Big Ole KY doe down with smokepole!

[koger]

I hunted a field this morning till 8:45, nothing. I loaded up and went over to a ridge where I had been seeing some does, 3-4 same place, every morning 9-9:30 am, bow hunting. The ridge is flat on top, blacktop road, full of mega houses from Ohio folks, some retired here. I have permission to hunt all the areas, seems deer love them expensive shrubs and flowers. I pulled up in a drive way, and got my gear, had my rifle laying across my left arm, walking out on a big ledge, where I could look down about 12 feet lower, was a shelf runs for 1/2 mile, just below the road, and houses, and after that shelf, straight down, about 380yds to the lake, nearly vertical. Deer burn this up, so 3 days ago, I put out a 2 gallon bucket of shelled corn there for the little darlings. I had taken about 10 steps when I stepped on a stick and I immediately heard noise, stopped with my rifle up, and right out from underneath me comes 3 big fat does, they look around, don't see me and keep going towards the corn. I make a "maah" doe bleat, and the big one turns a little, quartering away but shoulder is broadside. I put the crosshair, on the edge of the shoulder, about 5o yds or so off hand, and dropped the hammer. Of course hunting with real black powder, smoke went everywhere, but I saw her drop over the bluff and thought hoo boy! I reloaded, went to where I last saw her, and there was lung blood everywhere. I dropped on down the bank, blood waist high, both sides, pieces of lung, kept going, 200yds later, still a ton of blood, Stevie Wonder could follow this. Then no blood, no deer. I make 50yd loop, nothing, just some leaves. Then I spy a speck of white hair, she had slid down a natural rock chute drain, pushing leaves and had slid in under them when she stopped. I give her a couple of more kicks, and she slides another 30 yds eacht time. I keep dragging, another 150yds to the bottom of the bluff. I gut her, then drag her about 130yds to the lake. I call a buddy, Dale Rose and he brings his boat down, and comes and picks me and the deer up. I weighed her on hanging scales before cutting her up, completely gutted, she weighed just under 130#, had fat 1 inch thick over her whole body. I have her all worked up, all the good cuts are salted down, curing, the other 8 quart bags are for BBQ, stew etc, about #25, gonna donate them to a family I know having it rough, a bunch of kids, good Christian folks. Just thought I would share. I was shooting 95 gr, 2ffG black powder, and a Harvester Crush Rib Sabot, with a 260gr, Ballistic tip, copper jacketed bullet, in a TC Omega. Exit hole was size of a Quarter. in the skin, size of a snuff can thru the ribs. This combo shoots 5 shots into a ragged about 1 inch long, at 100yds, if swabbed out with a damp spit patch between shots, clean bore shot is right on, I always clean my barrel with acetone, till dry before loading. This was my 8th deer, I think, with this gun, have taken 4 between 150-200yds. I have a Burris, 3x9x40, loctited stell bases and rings, with ballistic reticle, I have the regular crosshair zeroed 3 inches high at 100yds, and dead on till about 150, next hash mark is between 175 and 200, dead on. I have taken the time to shoot this, at extended yardages, and know what it is capable of, have a ton of faith in this set up. I still hunt some with my other hot rod Renegades, and a copy of a .451 Whitmore I built, 1-18 twist, shooting 430 grain slug, with a large meplat, 5 grease grooves, with a fiber wad under it, bad to the bone.

[DougGuy]

Hail to tha yeah! Sounds like a fun hunt and good shooting!

Make some bambi jerky! I take a certain single muscle out of the very rear of the hindquarter, it's rectangular shaped about 5" x 2" at the top, tapering to about 3" x 2" at the bottom. When this is nearly frozen, but still bendable, I slice it to 1/8" thick on an electric slicer, drop it in teriyaki black pepper marinade and soak it, then put it in the dehydrator. GOOD STUFFS! :bigsmyl2:

[koger]

Doug, I have all the good ham, and backstraps, curing in Mortons tender quick, curing salt. I put the chunks in a Ziploc bag, with a heaping table spoon of this salt, per pound. Just lay the bags in the fridge, and flip them over each day, for 14 days, done curing! Take out an rinse, rub down with dark brown sugar and sprinkle with black pepper, smoke for 2 hours at 175, and you have meat that tastes just like slow cure, country ham, with a sweet aftertaste, that will melt in your mouth. I have done this with pork shoulder as well as deer, both tast just like the country ham, and is actually much more tender. Wife an I have 3 more, and bear meat in the freezer.

[DougGuy]

I will have to remember to try the curing salt next kill I get. Sounds delish!

[Omnivore]

Nice account. Good shooting. Good too that you're sharing-- that's part of the fun of course. I assume your Omega is fifty caliber, going by the bullet weight.

Baiting is illegal in WA State, which is where I hunt. I done got skunked this year. I had one really good shot. Had the front sight bead on the brain pan. She was looking right down the bore from about fifty feet away. I was sure I was going to drop her in her tracks. Easy shot. Perfect location-- just about 30 yards downhill to where I could get my pickup.

This was going to be great-- I had tuned the trigger to perfection, and had the rifle out twice, right before ML season, for a bunch of shooting, confirmed zero with the Lyman aperture sight, and all was well. The percussion cap exploded perfectly on que, but failed to ignite the charge. Never had that happen before. I'd been out in the rain a few days earlier, and didn't think anything about it. I'd hunted fairly extreme conditions more than once in previous seasons, and it hadn't been a problem. Apparently I should have reloaded after the rainy day.

Anyway, you should have seen the look on that doe's face after that noise she'd alerted on went "SNAP!" with a flash of sparks in the twilight. She just about jumped out of her skin, ran, half stumbling, down hill in a comedy of sheer panic, stopped about 50 yards away, paused, wagged her tail, then trotted off. That was the last deer I saw this season.

[white eagle]

Nice account. Good shooting. Good too that you're sharing-- that's part of the fun of course. I assume your Omega is fifty caliber, going by the bullet weight.

Baiting is illegal in WA State, which is where I hunt. I done got skunked this year. I had one really good shot. Had the front sight bead on the brain pan. She was looking right down the bore from about fifty feet away. I was sure I was going to drop her in her tracks. Easy shot. Perfect location-- just about 30 yards downhill to where I could get my pickup.

This was going to be great-- I had tuned the trigger to perfection, and had the rifle out twice, right before ML season, for a bunch of shooting, confirmed zero with the Lyman aperture sight, and all was well. The percussion cap exploded perfectly on que, but failed to ignite the charge. Never had that happen before. I'd been out in the rain a few days earlier, and didn't think anything about it. I'd hunted fairly extreme conditions more than once in previous seasons, and it hadn't been a problem. Apparently I should have reloaded after the rainy day.

Anyway, you should have seen the look on that doe's face after that noise she'd alerted on went "SNAP!" with a flash of sparks in the twilight. She just about jumped out of her skin, ran, half stumbling, down hill in a comedy of sheer panic, stopped about 50 yards away, paused, wagged her tail, then trotted off. That was the last deer I saw this season.

ouch!