Didn't watch, yet. But I'll say .30-30 and .45-70 would be the old standby rounds for such. And 12 gauge.

Edit: OK, I watched both. Interesting. I want a .30-06 and whatever he was shooting at the end, .54 something. Holy smokes, nearly knocked the whole target over!

 

Didn't watch, yet. But I'll say .30-30 and .45-70 would be the old standby rounds for such. And 12 gauge.

Yep pump 12 gauge for me. With buckshot

 

I agree that typically a shorter overall gun would make a better brush gun. I also agree a heavy for diameter bullet does better going through brush. 12, 16, and 20 gauge with rifled barrels work well as well as most 30 cal and up rifles but it really depends on what are we talking about for brush. Like a small twiggy bush or heavy limbed trees too? Previous would be be most rifles while the latter I would only be very heavy or very fast bullets (high energy).

My dad took his first deer on Drummond island in the ‘50’s (took a car ferry from lower peninsula Michigan to upper peninsula then east and took a second ferry) with a 30-30 that went through a 4” cedar at a dead sprint which ran through a ravine and slid under a dry bank. Took a while to find it. At least that’s how the story went.

 

I live in a very brushy forested area.

IMO, it's less about my bullet busting through the brush and hitting the animal behind, and more about a fast handlng carbine with enough energy to drop the animal before it disappears.

My brush gun is a Winchester 94, chambered in 356 Win, with a low power Leupold scope.

A Ruger Mini-30 chambered in 7.62x39 works pretty well too.

 

I live in a very brushy forested area.

IMO, it's less about my bullet busting through the brush and hitting the animal behind, and more about a fast handlng carbine with enough energy to drop the animal before it disappears.

My brush gun is a Winchester 94, chambered in 356 Win, with a low power Leupold scope.

A Ruger Mini-30 chambered in 7.62x39 works pretty well too.

I agree that NO caliber will "bust brush" so it fast handling and fast shooting that makes it a brush gun for me.

Since the lever guns in 30-30 are so popular,but slower.

I go with the Ruger mini 30 as it has about the same caliber as the 30-30 ,but shoots and loads much faster.

Faster recovery from shot to shot due to the semi auto action.

 

Browning 81 in 358, it's what i got...

For brush and open country out to 200yds

 

Nice!

 

I saw an article once, Shooting Times maybe, where a guy set up dowels in a grid and fired thru them. It was constructed so it was impossible to shoot thru it without hitting something. Long story short, he found no real ‘brush buster’. Bullets with greater mass seemed to do better than lightweight lightning rounds. But, I recall, everything deflected to some extent. Tho I don’t think he tested shotgun slugs.

On a personal note - the 223 isn’t a great brush buster. A little branch, smaller than 1/4”, deflected a killing shot and made it my embarrassment.

 

Brush rifles are for close shots in tight areas, not necessarily branch busting..

 

Agree.

When we talk about brush guns I think of just about any light weight, short barreled, slow/heavy bullet, quick follow-up rifle. Cooper's "snap shooting" or "flash sight picture" concept comes to mind. In his day a ghost ring sighting system might be in order, but today we'd more likely be using a red dot.

 

I would go with 12 ga, .30-06, and 45-70.

 

Just about every deer I shoot is in the brush, Winchester 94 Trapper in 44 Mag loaded with Corbon 240 grain hp Good enough to go through Cedar branches and Mtn Laurel

 

I did not watch the video. Brush around me is pretty thick. I’m not firing in to brush, when I can’t possibly know what’s in it or behind it. I might shoot someone or something I did not intend to shoot. That’s a risk I’m not willing to assume.

 

+1 to a brush gun being a handy rifle that can be shot in tight brush.

I think it's a question of format not caliber.

Shorter barrels, slicker guns, simple slings etc.

Like less than a 20" barrel and not crazy attachments to grab onto stuff. Think like an 18" shotgun or a nice slick lever gun sort of thing.

Most hunting calibers defeat light "brush" pretty effectviely. If the brush is heavy, your target is probably too obscured to merit a shot being taken.

 

Most hunting calibers defeat light "brush" pretty effectviely. If the brush is heavy, your target is probably too obscured to merit a shot being taken.

Yes. If the brush is thin enough you can for sure and certain your target is an animal and not another hunter you should be OK with the shot. But if in any doubt just be real still and quiet and see which way the animal is traveling and maybe you will get a clear shot. If not, just let it go. You will get another chance at another animal. Its not worth hurting another person over.

 

i have a few that work well cz527 762x39 along with a mini30,and a ar in 762x39 light short and acurate enough to get the job done.and my little rossi 357 witch is simple to reload for.

 

Edit: OK, I watched both. Interesting. I want a .30-06 and whatever he was shooting at the end, .54 something. Holy smokes, nearly knocked the whole target over!

The 30-06 with 220gr bullets worked great. The last round used in the second video was a .577-450 Martini-Hery round with a 600gr lead bullet at 1100fps per the video. The 44 mag worked well as did buckshot and the Brennecki Slug. The 7.62x39 didn't do so well. The 30-30 did good with two shots but a dead center limb hit took the bullet apart.

I saw an article once, Shooting Times maybe, where a guy set up dowels in a grid and fired thru them. It was constructed so it was impossible to shoot thru it without hitting something. Long story short, he found no real ‘brush buster’. Bullets with greater mass seemed to do better than lightweight lightning rounds. But, I recall, everything deflected to some extent. Tho I don’t think he tested shotgun slugs.

I remember that article. Remember we are talking about shooting through brush and not limbs. His test wasn't as accurate as the videos I posted. In the video the 30-30 punched a limb and cut it in half and blew the bullet up. The core and jacket still hit the target but were not going to be effective as a deer killer. And I agree because that very same thing happened to me.

I was sitting on a suitcase deer stand at my buds house. I had a buck that walked right up to the deer stand. All I could see was hair in the scope. Of course I could have just pointed at shot but couldn't bring myself to shoot a deer 6 foot away. So I let him walk away a little.

The way he was going he would pass a Mesquite Tree that had a split in the branches with a big hole in the center to shoot through. So I shot with the deer about 25 yards away. The deer flinched a little and in the scope I saw a huge crater erupt beside the deer. The deer calmly walked off and disappeared in the brush and I never got a second shot. I got down and walked to where the deer was when I fired and found a couple of drops of blood. I spent the next hour until dark looking for more blood and a dead deer. I never found either one.

The next day I wen back bright and early to see if the buzzards had found my deer. Nope, no buzzards. So I went back to the stand and replayed what happened. I got back in the stand and then saw something I hadn't seen earlier. A limb shot clean in two about the size of my thumb. Thats when I figure out what had happened and I guess a piece of bullet jacket had hit the deer and made a minor cut that bled a little. What I saw in the video just confirmed my theory.

I never saw the limb in the scope. Optics will do that. When focused on something in the distance they will blur out something close. For those who didn't watch the videos you really should. There is good information in there. I am not a real fan of the poster but that video was a good one.

 

I liked short barreled .458 Win. Mag. with 505 grain solids, for "pucker'brush" (sound shot) work.

Sound Shots are exactly that, identifying the location of the sound, and terminating the sound.

 

short barreled .458 Win. Mag. with 505 grain solids

Just thinking about that hurts.

 

In OH we are only allowed to use shotguns or straight walled rifles. I have had a 450bm deflect twice now off a little tiny twig. I would never trust a rifle in a dense cover situation. Especially around dangerous game. The old trusty Rem 870 12ga would be my ultimate brush gun.

 

It's so flat and barren here you can watch your dog runaway for 3 days.

 

Thats funny. I love New Mexico and almost moved there in the 1990s. We have been there a few times. Went to Carsbad and up to Albakurky. Saw Billy The Kids grave and went to that famous Mexican Restaurant in Albekurky that doesn't serve chips and dip. When I asked about getting our chips and dip they asked "are you from Texas?" Yep. Then they told me they served "traditional" Mexican food. They did find some chips and something that almost passed for hot sauce but not quite.

A person could go there and open an "authentic"Tex Mex restaurant and make a fortune.

 

458 SOCOM 500 plus grain bullets or a 12 gauge

 

I'm not real sure about brush busting, but when I'm hunting in thick woods, I carry my Ruger #1 in 45/70 loaded with 300g JHPs. I want them to drop. All have except one shot with a Hornady FTX. Deer didn't go far, but straight into a blackberry thicket. I'm sticking with my handloads.

Its an old question about guns that will shoot through brush. I tend to think its not a good idea and that most guns and bullets are likely to fail when used for shooting through brush. I watched this first video a couple of years ago and he does seem to do better with larger bores firing heavy bullets at moderate speeds.

Last night I was looking on YT and see that some time back he made a second video that seems to confirm that heavier bullets at lower velocity seem to work better shooting through brush. To me a "brush gun" has always been shorter barreled compact gun. So two different definitions for the same term.

And the second video.

al

 

I'm not real sure about brush busting, but when I'm hunting in thick woods, I carry my Ruger #1 in 45/70 loaded with 300g JHPs. I want them to drop. All have except one shot with a Hornady FTX. Deer didn't go far, but straight into a blackberry thicket. I'm sticking with my handloads.

I killed one deer with my 45-70 Marlin using 300gr Remington HP bullets loaded down to about 1600fps. I shot the deer right in the center of the brisket. She had spotted me and was about to run so I shot and the deer just fell over sideways with her legs sticking straight just like a statue someone had tipped over.

The bullet went in and even at that low speed had blew up. It destroyed the heart and lungs and a chunk of the bullet skipped down the bottom of the spine. It looked like someone drug a chain saw down the spine bone. Thats why the deer looked paralyzed when I shot it. I never found any of the bullet. I guess it was just lead giblets lost in the gut pile. I sold the gun after that because my 44 mag would do the same thing with a lighter gun and cheaper to load ammo. I do wish I still had the 45-70. It was cool to look at and fun to shoot. Sort of.

 

Our family... 50s-90s there were usually 8ish active hunters and we all went in with .270. Ammo share group reloading etc. They were all considered brush guns as they had to push through manzanita brush. Crawling through over and under the stocks bore the scars of decades of this bramble, us too. Yes we had other rifles that never went into canyon hunts. But being one of the younger in the group we were the dogs that drove the deer ahead of us for the elders at point. Three bucks was common back in the day for the event drive that started predawn. And no one wore orange back then, but you knew where everyone was, and never took a shot unless clean and clear, or gramp would dress you down.

Then it was dragging them three miles up switchbacks to get to the road. Pulling into the backyard around 2pm and 105deg everyone fell into the pool clothes and all... Chlorine beer gambrels and buck knives rounded out the rest of the day.

Growing up the "brush gun" was meant as the one that may have to break trail. Everything was wood stocks back then in family glass gun cases. The other rifles never went to that event.

 

buck and ball musket loads were the original brush gun

 

I live in a very brushy forested area.

IMO, it's less about my bullet busting through the brush and hitting the animal behind, and more about a fast handlng carbine with enough energy to drop the animal before it disappears.

My brush gun is a Winchester 94, chambered in 356 Win, with a low power Leupold scope.

A Ruger Mini-30 chambered in 7.62x39 works pretty well too.

Browning 81 in 358, it's what i got...
View attachment 556367
For brush and open country out to 200yds

356 winchester and 358 winchester are practically the exact same cartridge, with the exception of the 356 having a rim. Both are great. I just sent a Howa 243 off to JES reboring to be rebored to 358 win and to have the barrel shortened to 19"

I've been using a 35 Whelen, and it is a great brush cartridge too. Another benefit of that whelen is it usually kills like the hammer of Thor. My 35 Whelen has aperture sights, and I took a shot I shouldn't have on the last doe of the season, it was too dark for aperture sights, and a little brushy. Hit her low in the stomach on a quartering toward shot, left an exit hole about 8" wide. She only tan 50-75 yards, and along the blood trail there were literal piles of intestines. I should have let her walk, I made a poor choice, but had I been shooting one of my lighter rifles I likely wouldn't have found her.

I've always wanted a nice older Marlin in 35 Remington, along with a 35-30

 

Brush Gun:

 

You should try a 458 socom with a 500 grain ball. It goes through anything!

 

In Nam the Army tried to come up with a "brush-gun" and tried flechettes, little arrows packed into a 12 gauge shotgun, was too expensive, the Steyr ACR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steyr_ACR) seems to would have done the job, maybe, would love to get hold of one of those...

 

350 Remington Magnum ... in the 18.5" M600 or 20" M660. None better.

 

I remember seeing old gun mag print articles in the 80's on this. They tried all kind of experiments and found there is no such thing as a brush gun. Any bullet, any size will be deflected in some manner, and any deflection is a miss of the point of aim and maybe a bad wounding.

 

Any bullet, any size will be deflected in some manner, and any deflection is a miss of the point of aim and maybe a bad wounding.

Just curious, did you actually watch the videos I posted? Several of the rounds tested went right through the brush with no deflection. And yes they were the slower, heavier bullets that made it through with no deflection.