Scored a buck tonight

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MrTom

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6 point. Maybe 120 dressed out. Perfect heart shot, in one side out the other and never touched a bone. As usual for my stand it was about a 13 yard shot with the Accura V2 and a Barnes XPB. Top of the heart is a mess and he went maybe 15-18 yards before tipping over.

The season started out a real *****, with unusually high heat [upper 60s to lower 70s] and a persistent south wind with sustained 25 to 35 mph rates and gusts much higher. Between the wind and the heat the deer were just laid down and not moving at all in spite of it being pretty close to the top of the rut. This afternoon I hit the stand at about 1:30 because we were forecast to see a major weather shift and much cooler temps with some light rain along about the end of shooting light and I wanted to take advantage of the shift. At 3 I checked the weather and the front was about 40 miles away. At 3:30 that south wind just stopped. Like right now. The sky was blacker than sin and then the NW wind got teeth and blew like crazy for about 5 minutes then the sideways rain started...hard rain at that.
I was soaked in about two minutes so I got out of the stand and made for the van. Half way down this mountain I hunt on the wind quit again, the skies lightened up a bit and the rain went to light drizzle so I turned around and scaled that sucker of mud and went back to the stand. The temp had given up about 30 degrees in this time. As I made the final approach to the stand's ladder I saw this buck standing at the small water hole that's there by the food plot. He was looking straight away from me so I took my shot.

Not the biggest buck but it will be a fine eater with zero meat lost to bullet damage. I love those thru and thru heart shots.
 

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Good shooting. How considerate of you to invite him (for) dinner.:think:
 
Good shot on the buck. Which XPB bullet?

This was taken with the .45 cal 250 grain XPB. 77 weighed grains [110 by volume] of bh209 powder. Black harvester sabot. Not so much as a rib touched, the exit was about the size of a quarter. I'd assume that bone contact would enlarge the exit to maybe a fifty cent piece size much like on last year's two deer.

I shoot the .44 cal, 225 grain XPB in a green crush rib in the Optima pistol, which will be afield now until the season ends. I'm hoping for a nice doe tonight as we have snow in the forecast for later today.

While I have no issues with the Expanders, they can be tough to find while the XPB's I have never had an issue locating and the 100 yard and under accuracy I want is found with them.
 
What a morning. WE had significant rain all day yesterday then turning to snow after dinner. The hunting property had maybe two inches this morning on the ground which made my climb up that darned mountain just a mountain of fun. As soon as I reached the ridge and a more gradual incline to the stand I found tons of tracks. As I approached the stand I saw two fawns at the water hole. I waved at them and they just trotted over about 50 yards to the edge of the cornfield when here comes a 6 point about like the one I got earlier. No buck tag anymore so he walked right along with the fawns. I set the pistol/holster down on my daypack to knock ice off the ladder steps when I see a good doe coming right at me in the woods. I steeped back over to the gun and got it primed and the lens caps up and peeked around the tree to find her about 10 yards from me broadside. So bang. 15 yards later she drops. Double lung number on her. As I start dressing her out here comes a larger buck on her trail and actually comes right to where I am cutting. I surmise that she's close to if not hot by the way he's acting. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to get a gore job by he finally figures out that all this orange is not screwable and he dances off a ways then just keeps on his merry way. The drg was more a fall down the steep side of the mountain and I was to drive to within 20 yards of the deer after walking back on the switchbacks I came up on. Total time in the woods: 1 hour and 5 minutes.
 
Awesome! Entertaining season you are having!!
 
Congrads Tom, Lots of tasty Snacks headed for the smoker I'll bet! :drooling:
 
One lonely little button buck graced the stand for the two opening days. I was starting to wonder why there were no deer, but the unreal wind and heat I'm certain had them laid low. Thank God for that big weather front. Now we're clicking in that stand again. I picked up my last antlerless tag on the way home so I can still hunt until the 15th. Hoping to poke a hole in one more with the Optima pistol.
 
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I wrapped it up tonight after a day of rain and wind again. And they combined the corn next to our woods. The nephew drove down and met me on the mountain top about noon and after getting him in a decent place to see deer, it began to drizzle, which became increasingly like real rain after an hour. The combining finished up about 1 pm on those 52 acres of corn and by three we were seeing deer. I saw three different bucks within about 40 yards but the nephew was tight on taking his own so I let the walk. I have no idea what he was doing but all three walked right past him, but he did see one buck's rosey little hole as he walked away at 70 yards waving his tail.

At 4 I climbed down from the stand and posted along the picked field. About 1.4 mile across the field I watched 9 deer come out of a little pod of residential land that's designated no hunter type of land. They stayed pretty tight to the safety net they live in. I hope they eat all the high priced shrubs.

I stayed pretty dry while in the stand what with a roof, but 40" sidewalls that are open above to the rafters. Keeps me fairly well hidden but still can get wet with wind. I cut the bottom seam out of a 55 gallon trash liner and slid inside that up to the armpits so my body stayed fairly as did my arms when I pulled those inside. I was amazed at how quiet I could get out of that contraption to glass deer [ the three bucks].

I started down the hill in half dark, pouring rain about 5:15, following the switchback atv path and found things darned slick. It was 34 degrees but the path had turned to mud and twice I slipped and went down hard. The nephew did likewise only he landed hard on his gun and scope and I hear the clunk on a rock. After he got rid of the starts we checked the gun and there was a dent in the optics along with a loose something inside so he decided to give in to bad luck and called it a empty season. Tomorrow's forecast while clear is for much colder and a real gale force west wind, which is murder on that mountain, so I too tossed in the towel. My slips resulted in some nice bruising on one side and on a leg no thanks to my blood thinners. I pulled two deer so I'm happy.

Both deer fell to Barnes XPB's: a 250 grain, 45 cal in the Accura rifle and a .44 cal at 225 grains in the Optima pistol. Both were fueled with BH209 and lit with Winchester shot shell primers. Both deer had 50 cal entries and quarter to 50 cent sized exits. No shots over 18-20 yards with one at about 12 yards [pistol]. Both shots were clean double lung/heart hits and no meat hurt at all. Two forward ribs on the exit with the pistol, only bones touched: quartering away shot behind one shoulder at the knee and out just in front of the other shoulder. I could not be happier with the bullets" terminal performance.

So I close my season with hopes for good fortune for those of you who are just starting. Stay safe and good luck all!
 
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