Nose bullet & have taken deer & hogs with that bullet...but always found it a bit underwhelming. Yes, the deer & hogs came home with me to reside in my freezer, but I have always felt that a more peppy load with 100gr or so bullets going2400-2600fps might just be a slightly more perfect balance of speed, bullet weight, and sheer “thump” for guys like me that enjoy poking around in the woods to chase deer at modest ranges.
The weather is supposed to turn bitterly cold with wind chills at record lows in a few days, so I will likely spend the next week or so camped out in the man cave assembling test loads, maybe eating some fresh home-made deer chili courtesy of the 2 does from this week end. I will almost certainly NOT be out testing those loads......that invokes visions of that scene where Jeremiah Johnson finds Hatchet Jack frozen to a tree ,still clutching that “genuine Hawken rifle”. I like my 25/35, but don't really want to end up frozen to a tree with it.
Hope all here have a great & Merry Christmas, and hope all have had a fine & pleasant deer season this fall.
G~
In the contender carbine, through various barrel trades &acquisitions... guess it must have been nearly 20 years ago...i got a22" tapered 25/35 carbine that was a matte finished barrel from the TC Custom shop. It shot well & over the years i tried varying loads, including a dozen different bullets by varying makers, a slight as the 80gr TTSX, up to traditional 117gr RN by Hornady & remington.
This year i decided to use some middle weight bullets in the 100gr range, and loaded up an assortment of test loads with LeverEvolutionpowder. As it turned out, i still never did get to test all those, almost right off the bat the rifle showed a liking for a particular combination: 28.0gr of LE powder, with the long discontinued 100rWinchester Silvertip bullets. (Murphy's law in action right there...it liked the bullet i have the least of.) With those bullets long dried up & seldom seen, I still decided i'd still give it a whirl &try those this year. In the cabinet there was still a partial box with about 75 pcs of those, so even with some used up in sighting &load development, i'll still have enough to load 50 rounds. And in a single shot deer hunting gun, that'll carry me through a lot of seasons. And, I gotta admit...those bullets simply looked cool.
Not that other loads shot poorly; the Speer 100gr HP bullet shot about as well with the same powder charge, and i have a few boxes of those. According to some posts suggested by some other 25/35 fans, that bullet has a reputation for working well at the milder speeds produced in this cartridge. I still never did chrono any, but guessing them to be in the 2400-ish fps velocity range, or thereabouts. Recoil was low, noticeably less than my 30/30carbines.
Our bonus doe season opened Sunday, and i was in a tree well before daylight, about halfway between 2 food plots on my farm, that are about 1/4 mile apart. The gradual downslope between them has mature oak/hickory hardwood timber & we've been burning that area on a2-3 year rotation, which has killed out small undergrowth &brushy trees, to the point it is possible to see over 100 yards. This year with the bad summer drought, vegetation was even more sparse &it was possible to see almost 150 yards in some spots.
The weather was good. minimal wind was in my favor, and temps were in themid-20's, so leaves were crunchy. I could hear deer walking quite away off, and heard something stirring around twice before daylight.
It wasn't until 8:00 or so i got a good look at some deer, first one was a spike buck with forward hooked spikes...he passed about 75 yards out, heading uphill to the plot behind me. About 30 minutes later, a doe appeared, also headed up hill...but on a trail farther out. I guessed her at a bit over a hundred yards, moving slowly. She was far enough away in the timber that had I not been looking at the right place , at the right time, she would have passed unseen. The glass on the carbine is 1.75-6x leupold short tube, and at first i had it on 4x...i turned it up to 6x, used my shooting stick to steady the rifle & find her shoulder in the field of view. Wondering about trajectory, I thought about it for a bit, then held a tad over halfway up her body, and when she paused, i took up the trigger slack.
Contender triggers always surprise me when they go off, as there is no creep orslack, and pull is light...the shot felt good, and she high kicked,made a few leaps...and then i lost sight of her. Unsure of the shot,i sat tight, watching for movement, but saw none.
When things calmed down, i would peek at the area every now & then, but saw no further action. I almost always stick a small pair of binoculars in my pack...except today. In about 30 minutes the sun angle had changed...and i was almost sure i could see a wee bit of a white patch, like that of a deer belly reflecting light through the trees & slight brush.
By then a half hour had passed & i made note of the direction, climbed down out of the ladder stand, and sat out towards the area. The mystery white patch was farther away than i had thought...138steps...and it was indeed the belly of a downed deer.
https://i.imgur.com/m4I91iH.jpg
The shot went a tad low, but still clipped the bottom of the heart, and exit hole was about the size of a quarter or so....exit visible in the pics. She had only made it a few yards after the shot before falling.
I got her back to camp, and after the skinning/quartering, took a bit of the inside loins & sliced them thin, and tossed them in a skillet with butter, garlic, salt, and pepper...and then ate that on a couple of slices of toast. A well & fitting deer camp breakfast.
https://i.imgur.com/ZQlCZ14.jpg
At mid-day I hung around camp, shot a few rifles, and waited for the afternoon to come to head back out. By 3:00 I was about a mile farther north of the morning hunt, perched in a tree on a ridge that has always done well for me....think it was 5 or 6 years ago that in the same spot I got my best-yet buck with a contender carbine in.445supermag on a nice crisp evening.
Sunday afternoon it began to cloud up, and the heavy clouds made it look later than it actually was. I was in the ladder for not quite 45minutes, when I saw a group of does angling up the hill towards my area. At about 90 yards the leading deer turned broadside and lowered her head. I got steady on the shooting sticks, and took up the pull of the trigger & sent a shot. She was absolutely flattened at the shot & dropped in her tracks. Deer exploded in every direction, but she was down & out.
In hind sight I think I held a tad bit high, having been a touch low on the morning shot...the bullet hit the top of the shoulder on my side, and she was done.
https://i.imgur.com/Zgbl6o5.jpg
I paused for a bit, enjoying the cool afternoon....the time had passed very quickly that day. With 2 more deer in the cooler, my bonus doe tags had been filled for the year. I still have a bow tag left , and had a nice buck on camera still, but with things usually a bit hectic around the holidays I don't think I will get back out to deer hunt. I'm pretty much calling the year's deer season done...it was a good one. Before getting down from my perch I took another pic of the carbine...the new phone I have takes better pix than my camera. (Or maybe i'm not smart enough to run the camera properly?)
https://i.imgur.com/KkDrd5p.jpg
I do intend to work some more with the rifle to test some ladder loads with LeverEvolution & some other modern powders , with various100 grain bullets. In other 30/30 based cartridges i've had some smokin good speeds & fine accuracy with AR-Comp, and CFE223, so those will likely get tried as well.
The lack of data has always been an issue for25/35 shooters...most data is for lever gun use, featuring 60/75grain flat points, and 117gr round nose designs. I have used the traditional 117gr Round Nose bullet & have taken deer & hogs with that bullet...but always found it a bit underwhelming. Yes, the deer & hogs came home with me to reside in my freezer, but I have always felt that a more peppy load with 100gr or so bullets going2400-2600fps might just be a slightly more perfect balance of speed, bullet weight, and sheer “thump” for guys like me that enjoy poking around in the woods to chase deer at modest ranges.
The weather is supposed to turn bitterly cold with wind chills at record lows in a few days, so I will likely spend the next week or so camped out in the man cave assembling test loads, maybe eating some fresh home-made deer chili courtesy of the 2 does from this week end. I will almost certainly NOT be out testing those loads......that invokes visions of that scene where Jeremiah Johnson finds Hatchet Jack frozen to a tree ,still clutching that “genuine Hawken rifle”. I like my 25/35, but don't really want to end up frozen to a tree with it.
Hope all here have a great & Merry Christmas, and hope all have had a fine & pleasant deer season this fall.
G~