Thread: Vintage rifles blooded

I'm away on the hot and sunny West Coast for the week ( came to get away from the Canterbury heat ! ) and only brought a couple of my Vintage Single Shot Rifles.

Field's 450 no1 Express ( 140 year old ) and 1885 45-70 ( 130 years old )
Just to make it a bit challenging



I had billed it as a USA vs British shoot.
Britain got first run yesterday evening bush stalking, but it was hot and a bit noisy and nothing on offer.
Britain went out again at 5:30 this morning because it was mild and dry ( don't really want the stock getting wet ).
Got on to some mixed age red hinds a little too early and hard to find the front sight with no light on it. The deer fed in to 60m and then might have smelt me, so I made a quick shot on a yearling hind.

It was about 6:30 and still pretty dark.
I checked just inside the bush edge where they all disappeared but there was no obvious sign of the hit deer.
And it was very dark in the bush.

Then I realised I had blood on the back of my hand and wiped it off. Looking for the lawyer tear I found none and then realised I also had blood on my gear bag !
So I went back in and found that I had brushed past a bush covered in blood.

Too dark to follow up.
Treat it like a bow shot animal !
Went back to the cottage and had coffee and another breakfast.

Go back to the last blood spots at 8am and took the USA 1885 45-70 because the tang peep sight is better in low light and the bush.
Tracked a little blood and some very deep footprints for about 200m in heavy beech forest and did a few big loops through the bush and find the hind still alive and against a fallen tree. 8:30am
The 1885 finished it off from about 20m shot in the eye.



I was very pleased to find her and a full 2 hours since I had shot and wounded it.
The shot was on the last rib and out through the off side thigh bone just below the hip.
I really needed 10 minutes more light before I shot, but that's hunting.

So Britain and USA came out about even on this one.
Nice to have them both out in the field.
Even better to get a deer with them.
And especially happy to have taken the time to go back and make a proper effort to find the deer

Greetings @akaroa1,
Great story which reminds me that there some Old Soldiers in my cupboard that need a walk. Might be a very short hunting story though.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings @akaroa1,
Great story which reminds me that there some Old Soldiers in my cupboard that need a walk. Might be a very short hunting story though.
Regards Grandpamac.

These aren't Old Soldiers but Old Gentlemen
It is nice to get them out and see them in the bush doing what they were intended for

@akaroa1
An excellent outing and story. Congrats and wee done.

eat right up to the bullet hole too...great stuff young man,great stuff indeed.

Excellent!
Great to see the old gents getting out and doing the work instead of languishing inside.

Grand. Just Grand.

Originally Posted by -BW-

Excellent!
Great to see the old gents getting out and doing the work instead of languishing inside.

Surely your referring to the rifles and not the gentleman accompanying them.

Still delivering the goods after many years, proof they were made to last, great story and end result.

#Meanness #OldSchool That is just awesome.

Looking back I see the 1885 Rustoration was done in 2020

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....oration-57038/

Other project cut in front of it getting out hunting.
I doubled back last year and did some decent load development for it.
I think it's probably the easiest to be in the field with and has good sights, plenty of power and super accurate.

Next themed hunt will be for 500 BPE Express single shot rifles.
Three too choose from so I might need company on that hunt
All are 500 3"
Two are ready to go
One still needs a day of work on it's hammer before the roar

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Surely your referring to the rifles and not the gentleman accompanying them.

A little bit of column A… a little bit of column B…

I broke down the damaged rear leg yesterday before coming home.
And now just sorted the rest in my Man Kitchen at home.

Considering it was a sub optimal shot the damage was impressive.
100mm of the bone below the hip socket was completely gone.
The top and bottom of the break were jagged.
In between was just a mass of bone that look like they were off a meat saw.
Not shards, but dust.
Associated tissue damage was pretty extensive. I guess because it wasn't a quick kill.

So plenty of horsepower with this old 450
Just some operator error to sort out.
If it had hit the shoulder or front of the chest it would be game over

If you zoom in on the image all the little white specs are granules of bone
Not sharp
More like coarse sand

Great work mate!