The 2025 deer season has come and gone. It was off to a rocky start but quickly turned into a God-granted gift of my first buck. The opening day resulted in finding some issues with the Marlin's setup that I thought were good. It also highlighted the need for a rifle that's reliable and robust. The result of everything can be boiled down to completing additional testing of setups and possibly configuration changes for some. I'll go over what happened.
The Marlin .357 Magnum
Despite having checked zero before the season opening, the first shot of the season resulted in no harvest. The Marlin 1894 CST in .357 Magnum failed to secure a good doe due to zeroing issues. Shortly after opening day, I attempted to re-zero the rifle at 100 yards only to find that once I was zeroed well, the next group I shot was several inches to the left. I left the Little Farm and went home. The Midwest Industries mount was removed and inspected with no issues found. I used a Wheeler Fat-wrench to tighten anything and everything that could have been an issue along with tightening the suppressor mounts. Everything seemed tight.
One of the immediate concerns I had was regarding parallax shift with the SIG Romeo5. It's possible that in all my previous effort in bright daylight, I was holding in the correct place. That doesn't account for the testing at the Little Farm I did so next time was making.
I need to spend some time with the rifle a rechecking everything. I've put together a mental flow chart of what could be wrong and course-of-action to remedy issues. Maybe the red dot is failing? I have a replacement. Parallax issue? Learn to shoot better or go back to a scope like the Leupold. I’ve ordered the 1.5-4x20 version of the VX-Freedom for testing.
I'll update after I complete my testing but I am hoping it's just an issue with the current dot.
A New Rifle
Over the years, I have spent much time reading older articles from gun-writers such as Jack O'Connor and Elmer Keith. Mr. O'Connor's writings on the .270 Winchester cartridge is noteworthy. The last several years has developed into a interest in having a classic bolt action for hunting. Mostly to see what the fuss is all about. I had seriously been considering a Winchester 70 Featherweight in .270. I mostly put it off due to cost and little need. The lever actions have been doing the job just fine. Why buy a boring old bolt action?
The zeroing issues with the Marlin highlight the need for a reliable and robust hunting rifle. Bolt actions with good scopes have proven themselves to be just that. There's a very good reason hunters have been using such a setup for decades now. I'm fully aware of that.
2025 was the old .270's 100th birthday so there's been lots of talk about it. I suspect also that the various algorithms have also picked up on my search patterns regarding that cartridge resulting in recommended videos and the like.
I've spent a bunch of time on this and I've settled on two candidates to build out a dedicated hunting rifle. I don't have a ton of money or a large budget to make this work, so I think I know which route to go with. Stand by for updates regarding that build.
2026 Pre-Season
Normally, I don't spend much time on pre-season work but since we're working on getting things planted on the Little Farm, I suspect that getting a particular space setup would be good. I'm starting to research perennial type crops and food plot setups along with developing a space for a tripod type hunting tower for myself.
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