Ranch dog off the leash

[Friends call me Pac]

Had a couple does come by this morning at about 50 yards. When one of them got broadside I raised up my 94 Winchester loaded up with my NOE 265gr wheelweight & pure lead mix. I've been wanting to get a deer with this little 44 mag carbine all season. Last year I got a nice buck shooting cast out of my 94 Winchester in 30.30. Up until today all the does I have seen have had yearlings so no shot.

Oh yea, back to the story. I raised up the rifle and drew a fine bead in anticipation. Everything was perfect, in range, broadside and head down munching on acorns. I took a breath and let half out and concentrated on the front sight.

CLICK must be a bad primer! She hasn't spooked so I thumb the hammer back and concentrate on the front sight once again. Click!!!!!
​
I can't believe it but she still hasn't spooked after two very loud to me clicks of the hammer striking the bad primer. Well, the only thing to do is to work the lever action and maybe another will come by later. The rifle makes an extremely loud chaaaa-chhhick as I work the lever. Then it hits me. Hey dummy, you forgot to load one in the chamber after pulling the rifle up into the stand this morning.

God really blessed me because this doe was still munching away. I also think she was deaf as a hammer and needed thinned from the herd. So I line up a third time. BOOM! She dropped right there. No tracking required.

That 44 mag carbine did a number on her. I will say this though. With the 165gr boolit in my 30.30 there was very little bloodshot meat. The 44 mag with the 265gr boolit caused way more bloodshot meat. Hit her right behind the shoulder and the boolit exited out the left shoulder. The exit hole was about the size of a quarter.

Now it's time to break out the 30.30, load up some 165gr boolits and try for another. Got to go melt another wheelweight now.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Thank the lord for the occasional deaf deer! Crazy what will spook them and what won't. I could see myself doing the exact same thing. I have been known to check the chamber a time or two just to make sure!

[Smoke4320]

congrads on the doe .. good eating ..

[Wolfer]

My nephew hunted with me one day this past weekend. I loaned him my little 7x57 since it fits him good and he killed a deer with it last year. While riding away from camp on the 4 wheeler I asked if either of us had loaded that gun. We had to drive back to camp to get ammo.

[tdoyka]

nice deer!!!!

i did the exact same thing(this was 25 or so years ago) with my win 94 when a 4pt was there!!! sorry to say he ran off when my 94 went click. i real glad that there is someone else out there that forgot to load up.

[rondog]

I'm jealous! My .44 Winnie Trapper and I are ready to take another doe, have a tag and everything. Just can't find a place to go.....

[skeettx]

Click, Click, Bang, oh what a relief that is

[Ramjet-SS]

The acorns make allot of crunching when they eat them may not have heard any of that commotion.....lol love these stories can hear that CLICK in my head.......

[petroid]

Congrats on the harvest. Sometimes every attempt to screw up is in vain. On the bloodshot meat comment, I don't think it has anything to do with the caliber and everything to do with shot placement. Hitting the shoulder causes bloodshot meat, period. I have helped butcher enough deer at a processing center that I'll tell you a 22 or a 50 cal hit in the shoulder will cause bloodshot meat. Broadside behind the shoulder nothing to worry about. Now the longer a deer's heart beats after getting shot will cause more bloodshot as well but if you don't hit the shoulder, it won't be bloodshot.

[missionary5155]

Good morning and Congratulations !
Just never know what a corn cruncher will do. You may have timed those clicks with her "crunch" on an acorn. Well done !
But hey if it was easy and we were perfect at it all the time what fun would it be. But then that is why there are check lists in the military.
Mike in Peru

[Hickok]

Pac I was sure you were going to say that "worthless safety" they put on the Win. and Marlin lever rifles got ya!

My last major malfunction along those lines was when I slipped into my hunting area in the dark. Loaded up my 700 Remington .308 in the dark, pushing the rounds down in the action and then quietly and gently closed the bolt.


About 20 minutes after daylight, a nice 7 point appears out of no where @ about 65 yards. Line up the crosshairs, and CLICK! Slowly open the bolt, and the rifle had failed to pick up and feed a round into the chamber when I loaded up in the dark! The buck ran and then made one fatal stop to look back before disappearing into the big timber. This time I had a round in the chamber!

I will always pull the bolt back a little and make sure it stripped a round and fed, lesson learned!

[Rustyleee]

Congratulations! The nice thing about a .44 is that they leave the barrel pre-expanded.

[jeepyj]

Nice outcome, I'm quite confident that wouldn't be the same outcome for me. I'm not saying I've got bad luck but sometimes it doesn't seem great ether.
Enjoy that fine deer.

[Shuz]

Great story with another happy ending! Congratulations!

[Friends call me Pac]

Don't know why the bottom half in the initial post is in bold. Must have goofed somewhere.

The pics below are the shot placement on the buck I killed last year. This was with my 30.30 loaded with the NOE 311165 and Levereveloution. The top pic is the entry and the bottom pic is the exit. The shot placement on both deer were basically identical. Both deer dropped right there. With yesterday's deer I lost 1/2 a rack of ribs on the entry side and about 1/4 rack of ribs on the exit side along with a big portion of the off side shoulder. I'm not complaining just curious as to why the difference. Both bullets were cast from the same 50:50 ww & pure lead batch I have in the garage. Maybe it is just the way it is sometimes.

[armexman]

Rondog,
Have you tried just east of Evans, SE of Greeley. That is a place I have always jumped whitetails out of; in the Brush and Fort Morgan area SWA, I have also spooked whitetails when "hunting" pheasant.
My uncle owned some land on 136th and Harback(Sp?) east of Brighton; those could be areas you could go ask permission for and you will find some nice "cola blanca".
HTH

[nagantguy]

Snatching victory from defeat! Glad it worked out, had a muzzle loader snap 3 caps once before I got the big boom, all 7 doe stayed right there looking at me while I fumbled for 2 more caps. After the third try they all ran to the west, jumped the fence but one laid down. Think my powder must have gotten damp or something, at the time I was using saboteur 44 mag bullets, when I dressed out that doe I found the speer bullet in her chest cavity, lower than my point of aim. Slipped between two RI s went through the very bottom of the heart and the bullet wasn't deformed at all. It was like an unintentional "reduced" load kill. Sometimes things work out, more often they dont. My .44 lever gun holds a special place in my heart, my best walking around rifle, when my daughter took her first deer with it this year I gave it to her. Her smile and hug eased the sting of giving it away.

[taco650]

Congrats on the deer!

I had a similar experience with the first deer I ever killed when I was 15. I was using my dad's (now mine) '94 30-30. We saw a doe walk across the logging road in front of us while riding in the car (yes, the car). Dad told me told me to go for it so when I got out I short shucked the lever and my first pull of the trigger resulted in "CLICK"! Fortunately the deer stood there while I feverishly worked the lever. I eventually got the deer down with the third shot. Guess "buck fever" had taken over at first.

[temac]

Great stories, my good friend who was in MACV said when a dry fire occurs it's the loudest sound in combat !