Got my deer this year!

[wantoutofca]

After not drawing a deer tag last year I was thrilled to get one this time around. I won't bore you with the story but wanted to post a big thanks to everyone. I have been casting for about 10 years now (handgun hunting for 2) and you have been more help than you could ever imagine!

75yd shot double lung shot with a Mihec 429640 cast of air cooled 50ww/50pure. The hit sounded like hitting a watermelon with a baseball bat.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11965555/TheBoolit.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11965555/TheDeer.jpg

[monge]

great buck good shoooting

[Boyscout]

Bore us. I going to when I get my first CB kill next week!

[white eagle]

same boolit I am going to use this year
congratulations

[richhodg66]

That's a nice buck and I never get bored by the stories.

Where are you at that you have a tag system like that? Guess I should be more appreciative of our system here, other than the fact that we can only get one buck tag a year, the tags are pretty easy to get several antlerless ones.

[wantoutofca]

Richhodg66- in colorado and with the preference point system to get into trophy areas running 20+ years for elk and 10+ years for deer I have to put my normal haunt lower on the list. The guys with my area as first pick get tags before I do since it's my second pick. I had an either sex tag. Unfortunately we are limited one tag per species per year. Sucks.

White Eagle- just a heads up on the boolit... what that boolit did to his lungs is the kind of thing you shake your head at and walk away. I had him hanging when I opened him up and his lungs fell out in pieces. Very impressive.

[beginStory]
I came home after the morning hunt and my wife told me that she saw some deer a few minutes earlier down below the house. She said one was a buck but she wasn't sure the size. I headed down from the house and ran across this buck with about 6 does. I started stalking for a better shot but since the sage brush is 4+ feet high and I was shooting off of sticks it wasn't going to happen. Ultimately they decided that I wasn't supposed to be there and they cross-countried for about 200 yards. I could tell that they wanted to jump the fence to the neighboring property so I had to get with it. When I stalked in to about 75 yards and decided that it was now or never. They were closing in on the fence so I let out a whoop and that stopped this one in his tracks. After getting hit he ran about 20yds, jumped the fence, and piled up where he landed. Being the lazy sort I decided to recover him with the tractor (hence the tie down around his antlers) rather than lift him over the fence. And yes, the boolit did exit.
[endStory]

[Sheriff]

Nice one. Congrats!

[Crawdaddy]

Nice buck. Glad to hear you have more venison in the freezer

[garymcgehee52]

Great job should also be some good eating. Also some good looking bullets

[OnHoPr]

Good shot, good buck and nice looking boolits especially for a rib double lunger. Do you think they will penetrate through a shoulder or both shoulders?

[mikeym1a]

Now, that's a right stylish buck you got there!!!!:D

[pmer]

Nice work all around, congradulations.

[wantoutofca]

Good shot, good buck and nice looking boolits especially for a rib double lunger. Do you think they will penetrate through a shoulder or both shoulders?

The boolit did go through one shoulder then exit through the ribs on the off side. I don't think it would have exited on a double shoulder shot. There wasn't much oomph left when it went out the other side.

[9.3X62AL]

VERY NICE BUCK, sir!

[waksupi]

If you need more penetration, quit using hollow points.

[wantoutofca]

If you need more penetration, quit using hollow points.

Who mentioned a penetration problem?

[Hamish]

" Do you think they will penetrate through a shoulder or both shoulders?" OnHoPr

"If you need more penetration, quit using hollow points." waksupi

-----------

"The hit sounded like hitting a watermelon with a baseball bat."

:bigsmyl2: Nothing in the world quite like it, is there?

[Dthunter]

I love it when a plan like that comes together! Good job!
Cast boolets are just plain fun and satisfying to hunt with!

[OnHoPr]

When I first started shooting the 44 for deer this concept between hollow pt and non hollow pt has always kept me in a quandary. One aspect is that you have broadside shots or any angle. With just broadside shots the hollow pt would be beneficial because it would create a larger tunnel wound through the boiler room quicker. With the heavy hard cast solid at reasonable speed you should be able the shoot at any angle with almost complete penetration to the boiler room, but the tunnel wound would be narrower. Back when I was looking for a factory round for my 44 (I didn't reload for it at the time) I found that the Federal 240 HP had cigarette pack accuracy at 100 yards, that is what I used, but I had thoughts of limiting my raking shots. (The SuperVels shot well also, but were hard to find.) The deer I shot with Fed 240 gr HP had complete pass through. Those rounds would penetrate in the sand berm when shooting unlike the Remington 44 240 gr SP which would flatten like a pancake and lay on top of the sand or just beneath it. When the Federal ammo dried up in my area I began looking for another round to get the performance of the Fed 240 gr HP. I couldn't find anything to replace its performance. I had to use Winchester 210 gr HP silver tips one year and the performance even with broadside shots was dismal. These Win loads is where I would have to agree with waksupi's theories on HP's. Since I loaded for shotgun, rifle, and 357 I was going to look for a 44 mold for the 44. Never got around to it though. At the time (back in the late 80's) the only molds I could find were the lyman molds through gander mountain reloading catalog. I narrowed my choices to the 255 gr GC and the 250 gr HP GC and I was leaning towards the HP, but with a tougher alloy concept for expansion and penetration. Given the availability of the boolit molds at this time I think I would try something like the Lee 44 310 gr mold or similar in a pure Pb BruceB soft point and HP water dropped with WW alloy to just above the top crimp groove. That would give the boolit a large meplat and a HP for rapid expansion for the larger quicker tunnel wound and all hard cast from the top crimp groove down for deeper penetration of the larger tunnel wound. So the boolit would weigh in between 290 to 300 gr. That would give the boolit all the attributes usually discussed in game killing performance, weight, big meplat, HP, and hard cast. That should give the boolit good performance on all shots, broadside and hard raking, except for the texas heart shot.

[harley45]

Nice Trophy!

[wantoutofca]

" Do you think they will penetrate through a shoulder or both shoulders?" OnHoPr

"If you need more penetration, quit using hollow points." waksupi

I didn't interpret that statement that way but I can see why someone would.

[Smoke4320]

good looking buck and great story
Congrads

[wantoutofca]

This may sound odd but I am not a big proponent if hollow points for hunting. In this case I wanted to use one to see what it would do. I limited myself to broadside shots out to 125yds as I knew penetration would be limited. I also used a very tough alloy that wouldn't tear. Since I'm on my phone I can't get the link but I have another thread going looking for an elk boolit recommendation as using a hollow point on elk would (in my opinion) be irresponsible from any angle.

All of that being said...
After seeing the performance of that boolit with my particular alloy I would not hesitate to take anything deer or smaller with it. I was pretty impressed that it went through one shoulder and still exited. Given a good angle I think a hollow point has its place in the field.

[Grendel99]

Congrats! Great looking buck. How was the blood trail? That bullet looks a lot like the Lyman 429640 Devastator HP. What's the weight on that bullet? What pistol did you use?

[garymcgehee52]

I will be using my Finn 39 with cast bullet Saturday; hope I have some of your luck.

[wantoutofca]

Congrats! Great looking buck. How was the blood trail? That bullet looks a lot like the Lyman 429640 Devastator HP. What's the weight on that bullet? What pistol did you use?

You nailed it except this is mihec's version of that boolit, about 250gr as cast. I can't speak to the blood trail since nearly all our snow had already melted and I wasn't paying much attention since I saw where he fell though he leave a pretty goof puddle). Used the 9.5 inch super red hawk I got my antelope with last year.

[Grendel99]

I have the Lyman version loaded up in my Super Blackhawk Hunter for deer, though mine are around 275 grs cast with straight WW. I haven't shot anything with that bullet yet, but shot three deer with the Lyman Keith bullet. They did pretty good but had a tiny blood trail even with full pass throughs. I think the HP will be perfect for deer. Did it look like you got some good expansion? Seems like you would with that alloy. Do you have a scope on that hog leg?

[wantoutofca]

I'm sure it expanded very well. When the bulled exited the shoulder and entered the rib cage it made a hole about the size of a silver dollar. The exit hole was maybe 50% larger than boolit diameter. Yes indeed it is scoped.

[marada]

very nice, congrats.