Mini Cooper for Hunting???

[AlaskanGuy]

Well, my truck is down with a broken shift cable, so had to take the my Road Car, the Supercharged Mini Cooper hunting today... i figured, i would just take it to the cloest spot on the Highway to the lake I hunt and canoe in.. i was a bit leery of blood and guts in my cooper, but it all worked out, not a drop of blood in the car... who says a mini doesnt make a good hunting rig?????



i target my deer the same as my bear.. 2nd year deer, bear and whatever are perfect for me...

The Gun is a 1949 Marlin 336 lever gun chambered in 32 win special sporting a homegrown 160gr ideal 321291 bullet from the same vintage mould loaded with a case full of compressed home made BP.. 





nothing fancy about the small sitka blacktail around here.. dogsized, and not even done growing horns yet... I think that is why we are allowed 5 each season... its a meat hunt. and a young one is good eating..


 our deer dont grow much for horns, even a top buck isnt very big...
this deer I got a few years back was about 6ish and considered huge, but wasnt that great eating.. but the antlers of our deer are kinda cool looking in color...


this was the last big deer I shot.. now I just get little ones, they just taste better..



red circle is where i pull off the road, yellow is my hunting area..


AG

[ShotgunDave]

That's awesome! I'd stuff a deer in the back of my car too.

[sourdough]

AG,

Yeah, those are small deer, but good eating. IMO, better than any whitetail or muley and I have had both. Here in WA State we have Columbia blacktail, which are a cousin to the Sitka blacktail. What amazes me is that they can jump vertically from a standing position a good 3-4 feet, and when they land can run like the wind. We see them around the farm in the early fall when the apples are ripe and fall to the ground. It is amazing to watch them on their hind legs feeding on apples on the low hanging branches. I was given a rump roast a few years ago, and it is much better than any elk meat I have had here.

I like your Win .32 Special rifle as it is an older Marlin 336, back when they were JM Marlins instead of Remlins. The .32 Special was not known for the accuracy that the .30-30 had, but that was with factory ammo. I see you use a gas check on the rear of that 160 gr lead bullet. That looks like just the medicine for Sitka blacktail deer.

Thanks for sharing!

Jim

[AlaskanGuy]

well, at 100 yards, i am VERY dialed in with that old sweetheart. but it is surely no "black" gun.. i have taken several bears, deer and it is a great cal for both.. it also carries well on long walk ins or paddles. my bullet alloy for hunting runs about 14bhn, 1/2 wheel weight, 1/2 dead soft. it expands very nicely, and holds together nicely.. also the 32 win special brass is easy to make from 30-30 brass, and I can stuff a little bit more BP into the 32 win case. its easy to switch between BP and smokeless when you load for velocity so I dont have to change things around when I use BP or smokeless. i do get a bit of variation in my BP batches though.. i have learned via trial and error to make a big enough batch of BP to last me a year or 2, mix it all up and i can get an average dram velocity that I keep notes on for to help me keep the consistancy for hunting.. the gun has a really nice tight throad and lands, so I do t get a bunch of BP grime back into my action.. i am a huge balistol fan and it keeps the action nice..

the gun also has an old late 1950's japan made scope that is a 4x scope with a monument post reticle and that is all.. it was made when Japan made really good glass, and tuff lenses. its on a weaver pivot mount and holds its aim nicely.. but mostly I just adore that scope. with just the monument post and nothing else it is so easy to aquire a animal with that gun.. no clutter, rings, crosshairs, tic marks, little dots or nuthing.. you can actually see through the scope.. that gun and I just fit together like an extension, and it hits what I tell it to hit, where I tell it to hit at. i paid 400 bucks for the whole thing from a brother at church that  figured his hunting days were over due to age and blindness and moved to lower 48. he bought the gun in seattle in the early 50's just before he moved to alaska and only shot lead through it. he told me what mould to get and I got one from a friend over on CastBoolits, and he was not wrong. i hope to give it to my son, but maybe not... i might wanna be buried with it...   

am I rambling????

AG.

[Captainkirk]

am I rambling????

AG.

Nope. Carry on!

[ssb73q]

Hi AG, nice deer. I had a friend (now deceased) who had a Mini that would always wear a hat with Mini on it. I had enough of him touting his Mini and bought hats that had Maxi on it. Gave one to him that had him laugh. Too bad he is now passed.

Do you race your Mini?

Regards,
Richard

[AlaskanGuy]

do I race my mini??? lol...

i race back and forth to town where there is pavement. ... it does fit nice on the ferry to Ketchikan and is loaded by the cheapest rate..  basically, i bought it for a woman that is no longer around... but discovered how freaking fun it is to drive on the pavement, I became a believer. but you dont wanna hit a bear or deer.. i have been known to challenge a wolf or 2 to a race....



take a peek..

[ShotgunDave]

do I race my mini??? lol...

 i have been known to challenge a wolf or 2 to a race....



take a peek..

 

[Captainkirk]

Two Socks?!!!!!

[G Dog]

Two Socks?!!!!!

Bad wolf!  Go home.

That does it, man. I gotta move to Alaska.

[AlaskanGuy]

actually, there was 4-5 of them that had just made a deer kill.. the one I was running with was a loner... the others were tearing up a deer on the side of the road and completely ignored me.. i was fixing to turn around when I saw that loner up ahead and decided to get him on my ipad.

[Captainkirk]

Two Socks?!!!!!

Bad wolf!  Go home.

Man, we are on the same wavelength tonight!

[Mad Dog Stafford]

AlaskanGuy, great photos there.

Didi you make any deer jerky?