SeabeeMan
11-23-2016, 04:18 PM
After 21 years of hunting, with a break only while in the military, I finally was able to harvest my first wall hanger buck. He came in about 10 minutes after shooting Sunday morning and after getting 2 does the day before, I almost slept in that day. The inside spread is just shy of elbow to fingertips but the best part ever is when my nearly 5 year old daughter first saw him after coming back from grandma's and declared "that's the biggest deer EVER!" She walked around him and thought for a second and then said "it's really sad that he's dead, but we're going to eat him, right?"
On to the hunting. I started hunting with a 22 Savage High Power, then a 30-30, and the last 10 years or so have been with a 30-06. The 06 has always been with 165gr SST loaded to near max. I've always been happy with the stopping power but have sometimes been concerned with the sheer amount of blood shot meat on both sides of the shot. Saturday morning I discovered that my scope base on the 06 was loose. I was able to get a small doe at 20 yards, which gave me a good excuse to go in and sight another rifle in quickly in the back yard. I chose my newly built 300 Blackout with some 135gr FTX ammo I had randomly purchased a day before. I harvested a second. larger doe with it that afternoon and then took the buck the next morning. The doe was hit cleanly once through the heart and both lungs, only going about 20 yards.
I shot the buck at 70 yards and he didn't so much as twitch on the first hit. I took just enough time to curse and verify the sight picture and shot a second time, this time he did the classic "hump up" and then stood for a bit. He walked forward about 5 steps and dropped, never moving again. Both bullets hit within 1" and hit both lungs. With the 06, there would have been 6-10" of bloodshot meat and shock damage to the shoulder that the bullets were close to. With these rounds, there was only a 2" circle of blood shot meat on the exit and other than a hole, you couldn't tell where the entrance was. I'm very impressed with the performance and take-down power. I can't wait to try them with heavy cast boolits next year. .
Obligatory buck selfie:
181331
On to the hunting. I started hunting with a 22 Savage High Power, then a 30-30, and the last 10 years or so have been with a 30-06. The 06 has always been with 165gr SST loaded to near max. I've always been happy with the stopping power but have sometimes been concerned with the sheer amount of blood shot meat on both sides of the shot. Saturday morning I discovered that my scope base on the 06 was loose. I was able to get a small doe at 20 yards, which gave me a good excuse to go in and sight another rifle in quickly in the back yard. I chose my newly built 300 Blackout with some 135gr FTX ammo I had randomly purchased a day before. I harvested a second. larger doe with it that afternoon and then took the buck the next morning. The doe was hit cleanly once through the heart and both lungs, only going about 20 yards.
I shot the buck at 70 yards and he didn't so much as twitch on the first hit. I took just enough time to curse and verify the sight picture and shot a second time, this time he did the classic "hump up" and then stood for a bit. He walked forward about 5 steps and dropped, never moving again. Both bullets hit within 1" and hit both lungs. With the 06, there would have been 6-10" of bloodshot meat and shock damage to the shoulder that the bullets were close to. With these rounds, there was only a 2" circle of blood shot meat on the exit and other than a hole, you couldn't tell where the entrance was. I'm very impressed with the performance and take-down power. I can't wait to try them with heavy cast boolits next year. .
Obligatory buck selfie:
181331