I was making breakfast this morning and I could hear my wife get up from her chair and move to the front sliding glass door. I asked her what she was up to and she said, there is a deer in the yard and I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl. I walked over and picked up the bino's. It was a buck. She stayed there and I moved to the 10" Contender and a speed strip of five 357 Maximum I had loaded with 20.0 grains of Lil Gun, CCI Small Rifle Magnum Primer and a 180 grain Rim Rock LBT-WFN gas checked. The average velocity from the 10" barrel is 1800 fps from my Chrony. (I have been lazy casting my own recently now that these are available at a reasonable price.)
I went out the side door of the house and waited for him to turn broadside. I lined up the cross hairs and blinked and fired missing completely. A replay of last years first pistol deer shot. I went back in, reloaded and returned to my shooting position and saw he had moved out to 55 yards. This time I told myself, keep your eyes open unless you would like two ear fulls of muzzle blast with nothing to show for it. I listened to myself and knew the shot was good. I put my shoes on and tracked him to the river 100 yards away where he had gone for his last drink and laid down. There was a rivulet of water between us so I left him while I slammed my breakfast down and got my boots on and rallied my wife for the recovery.
For the skinning I used two knives I had made. The Fancy Walnut handled one is made from 1080 and I used it to cut the glands off. This knife has been used on two elk and now three deer as I recall. The remainder of the cutting was done by the orange cord wrapped handled one. It is made from O-1 and has a cord wrapped handle because I forgot to drill the holes for the bolsters before I heat treated it. Both have tapered tangs and vine pattern file work on the tangs. This was the cord wrapped knifes first animal and I think its last. I put the large nose and belly on it because someone had told me that they prefer more of a belly on a knife. As I was looking to make knives for others at the time I thought I would try that out. Even though the knife was razor sharp and would easily shave hair from face or arm it would not easily do the standard cuts down the legs and belly that I customarily do on an animal. I learned how blade geometry plays a part in performance. For those interested the knives are both exactly the same length as a standard Swiss Army Knife with the large blade extended. I prefer a small knife for gutting and skinning and the SAK has done many deer and several elk for me and hunting partners over the years.
The bullet went through the back of both front legs missing both scapula's and went between ribs on both sides. The blood shot ribs and upper lungs was immense. The cast bullet with .250" meplat did its job.
We have squash cooking in the oven next to the brussel sprouts picked today. My job is to get the heart ready for cooking. Thank you for reading.
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DougGuy
