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