All the kids and my wife were still out cold with food hang overs when I headed out into the dark, damp and foggy morning.
Most of the ground was still snow covered and the humidity was 90% plus. It was cold around 38 degrees and an intermittent light misty kind of rain filled the air. Mostly it was dark...very overcast no stars just black with limited visibility.
I would be hunting a neighbor property where I had put up a tree stand the week prior but had been unable to get to it due to some really bad snowy weather.
I took an unusual gun along largely because I had just cleaned my Kreighoff Drilling and didnt want to drag it out into the wet and crappy weather. The gun is unusual for me because I only own 2 bolt action rifles and have never hunted with either.
This rife is something I built up for fun. Its a Remington SPS 700 short action in a Modular Driven Technologies chassis. It has a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 scope attached with Leupold QD mounts. The caliber is odd tooIts a 300 Blackout. Very accurate and suitable for deer out to maybe 200 yards but really the trajectory and energy figures say 150 yards is a much safer bet. The gun fires a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet right at 2200 fps. I squeeze the bullet out with 18.2 grains of H110 over a Winchester small rifle primer. In my gun there are no signs of excessive pressure at the COAL I use and case life is maybe 4 to 5x. I almost forgot to mention the linear muzzle brake. It doesnt blow sidewaysjust straight ahead so all the muzzle blast is directed away from mewhich is what I like. Its relatively quiet with very little recoil.
By the way my only other bolt gun is a near mint 1950 Mannlicher Schoenauer carbine in 6.5x54. I have yet to figure out a good scope & mount combination due to the split bridge receiver and my inability to spend long dollar on a scope mount that will work with a scope Id like to use on it the rifle. It currently has a Leupold Adjusto mount on it that I hate. But thats a project for another day.
I digressback to the deer story.
So here comes the funny part (Im gonna put a picture up at the end of this story to show you what caused my rifle to malfunction and how stupid I felt when I saw it clear as day with good light about an hour after I shot the doe).
I park the car load up the backpack and head down the trail. About 50 yards from the car I seat the magazine in the rifle and cycle the bolt. The bolt opens up just fine but when I run it forward it wont close! I start fiddling with it still and still no cigar. The bolt literally stops when I push it forward about half way into battery. I really cant see why because its really dark. I deploy my cell phone flashlight and hold the phone in my mouth while trying to see what the problem is. I cant see anything in there? The magazine is fine nothing is stuck in the action. Having no luck; I trudge back to the car swearing and wishing I had brought a break open rifle. Now under the cars dome light which really is not much better than my flashlight I carefully examine the gun. Removing the magazine, then the bolt making sure there is nothing in the chamber or stuck in the action. I begin poking my fingers in and out of the action. I examine the bolt the ammo everything I can see and think of. For the life of me I cant figure it out. After a half an hour of screwing with the gun I finally manage to get the bolt to go into battery but I am still at a loss for why it jammed. Now its starting to get light and I figure Im not going to see any deer so I head out again with the goal or retrieving my tree stand and calling the morning a wash out. I also figure I have a single shot rifle now because Im not sure it wont jam after I cycle the bolt again!
I hit the trail again hiking in about 100 yards from the car and much to my surprise about 150 yards up the lane is a Doe standing in the middle of the trail looking right at me. Unfortunately it looks small and its facing me head on so I have no shot. I put the gun up and crank the mag up to 9x. Through the mist I see its a small doe clear as daythank you Zeiss! Game timeI figure Id see how close I can get before she bolts. I slowly move to the left of the trail right next to the trees and began to creep up on the little doe. Its still pretty misty out with no walking noise, no scent and limited visibility yet she is still gazing in my direction no doubt unsure of what I am. I take 3 steps and stopshe puts her head down and I take 3 more. Now I notice a water trough about 20 yards up on the left side of the trailif I can make it there I can drop down behind it and rest the gun on the top of the trough to observe the doe at 9x without the vibration I get offhand. I slowly stop-n-go without spooking her and make the water trough. Lucky for me its covered and there is a sheet of plywood with 4x4 on top. I go to one knee and rest the gun on the 4x4. All the deer can see now is my hat and my camo covered mug but she is still looking my way. I settle in and observer the doe. Its compact and in my opinion too small to shoot so I watch it through the scope for a couple minutes and decide to wait till it moves along before I continue on to the stand.
Here comes the good part. The doe starts looking away from me and to her right. Im still on the scope as she turns to face the woods. Im thinking maybe she has a friend? Lucky me I am correct! Walking out of the woods and onto the trail appears another doe. This one is a good size too. A head plus taller than the first and has a much bigger body. Unfortunately they are now both staring in my direction and facing me head on. With the little thirty caliber rifle I have no shot. I have to waitafter the longest 3 minutes they both begin to move off and the bigger one turns sideways just enough for me to drop the hammer on her. The gun is relatively quiet so I hear the whack of the bullet and see the doe bound off into the woods. I know it was a good hit as the gun was solid at 9x and I was holding for a double lung hit yet she was still at a bit of an angle.
As I walk the 125 paces to where the deer were standing I see blood in the snow just off the trail. This should be an easy track-n-find with only a couple hundred yard drag back to the car. I am correct at a mere 15 yards inside the woods I find my good sized eating doe DOA with a tiny hole about 3 inches below where I was aiming. The little .30 Nosler bullet completely penetrated the chest cavity taking out the near side lung and running a dime sized channel through the liver before exiting the aft side leaving a nickel sized exit hole. No fuss no muss and no meat damageexcept that liver. Score that one a win.
I still have 1 Doe permit left plus my muzzle loader tag too. Maybe we drag out the crossbow and the smoke pole to clean up the reaming tagswe shall see.
And here was my gun jam problem:
Note the scope cover and how the 2 wings are situated. When its dark these thing are not apparent!
A total brain fart...How stupid am I?
