Does anyone here still use any of the "old reliable" artridges for deer that were so popular for 30-100 yards "woods" hunting 70 to 100 years ago?

I'm talking about the .44-40 WCF, the .32-40, the .38-40, and so on...(even the .32-20). If so, which loads do you like the best? Why do you still use them when all the modern whiz-bang stuff is available?

Boy, I could think of nothing better than a good ole 30-30, maybe even the .45-70.

I have a friend that still uses (I believe) a 25-20? when we walk around the bushes for whitetail.

My first deer rifle was the original Ruger 44 Mag Deerstalker. It killed deer under 125 yards as good as any rifle I have ever used.

I use my 375win for timber deer, it is basicaly a 38-55. It is a killer under 200yds.

I like the 32-40 a lot for such an application.

Don't forget the 35 Rem, it's also a great "brush" deer hunting round and very popular here.

I agree the 38-55 or 375 Win is also a great deer slayer to 200 yards.

So many cartridges and so little time.

I know of a man who hunted deer with a factory engraved Remington 14 1/2 pump action carbine in 44-40 mounted with a Lyman tang peep sight. I never hunted with him, but have been told that he was a heck of a hunter and a dead shot with that little rifle. Rumor has it that he carried a Colt New Service in 44-40 as his back up and that he bear/moose rifle was an engraved Remington 14 carbine in 35 Remington.

I've shot a deer or 2 with the 22 Magnum, so it proves the point that it is more of where and how you hit 'em, not what you hit 'em with.

Jeff

The 44/40, 32/40, and 38/40 were regarded as reasonable short range deer cartridges in their day. The 32/20 and 25/20 strike me as a little light but my grandfather used a Winchester Model 92 rifle in 25/20 as his deer gun until the 1950s when purchased a Model 94 carbine in 30 WCF. For the close work you describe I wouldn't hesitate to use a carbine chambered for the 45 Colt, 44 magnum, or 357 magnum as I am acquainted with their effectiveness when used in pistols and handguns. I've long thought an Encore rifle barrel so chambered would make a fine off season trainer and short range venison harvester. Good hunting!

I have killed more deer with my 32 Win Spl pre-64 Model 94 than any of my other guns. It is my true meat gun for stalking or on stand in the woods.

How about a 12 ga. shotgun shooting Lightfield sabots from a scoped Hastings rifled barrel. Effective to at least 125 yrds. Around here we can use them lots of places a rifle isn't allowed. Mine is a parkerized Rem. 870 with a lightened trigger. It shoots abot 1" at 100 yards and I've taken deer to 125. You would then also have the versitility of swapping barrels for appriate shot loads for deer, rabbit, birds etc..

quote:

Originally posted by MontMike:
I have a friend that still uses (I believe) a 25-20? when we walk around the bushes for whitetail.

Are you sure that wasn't cotton tail?????roger

quote:

Originally posted by fredj338:
Boy, I could think of nothing better than a good ole 30-30, maybe even the .45-70.

Ditto.

I froze my ass off today sitting in a tree waiting for one of those critters to come by my stand....did't see a damn thing.

At dusk, I heard a shot less than a 100 yds away...got out of the stand and I found a friend's 11 year old son standing over a giant 10 pt...bang...flop with a 20 ga NEF and a Lightfield slug at 65 yds....yeah...'bout 30 yds from my stand right behind a holly tree. BTW, I had the same gun and load too...20 ga will git er done too!!

That boy's face was froze into a really big smile that lasted well beyond 8 PM when I left and was going strong....seeing that smile made all the cold toes worthwhile!!! Take a child hunting!!!

I've never had any trouble killing 50 yard deer with any rifle. It's much easier to kill a 50 yard deer with a 250 yard gun than the other way around.

quote:

Originally posted by jstevens:
I've never had any trouble killing 50 yard deer with any rifle. It's much easier to kill a 50 yard deer with a 250 yard gun than the other way around.

It's also easy to kill deer with a 155 m/m gun, but why go to all the work of having one lugged into place and and laid properly (let along paying the associated costs)?

Without letting too much personal stuff out of the bag, guess when I was young I must have beleived in serial polygamy. Anyway, bought my first wife a Model 73 Winchester Carbine in .44-40 as a deer gun. Light recoil, heavy enough bullet, easy to learn to shoot and easy to carry, and as Elmer Keith used to say, "let blood out and air in on both sides". She must have thought so, too...she is still using it. Has killed some BIG mule deer with it at 50 or so yards. My second wife's a wee little thing, 4"-11", about 100 lbs, but was a top-level competitive high-dive competitor when younger (and built like a brick sh...never mind). For her I got an engraved Remington M25 pump Carbine in 32-20 WCF. Just her size. She killed her first Columbia Blacktail buck with it, and is still using it. It doesn't conform with Elmer's maxim about blood and air, but is very effective up close in the woods none-the-less.

Of course, both ladies actually learned how to hunt, not just whang away at anything as far away as they could see it. Seemed to them why the sport is called "hunting"...something about sure shots being merciful kills...

Either a 30-30 lever or a 6.5x55 carbine with open sights.

quote:

Originally posted by NBHunter:
Either a 30-30 lever or a 6.5x55 carbine with open sights.

Both are good woods rifles.

I once had a barely sporterized (on somebody's kitchen table or while they were using the "little" house out back, I figger) Model 94 Swede, mannlicher-stocked, 6.5x55 carbine. It had a Williams 5-D receiver sight on it, back when they really were $5. Couldn't get the sight low enough to use the 139 gr. Norma cartridges, but it sure loved the 156 grain ones. It killed deer about like they had run head on into a semi on the inter-state. A little hyperbole there, but you know what I mean....

I thought about this post and spaced out getting back to it. Work owns my soul lately.

Anyway, How about this: A Marlin 1893, in 38-55
Here is a pic of one in 30-30 which doesn't really excite me, but the takedown feature sure makes this interesting:







Its too bad Marlin doesn't make rifles like this anymore. Anyway a non takedown version of this so I could actually afford it, would make a excellent candidate in my mind.

50 yards...anything you want as long as you can put it where you want it. Haven't killed anything in the last 7 years I couldn't have put down with a 20 Ga and #3 buck. Still hunting is like that.

Haven't used them much lately but I still have a 30-30 and a 356Win, both are Win 94's.

Yep, kilt a bar las yaar wid a 50 yard poke in da hart.

Actually a muzzleloader which is the real 50 yarder.
My future son-in-law and I also shot a bear using a .375 Win and a 444 both of which I consider to be more that 50 yard guns.

I've tried for the past 4 seasons to take a bear with my .41 Blackhawk but haven't had one close enough and wouldn't shoot one from a tree the only time I had the chance.

The limitations actually add to the thrill don't they?
Frank

My 50yd. slayer is a beautiful Savage Model 99 in 38-55.

Gosh, you guys are almost making me cry with nostalgia. That M99 in .38-55 would have to be a dream come true...I've owned one (in 1960) in .30-30, have one now in .303 Savage, and once had a .32-40 TD, but have never even seen one in .38-55. As for the Marlin M93, that one has much nicer wood than mine did, but I had one in 1963-'65 in 30-30. Very nice gun. To my mind much slimmer, easier to carry, and handier than the M336.

My friend and smith Bob at MGS is taking new 336's and reworking them so they are pretty much like the old 93's. I will be up to see him in a week or so and I'll let you know what I think.

He and I are both big fans of the old Marlins, and we both agree that the Winchester levers got all the glory and Marlins did all the work. If anyone is really interested I recommend reading "Steel Canvas" a lot of neat guns there but some of the stuff out of the Marlin custom shop was superb.

quote:

He and I are both big fans of the old Marlins, and we both agree that the Winchester levers got all the glory and Marlins did all the work. If anyone is really interested I recommend reading "Steel Canvas" a lot of neat guns there but some of the stuff out of the Marlin custom shop was superb.

I agree. I have been buying all I can afford from a major collector that is clearing out his entire collection a little at a time. I plan on being broke for the next few years.
I grabbed up a nice 1893 and model of 1898 in 25/20 and 38/55 and am paying off another in 32/40 at the moment.
Thanks for the tip on the reading.
Frank

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
Does anyone here still use any of the "old reliable" artridges for deer that were so popular for 30-100 yards "woods" hunting 70 to 100 years ago?

I'm talking about the .44-40 WCF, the .32-40, the .38-40, and so on...(even the .32-20). If so, which loads do you like the best? Why do you still use them when all the modern whiz-bang stuff is available?

I've seen a friend use his 12 gauge/30-06 CZ combo gun for just that purpose. With iron sights it handles quickly like a shotgun.

I have a passed down family heirloom, an original Winchester model 64 deluxe lever rifle w/ the factory installed Lyman peep (model 21 I think) in 30WCF (30-30). I couldn't begin to guess how many deer this rifle has taken through three generations. To this very day I would put it up agaist anything going under the hunting conditions you described.

Gary

GaryVA,
I'm waiting to inhieret that very same gun (only 32special) from my mother in law. The thing is all original and beutiful. The old girl is pretty healthy though so It may be a long wait.

NB Hunter,

Mine is a first year production model. It was top shelf in those days costing near double the standard Winchester lever rifles. It came down to me a couple of years ago. I took it down to the last screw to clean and inspect. It is all machined from steel and hand assembled by craftsmen of the day. It's one hell of a well made rifle but few were sold as it was so costly. Mine continues to function like new and shoots very tight groups w/ good ammo. The lyman peep itself is remarkable on its own.

You'll get great pleasure out of that 32 as I have had with mine.

Best of Luck,
Gary

Contrary to a lot of guys posting on this one.. I am guilty of loading up bolt actions or so to produce the performance of the older rounds...

I use 32/40 data a lot in 30.30 loadings...

I love loading up the 338/06 with SR 4759 and 200 grain Flat Nose Horndays to duplicate the old 33 Winchester...

I have loaded the old 260 Remington with 160 grain Round Noses to duplicate the old 6.5 x 54 Schonauer Mannlicher....

I like thinking of hunting with those older performance rounds like that.. as it represented a simplier time when the world wasn't as commercial or politically so nuts...

Saw a Big 6 point buck today, that I thought would have been fun to drop with an old 32/40 load in the 30/30 or a 33 Winchester... and then haul it back to my good old 1933 Chevy Pickup and bring it on home...

Or a good old Winchester Model 54 in 30/30 or 35 Remington, or a Remington 30S in 25, 30, 32 or 35 Remington....Anyone which are on my list.. of guns I would love to get one of....

cheers
seafire

On the deer I have killed, I have used the .30 WCF, 7X57 and .45-70.
Currently have an old 1949 Marlin 336 carbine with 3/4 magazine and peep that has deer written all over it. But I am thinking of using a Spencer in .56-50 next fall.

I have a soft spot for the 32 Win Special. The 38-55 is pretty nifty, too.

Yeaers ago a lot of "Old Timers" used the 25/20
for deer. Deer were a lot easier to kill in those days.
Good luck!

My first deer rifle was a Winchester Model 94 in 32WS, I still have that rifle sitting in the back of my gun safe where it has resided for far too long. Reading the posts in this thread has brought back fond memories. I think it is time to take it for a walk in the woods.

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
Or a good old Winchester Model 54 in 30/30 or 35 Remington, or a Remington 30S in 25, 30, 32 or 35 Remington....Anyone which are on my list.. of guns I would love to get one of....

cheers
seafire

Hi, Seafire....it's too bad our two countries are so screwed up gun law wise (with Canada about to get a LOT worse)...othewise, amnyone legally able to own a gun at all should be able to buy and import it from either country. (No on can tell me that Saskatchewaners are that much more or less trustworthy than North Dakotans 5 miles away, or vice-versa. It's all "power", not brains....)

There are still a pretty fair number of M54 Winchesters seen in .30-30 in Western Canada. I don't know why they seemed to thrive in the prairie provinces, but I've owned 3 of them while living there, and I was never even looking for one.

I bought them for LESS than I would have had to pay for other M54 chamberings, as no one really seemed to want that nice bolt action in what thy considered a very weak sister to the '06. Personally I found the .30-30 with pointed 150 gr. bullets to be tres bien for deer & caribou of all ilk. Wish I had any one of those rifles back.....


P.S., in case you haven't heard, the reason I say Canada is about to get a lot worse is that the Liberal gov't has just announced that it is about to pass a law banning ALL private ownership of handguns in Canada. Canada may CLAIM to be an independent country, but it still looks like a colony of England to me (only colder, even with central heating.)