hunting with BPCRs

[mdeland]

You can see the width of the river here in the pictures just past the fork were both rivers converge. I was shooting across after the convergence and on the diagonal which makes for long shots. Also the wind comes ripping up the canyon in the back ground and makes for a huge wind drift factor at times. That side of the river is a game corridor and is the reason we shoot from the other bank , up river on diagonal . Game can neither smell , see or hear you but the shots tend to be long and tough for even a flat shooting rifle and load with scope sighting.
The other reason for the diagonal long shots is that the caribou usually cross the river down from the fork and go up a ravine before getting up river far enough for us to be able to shoot straight across which can be as close as 90 yards once they get into the upper fork. Chris took one two years ago this close across river.
I could have easily made the shot with my 45-70 Roller at that range and the dulplex load I have for the 510 PJ Creedmoor load but this close is a rare shot in the area.

[mdeland]

Here is a shot of Chris and his Caribou he took two days before the bear and bull I shot in the previous photos.

[mdeland]

A frontal shot of mine. He had a nice spread and the best I've taken to date although not the coveted double shovel.

[pete]

I always prelube the bore for rust prevention and leading reduction for hunting or target shooting. It really helps but it makes a difference what lube and what application method though. I use Natural Wonder lube for both of my Shilohs. For my hunting rifle I run one not too tight fitting dry patch after the bore is lubed. If I don't do that she hits about 3" high with the first shot. With the rifle I use for matches it doesn't matter about the dry patch she hits fine with the first shot.

About 7 years ago I did a prelube test for cold weather hunting comparing the Natural lube and a synthetic oil figuring the oil wouldn't freeze or get hard in the cold. The synthetic oil hit lower than the Natural lube. The Natural stuff does freeze but doesn't affect the results so I just shoot it regardless and don't worry about it.

So I would say try more than one lube and try both wiping with a dry patch and not wiping after it's lubed. I 'm pretty sure the guys back in the 1800's protected the bore with a grease / oil of some kind too.

[mdeland]

This is the black bears cleaned up skull. His teeth were in very good shape!