22 GT XP-100 has a Hart 1-7T 15.9", heavy varmint taper, and a Holland Radial Baffle brake. McMillan stock.
Peter Angelos of Omega Precision did the build.
He lives here and his shop is in Gillette, Wyoming.
The MV with the Hornady 88 grain ELDM is 2886 fps.
Using Reloader 26 and Alpha 22GT brass.
My friend had some MLD tags (high fence operation)to get filled, so recognize this is a shooting and culling get together. This was not hunting, it was shooting.
The meat that would come from these does, already had families to go to.
This was about fun, culling, meat for others, and a little bullet testing.
Neither one of us had used this bullet on a game animal.
There were a number of MLD tags that needed to be filled, and I took care of three of them.
This XP is quite new for me, and it is also the first time that I have been able to draw blood with it.
The shot was short, at 140 yards from the prone position.
Impact velocity was around 2,650 fps
It was a quartering shot and I hit her on the shoulder. Absolute destruction
It continued it travel through the some of vitals, through the stomach, and a small portion of the base of the bullet was just under the hide in the rear flank.
May use this for antelope next year.
As distance is further/impact speeds slower it should not open up quite as fast.
I knew I wanted to take at least one revolver with me when I went down to My friend’s place. I hoped to fill three MLD tags.
The 357 Magnum is an instant grab for me for deer, but I considered a couple of 44 Magnum‘s for a while. They didn’t make the cut. Of course they would have worked great, but I just wanted to use a 357 Magnum.
If, you would’ve asked me 10 years ago, if the 357 magnum be my favorite deer revolver cartridge, my response would’ve been, “No.”
I was planning on bringing a five shot BFR revolver down.
When I went out to Mac's Gunworks, to get it zeroed and shoot steel at various distances, I simply did not like that small Bisley grip.
For hunting, I have fallen in love with Hogue’s Big Butt grips.
I have a customized (RAAP) Smith & Wesson 357 Magnum revolver, it is a N frame, with the above mentioned Hogue grips.
Chris Rhodes of Bayside Custom Gunworks (BCG) did the build, and it has a 10” custom barrel and a real nice trigger for hunting.
I grabbed one of my Leupold pistol scopes that had adjustable turrets, and I was off to the races to get a quick 50 yard zero on one of my new steel coyote targets, before I headed south.
I decided to go to the easy route, and use some factory Hornady 158 XTP HP’s, which have worked so good for me in the past.
This revolver shoots good from the bench or from a field rest.
The revolver was first up, and I simply made a bad shot that should have been easy.
My assumption is that I anticipated recoil and flinched downward, that is the only reasonable explanation I have.
At first, I thought I had hit her and I kept waiting for her to falter and go down but she didn’t, she’s kept going away from us.
After spending a good bit of time looking for blood and searching for her, we both came to the conclusion that I simply missed.
The following day, things were better. We spent some time at 50 yards on steel and the revolver was shooting just fine for both of us.
Later that afternoon another doe fell (under 50 yard shot).
I was using a pillow bag underneath my hands.
She went down about 60 yards from the shot, if I remember correctly.
Next two pics are of the exit side:
Great time with a good friend.
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