The Bullet-Resistant Deer
Well, I just got back from a hunting trip to my native West Virginia. As most of you know, I use a Remington 788 rifle chambered in .308 Winchester, with hand-loaded 150-gr Nosler Ballistic Tips over 44 grains of IMR powder. I have never had one fail to stop a deer dead in its tracks, until this year. After two days of unsuccessful hunting, I had trekked back down to the cabin to eat lunch. While inside the cabin, shooting the breeze with my grandfather and one of his friends, I heard a shot up on the hill. Walking outside, I saw three does come down towards the cabin. I snatched my Model 7 (yes, I upgraded rifles, but it's still using the same loads) and opened fire. My first shot deflected off heavy brush and missed. My second appeared to have no effect, and I thought I had missed. The lead doe took off across the hollow, running about 100 yards up the hillside and stopping on the four-wheeler track. I fired a third time, and saw the animal hunch up. I knew that was a good hit, and it wouldn't be going far. Shows what I know. The doe jumped across the four-wheeler track and into the heavy brush.
After about 5 minutes to let the deer bleed out and stiffen up, I went to the spot where it had been standing to look for a blood trail. There was no blood trail. There was a blood stream, with chunks of meat. I followed the trail into the brush, and lying dead about 15 yards from the trail was the doe. During the field-dressing, I examined the animal to see what my shots had done. While doing this, another guy we were hunting with came down with a four-wheeler to help drag the animal to the camp. He had shot the doe at the top of the hill, making a clean through-and-through wound with good expansion from his .30-'06 through the upper chest. That shot should have been fatal, based on placement, but didn't even slow the animal down. It ran down the hill towards the cabin, where I engaged it with two shots. As mentioned before, my first shot deflected off heavy brush and missed. My second shot hit the right shoulder, breaking it and deflecting to exit the neck with no expansion. The doe ran (and I mean ran) 100 yards uphill with a broken shoulder and two gunshot wounds before stopping to look for pursuit. My third shot hit behind the right shoulder, expanded properly and exited through the left shoulder joint, removing the joint entirely and leaving an 8-inch diameter exit wound. That shot put it down for the count, its final leap being pretty much reflexive in nature.
I have never seen a whitetail take that kind of punishment before, and it really shocked me to see it. The '06 didn't hit anything immediately vital, and my first hit deflected off bone without expanding. With my second hit, I saw the kind of expansion and violent trauma I've come to expect from the Nosler bullet, and the deer went down hard and final.
Now I'm back in AZ, with a freezer full of meat and a JOB!!
Holy shit, did I mention I got a fucking JOB?!?
It's not great, just doing data entry at a nonprofit, but it pays $10 an hour and it looks like I'll be doing some database design in the near future for them.
Woot woot
After about 5 minutes to let the deer bleed out and stiffen up, I went to the spot where it had been standing to look for a blood trail. There was no blood trail. There was a blood stream, with chunks of meat. I followed the trail into the brush, and lying dead about 15 yards from the trail was the doe. During the field-dressing, I examined the animal to see what my shots had done. While doing this, another guy we were hunting with came down with a four-wheeler to help drag the animal to the camp. He had shot the doe at the top of the hill, making a clean through-and-through wound with good expansion from his .30-'06 through the upper chest. That shot should have been fatal, based on placement, but didn't even slow the animal down. It ran down the hill towards the cabin, where I engaged it with two shots. As mentioned before, my first shot deflected off heavy brush and missed. My second shot hit the right shoulder, breaking it and deflecting to exit the neck with no expansion. The doe ran (and I mean ran) 100 yards uphill with a broken shoulder and two gunshot wounds before stopping to look for pursuit. My third shot hit behind the right shoulder, expanded properly and exited through the left shoulder joint, removing the joint entirely and leaving an 8-inch diameter exit wound. That shot put it down for the count, its final leap being pretty much reflexive in nature.
I have never seen a whitetail take that kind of punishment before, and it really shocked me to see it. The '06 didn't hit anything immediately vital, and my first hit deflected off bone without expanding. With my second hit, I saw the kind of expansion and violent trauma I've come to expect from the Nosler bullet, and the deer went down hard and final.
Now I'm back in AZ, with a freezer full of meat and a JOB!!
Holy shit, did I mention I got a fucking JOB?!?
It's not great, just doing data entry at a nonprofit, but it pays $10 an hour and it looks like I'll be doing some database design in the near future for them.
Woot woot