Richard's Custom Rifles

Deer & Varmints

VARMINTS & DEER HUNTING

Gary Davis of Amelia shot this Buck near Amelia, Va. on Sat. Nov/21/09

Congrats Gary, Its a nice one all right

Driving Deer with Dogs

Amelia, Virginia, 2008

Now you talk about serious Deer hunters, these fellows are serious. They have been hunting with dogs for many years and have become downright good at it. And they have over 12000 acres to do it on. They have over 125 white Walkers that are kept in several kennels. Each fall before the season begins every dog is numbered on both sides so the owners can keep up with them. Some of the dogs wear radio collars so they can be located after a hunt. The trucks driven by the hunters have receivers and a large antenna on top and they can find a dog pretty easy by these means. Some of the dogs return to their kennel on their own but some just keep hunting or become lost and have to be found by the owners.

There are about 12 or 13 hunters, nearly all are kinfolks, and almost all of them carry a Browning short trac in 300 WSM caliber and a 12 gauge loaded with double ought buckshot. They have been shooting at running Deer for so long they have become downright good at it.

In December of 2008 I was invited by my good friend Gary Davis to come down and spend a day hunting with them. I gladly accepted the invitation as I had never had the opportunity to hunt Deer with Dogs. I rode that day with Gary in his truck and I have to say he scared the hell out of me trying to get in front of the Deer. They all drive their own pickup and each has a 2-way radio to let the other know where to go to head off the Deer. And they all drive like race car drivers and the logging roads are narrow and sometimes slick and muddy.

I met Gary at his house about 6:45 AM and loaded my gear and my 280 Remington into Garys pickup. We headed over to the clubhouse where we were served a fine breakfast dished up by two women cooks that come each day during hunting season and serve up breakfast and lunch. The meals were about as good as it gets. After breakfast I wandered around the Great room where there are a zillion mounted Deer and Elk heads and had a good look at all of them. There are some great racks hanging there. Some shot many years ago. The Elk of course were shot in the Western States. There is a Albino Whitetail Deer in a full mount and a full mounted black Coyote as well as other assorted animals.

After Breakfast everybody jumped into their pickups and headed over to Gary’s house where Gary’s 20 dogs was loaded into a couple of trucks and we headed out for the first drive of the day. We soon reached the spot Gary was to turn loose the first pack of dogs. Everyone seemed to know exactly just where to go to get a shot at any Deer that might be put up and run by the Dogs. Before Gary let loose the Dogs I walked up the logging road several hundred yards hoping I might get a shot. I could not see Gary but I sure heard him when he loosed the Dogs. He was yelling like a banshee and chasing through the woods in an effort to get the Dogs excited and headed in the direction he wanted them to go which they soon did. Deer were jumped probably within the first hundred yards and the chase was on. I was in a place where I could see several hundred yards but no Deer came my way. Gary quickly picked me up and then someone said something to him on the 2-way and we was instantly racing off to another spot. Gary pulled the truck over and slid to a halt, we both saw a Buck and some does ahead of us about 200 yards. We both jumped out with the rifles blazing but no harm was done. The Deer was standing but I guess we were too excited to hit anything. I could not see the Buck after getting out but did see the does which I let off a couple of rounds on. Gary had a shot at the Buck but was shooting through tree branches. If my memory is right I don’t believe any Deer was shot on this first drive but as soon as one drive was over another bunch of Dogs would be turned loose in another location and the chase would be on again and the excitement was renewed with greater intensity than before.

I don’t know how many Dogs were turned loose or how many drives was made that day but my guess is lots on both accounts. I ain’t going to say how many rounds I fired off in the 280 but it was a few. Later in the morning I was on top of Gary’s dog box and had a shot at a Buck and several running does. I got on them and shot at what I thought was the Buck but killed a doe instead with a perfect accidental heart shot. I think Gary and Billy was amused at this. Gary walked over and yelled back “Ain’t no horns on it Richard” and I’m sure I heard the ……….he he. But even a doe accidentally shot at 200 yards running was a good shot in my book. Hell, I couldn’t have missed the Buck by more than a few feet.

At noon we all headed back to the clubhouse for a fine dinner whipped up by the ladies and I as usual ate too much as I’m prone to do when offered food cooked by a woman. With lunch over, several pickups were loaded with dogs again and we were back at it.

I believe it was the next to last drive when Will Frank shot a really nice Buck. It was coming down the ridge running a gauntlet of several shooters. I was one shooter below Will but he shot it dead and I never got a shot at it. I heard the shooting and it sounded like a firefight in Nam to me except there were no rounds coming my way. We all gathered at the kill site and had a good discussion on the merits of the Bucks horns. There was no shortage of draggers to drag the Buck to the pickup.

On the last drive of the day about a half hour before it was too dark to shoot, Gary and I was on his dog box when several Deer crossed in front of us at about 175 yards. Gary blazed away with his cannon (30-338 Lapua) and I with the 280. When the smoke had cleared we had at least two Deer on the ground. One was a spike Buck that had two bullet holes in him and the other a small doe that Gary had put a cannon ball size hole thru with the 30-338. Gary says that no matter where a Deer is hit with it, that it is instantly killed. I asked if a hit thru the ears or tail would do the job and Gary allowed as it would drop a Deer instantly……….I had let loose a couple of rounds at about 300 yards on a bigger Deer I thought was a Buck but we never found anything.

This was the last drive of the day and since it was dark, we all headed over to one of the kennels where they have a couple of chain hoists in a big White oak tree for skinning and dressing out Deer. There had been about three fairly nice Bucks shot today. I stayed and helped with a few of the Deer and then I was off for home as I had a good two hour drive and it had started to snow and I was tired…..very tired, but I had done something today I had never done before and I thank all the fellows there for allowing me to spend the day and hunt with them. They are all a great bunch of guys.

A portion of the dogs, there are three more kennels

Hiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......hoooooooooooo.....come on boys

We're coming Boss...............

The work begins, Gary on rgt.

Mark Borum shot this buck the following Saturday, It might score enough to take the Virginia State record this year (2008).

Congrats Mark, This is indeed a nice Whitetail Buck

September 20/08 Richard Franklin, Roy Morris and the

1005 yard Groundhogs, 2008

September 20th found Roy and I on our last Groundhog hunt of the year as Bow season for Deer opens on October 4th and we wanted the next couple of Saturdays to ready ourselves for it.

We started the day as usual with Roy showing up at the shop around 7:30 AM. We usually keep all our Groundhog hunting rifles and gear in the Suburban, taking it out only when Deer season starts. We made sure everything was according to Hoyle and headed out. We stopped at AJs Restaurant for bacon & eggs and a chat with the waitresses (they all look like movie stars).

With breakfast over we decided to head over to the Overstreet farm which is one of the farms leased by our good friend Richard Ruff. Roy to date had killed 99 hogs this year and I had killed 97 of which 42 I had shot with my smokeless powder 45 caliber muzzleloader. We set up the shooting trailer and leveled it on top of a hill where we had a good view of several old brush piles scattered around the pasture. In the 1st 10 minutes Roy put a hog in the air about 4 feet at 497 yards with his 300 Varminter making an even 100 hogs for the year. Over the next hour and half I shot hogs at 180 yards, 506 yards, and 456 yards which gave me a total of 100 for the year. After about an hour we decided we had taken the cream off the top here as no more hogs was to be found so we decided to go up on the mountain to Dannys and Bills hard rock dairy farm. We always set up on the top of a very high hill and shoot over the farm buildings to the other mountain where there is a huge pasture with large rock piles all over it. We had killed many hogs here this summer and about done them all in. We scanned this pasture for about an hour and a half with our binoculars and big eyes. Roy has a pair of Ziess 8 power binocs and I use a pair of the Leica 10 power Giovids with the laser rangefinder. My big eyes consists of two 22 power Kiowa spotting scopes mounted on a bracket and used on a sturdy tripod. These things are great and we never leave home without them.

After a suitable amount of time searching the field for hogs and seeing none we decided to pack up and go to a farm owned by Donnie Campbell. Over the years we have shot many a hog here. Roy once shot one here at 905 yards and my longest shot on this farm was 714 yards. Most kills on this farm was all over 400 yards. It was a perfect place to shoot hogs from one spot. At the back property line was a big hill about 400 feet higher than the surrounding pastures and we could see and shoot about 200 degrees around us all the way out to about 1200 yards.

I had the 1st shot and nailed an easy one at about 140 yds which was sitting there on his dirt pile listening to us talk thinking he was hid from our view...........WRONG..........BLAM.............POOF......... guts and blood blown back about 10 feet with the 300 Varminter. Roy nailed a hog at 469 yards that was eating pears under an old pear tree. He was put to sleep and never moved. Roy nailed another hog at 522 yards by a big log pile where we had killed about 10 hogs this summer. This was not a dramatic kill either as the hog never moved when shot with Roys 300 Varminter. I was on the bench and Roy was looking thru the big eyes when I heard him say...........Hey Rich......I got you one way over there on the next farm by the edge of the woods near that ravine. I ranged the hog with the Geovids four times. I got 1003, 1007, 1006 and 1005 yards. I decided on the 1005 as the distance and checking my click chart I clicked up to 18 and 1/4 minutes. We had a very stiff wind blowing from left to right. I have a Nightforce 8-32 power scope with the MLR reticle. I held the fourth windage dot and touched one off. I see thru the Nightforce the bullet strike nearly in line with the hog but low. I click up another minute and a half making a total of 19 3/4 minutes. Roy is watching all this thru the big eyes and can see better than I can thru the Nightforce. He confirms my idea of where the 1st bullet strike was. I hold the same windage and touch off another round in my Bat action, 32" 15 twist Bartlein barreled 300 Varminter. The hog was standing up for this shot and I see thru the scope the bullets vapor trail going straight for the hog. I lost the vapor trail before the bullet got there but see the hog flip over and the puff of dust as the bullet passed thru what looked like the hogs head.

Hot damn, what a shot. Roy is shaking my hand and slapping me on the back and as we are doing congrats I walk over to the big eyes for a better look. Damn, ROY, there's another hog trying to fight that dead one. This hog, evidently both are males, is biting and dragging the dead hog all over the place. He is really going at it. Both hogs were evidently eating the fallen acorns form the huge White Oak tree towering over them at the edge of the woods.

Hey Roy, get up there on your bench and try that hog, I'll spot for you. Roy gets clicked up to 19 1/2 minutes with his bumped Leopold (42 power) and asks what to hold for windage, I tell him 3 feet. Roy lets it go and I see the vapor trail going in on the hog. It hits a foot to the right and low. Hey Roy........... click up two more minutes and hold one more foot of wind. The hog ran in under the tree at the bullets impact but was back working over the dead hog within 30 seconds. Roy is now clicked up and lets the second round go. I see thru the bigeyes the vapor trail dropping in on the hog but the bullet impacts dead in line but still a bit low. The hog never pays any attention to this bullet even tho it closer and has to have thrown dirt on him. Hey Roy...........give it another minute and a half and hold the same wind. I can hear Roy furiously working the bolt and chambering another round...........POW ...........and I see the vapor trail again. It looks like it gonna be right in the middle of the hog but it drops right in under his neck nearly hitting him. The hog vacates back under the tree for an instant but decides he is winning the fight against the dead hog and is right back. This time he is trying to drag the dead hog to safety back under the tree but Roy lets the fourth round go with the same hold as the last shot and its now to late for the live hog. I see the vapor trail of the 125 grain Ballistic Tip dropping right in on the hog, catching him perfectly in the shoulder. The live hog flips up and falls on top of the dead hog, his tail coming up stiff as a poker as he flags us that he is instantly dead.

Well, I have never seen Roy excited but he got excited now. Who's gonna ever believe we just shot not one but two hogs at 1005 yards. I slap him on the back and he returns the favor. He nearly twisted my wrist shaking my hand and me his. This was Roy's longest shot ever. His previous record was 905 yards. This was my second longest shot as I had killed a hog at 1018 yards seven years ago about 40 miles from this spot.

I tell Roy that I'm putting up my hog rifle for the year and let this long shot register in my memory as the last Groundhog kill of 2008. Roy sez thats fine.......I'm gonna do the same. Hog hunting is officially over for 2008.............now for the Deer............

I have to apologize for no pictures. I did not have the video camera or even the digital still camera in the truck. I just learned an important lesson...........................ALWAYS have the video camera and film ALL shots. Richard