About 10 years ago I decided to start hunting with my old Ballard rifles. The first choice was my Union Hill in .38-55 because it had always provided such great groups at the range. Of course opening up my gun case in camp provided more chuckles and puzzled looks, but I'd sighted it in with 255 gr. cast bullets and consistently hit the 8" 150 yd. dinger at my range, and felt comfortable it would bring down a buck if I had the opportunity at a shot.
The area we hunted was open rolling hills, so shots at 150 yds. are deemed close shots, as often it's tough to get closer with no cover except terrain. Opening morning we headed up to the ridge top and my brother and nephew headed East, while I headed West with my niece's husband to check a draw I'd taken deer from previously.
We approached the draw cautiously, as the gentle slope is thee only cover, and you can't move more than about 5-10 steps without checking the draw for deer, or they'll see you first and bolt. We continued over the edge until we thought we were close to seeing the bottom, but no deer were spotted. I suggested we sit down and watch the draw in case something was farther down, or something might enter as we watched. Barely got sat down when does began to exit the draw on the opposite side! It seems we weren't far enough over the edge to see the bottom, and as we watched we saw about 14 does slowly move up and over the ridge on the other side.
When the last doe had moved out, my hunting partner put his scoped bolt rifle down and said, "Well I guess we should head out?"
As soon as he mentioned leaving I caught a glimpse of movement coming up from the draw, and saw a pretty nice buck trying to sneak out! I was sitting down, and shouldered the Ballard and began to zero in on the buck through the midrange vernier sight. I set the rear trigger as I heard my nephew say, "Look at that buck!" I touched the Ballard off and he dropped like a rock. As we were celebrating with high fives, he began to kick and tumbled all the way to the bottom of that draw!
We sat there for a few minutes to ensure he was done, and I asked my nephew to laser the distance, as I guessed it was close to what I'd been shooting at the range's 150 yd. dinger. He told me it was 140 yds., so right at my sight in distance!
Lost my PB image we took at the kill, so these are all I have now.

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Thanks for sharing Vall Loved the story as well as the rifle being used. 

JLouis

Thanks also for sharing the hunt story and the picture of the nice buck. I like pinpoint accuracy, but I always figure that good real world accuracy is no where near cutting edge match accuracy, nor does it need to be. I'd also guess that you didn't feel under gunned or feel the need to hot rod the 38-55. Sorry to drift a bit with the extra comments, and nice rifle too.

Nice rifle and buck!

That looks like kind of rifle that would have been carried in soft leather (buckskin?) cover back when such rifles were standard in western USA. There are many pics here in Denver of hunters with such rifles and dead muleys or elk. Hunters were well dressed in latest late 1800s hunting clothes, including cartridge belts filled with long BP cartridges, with their horse beside or behind them.

Longest distance I ever killed a deer or elk was about 150M, also one shot with a short-case 7mm loaded to original 7X57 specs for 173 gr bullet. One shot and elk ran away with tail dropped -- ran maybe 75M. Nosler 175 grain Partition bullet penetrated about a meter of elk, making nice hole in heart, one lung and liver, and was not found. Yes, late 1800s rifles and loads are all that are needed, if placed  well. Never needed more.

JerryH wrote on Oct 25^th, 2017 at 7:44pm:


Wish PB hadn't messed up my account, as I can't find the original image on my zip drive or computer from the field. That buck weighed 130 lbs. at the butcher with no head, hide, guts, or lower legs. Butcher said it easily was over 200 lbs. on the hoof in his estimation.

ballardhepburnmich wrote on Oct 26^th, 2017 at 12:00am:


Thanks Lee! 
The area we hunt never gets wide racks, or racks with mass. So this one is  one of the better I've gotten over the 30 plus years of hunting the area.

rustyrelx wrote on Oct 26^th, 2017 at 12:29pm:


I may Don, but likely not on deer. We decided we're done with deer here in Oregon, and will concentrate on elk in the future. I think the .40-85 with a 335 gr. cast bullet should make a great elk cartridge!

craigd,
That apears to be a Bullard single shot is it?
rmc