Col. Townsand Whelan once said, “Only accurate rifles are interesting.” I have always wholeheartedly disagreed with him on this point. If you have worked out the kinks and have a gun now driving tacks it is no longer interesting. It is downright boring. Once a gun and load are perfected it is a hunting tool. This is where my Encore handgun chambered in .260 comes in. Truthfully, it was one of the quickest transitions from interesting to boring I have ever seen.
It started with an Encore action that was so rusty I did not know if it could be salvaged. The action appeared to have been used with a muzzleloader barrel and not cleaned properly. It was locked up. The internals were ruined for the most part. It had some kind of goop crammed into the action that as of yet I still haven’t identified. After dismantling the action, I soaked it in mineral spirts to remove the “goop” and cleaned it down to the metal. The actual action wasn’t pitted as bad as it appeared at first look. Some of the parts were rusted beyond use but I was able to find everything I needed for a rebuild. All of this coincided with a friend calling me about a brand-new 15” MGM full bull 1:8 twist .260 barrel. He made me a deal I couldn’t refuse so I bought it. Of course, the wheels in my head were spinning. I called Steve Stratton and got a hanger bar and one of his billet scope mounts on the way. Another call to Tony Gettle and a flat-bottom fore end for the full bull barrel, milled to fit the hanger bar were headed my way as well. While I had the action apart and doing repairs, I ordered a Bellm spring kit and an oversized hinge pin. I love it when a plan comes together, and this one has been one of the best. In addition to the Bellm springs, some judicious stone work had the trigger breaking crisply just under 2 lbs. I assembled the gun and the barrel and action actually ring when they close. It’s as tight as a bank vault.
The load development went smoothly as well. Since the barrel is a 1:8 twist I decided to take advantage of the 140 grain bullets. I loaded some 140 Nosler Custom Competition bullets in new Starline Brass to fire form them to the new chamber. I bore sighted the gun before heading to the range. At 100 yards I fired three shots to get a rough idea of accuracy before moving the scope. The first three shots were clustered under ½” and these were my fire forming loads! I adjusted the scope to the bullseye and fired three more shots. These could be covered with the back end of one of the .260 shell casings. I continued to shoot it till all of the brass was fired. I did so in groups of 3, letting the gun cool in between shots. Not one group exceeded ½”.
Hunting load development was as good as it gets. I loaded 140 grain Nosler Partitions over 44.5 grains of H4831SC lit by a GM210M primer. I didn’t have to touch the scope. The point of impact was identical between the two bullets. I had already adjusted it to be 2.5” high at 100 yards. This put it zeroed at 200 yards. I set things up to shoot a group really trying for the best group I could get. I pulled the second shot and called it. 4 shots went into a group that center to center measures .125”. That is as good as it gets in a hunting gun. I have been around plenty of benchrest guns that didn’t shoot any better. I ran them over the chronograph and the average velocity was 2420 fps. With an extreme spread of 9 fps. A quick trip to the computer told me that sighting it in at 200 yards would give me an easy 300 yard capability even with the velocity that low.
Since I started hunting with it, I have killed numerous deer with it including some really big bucks. I haven’t had to track any of them. If they run, it might be for 20 yards but they generally just drop. The gun is just a perfect killer. All of this to bring us to the most recent buck.
This gun is so dependable I use it as a crutch. I have more long range handguns but it is so consistent, if I think I have to go long it is the first gun I grab. I made a quick before work hunt the Monday before Thanksgiving. My hunting truck was in the shop, so I commandeered my wife’s SUV. It is AWD so I thought it might recover a deer. I was leaving out, headed to work when I saw the buck. It was a huge bodied mature buck. I only got to see him through my range finder for a few seconds, but I could tell he was a shooter. I had to get to the pile of paper on my desk, but my mind was at the farm.
With the Rodeo still in the shop I swiped my wife’s Sorento the Friday after Thanksgiving and headed to the farm. It rained a few days before, but I figured it was dry enough as long as I stayed on the roads. I headed to a permanent blind that is set up in the corner of one of the corn fields. The farthest shot possible because of the terrain is 218 yards, which is a chip shot for the .260. There is a tractor gap on the right side of the blind that deer occasionally use. When they do, they are under 40 yards from the blind. I always carry an open sighted gun just for that situation. I grabbed my model 24 .44 Special which was perfect for this situation.
It was pretty cool without being downright cold. The temps were in the low thirties and there was a 10 MPH southwest wind. Up until about 8:30 A.M. deer movement was pretty slow. Since I was having to improvise to haul the deer out, I decided not to shoot any does on this trip. Two does came into range from my left and stuck around for a while before moving off. After that it was total chaos. Young bucks began to come out of the woodwork. I didn’t bring my camera on this trip, so I resorted to taking pics with my phone. For the most part they were 2 yearolds but I lost count of them. I could have shot any number of them, but they were safe. One 2 year old 7 point got within 15 feet of the blind and never knew I was there. It was a great morning and great experience, but I was only looking for a mature buck. I stayed as late as I could then headed back to the Sorento where I knew a thermos of hot coffee was waiting.
Saturday morning the temperature had dropped some more. My strategy was simple. If he wasn’t in the back field, he would go to his next favorite place. There is a bedding area on the north side of another one of the permanent blinds. Maximum shot distance at this site is about 300 yards. It is a hard place to even move without spooking deer. You simply can’t sneak in when they are watching you from cover. You can’t get in the cover to move because they are there and there is so much debris, they leave at the least unknown noise. It forces the hunter to be there early and get in and get quiet. In this case, it is a given that you will spook some deer going in.
I made it to the blind and got my binoculars, range finder and guns set up on a cushioned chair I use as a quiet table. I saw a few does but I wasn’t going to start shooting does until next weekend. Knowing that a huge mature buck was in the area caused me to be extra cautious. I didn’t know exactly where he was, but I knew he had bedded down at one end or the other of the field I was watching. I saw some young bucks a few hundred yards away. This morning, I had my camera with me and took a few good pics while waiting. The temperature began dropping and the wind picked up. Around here that usually means the deer are staying in till it quits. A little after 10:00 A.M. I noticed movement to my right coming out of one of the areas I suspected the buck to be hiding in. I saw antlers moving behind the trees but there just wasn’t a clear view of the deer. I could tell the rack was pretty tall. He moved a little farther into the field and I could see that the body was pretty big. I just knew it was him. I raised my gun and began following the movement of the deer as he walked, obscured by the trees.. When the area behind his front leg came into view, I put the crosshairs on it and squeezed the trigger. I knew the shot was perfect. He tried to run but his aorta was gone along with his lungs. He just kind of crashed.
I started packing up my binoculars and camera then I started thinking about how I would get him out from where he was laying. It wouldn’t be an easy drag for sure. The cart was all the way back at the house. I walked to the creek crossing and it didn’t look too bad. Looks are deceiving. I decided that I could drive mama’s SUV through it. About halfway through I realized I had badly underestimated the creek bed. I put it in reverse and was able to move about 3 feet. Back in forward, here we go. I love the vehicle for long trips, but I learned quickly that Michelin Street tires don’t do well in mud. I finally made it up the other side and things got worse. I could hear mud, slinging up against the bottom of the vehicle and I was finally able to turn it around. I could go no further. There was so much mud on the wheels and tires that a slow agonizing death would await me.
I headed for the deer. Upon reaching the him I realized that I hadn’t shot the big mature buck I was after. I got upset immediately. In fact, this one would have got a pass for at least two more years. I took some pictures then began the 100 or so yard drag to the vehicle. In that 100 yards I was able to come to grips with the fact that I made a mistake shooting the wrong deer. It is at this point that my maturity as a hunter took over. I couldn’t breathe life back into the deer. He was going to provide some premium clean meat which my family would enjoy. But the thing that got me over it is simple. Over 90% of hunters have never taken a game animal with a handgun. The most excited I have ever been on a hunt when I was young and super enthused about handgun hunting. It was on a little 5 point buck that most people wouldn’t have shot, but it was with a handgun. It was much smaller than this buck.
With the deer loaded I walked around the vehicle that was probably 1000 lbs. heavier from the mud. I knew I was going to die. She wasn’t going to like this. I climbed into the driver’s seat and looked at the .260. I smiled. I let it know it had done well. If you wanted a fairy tale perfect hunt this wasn’t it. My wife didn’t kill me over the mud. In fact, I got home, and she met me with a big kiss and asked “what’d you get?” I told her about the buck, then told her about all of the mud. She “said that is ok, we can wash it.” What a woman!
Happy handgun hunting- RDY