My first deer with a cast boolit.

[Lowbudget12]

This year I finished picking corn for the pigs early, so I broke out the smoke pole and got to hunt the rut. I have an old remington 700ml that I think I have hunted with for around 23 years, taking around 45 deer. Up until this year I have always used a 240 xtp over 90 grains of pyrodex. This year i decided to try a Lyman 429460 Devastator in the green Hornady sabot. I was shocked that I they hit exact same point of impact, the 460 I think was maybe a small bit better at 100 yards.
I had a couple of cameras up on different farms with some really nice bucks. I settled on the one here at the house, I have never taken a large deer from the home farm. I had a 20 ft ladder stand up on an oak ridge on an old logging road that is usually a bow stand. This year I never got any pics of the bucks on the clover or the picked corn fields. So I started alternating between the clover and the stand on the ridge. In the box overlooking the fields I only saw does and small bucks, but I saw nothing on the ridge. I would hunt it different times of the day and the 10pt would come when I was not there.
On the last day of bp I was getting worried, no pics of my deer in three days. I walked in right at light and settled in planning of a three hour sit. About 730 I hear deer behind me running, its my deer he is chasing a doe down the hill to the creek. They run back up the hill and I think "you should stand up and turn around" but was too slow. The doe runs right behind me and up in a brush pile I had pushed up with the tractor, She is 8 ft off the ground standing on a pine log like a goat. The buck stops about 5 yards directly behind me. He just stands the panting, I cant see him but can hear him breathing. Finally he walked by my tree stopping between the ladder and the tree snorting and grunting, the rope I Pulled my gun up with is now touching him. After what seemed like forever he walked out in front of me, I let him get about 5 yards before I let the devastator go. The bullet struck high right behind the shoulder. The deer ran about 50 yards going down insight of the stand. The bullet did an outstanding job creating a huge wound channel. The shank came to rest under the shin on the far side, even without an exit hole the blood trail was massive.
This was a hunt I will never forget, My first cast bullet deer.

[Iwsbull]

Awesome deer congrats. What kind of velocity and what was your lead mix, if I might ask.

[koger]

Thanks for sharing your story, awesome buck also.

[35 Whelen]

Good job!!

35W

[444ttd]

great deer!!!!!!

[725]

Well done. Great memory to have.

[osteodoc08]

Up close and personal! Any pics of the boolit?

[Lowbudget12]

If I remember I was guessing in the 1350 fps range. I did quite a bit of reading on here and went with Larry Gibson and cast 16 to 1. I could almost fit my hand in the entry wound, you could tell the bullet went at least 12 inches down before it lost the nose. The shank expanded again and blew the hair off the bottom of opposite lower leg but didn't come out. The shank had started to expand again, at least in the 50 cal. range. unfortunately I lost the bullet before i could get a pic of it.

[dverna]

nice!!!

[244ack]

Great buck, thanks for sharing

[Larry Gibson]

Absolute an outstanding hunt and a beautiful buck....well done indeed!!!

[atr]

Well done!

[Tripplebeards]

Nice! I take it this was a buck you shot back in October or November (you said rut) and not yesterday when you posted it? I actually was going to try devastator’s with a 50-50 mix of COWW and pure this year with 150 grains of tripple 7 in my muzzle loader. It shot to the same POA as my j words at 100 yards but opened up to about a 2 1/4 inch group. I wanted a little bit tighter accuracy so I stuck with my TC shockwaves. I wish I would’ve use my cast devastators instead. I shot a little doe and it ran over 100 yards with no blood trail (with the TC shockwaves) till the last 15 to 20 yards. I will work up a load for my 16 to 1 devastator‘s next year. I cast it up some 16 to 1 pewter and lead mix two years ago and have a sub MOA load shooting 1575 ft./s out of my Ruger 7744 but have yet to shoot a deer with one. I went out four times during our holiday hunt and four times during the antlerless hunt and never saw and doe(only a buck) to try them on. I did try 8020 mix last year with 15% Pewter and they never expanded leaving boolit sized exit holes on every animal. I had two deer run over 100 yards with very little blood trails and dropped the third one on the spot. It’s good to hear that that 16 to 1 mix put a big hole in it with a good blood trail I’ll be using it exclusively from now on. I tested mine with the black TC original shockwave Three pedal sabots maybe I’ll have to try a couple different sabots to see if it tightens up my group. I’m also using three pallets at 150 greens so my devastator was probably closer to 2000 ft./s if I had to guess. Muzzle loader season here starts the day after our 9 day gun season ends so by that time the big bucks in my area have been knocked nocturnal. All I have ever seen during ML season here are basket racks unless I get with a buddy and do some drives which I’m not a fan of.

Here’s my post with my 100 yard group...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...its-in-a-sabot

[Lowbudget12]

I harvested the deer on nov. 15. It was the last day I was able to hunt this year. I had a minor medical issue that turned major with a hospital stay and a surgery. So I have spent two months reading, getting better so I can go back to work and back to casting/shooting.
I think I was 14 When we got the black powder rifle, the guy at the gun shop said a 240 xtp with around 90 grains would be bad medicine on deer out to 100 yards. He was right im 36 now and every year it has filled the freezer.This year I decided to change bullets just because I can. I have a friend that shot the xtp over 150 grains and he lost a couple of deer with 50 and 60 yard shots after that he changed bullets and gave me the xtps. So with all that and what I saw on one deer I would be curious how the devastator would work with a hotter load.

[white eagle]

Wow nice deer way to go

[Savvy Jack]

Now thats a Buck!!

[facetious]

Mybe you will start some thing new. " Double Expanding Boolits "

[nagantguy]

That’s a keeper- always seems they taste better when they come from the home range!

[RickF]

Very nice deer, congrats!