16 point Double Header with Model 8, 35 Rem

[J. Riekers]

Almost a year ago my friend called and said there was an old half of a gun in an estate he was settling. It was a Remington Model 8 barrelled action with no wood, no sights and seized up. There were also some assorted buttstocks in the estate but not one for the Rem 8. I bought the gun for spare parts to my 81, and I took a stock that I could fit on the 8 just so it had a buttstock. This turned into a project since I loved the 81 and the 8 and this 8 was also in 35 Rem caliber. I fit the buttstock, got the action apart and made a few parts and fixes, bought a rear sight from e-bay and collaborated with a gunsmith to make a front sight base and put a front sight on. Not only did the rifle work, it works well and is very accurate. I purchased a fore-end wood from an auction and the rifle was complete. A little research revealed it was made in 1909 and left the factory that year headed for Texas. Now I wanted to hunt with it in a traditional way. I loaded up my boys and we headed out for a few days of hunting. My friend Albert lets us hunt on the property he manages which is a quality deer management ranch of 3600 acres. This trip though, the owners of the ranch and their family are there and they are doing their hunting. Albert still pulled through for me by letting me hunt some property that is outside the deer ranch but owned by the same family. It is a few hundred acres of narrow property that follows a creek. They bought it to run diesel pumps to route the the water for irrigation. The good news was that I could shoot any deer, buck or doe, where inside the ranch I would be limited to cull bucks or untagged does. Inside the ranch I'd be in a spacious blind overlooking a food plot or feeder. Out on the creek I would be still hunting and looking for deer in the meadows. The whole thing worked out great really because I much prefered to take the Remington rifle out and still hunt in a traditional manner. I got dropped off where the creek goes under the road at 6:20AM. The instructions were to follow the trail to the first clearing and watch it as the sun comes up. If no deer appeared within an hour I should follow the creek and look into the small meadows that are cut along the mile and a half of creek. I loaded the Remington with handloaded 200 grain Core-Lokt's going 2000 fps out the muzzle. It was very foggy with a light rain and it was nearly 50 degrees on a full moon, so I was not that optimistic. I found the first meadow and waited until sunrise. Nothing seemed to be there but it was difficult to see even with binoculars. I moved along to the next meadow. There was nothing there, but a few hundred yards ahead I saw a deer cross the trail. As I got to the spot where the deer was another deer came from behind me and parallelled me for a few yards until it crossed into an opening. It was a small buck. I followed the deer into the opening and saw the first deer I had spotted, also a buck. They began to feed on the grass in the meadow and were soon joined by several more deer. Peering through the binoculars I could see that all 8 deer were bucks of about the same size and age. I was thinking about shooting one when I noticed a bigger deer coming straight in. It had a swagger, and the different posture made it obvious it was a mature buck. It was still foggy and hard to see more than 100 yards without binos, so I let the deer come in. Then I saw another deer in the trailway 150 yds out. It was clearly the biggest but it was hung up and would not come in. I moved to get closer and got within 85 yards of the other deer but they began to look my way as if they sensed something. I decided to take the second biggest buck and leave the big guy that was still hung up out there. I settled the open sights on the deer's chest and squeezed gently. The shot broke and I saw the deer drop it's head and kick it's back legs before running for the brush. Deer ran left and right, about half and half. I had followed the deer with the sights but lost it at the last moment. When I put the gun down for a second I could see the deer standing right at the edge of brush. I aimed again, a longer shot and a little harder to judge in the fog. The crack of the rifle and the whoomp of the bullet striking were consecutive. I reloaded and wandered over to the brush. Just inside the brush I saw the buck lying dead. As I pulled him out I looked to my left and noticed another deer lying there! I had shot two bucks! Both deer were 8 point although one is 4 1/2 and has a 15.5" spread while the other is a 1 1/2 year old with an 11" spread. Luckily, Texas is generous with the tags that come with the big game license so I was still within the limit even after taking both. The 200 gr Core Lokt bullets went 18 inches and 24 inches respectively from entry hole to exit in a straight line. Both had exit holes a little over a nickel in diameter. I am happy with the cartridge/bullet/load performance and the rifle. It was a cool feeling to be able to use a 101 year old rifle in a traditional manner and get so lucky!

[81police]

i saw the deer drop it's head and kick it's back legs before running

that's when you know you did good! Either that or when it drops straight in its tracks! Great shooting and great story! Love the details of the hunt to go along with the pictures. Thank you for taking the time to share.

You and I aren't too far apart (i'm in Ellis County), we might have to talk hunting sometime. I hunt in Mitchell Co, just north of Colorado City, TX. Where do you hunt mostly?

[J. Riekers]

I have property in Hunt County near my house. My ranch ( for exotic hunting) is in Medina County (30 miles West of San Antonio). This particular deer hunt was in D'Hanis. We hunt nearly 130,000 acres in Texas for exotics and whitetails and also have a ME bear camp, RSA concessions (spring/summer), CO elk property, CA Blacktails, PA farm (exotics), New Brunswick moose camps and a host of other hunting areas that are part of our family business.

[imfuncity]

Super hunt!! Love your stories.

Soooo I'm a newbie to guns, never been hunting, hope to one of these days and believe even at 61 I would much prefer real hunting vs. the stand, etc.

Hope these questions are not too stupid. But, I don't get it. Why was the second deer not running? Why would he stop close to where the first one was down? Shouldn't he have heard the noise, smelled the blood, and been high-tailing it, literally? Am I missing the "auto-reloader-rifle, experienced-hunter-rapidly-making-the-follow-up-shot" thing?

[J. Riekers]

Imfuncity - good questions! I have no idea why that second deer decided to stop at the edge of the brush. Young and not too smart are the only reasons I can think of. I did not shoot the second shot quickly. I actually followed the first deer with the sights until I couldn't see him anymore and then lowered the rifle. After a few seconds, I looked up and saw the deer right where I thought it went it. It was still with it's head down. I really thought it was the same deer and so I shot it again. Some people will say "if you had a scope .... blah, blah". True, if I had optics I might have been able to tell it was a different deer. But I wanted to use this ol' gun the way it came. A rare series of circumstances led to the second buck in this case, but the good news is that in that County of Texas it is perfectly legal to shoot two bucks of any size and I had tags for them.

[imfuncity]

That is what I thought I was reading. Sounds like one of those "fluke of hunting" for the grandkids -no one else is gonna believe it! We've been told 100yds is about max for these rifles and open sights. You said you lost sight of the first dear, thus the 2nd shot wasn't to clear because of the fog (unlikely the scope would have been too helpful either), about how long of a shot was it? IMHO still good shooting!

And, I hear you re. TX hunts. I've looked up on what it takes (legally and $ wise!) to go hunting in the Occupied Territory ... really made me want to come to TX to do a hunt when our son was a resident, stationed at Ft. Hood!!

[tx81]

Even with optics (aka - scope), when it starts getting on the dark side of dusk, once you pull the trigger, you really lose sight of what you're looking at until you can get your vision back. By that time, you're not sure where the deer went and then have the fun of figuring out where it went.
Had that happen to me this week on the doe I shot. Three doe came out of the brush about 15 minutes before dark. After five minutes one gave me a "perfect" broadside to aim at. I squeezed the trigger and when I looked again I saw two of the three doe had run about 15-20 yards to the east and stopped. I took a bead on another doe and almost squeezed the trigger again, then got to thinking where that third doe went. My son arrived at that moment, the two doe ran off, and we waited for a couple minutes for them to come back. When they didn't, we went down to where I had aimed at the first doe and I saw that there were a couple of bright drops of blood. From that point it was all about figuring which direction it had run.
Needless to say, we found the deer about 35-40 yards away. I had put the round through both lungs. They can run after that, but they cannot run far.

[imfuncity]

Great point, thanks.