Finally...

[richhodg66]

Went through our muzzle loader season and early pre rut weekend this year, nothing. Hunted as many days as I could during the regular firearms season in my usual haunts, nothing. Then the Fort Riley season as many days as I could, nothing.

Today was the first day of our extended antlerless season, time to fish or cut bait. I didn't go to my favorite stand by the lake shore and went to one in a Hackberry tree I've killed deer from before, but since they never plated the field it overwatches this year with anything, I had low hopes. The place is just weeds. A good 45 minutes before the sun went down I saw the first deer, just my luck, a decent buck I can't legally shoot. Next deer I see moving, a two and a half year old six point, I can't win. Then a big doe and a yearling showed up, the doe offered a quartering shot maybe 60-70 yards away so I took it. The .358 did it's job, though not as quick as I'd have liked. I was pretty sure of a good hit, didn't get a blood trail at all, but I had a good fix on where she entered the woods and it didn't take long to find her. It turned out the angle she was standing was steeper than I thought, I had tried and failed to break the near shoulder, hit a little too far back, but only got one lung and it angled back through the gut. She made it maybe 60 yards before falling.

I had more deer present shot opportunities this evening than all the rest of the season put together. Crazy. I've been sick with this nagging cough way down in my chest and almost didn't go out, I'm glad I did now.

126048

[TXGunNut]

I'm glad you did too, offseason is much more enjoyable with meat in the freezer. Nice fat doe, taken with a rifle as fine as your Savage. Doesn't get much better than that, congrats. Get to feeling better soon, fresh air and fresh meat should help.

[starmac]

Great to see them old savages still gettin it done, and filling the freezer.

[RobS]

Nice work on keeping the cough down deep to not scare off the deer, that's very tough to do. Good shooting too!

[JSH]

Good for you. I didn't get out as the GF's septic system had issues, tree roots which will invade my time as soon as the weather clears up.
Fyi you better get after that chest ****. It is bad around here. Guy at work has it, hunting buddy has had it for over 4 weeks. My FFL gal had it and ended up in the hospital, she came home after two days.
Jeff

[Hickok]

Time to make jerky!!!

Those angles that deer "appear to be" can really fool a person. After finding a deer, I am amazed at times at entry and exit angles.

[paul s]

Good for you and nice looking Savage!

[Thumbcocker]

Those who persist seem to have better luck than those who hunt from the coffee shop. Congratulations on meat well earned.

[richhodg66]

Gonna go out and skin and quarter her this morning if I'm up to dealing with the cold. It's in the high 20s out there, the deer spent the night field dressed in the bed of the truck closed up in the capper, shouldn't have frozen solid in those conditions. I may wimp out and take it to a precessor, I really don't do that very often anymore, in fact, it's been several years.

I never found an exit hole and didn't find the slug while field dressing last night. It may be in muscle tissue on the far side still. I'm curious how that bullet reacted. I wish this had been a more typical shot where it went through both lungs, as it is, the .358 didn't put this deer down any faster than the cast loads I've used in .30 caliber rifles.

[Hickok]

Rich you're going to freeze your fingers off trying to get that hide off! I've done the same thing before and man does it make your fingers thump!

[35 shooter]

Congrats on yor late season deer! I'm going through the same thing with the cough now.Can't shake it...very frustrating. Glad it all worked out for you!!!

[Treetop]

Way to hang in there, Rich. I admire perseverance in a man. Nice looking doe and model 99! Tt.

[smoked turkey]

Good job. Soometimes it pays to hunt in a different place. Payed off for you too. I hope you were up to doing the processing yourself. I enjoy doing it and it does save about $85 around here. I figure that money can go toward something like a boolit mould or a good hunting or skinning knife. More importantly to me, I much prefer eating my own meat rather than having the meat to be ground all thrown together so they can process it more efficiently.

[RugerFan]

Very nice! What was the boolit/alloy/velocity?

[richhodg66]

The load was the NOE clone of the RCBS 200 grain FP, cast of 50/50 WW to range salvage (mostly FMJ pistol bullets) with 2% tin, air cooled in front of 40 grains of IMR 4320. I'm guessing it's close to 2K FPS, but I haven't clocked it, it shot well in the rifle and seemed good enough, so I kinda stopped load development there.

I ended up takingher to the best processor I know of around here this morning, just didn't feel like doing it. It's been a while, like several years since I've brought one there, I usually do cut them up myself nowadays. Had this been the regular season when I know they're stacked to the ceiling with deer, I probably wouldn't have, but our regular season has been done for almost three weeks now, so they will only have the occasional bowhunter or one of the few guys like me who's willing to go out after antlerless deer in January.

They do a good job, I've always been pretty happy with their results. Most of the venison we eat anymore seems to be ground and I prefer it ground pure, no fat added. I also usually make a lot of stew meat and I like cube steaks for making chicken fried steaks and swiss steaks too. Most of that is pretty simple for the do it yourselfer.

I guess I have simple tastes, but a real basic venison stew slow cooked in a crock pot is about as good as food gets and I could probably eat that nearly every day, though the wife isn't as keen on it as I am.

[ballistim]

Great job! Nice to see the '99 in .358 & the RCBS 200 grainer got the job done for you. Hope you get well soon.

[thadfz]

Richhodg- no shame in letting someone else doing the dirty work. :) and you get it back so nicely wrapped!! :)

[richhodg66]

They're a pretty good, family run business in a little town nearby my little town. I've only ever used one other processor here and these folks in Alta Vista are better than them, though they weren't bad either.

I am slow when it comes to dressing and butchering/packaging. I admit to not being very skilled at it, but I take my time and the end product turns out better for me than most processors will. For example, I like my ground venison pure, I like my stew meat cut into a little smaller chunks than most processors do, etc. Nothing major, just little things like that.

Right now, I want to go hunting the days that I have left and not spend it cutting meat, that's really what it boils down to.

[Dr. A]

Congratulations! I'll try to remember next year to offer to take you out on some public hunting that has lots of deer. Sounds like I'm not all that far away from you. Covered up in deer this am.

[richhodg66]

Whereabouts are you? I'm planning on heading out in another hour or so. It's awful cold today, but I kinda figured with the weather breaking, they may be up and moving this evening.

[Dr. A]

I am in Salina. They surrounded the house after church. I would post the pic, but iPads are a mystery to me. Good hunting at my farm, at Wilson lake etc. bucks are not as good this year, though I got a decent one during bow season.

[richhodg66]

Yeah, I'm in Milford and hunt most of the time on Corps of Engineers proerty around Milford Lake. I'm working in Topeka now, so relegated to hunting pretty much weekends only for the time being.

Salina is a nice town, we usually headed there over the years if we needed a bigger town than JC, I like Salina better than Manhattan and it's easier to get to from this side of Fort Riley.

[Dr. A]

Was out shooting at my range (close to Minneapolis)' yesterday, and 3 does watched my from 40 yards away. Definitely not being hunted right now. You're going to have to stay out of that wind!

[ammohead]

Congrats on a fine deer with a fine rifle.