Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Some of you may have heard that I was going back up to Northern Giants Trophy ranch again this year. I have gone up and hunted with Dean and Jason now for the past 5 years. For full disclosure, this is a large acreage private hunting preserve. I go hunt with these guys for several reasons including, they have AMAZINGLY beautiful property, they have truly amazing animals to hunt and it is a very challenging hunt. Add to that the lodge is top notch and the food is amazing. And then I have just gotten to be good friends with these two guys and its kind of a quick vacation for me as well as a hunt. Anyway, if your interested in what they offer, you can run a search for northern giants trophy ranch and get all their info.
I also use these hunts as field tests for my new wildcats. Over the years I have field tested new rifle designs as well as new wildcat chamberings including my Raptor and Stalker rifles and also used my 257 Allen Magnum, 270 Allen Magnum, 27 Stalker and 7mm Allen Magnum on these hunts and tested a variety of bullets from bergers to barnes to hammers to accubonds.
This year, my test rifle I wanted to take up was one of my relatively new APS Stalker hunter rifles. Two years ago I took up a prototype of this rifle design chambered in my 27 Stalker shooting the 150 gr berger. Last year I took up the same rifle but this time testing the 129 gr barnes LRX. Was successful with both.
This year, again I was taking up one of my Stalker Hunter rifles but this time in a brand new wildcat called the 25 Stalker. Basically the exact same design as the 27 Stalker but necked down to 257 caliber. These wildcats are based on the 300 Norma Mag parent case, necked down and then fireformed to my Allen Magnum case body taper and shoulder angle shared with all my other wildcats.
The Stalker wildcats are specifically designed to replace my old 338 RUM based 257, 6.5mm Allen Magnums and also to replace the 300 RUM based 270 Allen Magnum, although, I still do build the 270 Allen Mag on request.
In doing load development a week before the hunt date!!!! I found that the 25 Stalker with its 27" barrel would drive the 110 gr Accubonds to 3950 fps. I toned them back a bit to around 3910 fps and accuracy tested them. I was surprised to see that after the first two shots, the 110 gr accubond would not stay on a 20" square paper target at 100 yards..... No idea why but they were not going to cut it.
In a bit of a panic I grabbed some 100 gr Barnes TTSX bullets and tried them. Using the Ramshot LRT powder, I was able to reach 4150 fps with this bullet. And muzzle velocities were actually pretty consistent. Ranging in the 30 fps extreme spread range for 5 shots. Again, for a bullet this light over a capacity this large, not bad at all. This combo actually had a heavier powder charge (103.0 gr) then bullet weight....... Don't often see that in a big game chambering.
I did however throttle things back to around 4130 fps for the ammo used on the hunt. Two days before the hunt, I was validating the drop chart out to 1/2 mile and found two things. First the load was a bit hot. When using cases that had been fired 2 or 3 times, the fired cases were starting to stick a bit in the chamber on extraction. Not terrible but noticeable so I decided that load was a bit warmer then I like. This was also exaggerated by the fact that this brass was used to do a full load development with not only the 110 gr accubond but also the 100 gr TTSX so some of the brass had had some pretty high pressure firings put on them.
Still, only two days out of the hunt, I did not have time to drop the load and redevelop the drop chart so I just went with what I was using.
I also found out that the little 100 gr TTSX bullet was quite accurate but past 700 yards, it really started to drop fast. Much faster then predicted. Predicted trajectory was dead on the money out to 700 yards but at 800 yards the impacts were over 1 moa lower then expected. Still, accuracy was great at 800 yards.
I decided to set my drop charts up out to 700 yards and be happy with that. Plenty far for a 100 gr. bullet weight even if it was ripping out at over 4130 fps.
So, last Monday morning I took the 10 hour drive north up into northern Sask. Canada and met up with the boys at Northern Giants. To my HORROR, when I arrived at 5:30 Monday evening, the temperature was 90 degrees F!!!! This worried me a lot.
Got unpacked and we decided to go out and sit for the evening. In the past years, I have always gone up in mid to late October or even early November but going up in mid September, the days were much longer, there was also A LOT more leaves on the trees!!!
We watched and saw some deer movement but most of the bucks we saw were on the way out of the ranch in the headlights. Not a surprise with the high temps!!!
On the first official morning of the hunt we returned to the ranch and set up overlooking the big valley trying to just get an eyeball on some deer moving. Not much did. In fact, the only deer we saw that morning was a big buck that was bedded down at the head of a brushy draw. He gave us about 5 seconds to see his rack (all that was exposed) and then he dove off into the safety of the heavily bushed draw.
That night, same thing, no deer moving at all. Temps had dropped to the high 70s but still very warm.
Morning of day two was the coolest yet, in the high 40s. As we drove into the ranch and passed the draw where we had seen the buck the previous morning, sure enough, he was there again but again, he gave us around 5 seconds and then disappeared... That morning we set for a bit glassing but not much was moving again. So we decided to head in for lunch and then come back out early and just drive around the ranch looking for bedded bucks if we could get that lucky.
As we drove around draw after draw, glassing for a hint of antler, we spend several hours doing this with no luck. Then after glassing several draws, we came around one side of a big draw and ran into a buck bedded down a few yards into the bush. We could only see the top half of his right antler but he was a big nontypical with VERY dark antlers, especially for that time of year. Looked like a late November buck. I am a nut for mass and dark antlers so we set up on the buck to try to figure out what he was and possibly get a shot.
I knew the shot opportunities would just not be all that great this year with the temps the way they were so did not want to pass up or mess up this opportunity. so we just set on him.
Once the buck settled down and decided we were not a threat he would turn his head a bit and we got a better look at him. he was one of three bucks that I was actually trying to get. He was actually the third option, the other two were big typicals but this deer would certainly do just fine. He had a 5x5 main frame and then a load of long sticker points.
Eventually the buck got up to take a stretch and when he did I put the little 100 gr Barnes TTSX on the point of his onside shoulder as he was quartering towards us at a decent angle. The shot was not a long one so can not brag about that, 150 yards or so. At the shot, the buck lurched to his right and appeared to dive down into the deep, heavily brushed draw....... I was thinking I had just made ALOT of work for us to get him out of that hole!!
We gave him a few minutes and then walked up to the impact sight. I was very happy to see that he had piled up right where he had lunged to after the shot, about 4 feet from the impact site. He was exactly what we thought he was.
Quite compact actually. Mainframe 5x5 in the 175" class and a total gross non typical score of 246". best feature in my opinion is his amazing color for such an early season hunt.
When we got back to the lodge, we caped and dressed him out and that was when we were able to inspect the performance of that little Barnes TTSX bullet, which I will admit worried me a bit at the 4130 fps muzzle velocity and still very high impact velocity.
However, once we got him skinned, we found that the bullet had impacted solidly on the onside shoulder and penetrated and stopped just ahead of the offside rear ham. +30" of penetration. The bullet was found fully expanded just under the skin on the off side. Retained weight was 70 grains.
SO while this was not a long range test of any kind, it was a serious Stress test on this bullet to see what it would do on a very high velocity impact. I was quite impressed to be honest. The bullet had obviously opened up relatively quickly as both lungs were quite badly damaged and the buck did not travel anywhere after the hit. Guess there is always something to be said for hydrostatic shock!!!
Again, for full disclosure on my wildcats, when I got back home, I played with the loads a bit and decided to drop the load of LRT powder down to 100.0 gr. Shooting over the chrono this reduced load clocked 4020 fps and even with cases that had 3-4 high pressure firings on them, extraction was perfect.
As such, I now consider this to be the max load for this rifle. Again, not bad, +4000 fps out of a 27" barrel length.
All in all, was a good hunt but not a fan of the heat as it kept deer movement pretty limited to nighttime hours and it was very difficult to see any deer bedded down compared to past years when after the leaves drop you could see down into the draws much better. Still got lucky to find this buck were we did and amazed at the dark color he had for such an early season buck.
Another great field test hunt with Northern Giants!!!
I also use these hunts as field tests for my new wildcats. Over the years I have field tested new rifle designs as well as new wildcat chamberings including my Raptor and Stalker rifles and also used my 257 Allen Magnum, 270 Allen Magnum, 27 Stalker and 7mm Allen Magnum on these hunts and tested a variety of bullets from bergers to barnes to hammers to accubonds.
This year, my test rifle I wanted to take up was one of my relatively new APS Stalker hunter rifles. Two years ago I took up a prototype of this rifle design chambered in my 27 Stalker shooting the 150 gr berger. Last year I took up the same rifle but this time testing the 129 gr barnes LRX. Was successful with both.
This year, again I was taking up one of my Stalker Hunter rifles but this time in a brand new wildcat called the 25 Stalker. Basically the exact same design as the 27 Stalker but necked down to 257 caliber. These wildcats are based on the 300 Norma Mag parent case, necked down and then fireformed to my Allen Magnum case body taper and shoulder angle shared with all my other wildcats.
The Stalker wildcats are specifically designed to replace my old 338 RUM based 257, 6.5mm Allen Magnums and also to replace the 300 RUM based 270 Allen Magnum, although, I still do build the 270 Allen Mag on request.
In doing load development a week before the hunt date!!!! I found that the 25 Stalker with its 27" barrel would drive the 110 gr Accubonds to 3950 fps. I toned them back a bit to around 3910 fps and accuracy tested them. I was surprised to see that after the first two shots, the 110 gr accubond would not stay on a 20" square paper target at 100 yards..... No idea why but they were not going to cut it.
In a bit of a panic I grabbed some 100 gr Barnes TTSX bullets and tried them. Using the Ramshot LRT powder, I was able to reach 4150 fps with this bullet. And muzzle velocities were actually pretty consistent. Ranging in the 30 fps extreme spread range for 5 shots. Again, for a bullet this light over a capacity this large, not bad at all. This combo actually had a heavier powder charge (103.0 gr) then bullet weight....... Don't often see that in a big game chambering.
I did however throttle things back to around 4130 fps for the ammo used on the hunt. Two days before the hunt, I was validating the drop chart out to 1/2 mile and found two things. First the load was a bit hot. When using cases that had been fired 2 or 3 times, the fired cases were starting to stick a bit in the chamber on extraction. Not terrible but noticeable so I decided that load was a bit warmer then I like. This was also exaggerated by the fact that this brass was used to do a full load development with not only the 110 gr accubond but also the 100 gr TTSX so some of the brass had had some pretty high pressure firings put on them.
Still, only two days out of the hunt, I did not have time to drop the load and redevelop the drop chart so I just went with what I was using.
I also found out that the little 100 gr TTSX bullet was quite accurate but past 700 yards, it really started to drop fast. Much faster then predicted. Predicted trajectory was dead on the money out to 700 yards but at 800 yards the impacts were over 1 moa lower then expected. Still, accuracy was great at 800 yards.
I decided to set my drop charts up out to 700 yards and be happy with that. Plenty far for a 100 gr. bullet weight even if it was ripping out at over 4130 fps.
So, last Monday morning I took the 10 hour drive north up into northern Sask. Canada and met up with the boys at Northern Giants. To my HORROR, when I arrived at 5:30 Monday evening, the temperature was 90 degrees F!!!! This worried me a lot.
Got unpacked and we decided to go out and sit for the evening. In the past years, I have always gone up in mid to late October or even early November but going up in mid September, the days were much longer, there was also A LOT more leaves on the trees!!!
We watched and saw some deer movement but most of the bucks we saw were on the way out of the ranch in the headlights. Not a surprise with the high temps!!!
On the first official morning of the hunt we returned to the ranch and set up overlooking the big valley trying to just get an eyeball on some deer moving. Not much did. In fact, the only deer we saw that morning was a big buck that was bedded down at the head of a brushy draw. He gave us about 5 seconds to see his rack (all that was exposed) and then he dove off into the safety of the heavily bushed draw.
That night, same thing, no deer moving at all. Temps had dropped to the high 70s but still very warm.
Morning of day two was the coolest yet, in the high 40s. As we drove into the ranch and passed the draw where we had seen the buck the previous morning, sure enough, he was there again but again, he gave us around 5 seconds and then disappeared... That morning we set for a bit glassing but not much was moving again. So we decided to head in for lunch and then come back out early and just drive around the ranch looking for bedded bucks if we could get that lucky.
As we drove around draw after draw, glassing for a hint of antler, we spend several hours doing this with no luck. Then after glassing several draws, we came around one side of a big draw and ran into a buck bedded down a few yards into the bush. We could only see the top half of his right antler but he was a big nontypical with VERY dark antlers, especially for that time of year. Looked like a late November buck. I am a nut for mass and dark antlers so we set up on the buck to try to figure out what he was and possibly get a shot.
I knew the shot opportunities would just not be all that great this year with the temps the way they were so did not want to pass up or mess up this opportunity. so we just set on him.
Once the buck settled down and decided we were not a threat he would turn his head a bit and we got a better look at him. he was one of three bucks that I was actually trying to get. He was actually the third option, the other two were big typicals but this deer would certainly do just fine. He had a 5x5 main frame and then a load of long sticker points.
Eventually the buck got up to take a stretch and when he did I put the little 100 gr Barnes TTSX on the point of his onside shoulder as he was quartering towards us at a decent angle. The shot was not a long one so can not brag about that, 150 yards or so. At the shot, the buck lurched to his right and appeared to dive down into the deep, heavily brushed draw....... I was thinking I had just made ALOT of work for us to get him out of that hole!!
We gave him a few minutes and then walked up to the impact sight. I was very happy to see that he had piled up right where he had lunged to after the shot, about 4 feet from the impact site. He was exactly what we thought he was.
Quite compact actually. Mainframe 5x5 in the 175" class and a total gross non typical score of 246". best feature in my opinion is his amazing color for such an early season hunt.
When we got back to the lodge, we caped and dressed him out and that was when we were able to inspect the performance of that little Barnes TTSX bullet, which I will admit worried me a bit at the 4130 fps muzzle velocity and still very high impact velocity.
However, once we got him skinned, we found that the bullet had impacted solidly on the onside shoulder and penetrated and stopped just ahead of the offside rear ham. +30" of penetration. The bullet was found fully expanded just under the skin on the off side. Retained weight was 70 grains.
SO while this was not a long range test of any kind, it was a serious Stress test on this bullet to see what it would do on a very high velocity impact. I was quite impressed to be honest. The bullet had obviously opened up relatively quickly as both lungs were quite badly damaged and the buck did not travel anywhere after the hit. Guess there is always something to be said for hydrostatic shock!!!
Again, for full disclosure on my wildcats, when I got back home, I played with the loads a bit and decided to drop the load of LRT powder down to 100.0 gr. Shooting over the chrono this reduced load clocked 4020 fps and even with cases that had 3-4 high pressure firings on them, extraction was perfect.
As such, I now consider this to be the max load for this rifle. Again, not bad, +4000 fps out of a 27" barrel length.
All in all, was a good hunt but not a fan of the heat as it kept deer movement pretty limited to nighttime hours and it was very difficult to see any deer bedded down compared to past years when after the leaves drop you could see down into the draws much better. Still got lucky to find this buck were we did and amazed at the dark color he had for such an early season buck.
Another great field test hunt with Northern Giants!!!
