First ML Mule Deer

[Hac]

My son was blessed today, he was able to use his tag, with the season coming to an end and we had passed on this little guy on three different occasions, my son said today if he gets a shot he was going to take it so I made it happened, weapon was a CVA Optima, with 3 T7 pellets, topped with a 250g HORNADY, with a W209 primer, the weapon was loaded on 12/12/14, the bullet was recovered, now for the story we made a stalk up a hill knowing were he likes to bed, I found him with the binoculars and headed his was, made it to 80 yards, my son settled in and the buck stood up, the ML went off and saw that a bad shot was made but he dropped were he stood, the little guy got gut shot, but expired buy the time I got to him, when cleaning him out there was a mess the bullet is no joke, we shot the weapon to see if it was off but it was operator error, I am just glad that no tracking was involved, just wanted to share my first ML experience, and to thank everyone for there help here with my questions

 

[edmehlig]

HAC, as they say "It's better to be Lucky than Good". Looks like your son will be hooked on making white smoke. Now enjoy that venison.

 

[cayuga]

A nice little buck. Good eating. And it beats Tag Soup as my Dad used to say.

 

[bigbore442001]

Good for him. I am glad he attained success in the hunt. Out of curiosity, when you state he used a 250 grain Hornady bullet do you mean the 250 grain XTP bullet in a sabot?

 

[Hac]

The package reads hornady SST-ML 250 grain LOW DRAG SABOT, it's a .45 in a SABOT I will post pictures of the bullet retrieved and the package it came in

 

[rwbaker]

:yeah:

 

[ronald horne]

Congratulations. Will be great to see the recovered bullet. We've all suffered from "operator" error at sometime or other. The young ones are more tender. Great job.

 

[Burntmuch]

Awesome. Looks like a happy hunter. So is he hooked?

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats :yeah:

 

[Hac]

As for being hooked I think he is gut hooked already planning our Elk applications for next year and there all ML hunts,


Here is the picture of the recovered bullet

 

[Hac]

Good for him. I am glad he attained success in the hunt. Out of curiosity, when you state he used a 250 grain Hornady bullet do you mean the 250 grain XTP bullet in a sabot?

Here is what was loaded

 

[ronald horne]

That bullet looks like it did what it was supposed to. You hear different reports from different hunters, so the picture tells the story a lot better.

 

[Hac]

The projectile hit no bone what so ever just the stomach, and stopped short of coming out between two rib bones and the hide, I was pretty impressed

 

[ShawnT]

Congrads on the buck. Was those T7 pellets the 50 grain pellets? If so how is the accuracy with that load?

 

[WV Hunter]

Congrats!
Bullet looks great. That is how the SST/Shockwaves looked when I tested some a couple years ago. But I am surprised the bullet stopped, especially with that load. :huh?:

 

[Hac]

Congrads on the buck. Was those T7 pellets the 50 grain pellets? If so how is the accuracy with that load?

The weapon is a CVA Optima, its topped with a 3x10x40 cabelas powerhorn scope with the BDC, and have shot out to 250 yards on a table with a rest, and have held under 2" groups, with a fouled barrel and only two shots at one time before a little barrel patching and swabbing, I have two rifles set up the same with both shooting identical groups, at 100 yards it shots 1 1/4-1 1/2 groups and yes on the full 50 pellets

 

[Hac]

Congrats!
Bullet looks great. That is how the SST/Shockwaves looked when I tested some a couple years ago. But I am surprised the bullet stopped, especially with that load. :huh?:

Yea I was surprised it stopped, his belly was full of alfalfa, we hunt the area's around the agriculture fields which is desert, it looked like he gorged himself, that nite

 

[actionjackson]

Great post and pictures! Congrats to you guys..I have great success with the same slug/sabot. Merry Christmas

 

[Hac]

Great post and pictures! Congrats to you guys..I have great success with the same slug/sabot. Merry Christmas

Thank you and Merry Christmas

 

[Batchief909]

:yeah: