The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - shout out to those who own/shot a wheelgun in .480 ruger

Viper225 · January 15, 2013, 04:14 AM

Copyed from my Handgun Hunting Magazine Forum Post last year.

The weatherman was predicting high winds for Saturday, Opening Day of the Missouri Deer Season. We lucked out and the wind was not blowing very hard at daylight. As soon as it got light I headed to Stand #1 in Haunted Hollow. I did not see any deer on my walk in. I climbed up into my double wide ladder stand and got settled in. I layed out my towel to lay my 480 Super RedHawk on. The towel lets me pick up the revolver without making any noise. Out came 3 Sand socks filled with airsolf pellets. I get the monopod out of the pack and extend it out and rest it in the corner, against the railing. Out of the pack comes my Impact Sport electronic hearing protection. Last I remove the Super RedHawk from its canvas case, and place it on the towel. I now hang up the pack and case, out of the road.

My stand is a Walmart double wide 15' model. On the right hand side I have added a piece of 3/4" plywood 18" wide X 40" long. It is square cut on the back, and has radiused corners on the front corners. A 3" wide strip of 3/4" is attached to the rest on the bottom of the back edge to space the rest up over some bolts. I have the rest painted Black, and it has holes drilled every 4 inches around the front and right side for attachment of camo netting. I attach the plywood with a couple C Clamps to the railing. I have Burlap camo wrapped around the stand rails attached with black zip ties. when going around the rest I attach it through the holes I have pre drilled. I added a second layer of Burlap camo to the stand this year.
My Haunted Hollow stand is about half way up on a point on the South side of the valley. I have a 4 wheeler trail running down the ridge from the house right on by my stand. When comming town the trail from behind me a deer would have about 30 yards at almost the same elevation as the stand. So I decided to add some camo to block me from the back.
I made a cross from 1x4 lumber about 40" wide. I attached this cross to the tree with a couple nylon straps. The top of the cross piece is above my head when seated, but I can stand and see over it. I then added a third 12' section of camo burlap draped over the cross, and attached the ends back to the sides of the stand railing. I added a wire hook to the strap to hang my pack and pistol case from out of the way.
Before season I lasered the area around the stand. The closest trail was 27 yards from my stand. A long shot would be about 60 yards to each corner infront of me. I have one open spot on the oposite hillside from me I could shoot into. It lasered 98 yards. A little closer than I thought it would be. Perfect for a top of the back hold with the Super RedHawk as I have the 30mm UltraDot zeroed.

Now that I have all the gear out, I stack the 2 larger sand socks and place the small one behind and check the rest with the 480. Elevation is as good as can be expected. I took aim on several items around on the right hand side of the stand. Rock Solid hold.
Next I picked up the monopod and placed the Super RedHawks barrel in the padded Y back against the frame. I took aim on a few objects and decided I had the monopod set a little high. I took it down a couple inches, and again took aim on some objects on the ground. Just right. I placed the Ruger back on the towel, and settled in.
About 20 mintes later a forked horn came down the trail on my right side from behind me. This trail comes from a gate at my pond down the side hill into the side valley that ends up beside my stand about 55 yards to my right. I looked him over but could not tell if he was just a forked horn or a small 3 X 3. He kept on the trail going North past the cross trail that would go infront of me at 30 yards. Just as he was getting to the small stream he turned left, and headed West crossing infront of me back in the brush along the stream bed.
COUNTING COUP
While he was on the trail to my right I put the Super RedHawk on the sand socks and took aim right behind his shoulder. Rock solid hold at 55 yards.
After turning West he was shielded by some brush and larger trees. I took this opportunity to place the 480 on the Monopod and put the Red Dot behind his shoulder again when he came out into the open. A second rock solid hold at 45 to 50 yards.

Probably a mistake, but I let him pass in safety to grow into a larger racked buck next year with luck.
In my area of Missouri I can get 2 Deer Tags. One Any Deer, and the second is an Antlerless Only tag. This means 2 does or a single buck and a doe. My game plan for 2011 was to put the first full size doe in the freezer, then get serious looking for a nice buck.

About 9:30 the wind came up, blowing hard. I stayed on stand till 11:00 and called it quits. I have decided to stay out of the woods till the wind quits blowing. Probably a good choice, as I have not heard a shot this Sunday morning.
I think I will surprise my preacher and make it to Church on the second day of deer season. That will be unexpected.
I think Monday will be a better day.

Sunday:
I head to the stand for a couple hours before Church. At 8:15 the light drizzle turns into a pouring rain. I am soaked my the time i get to the house. I hang everything up to dry.
Sunday evening I head to the stand about 3:00 PM. When I get to my stand with my dryed out gear I set everything up yet again. My seat is soaked, so I unfasten it, and throw it out of the stand. I put my square pad in place to set on. Out comes the Monopod. I pull the bottom section all the way out, and the second section about 2 Inches. I put the sand socks on the bench. I get the towel out. And last comes my 480 Super RedHawk. I set the brightness level on 1. Again I wait, and again I do not see anything. About 4:15 or so I have turkeys flying up to roost to the North of me on the hillside. I am down to about my last 10 minutes of the day. I debate loading my gear in the back pack a little early today. Then I decide to put in the last few minutes. About this time I hear lots of noise on the North hillside. I spot one deer running, then two, and a third one. My does from the last 2 days yet again. I set up the sand socks for a shot as soon as i have a full size doe broadside after they cross the creek on the North/South trail. The first deer runs into the valley floor. It is almost facing me. No shot. Then a second deer runs into the valley. The first deer now doubles back and follows the stream bed on my side to the West like the Forked horn did the first morning. The second deer takes off following the first deer. I switch to the monopod. I cannot get on deer #1, Doe #2 stops broadside to my left about the last place I will have a shot. I put the 30mm UltraDot behind her front shoulder, and squeese the trigger. At the report she jumps sideways, and runs through the brush into the valley going West. About this time Deer #3 runs into my valley. I had about forgotten about #3 thinking it was the smallest doe. Wrong again, I have antlers and lots of them. I cock the hammer on the 9.5" 480 Ruger Super Redhawk and start looking for a shot. The buck stops with trees covering the chest area. It bolts and runs again about 10 yards and stops in the open, I put the red dot tight behind the front shoulder and squeese the trigger. The buck bolts about 10 yards and stops again. I recock and put another one into him raking him at a pretty hard angle. He bolts again crossing the creek, and all is quiet. I wait about 5 minutes and start gathering my gear. I leave my back pack at the foot of the tree my ladder stand is in, and head to the house for the Polarus Ranger, a little help and some lights we will need. About 30 minutes after the shot the wife, my little brother and I are back in Haunted Hollow ready to look for a blood trail. The leaves are wet from the rain. I hope the blood does not wash out. We start looking for a blood trail at the last place I saw the deer before crossing the small stream bed. We are not finding any blood. I have my brother angle more to the left, the wife crosses the stream bed and almost immediately finds my buck piled up. He had went down in less than 50 yards. We move on. About 10 yards further my wife finds blood. We mark it with Lime Green marker tape. We find more blood in a couple places going straight. I look ahead and see White. I say I think I have something. The wife shines her light where mine is and we have it illuminated well enough to see that it is the doe. She had went probably 65 yards or so.
My brother and I drag the doe to the Ranger. We decide to haul them one at a time. We take it to the house. Back for the buck. At this time I take time to do a point count. Six points on the right, and five on the Left, for a total of 11 points total.

My Equipment & Load:
Super REdHawk in 480 Ruger, with a 9.5" barrel. Optics are a 30mm UltraDot. The Super has Hogue Tamer grips, and a Marble Green Fiber Optic front sight for a back-up sight system.
I was shooting store bought bullets for a change. I was shooting 355gr Oregon Trail True Shot Wide Nose Flat Point Gas Checks over 20.0 grains of AA#9 using CCI Magnum Primers.

Another happy ending.

Bob

January 15, 2013, 04:14 AM	#13
Viper225 Senior Member Join Date: September 20, 2009 Location: SC Missouri Posts: 663	Missouri Deer Season 2011 Copyed from my Handgun Hunting Magazine Forum Post last year. The weatherman was predicting high winds for Saturday, Opening Day of the Missouri Deer Season. We lucked out and the wind was not blowing very hard at daylight. As soon as it got light I headed to Stand #1 in Haunted Hollow. I did not see any deer on my walk in. I climbed up into my double wide ladder stand and got settled in. I layed out my towel to lay my 480 Super RedHawk on. The towel lets me pick up the revolver without making any noise. Out came 3 Sand socks filled with airsolf pellets. I get the monopod out of the pack and extend it out and rest it in the corner, against the railing. Out of the pack comes my Impact Sport electronic hearing protection. Last I remove the Super RedHawk from its canvas case, and place it on the towel. I now hang up the pack and case, out of the road. My stand is a Walmart double wide 15' model. On the right hand side I have added a piece of 3/4" plywood 18" wide X 40" long. It is square cut on the back, and has radiused corners on the front corners. A 3" wide strip of 3/4" is attached to the rest on the bottom of the back edge to space the rest up over some bolts. I have the rest painted Black, and it has holes drilled every 4 inches around the front and right side for attachment of camo netting. I attach the plywood with a couple C Clamps to the railing. I have Burlap camo wrapped around the stand rails attached with black zip ties. when going around the rest I attach it through the holes I have pre drilled. I added a second layer of Burlap camo to the stand this year. My Haunted Hollow stand is about half way up on a point on the South side of the valley. I have a 4 wheeler trail running down the ridge from the house right on by my stand. When comming town the trail from behind me a deer would have about 30 yards at almost the same elevation as the stand. So I decided to add some camo to block me from the back. I made a cross from 1x4 lumber about 40" wide. I attached this cross to the tree with a couple nylon straps. The top of the cross piece is above my head when seated, but I can stand and see over it. I then added a third 12' section of camo burlap draped over the cross, and attached the ends back to the sides of the stand railing. I added a wire hook to the strap to hang my pack and pistol case from out of the way. Before season I lasered the area around the stand. The closest trail was 27 yards from my stand. A long shot would be about 60 yards to each corner infront of me. I have one open spot on the oposite hillside from me I could shoot into. It lasered 98 yards. A little closer than I thought it would be. Perfect for a top of the back hold with the Super RedHawk as I have the 30mm UltraDot zeroed. Now that I have all the gear out, I stack the 2 larger sand socks and place the small one behind and check the rest with the 480. Elevation is as good as can be expected. I took aim on several items around on the right hand side of the stand. Rock Solid hold. Next I picked up the monopod and placed the Super RedHawks barrel in the padded Y back against the frame. I took aim on a few objects and decided I had the monopod set a little high. I took it down a couple inches, and again took aim on some objects on the ground. Just right. I placed the Ruger back on the towel, and settled in. About 20 mintes later a forked horn came down the trail on my right side from behind me. This trail comes from a gate at my pond down the side hill into the side valley that ends up beside my stand about 55 yards to my right. I looked him over but could not tell if he was just a forked horn or a small 3 X 3. He kept on the trail going North past the cross trail that would go infront of me at 30 yards. Just as he was getting to the small stream he turned left, and headed West crossing infront of me back in the brush along the stream bed. COUNTING COUP While he was on the trail to my right I put the Super RedHawk on the sand socks and took aim right behind his shoulder. Rock solid hold at 55 yards. After turning West he was shielded by some brush and larger trees. I took this opportunity to place the 480 on the Monopod and put the Red Dot behind his shoulder again when he came out into the open. A second rock solid hold at 45 to 50 yards. Probably a mistake, but I let him pass in safety to grow into a larger racked buck next year with luck. In my area of Missouri I can get 2 Deer Tags. One Any Deer, and the second is an Antlerless Only tag. This means 2 does or a single buck and a doe. My game plan for 2011 was to put the first full size doe in the freezer, then get serious looking for a nice buck. About 9:30 the wind came up, blowing hard. I stayed on stand till 11:00 and called it quits. I have decided to stay out of the woods till the wind quits blowing. Probably a good choice, as I have not heard a shot this Sunday morning. I think I will surprise my preacher and make it to Church on the second day of deer season. That will be unexpected. I think Monday will be a better day. Sunday: I head to the stand for a couple hours before Church. At 8:15 the light drizzle turns into a pouring rain. I am soaked my the time i get to the house. I hang everything up to dry. Sunday evening I head to the stand about 3:00 PM. When I get to my stand with my dryed out gear I set everything up yet again. My seat is soaked, so I unfasten it, and throw it out of the stand. I put my square pad in place to set on. Out comes the Monopod. I pull the bottom section all the way out, and the second section about 2 Inches. I put the sand socks on the bench. I get the towel out. And last comes my 480 Super RedHawk. I set the brightness level on 1. Again I wait, and again I do not see anything. About 4:15 or so I have turkeys flying up to roost to the North of me on the hillside. I am down to about my last 10 minutes of the day. I debate loading my gear in the back pack a little early today. Then I decide to put in the last few minutes. About this time I hear lots of noise on the North hillside. I spot one deer running, then two, and a third one. My does from the last 2 days yet again. I set up the sand socks for a shot as soon as i have a full size doe broadside after they cross the creek on the North/South trail. The first deer runs into the valley floor. It is almost facing me. No shot. Then a second deer runs into the valley. The first deer now doubles back and follows the stream bed on my side to the West like the Forked horn did the first morning. The second deer takes off following the first deer. I switch to the monopod. I cannot get on deer #1, Doe #2 stops broadside to my left about the last place I will have a shot. I put the 30mm UltraDot behind her front shoulder, and squeese the trigger. At the report she jumps sideways, and runs through the brush into the valley going West. About this time Deer #3 runs into my valley. I had about forgotten about #3 thinking it was the smallest doe. Wrong again, I have antlers and lots of them. I cock the hammer on the 9.5" 480 Ruger Super Redhawk and start looking for a shot. The buck stops with trees covering the chest area. It bolts and runs again about 10 yards and stops in the open, I put the red dot tight behind the front shoulder and squeese the trigger. The buck bolts about 10 yards and stops again. I recock and put another one into him raking him at a pretty hard angle. He bolts again crossing the creek, and all is quiet. I wait about 5 minutes and start gathering my gear. I leave my back pack at the foot of the tree my ladder stand is in, and head to the house for the Polarus Ranger, a little help and some lights we will need. About 30 minutes after the shot the wife, my little brother and I are back in Haunted Hollow ready to look for a blood trail. The leaves are wet from the rain. I hope the blood does not wash out. We start looking for a blood trail at the last place I saw the deer before crossing the small stream bed. We are not finding any blood. I have my brother angle more to the left, the wife crosses the stream bed and almost immediately finds my buck piled up. He had went down in less than 50 yards. We move on. About 10 yards further my wife finds blood. We mark it with Lime Green marker tape. We find more blood in a couple places going straight. I look ahead and see White. I say I think I have something. The wife shines her light where mine is and we have it illuminated well enough to see that it is the doe. She had went probably 65 yards or so. My brother and I drag the doe to the Ranger. We decide to haul them one at a time. We take it to the house. Back for the buck. At this time I take time to do a point count. Six points on the right, and five on the Left, for a total of 11 points total. My Equipment & Load: Super REdHawk in 480 Ruger, with a 9.5" barrel. Optics are a 30mm UltraDot. The Super has Hogue Tamer grips, and a Marble Green Fiber Optic front sight for a back-up sight system. I was shooting store bought bullets for a change. I was shooting 355gr Oregon Trail True Shot Wide Nose Flat Point Gas Checks over 20.0 grains of AA#9 using CCI Magnum Primers. Another happy ending. Bob