JohnH
11-26-2005, 11:29 PM
Well, the deer roast anyway. Thought I'd ruined my luck as when I stepped into the woods from road, a deer ran off ahead of me. Rats I thought, but I went on slowly to my stand and after sitting there for about 30 minutes, a deer comes from the same direction the one I spooked left toward. Could this be the same animal??? I'll never know, but so often I've heard other hunters say that after being quite a while after spooking a one, deer return to the area. There's definately something to that.
But in the heat of the moment I wasn't thinking of all that, I was looking for a brake in the trees to poke a bullet through, and sure enough, the spike stepped into one and I sent the RCBS 35-200 on it's way. (I thought it was a doe at the time) I don't think I've ever seen a deer react to being hit in the chest, but this one sure did. Arched that back up and took off, fell, scrambled back to it's feet and hobbled off. Shot was from 30-35 yards, he ran 30 or so from where he was hit and dropped. Bullet entered just in front of his front leg and exited just behind the off side elbow. Left a blood trail a blindman could follow, squirting it out both sides. He didn't take a step that blood didn't hit the ground.
Entrance wound was bullet size, exit was about 1", exellent performance. Load was 21.5 grains of 4198, based on chronograph work I've done with Reloder 7 velocity is circa 1700 fps. Bullet alloy is 1 to 1 WW and 20:1, makes 10 BHN. That's 2 for cast bullets this year.
But in the heat of the moment I wasn't thinking of all that, I was looking for a brake in the trees to poke a bullet through, and sure enough, the spike stepped into one and I sent the RCBS 35-200 on it's way. (I thought it was a doe at the time) I don't think I've ever seen a deer react to being hit in the chest, but this one sure did. Arched that back up and took off, fell, scrambled back to it's feet and hobbled off. Shot was from 30-35 yards, he ran 30 or so from where he was hit and dropped. Bullet entered just in front of his front leg and exited just behind the off side elbow. Left a blood trail a blindman could follow, squirting it out both sides. He didn't take a step that blood didn't hit the ground.
Entrance wound was bullet size, exit was about 1", exellent performance. Load was 21.5 grains of 4198, based on chronograph work I've done with Reloder 7 velocity is circa 1700 fps. Bullet alloy is 1 to 1 WW and 20:1, makes 10 BHN. That's 2 for cast bullets this year.