One shot report on Buckshots 38-55 GB

[Steelbanger]

Having a strong desire to take a deer with one of my cast bullets, I always reconsidered and went with jacketed bullets, except for those big, soft maxi's out of my 54 Renegade. Well folks, I'm not getting any younger and the deer aren't getting any dumber so I decided to go for it. We have a three day antlerless season that started today which is open to junior & seniors only. This morning I took a doe here in PA with my Marlin 38-55 CB using the group buy bullet. The deer was quartering toward me and went down at the shot, struggled up and fell across the trail - dead. Happened at 7:30 which was when the light was strong enough for my peep sights. I may never try that again but was quite pleased with the way things happened today.

My son, just home from a 12 hour shift, & I skinned, quartered, and refrigerated the venison because we're having an October heat wave so the meat must be processed quickly. As for bullet performance the shot was a quartering one with entrance at the right shoulder. Somehow the bullet deflected once inside and drove straight back through the body cavity and exited near the anus. Sadly, there will be no recovered bullet but it surely did it's job.

[Blammer]

Nice!

[nighthunter]

Steelbanger ... Glad to hear of your success here in Pa. My Father forgot to send for his antlerless license ( I reminded him 3 times and he is 80 years old ) or I would have had him out in the woods today. The deer seem to be a lot fewer this year in my area. What part of Pa. are you in?
Nighthunter

[9.3X62AL]

Nice work, Banger! I got a half-day afield today, at noon my truck's left front tire found something to puncture itself with--so I changed that and headed back to civilization. Fall colors are really starting to set on, and during the week we pretty much have the mountains to ourselves. Nice.

[waksupi]

Congrats on the CB kill. Get used to not recovering bullets. The only one I ever got back was in a buffalo, after smashing several neck vertabre.

[Steelbanger]

nighthunter,
I live in Northumberland County and hunt here in 4-E. Public land is terrible but there are pockets of private land with many deer. Interesting that after all these weeks of antlerless license sales 4-E has a few thousand remaining unsold tags. This never happened years ago.

[John F.]

Interesting report, Steelbanger -- sounds like you and the boolit both did quite well!
Out of curiosity, what was the velocity and alloy?

Thanks,
John

[Steelbanger]

John F,

Alloy was a 50-50 mix of stereotype & recycled 22 LR bullets from an indoor range. These bullets seem very hard to me althugh I haven't any equipment to measure the hardness. I developed this particular load in the spring and spent some time getting sight settings for silhouette. Only guessing the velocity is between 1400 & 1500 fps since I never got back to the range to chronograph loads this summer.

I'm in with the next group buy for the 38-55 and am anxious to shoot the plain base bullet with Unique. That should be a good offhand practice load with low velocity & recoil.

[Antietamgw]

Congratulations, it all worked as planned! I envy you having the CB version. I handled an 1895 CB with real nice wood a few years ago and it was as comfortable as an old friend. Should have bought it but something else was on my mind at the time... I hunt with a Rolling Block in .45-70. Most of the year it's shot with a tang sight but during hunting season I mount a Leupold 1X4 shotgun scope. My eyes are kind of tired, I hunt the thick stuff and woods here in MD and I just don't want to chance placing the shot wrong because I didn't see the front sight quite right. If that's your concern with using cast boolits for hunting, maybe a scope would help. Some might scoff at it but every year we find or finish wounded stuff that end up on our place from poor shooting. I don't get much time to hunt much less spend the next day or more trying to find one that I hit wrong. If you want to know the hardness of your bullets, send me one or two and I'll check 'em on an LBT and Saeco tester. PM for my address.