2018 Hunting Trip and Processing!

[tallbm]

Wow man! That is great.What's limiting it to 100 yds,the camera,the light, or a combo of both?

The camera and IR light night vision range. The rifle with handloads would be good to 150yds no problem. The 300BLK caliber is great within 150yds even with a short barrel. You start going beyond 150yds and you have to do some things to keep performance going well for hunting applications. I wouldn't go beyond 225yds though. The good thing is I've never had to take an animal at that distance so 100-150yds is good go to. If I need to reach out further the 30-06 has me covered :)

 

[motocrash]

I meant the imaging/scope setup when I was asking of the 100 yd limit,I know the 300 BLK is no long ranger but certainly capable of more than 100.Though with anything subsonic,my buddies AR 300 BLK upper keyholes @35 yds.Thankfully there are no wild hogs here...yet,it's one hell of a catch 22.Would be nice to eat pork without "paying" for it but the damage they do is insane.

 

[tallbm]

I meant the imaging/scope setup when I was asking of the 100 yd limit,I know the 300 BLK is no long ranger but certainly capable of more than 100.Though with anything subsonic,my buddies AR 300 BLK upper keyholes @35 yds.Thankfully there are no wild hogs here...yet,it's one hell of a catch 22.Would be nice to eat pork without "paying" for it but the damage they do is insane.

The camera chip's night vision capabilities seem to be the main factor on the 100 yd night vision limit. The IR light gets me to 100 yds. At the time I built it I couldn't find a particular camera chip so I went with one that seemed to research as comparable but in the end was not really as good but what I have should work if I ever get the opportunity to really use it :)

The subsonic keyholing is an indication of an unstable load. I wouldn't fire that through a suppressor. If he handloads he can extend the COAL or lower the powder charge and maybe a few other things to play around with to try and prevent that from happening. I had keyholing when trying to figure out a subsonic load with Red Dot powder for that bolt gun in the picture. Pressure was too high for the load. I reduced the charge and things settled down. Red Dot isn't so forgiving it seems like other powders can be. It's tricky figuring some of that stuff out with so little published info and the fact that the caliber may be one of the most versatile out there. Subs with heavies 190gr+, subs with light 88gr+, supersonic with bullet weight ranges 110gr-220gr, cast lead bullets, etc. etc. etc. It's crazy fun to tinker with :)

Those pigs tear up everything. I may be able to get into them more regularly but we'll see. Maybe I'll get to try that DIY Night Vision on them soon but who knows, sometimes they just disappear on you since they are not territorial.

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice Haul, Tall !!
Wow---20 Hind Quarters & almost 50 pounds of Backstrap & No Venison Dried Beef in the Plans!!!

They all look small in the Pics, but it's hard to tell in a Picture. About what weight do they dress out at?

Bear

 

[motocrash]

Red Dot isn't so forgiving it seems like other powders can be.

I've all but given up on Red Dot for anything but pistol and shotgun.Its acute pressure curve has a very small window in anything else,it's also filthy when it's not in that small window and not so clean otherwise.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Nice haul and a full freezer well stocked for a long winter. Could use stew meat in chili instead of burger I hardly ever use burger in chili. I'm sure you are going to let the smoke roll also.

Warren

 

[tallbm]

Nice Haul, Tall !!
Wow---20 Hind Quarters & almost 50 pounds of Backstrap & No Venison Dried Beef in the Plans!!!

They all look small in the Pics, but it's hard to tell in a Picture. About what weight do they dress out at?

Bear

I only kept a small amount of backstrap myself. I'll see if it becomes dried venison or not. My brother gets the big backstap haul which is nice in the fact that he just takes them without any cleaning so that saves lots of precious time of not fooling around with 45 pounds of meat with all the other processing that has to take place :)

Size wise they were all likely within the 90-110 pound range of what we shot. This ranch we hunted at was very lax about collect the weight and other metrics :( Texas deer don't seemed get very big bodied like the colder climate deer do. I've never seen or heard of anyone shooting a 200 pounder or heavier. Now the pigs eat everything so they can get huge even for being lean and wild! Our feral pig was like 40 pounds and looks bigger due to being stretched out in the pic but there was only 5.6 pounds of deboned meat on him that wasn't ribs or shanks hahaha

I've all but given up on Red Dot for anything but pistol and shotgun.Its acute pressure curve has a very small window in anything else,it's also filthy when it's not in that small window and not so clean otherwise.

Oh yeah Red Dot is not to be trifled with. I still haven't finalized my Red Dot subsonic load for the 300BLK. It is a bolt action or single shot load only since Red Dot could never cycle an AR. The 300BLK uses pistol, shotgun, and rifle powders depending on the application of the load. It is truly a handloaders playground cartridge :)

Nice haul and a full freezer well stocked for a long winter. Could use stew meat in chili instead of burger I hardly ever use burger in chili. I'm sure you are going to let the smoke roll also.

Warren

Thanks Warren! I definitely could do that with the meat for chili. I need to cut it down a little bit more as the chunks are big but nothing stopping it from being used that way. I'm positive it will get put to use in some good creative ways. I've already marniated and grill kabobs on it :)