Hello from Eastern Iowa

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Ghostwolf308

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Joined
Sep 1, 2025
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Hello I grew up outdoors but due to parents divorce never got much hunting time. Been out fishing and small game hunting most of my life. Been trying to find good people close by that might be willing to teach an old guy (46) a thing or two about deer hunting. I saw this regional forum on the long range hunting forum and decided to join up.
 
Welcome from Central Iowa. I've never been much of a deer hunter, mostly birds, bunnies, and song dogs, so I can't help you much with the deer hunting. But it's good to have you with us, anyway!
 
Welcome from SW Iowa. Due to bad knees my walking to hunt are over. My hunting now is restricted to an elevated 7' enclosed blind. Going to try coyote hunting out of it this fall on moonlit evenings. Have a lot of yotes in this area as well as deer. Just sit in my office chair and wait for them to come to me. Will do the same with deer. possibly three seasons.
 
Ghostwolf308 said:
Hello I grew up outdoors but due to parents divorce never got much hunting time. Been out fishing and small game hunting most of my life. Been trying to find good people close by that might be willing to teach an old guy (46) a thing or two about deer hunting. I saw this regional forum on the long range hunting forum and decided to join up.
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Wow, to be only 46 again. That came and went 28 years ago!

First advice, get a rifle using approved straight walled cartridges, or a muzzle loader (mine are smokeless). Practice! Ditch any idea of shotgun deer hunting.
 
Ghostwolf308 said:
Thinking about a 350 Ledgend upper need to research straight wall cartridges more
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The 350 Legend is probably the best we have available to us at the moment. Nothing else has the same combination of low price, low recoil, accuracy, range, and power. You can get it in pretty much any kind of rifle you want, bolt action, semi auto, single shot. There are others - 44 Mag, the SOCOM, the Buckhammer, 450 Bushmaster and more. The Legend is the best of all of them...
 
chieffan said:
I will second what Spikedriver said. Mine is a bolt action, which is the most trouble free type of action next to a single shot.
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Yeah i like bolt guns. Having a upper for the ar would be nice. I have a good trigger already and lower as a whole is a great base to start from. I do like the simplicity and accuracy of a bolt bun though.
 
I agree the 350 legend is better than slugs....accurate at distance. But now that we can use bottleneck cartridge in iowa i have gone from the 350 to the 35 whelen. It's amazing. I have no problem out to 400 yds. I've built 5 of them. Drt at 350 has happened often. I shoot a 200 grain hammer at 3000 fps. Deer hate it.
 
john kluesner said:
I agree the 350 legend is better than slugs....accurate at distance. But now that we can use bottleneck cartridge in iowa i have gone from the 350 to the 35 whelen. It's amazing. I have no problem out to 400 yds. I've built 5 of them. Drt at 350 has happened often. I shoot a 200 grain hammer at 3000 fps. Deer hate it.
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Any bullet is only as effective as the guy holding the gun it was fired from. I am not near as steady as I was 30 or 40 years ago so will stick with the 350 legend. Sounds like a real deer killer though.
 
Iowa changes laws so often I cant afford to keep up with them. Going to stick with 350 for a while. 35W sounds like a heck of a blaster but I did OK with 350
 
Iowa had been trying for a Hi Power deer season for many years. Had to start with a restricted cartridge to get something positive through the legislature. After the straight wall wall was in effect for a few years DNR had more information to work with, along with the support of the necked casing the Coyote hunters all used we finally got more leeway in what caliber gun we want to use. It would have been real difficult to get an any caliber rifle use for deer through the boys that have the final say, most of which are golfers, not hunters.
 
Ghostwolf308 said:
Hello I grew up outdoors but due to parents divorce never got much hunting time. Been out fishing and small game hunting most of my life. Been trying to find good people close by that might be willing to teach an old guy (46) a thing or two about deer hunting. I saw this regional forum on the long range hunting forum and decided to join up.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the club! What's your go-to gun for hunting?
 

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