Texas Doe with Sporter #1

[Ken Hartlein]

Monday I killed a nice big doe whitetail with my sporter #1 in 45-70. I was using a lyman 420 grain bullet that was much too hard!! A fellow gave me these bullets and I thought they were too hard but wasn't sure. I made a small entrance hole and just about the same size exit hole. The doe was hard to track but we did it and found her. I was using the Ron Heilman globe front sight and also his tang sight with a hadley eye cup, the combination worked very well. I had the smallest aperture in the front globe and just centered it where I wanted to shoot her, only one shot needed. I hate to brag on myself but the friend that owned the ranch and myself did a very good tracking job, we only found about 4 or 5 drops of blood on different cactus in the 100 yards she ran. My wife and I butchered the meat ourselves and it's in the freezer!!

[Omaha Poke]

Ken, nice job! I really envy you guys who live in states that have long hunting seasons. Here in WA state we have about a 10 day deer season, and an even shorter elk season. I have heard that Alabama has a one deer per day limit. Man would I like to be able to hunt there! Again, nice going. Randy

[KHR]

Ken,
A couple weeks ago I got a large doe (at least large for central texas) with my 45/70. This was the first deer that I have ever gotten with a Sharps. I used the 330 gn lyman Gould hollow point. It was poured from 30:1 alloy. The deer was about 70 yrds away, the round went through and through breaking the farside shoulder. The exit wound was about 3/4 inch in size. The deer spun around did not even take a step.

I think that the soft alloy helped in expansion. Sure is fun to get game with an antique style rifle, Next year I want to get another dear with a Sharps and the one with my model '76 winchester.

keith

[Clarence]

Keith,

What kind of accuracy do you get with the Gould? I've got the mould but not yet had a chance to cast and load it.

Clarence

[Clarence]

Keith,

What kind of accuracy do you get with the Gould? I've got the mould but not yet had a chance to cast and load it.

Clarence

[Ken Hartlein]

Thanks guys. I've been told by many people that you can't hunt with the globe front and tang sights, but I can tell you I got a perfect sight picture with that combination of sights. Yes, It's nice to be able to hunt for several months, they have a special doe season here the last 2 weeks, that's when I killed the doe. I'm trying to buy a 100 acres so I can have my own place to shoot and hunt. I'm in Three Rivers, TX.

[KHR]

Clarence,
I've found that the gould gives fair hunting accuracy, getting about 4-5 inch groups at 100 meters. Here is the load that I'm using:

Poured from 30-1 alloy I've heard that harder alloys break up and can cause excessive damage. SPG lube

Swiss 1.5 66.0 g by weight drop tubed

.030 fiber walters wad

Winchester case, Federal mag Rifle primer

compression is the thickness of the wad, bullet seated covering all grooves

BTW: my moms side of the family is from the Bayou country west of Plaquemine.

keith

[KHR]

Ken,
I agree that you can hunt with the globe front and tang sights. I use the largest apterture and when I cant see the front post, its pretty much too dark for open sights of any kind (pure open sight would only give about 10 more minutes of shooting time). Basically I make sure that the background behind the kill zone is not really dark like cedar trees, some kind of light foliage helps offset the darker globe.
I also like that special doe season and am going to take big advantage of it next year. I just found a place to hunt that is literally 30-45min from work (I'm in Austin) so I can get off work at 3:30 and be sights on at 4:30. Pretty Cool!!!!

keith