No pics, but.....

[MrTom]

Tonight at 4:46 the Optima pistol went boom sending a 225 grain XPB Barnes smack into the shoulder of a nice buck. Decent body size but a miserly 6 point rack. 35 yard shot and the deer dropped on the sot and never twitched afterwards. Upon dressing it out the lungs were simply not there. Huge clots of blood, yes, no lungs. No exit wound either so hopefully I can retrieve that hunk of copper. I think I feel it under the hide on the back side. By the time I got it dressed out and tagged and got the ATV up there to haul him our it was too dark for a decent pic and besides it wasn't some otherworldly critter and we all know what 6 point bucks look like.

Our weather has simply sucked. The first two days we saw temps in the 60's. Today was slightly cooler at 54 degrees at 2 PM. The rest of the week we'll see declining high temps with the real chance at snow by Friday and Saturday so maybe the cooler air will get the does moving a bit. The does have been laying low with the heat and ugly wind.

I really love hunting with this Optima pistol and will fully endorse the idea of getting one for hunting to anyone humoring the idea. Loaded right these guns just lay a deer down hard. After today I have officially taken more bucks than does with mine.

 

[Slingingslugs]

Your right MrTom, we dont want to see that raggedy ol 6 pt rack....we want to see a picture of that chunk of copper! Post a picture of it! Congratulations

 

[deermanok]

Congrats Mr Tom. Looking forward to hunting with my own pistol in a couple weeks during the rifle season here.

 

[Okie Hog]

Congrats.

Yesterday at 8:30 PM

"Tonight at 4:46 the Optima pistol went boom sending a 225 grain XPB Barnes smack into the shoulder of a nice buck."

The 225 grain .430 Barnes XPB is a great bullet.

 

[MrTom]

I' have the der cut down to quarters and straps and trim but still no bullet. It made it thru to the outside of the other shoulder leaving a bruise on the inside of the hide. I can't imagine the bullet rebounding back thru all the muscle and bone of a shoulder plus back thru ribs to fall in the gut cavity. I'll be paying special attention to that shoulder. I really would like that bullet to see what sort of terminal effects, other than death, it has.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats!

 

[MrTom]

Upon further inspection the bullet did leave the carcass thru the far shoulder but the hair hid the hole. Apparently it flowered out like it was supposed to based on the exit hole. The load is right up with a .44mag or better and I was wondering how it couldn't clear the deer at less than 35 yards, but it in fact did. That damned hair is like bad wall paper in that it can cover a world of sins. Sure had me puzzled.

 

[03mossy]

Thats to bad. Was really hoping that deer caught the bullet. Barnes are darn tough to catch,

 

[MrTom]

When I studied the carcass I found the bullet was high in the rib cage and just barely caught the spine, yet the spine was totally fractured and the bullets slipped between the spine and two ribs where they connect to the spine leaving a real classic "flower" exit hole. The shock to the lungs was unreal as they were completely black and coagulated...just mush....and the heart, a long ways from the impact site was totally bruised. What has me even more amazed is the lack of blood shot around the entry and exit holes. Very clean.

 

[MrTom]

We tagged out tonight with a large doe and a fawn. The nephew bought a Savage 220 and scoped it with a 3X9. He was on a ground stand along a trail that the deer had been using heavily and the doe and fawn came along and stopped and looked at him. His first shot missed the doe, lol. Got the fever I think. The second shot was the charmer and the fawn followed to go on his management tag.

The doe is the largest doe I have seen in several years where we hunt what with all these foolish four day, five deer limit, $5.00/ tag antlerless seasons in October ahead of the regular season. This critter dressed out at 150.....a really healthy fat animal.

So now the sausage making starts in earnest here in a couple weeks.

 

[Matthew323]

We tagged out tonight with a large doe and a fawn. The nephew bought a Savage 220 and scoped it with a 3X9. He was on a ground stand along a trail that the deer had been using heavily and the doe and fawn came along and stopped and looked at him. His first shot missed the doe, lol. Got the fever I think. The second shot was the charmer and the fawn followed to go on his management tag.

The doe is the largest doe I have seen in several years where we hunt what with all these foolish four day, five deer limit, $5.00/ tag antlerless seasons in October ahead of the regular season. This critter dressed out at 150.....a really healthy fat animal.

So now the sausage making starts in earnest here in a couple weeks.

Just out of curiosity, what type of equipment do you use to make sausage? Did you purchase residential/home grade equipment, or did you elect to purchase commercial grade equipment?

I am most interested in the type of sausage stuffer that you have. A friend of mine had one of the F. Dick, commercial, stainless steel, manual sausage staffers, which he swore by.

Several years ago I borrowed the following book from my public library, which I read with great interest.

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn (2013)

 

[MrTom]

All of my grinding and stuffing equipment is of LEM ilk. The grinder a Big Bite #8. The stuffer an 11 pound vertical. Basically all of my seasonings and casings come from Waltons.com, except for any hog casings for bratwurst which are the real thing and of which I bought into a pile of a couple years ago and have in the freezer. I'll do 50 pounds of sticks this year and 25 pounds of cut muscle jerky and whatever extra clean trim from the deer into ground and pressure jerky so the #8 Big Bite grinder is an appropriate size for the amount of annual grinding I do.

On any grinder, buy knives and different plate sizes in pairs and keep them separate meaning one knife, one plate, don't switch a knife with a different plate. Let the knife/plate pair develop their own wear patterns and things go much easier. I use three different sizes of plates, each with it's own knife and they're about ten years old now and are still super sharp.

I vary my sausage making from year to year a bit depending on how much venison I have. I make all of my batches in 25 pounds and universally use 12.5 pounds of venison to 12.5 pounds of pork shoulder w/fat for summer sausage, ring bologna and sticks. Jerky, whether ground and pressed or cut whole muscle [which I prefer] is pure defatted venison. All of my bratwurst and breakfast sausage are 100% pork and I make maybe 50 pounds of each a year.

All of my sausages/jerky get vacuum sealed when finished and at a cold room temperature.

For those who want to develop their own sausage recipes HOME SAUSAGE MAKING by Charles Reavis is a dandy. Personally I find that Walton's products are the slickest way to make super good sausages and jerkys but there are a ton of other sources for seasoning blends and casing products that just simply take the work and headache out of the process. In addition to Waltons one can also check out The Sausagemaker.com.

 

[Matthew323]

All of my grinding and stuffing equipment is of LEM ilk. The grinder a Big Bite #8. The stuffer an 11 pound vertical. Basically all of my seasonings and casings come from Waltons.com, except for any hog casings for bratwurst which are the real thing and of which I bought into a pile of a couple years ago and have in the freezer. I'll do 50 pounds of sticks this year and 25 pounds of cut muscle jerky and whatever extra clean trim from the deer into ground and pressure jerky so the #8 Big Bite grinder is an appropriate size for the amount of annual grinding I do.

On any grinder, buy knives and different plate sizes in pairs and keep them separate meaning one knife, one plate, don't switch a knife with a different plate. Let the knife/plate pair develop their own wear patterns and things go much easier. I use three different sizes of plates, each with it's own knife and they're about ten years old now and are still super sharp.

I vary my sausage making from year to year a bit depending on how much venison I have. I make all of my batches in 25 pounds and universally use 12.5 pounds of venison to 12.5 pounds of pork shoulder w/fat for summer sausage, ring bologna and sticks. Jerky, whether ground and pressed or cut whole muscle [which I prefer] is pure defatted venison. All of my bratwurst and breakfast sausage are 100% pork and I make maybe 50 pounds of each a year.

All of my sausages/jerky get vacuum sealed when finished and at a cold room temperature.

For those who want to develop their own sausage recipes HOME SAUSAGE MAKING by Charles Reavis is a dandy. Personally I find that Walton's products are the slickest way to make super good sausages and jerkys but there are a ton of other sources for seasoning blends and casing products that just simply take the work and headache out of the process. In addition to Waltons one can also check out The Sausagemaker.com.

Thanks for all that good information. I really appreciate it.

 

[MrTom]

No problem at all. Happy to help.