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Treetop
12-15-2014, 05:20 PM
Her and her Grandma, Mrs. Treetop, went hunting one afternoon during the Thanksgiving break. She was using her Grandma's Savage model 11 youth stock rifle in .308 Win.

The load was 26 gr. IMR 4227, Nosler 125 gr. J-word partition, RA 68 case with a CCI LRP. This load approximates the 7.62x39 AK round, so the recoil is barely noticeable and Mrs. Tree (and now granddaughter, Emily) have made nothing but one shot kills with it on central Texas deer and hogs. This was deer number 11 or 12 using this load.

Two eight point bucks walked out about 30 minutes before dark and Mrs. Tree looked them over carefully before telling Emily which one to harvest. The shot was about 45 yards and the buck ran about 30 yards. It was double lunged, the exit wound was about 3/4"-1" in diameter but the J-word Nosler really scrambled both lungs.

Emily is a 15 year old, blonde haired, blue eyed cheerleader, but considers herself a Tom boy! She is active in FFA, dances with a competition dance team and loves to shoot! Grandfather pride aside, I'm very strict with all of the grandkids when it comes to shooting. They must prove to me that they are safe and possess the necessary marksmanship skills, before I allow them to hunt.

Last year Emily killed a squirrel at a measured 84 yards using her Savage Rascal and thinks nothing of shooting ragged one hole groups with it, off the bench at 25 yards.

BTW, yes that's deer blood on her cheeks, it's a Treetop family tradition when you shoot your first buck!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o146/RMAJR/photo1_zps0eea0dd1.jpg

white eagle
12-15-2014, 05:51 PM
congratulations young lady
way to go an excellent buck and nice family tradition as well

timspawn
12-15-2014, 05:52 PM
Well done Miss Emily!

dlbarr
12-15-2014, 05:54 PM
Very Fine, Emily!

[smilie=w:

DougGuy
12-15-2014, 06:04 PM
Very nicely done! And she's quite the looker too you can tell her so! She will do well in life, since most of it is not unlike hunting...

9.3X62AL
12-15-2014, 06:05 PM
Welcome to the hunt, Emily. Job well done.

**oneshot**
12-15-2014, 06:28 PM
Awesome!!! She's got her game face now, not to mention a big smile.

Wolfer
12-15-2014, 06:40 PM
How does it get any better than that?

skeettx
12-15-2014, 06:44 PM
Emily, AWESOME, well done, well done,
Also I remember my first deer smear, what joy
and I am now 66!!
Great tradition
Mike

Firebricker
12-15-2014, 11:23 PM
Congratulations to the whole Treetop gang ! Nice buck and looks like a perfect shot two. FB

tdoyka
12-15-2014, 11:40 PM
way to go!!!

1911cherry
12-17-2014, 08:40 PM
Nice one Emily! Congratulations!

richhodg66
12-17-2014, 08:50 PM
Congratulations. My son uses the same rifle and a very, very similar load for deer. Those light bullets work just fine at the ranges he has shot deer with it.

Treetop
12-17-2014, 10:08 PM
Congratulations. My son uses the same rifle and a very, very similar load for deer. Those light bullets work just fine at the ranges he has shot deer with it.

Rich, when I loaded the first batch of these cartridges, I was a little worried about the terminal results, but since Mrs. Treetop is a very experienced and skilled deer hunter, I went ahead and loaded them for her use.

She has been hunting since before we married in 1972 and is very patient in the blind, waiting on the perfect double lung shot. The first deer she harvested with this load, convinced me that it was plenty for our smallish whitetail, here in central Texas. The deer was about 90 yards away when she shot it, and it only traveled about 20 yards before it laid down. Expansion was evident, but yet not explosive.

That was many deer and a few, much larger, hogs ago. I knew that with Mrs. Treetop in the blind with Emily, they would wait for the classic double lung shot, and they did. Mrs. Treetop told me that Emily was very calm, while watching the two bucks and while taking the shot, then, while they were waiting the 15 minutes in the blind, before approahing the buck, she had her first experience with buck fever.

Later that evening, she tried to apologize to me for shaking so bad. I told her there was no need to apologize, because Grandma and I still get buck fever after the shot! I guess it's just another Treetop family tradition! :bigsmyl2:

richhodg66
12-17-2014, 11:00 PM
When I got him the rifle, he was about 12. I used Hogdon's recommended youth load of 37 grains if H4895 and a 125 grain bullet. Accurate, no appreciable recoil and kills deer just fine. I've tried it with 130s and also using IMR4895 with the same results.

He shoots left handed and at that time, that Savage youth model was the only left handed, youth stocked bolt action I could find and I picked a .308. It also came in .243 and 7mm-08. I think I made the right choice.