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.