292
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First deer with a handgun, first deer with a reload and first deer with a cast bullet.
Deer hunting is adrenalin filled and emotionally taxing, that is why I keep going. First the deer just appears, like it sprang right out of the ground, in the edge of the cover. That's when the conversation started: First it was. "That's a little deer; I'm not going to let a little deer be the first 1 I kill with a handgun." Then "I've never killed a deer with a cast bullet maybe I'd better not let the chance get away." A few minutes later. "If it's not a button buck and it gives me a clear shot I'm taking it." With all the vines and bushes I couldn't quite get a good look at the deer's head. Using my compact binoculars I was able to determine that it was indeed a little doe. "I'm shootin' this deer." Then, the deer spooked and ran away. "That's okay it was a small deer any way, wait it's coming back." The hogleg was already drawn, when she stepped in the open at what turned out to be 4 yards from the base of the stand I cocked the hammer and squeezed the tripper. Fully expecting it to be dead right there I was totally shocked that it ran off just like it wasn't hurt. As a movie cop once said this is a 44magnum the most powerful handgun in the world. Conversation resumed: "How could it have just ran off like that? I couldn't have missed. Why did I leave the shooting sticks in the 'Bullet'?" "To be sure I didn't need something to prop on to shoot a deer that close. Wait; there is blood on the ground right there where it was standing."
I climbed down and sure enough there was a blood trail………………………… that ended in just a few yards, "maybe I should go home and get Bob" but picked back up a little ways away. I encourage students in my hunted ed classes to make some fake blood trails and practice following them because it is much harder than most people think. Especially when the adrenalin is pumping and there is just a tinge of self doubt, way back in the back of the hunter's mind. Then there was the deer only 30 or so yards from the stand.
I know inquiring minds want to know what I was shooting. 8 3/8" Model 29-2. 250 grain Keith style bullet, cast from wheel weights and pushed along by 19.3 grains of Alliant 2400. The bullet entered just behind the deer's right shoulder, got that lung and the bottom of the heart and excited low on the left side. It didn't hit any bone not even a rib. I read 1 time that archery hunters program themselves to aim for a behind the shoulder shot and might should plan to hit the shoulder with a firearm. There just might be something to that.
Deer hunting is adrenalin filled and emotionally taxing, that is why I keep going. First the deer just appears, like it sprang right out of the ground, in the edge of the cover. That's when the conversation started: First it was. "That's a little deer; I'm not going to let a little deer be the first 1 I kill with a handgun." Then "I've never killed a deer with a cast bullet maybe I'd better not let the chance get away." A few minutes later. "If it's not a button buck and it gives me a clear shot I'm taking it." With all the vines and bushes I couldn't quite get a good look at the deer's head. Using my compact binoculars I was able to determine that it was indeed a little doe. "I'm shootin' this deer." Then, the deer spooked and ran away. "That's okay it was a small deer any way, wait it's coming back." The hogleg was already drawn, when she stepped in the open at what turned out to be 4 yards from the base of the stand I cocked the hammer and squeezed the tripper. Fully expecting it to be dead right there I was totally shocked that it ran off just like it wasn't hurt. As a movie cop once said this is a 44magnum the most powerful handgun in the world. Conversation resumed: "How could it have just ran off like that? I couldn't have missed. Why did I leave the shooting sticks in the 'Bullet'?" "To be sure I didn't need something to prop on to shoot a deer that close. Wait; there is blood on the ground right there where it was standing."
I climbed down and sure enough there was a blood trail………………………… that ended in just a few yards, "maybe I should go home and get Bob" but picked back up a little ways away. I encourage students in my hunted ed classes to make some fake blood trails and practice following them because it is much harder than most people think. Especially when the adrenalin is pumping and there is just a tinge of self doubt, way back in the back of the hunter's mind. Then there was the deer only 30 or so yards from the stand.
I know inquiring minds want to know what I was shooting. 8 3/8" Model 29-2. 250 grain Keith style bullet, cast from wheel weights and pushed along by 19.3 grains of Alliant 2400. The bullet entered just behind the deer's right shoulder, got that lung and the bottom of the heart and excited low on the left side. It didn't hit any bone not even a rib. I read 1 time that archery hunters program themselves to aim for a behind the shoulder shot and might should plan to hit the shoulder with a firearm. There just might be something to that.
