Bolt Guns in the Bushes

For fast shooting in tight cover, it’s hard to beat a bolt rifle.
By Wayne van Zwoll

Quick follow-up shots and bullets that cannon through undergrowth: solutions to problems I didn’t have. Oh, I like the woods, sure enough. I’ve hunt there since the ‘60s, since a whitetail buck barreled from a stand of pines and sprinted away. I fired almost without aiming, as if at a grouse. The deer skidded on his nose.

Years later, in the mountains, I shot deer more deliberately-like the big buck that peeked at me from a patch of white bark pine below a ridge line in the Wallowas. When I triggered my rifle, he went limp. So did a black tail buck in alders and an elk that appeared the mist. The woods have been kind to me, perhaps because I spend so much time there. Let other hunters swarm the meadows and cuts and croplands. A mediocre marksman, I don’t like to shoot far. Nor do I enjoy crowds.

On occasion I’ve been thwarted by trees in front of my cross wires. Often the animals hide better than I can see. And every season I prowl timber that shows me nothing for my efforts. But I persist. In thickets, game finds shelter, shade and seclusion. A lot of hunters go where the looking is easy; finding is better in the brush. Of course, you can’t shoot far in the woods. The deer and elk mentioned were killed at slingshot ranges-- between 14 and 32 yards. You can’t wring out your super-magnum rifle and its Hubble-size sight in a copse of aspens or a lodge pole jungle. But short shots can still test your marksmanship. A couple years ago, still hunting a steep north face, I spied a patch of yellow through the dark boles of Douglas firs. In the scope it became an elk. Eighty yards. I concluded. Can’t miss. I fired quickly and did miss. An elk is a big animal, but its forward ribs are a smaller target, and when you see only a patch of elk the size of a softball, you’d best take your time.

Usually, you have plenty. Of time, that is. The animal is already in what it perceives as a secure place. Unless you’ve announced yourself with a heavy step, careless movement or upwind approach, you have just as much time as if your target were lounging like a Hereford on the far side of a canyon. The notion that you must always shoot fast in the brush is nonsense. So, too, is the idea that fast follow-up shots will pile up the venison. Repeat shots are necessary only if you botch the first one, which is commonly your best chance. And about bullets: Although the old bromides call for "Brush-busting" ammo, . there’s no evidence that your bullet must rip through several board feet of cellulose en route to animals in timber. It’s always better to shoot between the branches rather than through them. Besides, a bullet that mows poplars would be uncomfortable to launch. I’ve documented deflection of a variety of bullet types and weights in half-inch sagebrush limbs, finding none--neither 250-grain .35 Whelen bullets, nor 370-grain black powder conicals, nor one-ounce shotgun slugs–that could be depended upon to penetrate straight. Deflection In the first 110 feet of travel after branch contact was commonly several inches. Sometimes the bullets tumbled or showed partial upset at target entry.

For the better part of four decades ordinary bolt rifles have helped me shoot game at ranges you could measure in feet. I still find lever rifles like the 94 Winchester and 36 Marlin appealing--even more so the heavier 71 and 86 Winchesters and new Marlin 1895 rifles and carbines. I have nothing against the Remington 760 pumps--at least the early versions, with the clean comb and ribbed fore-end. Never a fan of autoloaders, I’m amazed enough that they work to give them a passing grade. But bolt rifles are still my favorites for all-around hunting. They’re the strongest, simplest and, on average, most accurate. Properly configured, they’re as lively in my hands as any lever-action. Perhaps the most telling advantage of the bolt rifle is its versatility. As much as I enjoy prowling the thickets, it’s a relief once in awhile to enter a clearing or watch the far side of a cut or field at dusk. Then you want a rifle with reach.

Combining light weight, minute-of-angle accuracy and the balance of a British bird gun is less of a challenge for rifle makers than It used to be. "My carbon-fiber stocks weigh as little as 11 ounces," said Lex Webernick, who operates under the Shingle Rifles Incorporated. His and similar stocks from High Tech and McMillan rank among my favorites. They're much better proportioned than were the first synthetic stocks. Slender barrels can be just as accurate as heavy ones, at least for three shots--more than you should need on a hunt. Fluting sheds more ounces. Although a rifle that drills groups the size of a clutch housing would kill most game you’ll see in wooded places, bolt guns that shoot into an inch-and-a-half are now as common as cell phones. And though they won't point like a 20-bore Boss, many do handle nicely.

Among these is a Model Seven from Remington’s Custom Shop. The Alaska Wilderness Rifle weighs a shade more than six pounds, with a carbon fiber stock and 22-Inch barrel. I carried one in Idaho last fall. Chambered in .300 Remington Short Ultra Mag and topped with a Kahles scope, it proved a light burden on the steep slopes above the Middle Fork of the Salmon. I found the elk in tight cover and killed a bull at 65 yards. Although our binoculars showed us lots of game across canyons, shooting from ridge to ridge wasn’t practical. It rarely is. Even where you get panoramic views, shooting can be close indeed.

Not long after that I climbed Into the Bitterroot drainage of southwestern Montana, again looking for elk. Most of the animals, popped up in mature timber, at ranges of 40 to 90 yards. The last day of my hunt I scrambled up a steep north slope that recently had burned. A series of ridges opened to the south. The last held a herd of elk. A long shot would have denied me the next hour of sneaking. The kill came at a range just shy of 100 yards. My rifle this time: a Lazzeroni, L2000 in 8.59 (.338) Galaxy with a Sightron scope. Nimble and quick to aim, it also had more reach than I needed–in other words, versatility.

I like the Lazzeroni for the same reasons I like the Remington AWR: great workmanship; a sturdy-but-light-weight stock with a long, slender grip and dimensions that make it behave in my hands. You’re entitled to different criteria. But a woods rifle must paint where you look, because sometimes-- against the odds--you will have to shoot fast or not at all. Shop for a woods rifle by feel. You may have to engage a custom gun maker to get a big-born bolt rifle for close shooting. I did. Several years ago, Fred Zeglin of Z-Hat Custom, 4010A So. Poplar st., PMB 72, Casper, WY, fashioned a handsome stock of quilted maple from a Don Cantwell, Wood Products, blank, fitting it to a Mauser I’d picked up at a gun show. We scrapped the .30-06 barrel and replaced it with one chambered for .411 Hawk, a .30-06-based cartridge with the bullet diameter and weight to satisfy hunters with traditional brush-rifle ideas.

Adding horsepower to the .30-06 with bigger bullets is an ancient idea. The .338-06; the .35, .375 and .400 Whelen and various improved versions rank among popular post-war wildcats. Moving the shoulder forward gave us the .35 Brown-Whelen and the big-bore Gibbs cartridges. Using readily available .30-06 cases, Dave Scovill produced velocities of 2,700 fps with the 250-grain Hawk bullet and 2,400 fps with the 300-grain Hornady. Subsequently, Fulton and local gunsmith and owner of Z-Hat Custom, Fred Zeglin, experimented with .338, .358 and .411 versions of the Hawk case. Now Z-Hat offers a full line of Hawks: .240, .257, .264, .270, .284, .300 and .3200(8mm), plus the four big-bores.

What makes the .411 so appealing to me is its efficiency. From the ‘06 case it can drive a 300-grain bullet as fast as the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum! Its slender, rimless torso feeds smoothly, and you get a high-capacity magazine in a compact box. Recoil is noticeably less than that of the big-bore magnums Powder charge as well as bullet weight contributes to felt recoil, and the 411 Hawk operates on little fuel.

The .411 has no counterpart among modern cartridges, partly because the trend has been toward rounds with guitar-string trajectories. Its closest kin are the .405 Winchester, developed for the 95 Winchester in 1904, and the .40 Adolph Express, designed before World War I by Fred Adolph and Charles Newton on the .404 Jeffery case. Oddly enough, the .405 has resurfaced, this time in Hornady’s line, with a 300-grain flat-point bullet clocking 2,200 fps. That’s an edge of 10 percent on the most ambitious 300-grain .45-70 loads from Winchester and Federal--loads meant for the Ruger No. 1 and converted bolt rifles that will handle 35,000 CUP. But the .405's rimmed case is still better suited to the 95 than to any bolt rifle.  

Then, the 411 Hawk will push a 300gr. bullet at 2550 FPS, leaving them all in the dust. fdz

Reprinted here courtesy of Harris Publications, Deer & Big Game Rifles 2003, pages 14 and following.