357Max strikes again- cast meat buck

[357maximum]

After a very frustrating and abnormally slow start to my firearms season I finally pulled of that one good shot and filled my meatbuck tag.

The gun was my 15inch Match Grade Machine 357 max Encore "pistol" stoked with a WD'ed 50/50 ww/pure BRP360-180FP fro the old and now defunct BRP mould making service:Fire:, 22.5 Grains of Vhit N-120, and a Remington 7.5 sparkplug.

I shot him as he was giving me a good "what are you" stare down from 110 yards out. I took him dead in the chest and all his movement from that point on was gravity assisted. The boolit entered the chest straight on and boolit either exited his natural exit point:twisted:, is in a ham or is in the gutpile someplace. It was kinda hard to tell when I gutted him. It was a bit messy in there.[smilie=1: Both lungs and the liver were basically destroyed and his digestive system was hit by a stick of dynomite I think.


Enough of the chatter............Here is the meat:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l80/357maximum/stonekill025.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l80/357maximum/stonekill026.jpg

[Doc Highwall]

Great shooting!:drinks:

[Stick_man]

And some mighty tasty meat that shall be. Good job!

[white eagle]

that is a pretty big buck
nice job

[Lloyd Smale]

nice buck!

[TCLouis]

Congratulations.

You'll be eating for a while with that one!

[Jack Stanley]

Good !!! there's one less to graze in my garden next summer :-)

Jack

[roverboy]

Looks like a good size for a young deer. I know what you mean with a messed up gut on a deer. WHEW!

[runfiverun]

that is a good sized buck.
you coulda taken a page from littlegirls book and shot it in the face.
i think she watches too many zombie movies.

[357maximum]

It is good sized for what he is. I did not notice it until I hung him up. Might have had something to do with the millions of acres of corn around me this year. Luckily for me this one peeked when he should have boo 'ed.

[Nrut]

Nice buck and impressive performance from your .357 SM.

[school of mines]

That Encore looks awesome! Nice hunt story. Thanks!

[357maximum]

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated. That "pistol" is my most favorite toy even if a few of my friends refuse to let me call it a pistol. I sometimes wonder if I even need to be there with it to make meat. By now I think it knows what to do all by itself. :mrgreen:

[Doc Highwall]

What power scope do you have mounted on it. It looks like a Leupold Golden Ring.

[Nrut]

Mike,
I am not familiar with Vhit N-120 powders and don't have their their loading manual..
What is your muzzel vel.?
Did you anneal the bullets nose?

[357maximum]

What power scope do you have mounted on it. It looks like a Leupold Golden Ring.

It is an older model LEUPOLD VARI-X 2.5X8 EER sitting in Burris Zee rings and strapped to a Stratton Custom steel 6 hole mount. My Dad bought it and did not quite care for the eye relief of it and sold it to me at a slight loss. :bigsmyl2: Luckily for me my arms are longer than his. :bigsmyl2:

[357maximum]

Mike,
I am not familiar with Vhit N-120 powders and don't have their their loading manual..
What is your muzzel vel.?
Did you anneal the bullets nose?



VihtaVori is powder made for Lapua....somewhere in Sweden I think. Alliant MP-300 is an almost identical replacement and is what I will be going to exclusively when my stocks are gone :-( as it is getting hard for me to find N-120. My Dad was working on 30Herret load development in a contender at the same time I was working on my max. He was liking the N-120 in his Herret so I scammed some off him and the trail has been happy ever since. We both just stared at each other when the numbers started rolling off the Oehler. Up to that point I was not getting the accuracy or speed I thought I should. N-120 fixed that issue right quick. Most loading data for the max using other powders is a bit optimistic at best. AA1680 data was compiled by a politician I think. AA1680 also had a muzzleflash that eliminated it for hunting. Rel7 gave me the accuracy I wanted but no speed. LilGun gave me the speed/accuracy but it came with some spikey quirks I did not like when developing loads and was really hard on my throat. N-120 and MP300 will be the only powders this toy will ever see from this point out I think.

I was running 2157FPS with this load last time I passed a few over the screen. This is NOT a starting load in any form or fashion but it is not overly hot IN MY GUN either. I lose about 200 fps with the same load and a jacketed 180 grainer due to friction and cast boolit characterisitcs. The funny thing is that if I were to rechamber this pistol into a 35rem it would not be legal here in southern Michigan because of the no shoulder, must be a straightwalled cartridge requirement in "pistols". [smilie=l:

The boolits are flatnosed with a well balanced meplate and require no annealling or hollowpointing. It does it's job from whatever reasonable angle I put it in/out of a buck in order to track through the boiler room. BaBore (BRP) waaaay outdid himself when he designed this boolit and my 4cavity mould is a highly treasured possession, especially now that you can no longer get one from him.


www.vihtavuori.fi

[BABore]

Congrats Mikey!

I wacked a similar buck opening evening with my 357 max rifle and the new and improved 360-180 GC with increased meplat. I ended up with 57 lbs of burger and 30 lbs of boneless steaks and roasts. Broadside shot at 35 yards. Tight to the shoulder crease just above the heart. Broke two ribs going in (yes two) and one going out. Mushed the front of the lungs and lopped off all the blue and red thingies above the heart. The heart fell out when I cut the diaphram yet it didn't have a mark on it. Surgically cut by Mr Meplat. He ran about 30 yards before hooking my property line steel T-post and spun around the way he came.

IIRC I have a brand new 4C 360-180 GC w/bigger meplat gathering dust here for you.

[roverboy]

The .357 Max is a way underrated cartridge. A friend of mine had one years ago and that thing was a thumper.

[crazy mark]

Nice deer and nice cartridge to take it with. I guess the Encores are worth the money.

[357maximum]

Bruce

Good Job glad you got your buck and with your max.....saaweeet.

I was starting to think I was gonna come up empty on buck this year. Had the same issue with corn I had a few years back, but a pair of little fellers finally showed up. I took the smallest horn but the biggest body. If one of em would have been big tag worthy I think I could have got them both if I was real fast.....maybe.:-P

I actually have what I/You need to get that mould here now. I have just been too busy working and hunting to tend to it. Now that I am not obsessing about deer on my day off I can tend to such a thing. Thanks for holding onto it for me.

[357maximum]

Mark

Both of our barrels have the MGM logo on them...they are NOT stock TC. Just so you know. I do not like the throooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaating arrangement in the stock TC. I suggest you get MGM or one of the other fine makers to build your barrel if you are going to shoot cast in it. Just my opinion .....take it as such.

[BABore]

Both of us had our MGM 357 max chambers cut tight and specified the throat. Well worth doing for a cast boolit gun. Mike Bellm also does alot of Max's. He's been buying unchambered 357/349 bbls from Bergara and chambering them properly. At least for jacketed bullets. I'm sure he could be persuaded to set one up for cast as well. He knows his T/C's.

[RugerFan]

That's pretty stout looking buck there.

[missionary5155]

Good morning & Congradulations on that corn cruncher. Fine looking specimen of corn fed Michigan meet. That caliber.357 Max is one fine deer popper.
Mike in Peru