Virginia 2017/18 Deer Season in Review

[6pt-sika]

In one aspect this was probably the worst year I've seen in years . Honestly I didn't hunt as much as in years past , BUT for the amount of days hunted and amount I saw it was way less then usual .

My first this year was a spike plunked at 21 yards with my Alexander Arms AR-15 topped with a Leupold VX1 4-12 shooting a handloaded Nosler 100 BT pushed with 29 grains of IMR8208 . Deer was shot in the neck and was dead right there .

Second was a 6 pointer at 22 yards , he'd have been an 8 but he busted his rack up earlier in the year . Had my circa 1967 Marlin 444 topped with a Leupold 3-9 loaded with the RD/NOE 432-240GC HP pushed with 52 grains of H322 at the boom of the gun he was dead right there .

My third was a button I thought was a young doe not that I woulda stopped if I'd known it was a button . It was very close to the end of legal shooting light that day . Anyway he was at 21 yards and I had my circa 1890 Parker NH 10 gauge loaded with a 730 grain slug from an Accurate Arms mold I borrowed from a friend on Castboolits . Slug weighs 730 grains and measures .730" , to get this thing to work semi proficiently I need to remove the petals from the SP-10 wad and use a .010" mylar wrap around the slug so its tight but not to tight going thru the chokes in those Damascus barrels . I push that whole mess with 30 grains of SR7625 . Back to the deer as you might expect at the boom of my cannon the deer looked as if the carpet had been jerked from beneath him .

Number four was an 8 pointer when he came into sight I had a circa 1883 Parker Grade 0 10 gauge hammer gun loaded with my handloaded 0000 Buck , the deer got within 25 yards of me but I never had a clear enough shot that I was comfortable using the buckshot . So I laid the shotgun across my climber and reached up for my new to me circa 1960 Mannlicher Schoenauer MC 308 Carbine I had gotten from a guy in Anchorage AK on Gunbroker not two weeks prior . I had hastily worked up a handload using the Nosler 150 BT pushed with 48 grains of IMR4064 and had added an older Leupold Vari XII 3-9 . When I picked the rifle up the deer either heard me or saw me thru his peripheral vision and ran about 40 yards up the hill from where he was and stopped I shot and he hauled freight where he was standing was 58-62 yards . I heard him crash and when I went to get him he was about 30 yards from where he was when I shot .

Number 5 was blanked with my circa 1899 Parker EH 10 gauge shooting the Russina clone of the Lyman 525 sabot slug but beefed up for the 10 gauge slug weighs about 620 grains again pushed with 30 grains of SR7625 , great thing with this slug is you don't need to trim the petals on the SP-10 wad it also shoots relatively well at 25 and 50 yards . This deer again was at 21 yards and was the ONLY doe I fired at this year , as you might expect at the boom of the gun she was down and out .

My 6th and last deer this season was another button buck plunked him at about 53 yards . I was using the little Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel topped with a Leupold VX1 3-9 and shooting a Nosler 120 BT handload pushed with 30,5 grains of BL-C2 and this one as well dropped on the spot .

I used up all the tags on the VA Big Game License which unto itself is no difficult feat . On the positive I got two with home cast 10 gauge slugs , one with a home cast 444 and the other three with handloaded jacketed stuff . On the negative I got another Russian mold for a 16 gauge version of the Lyman sabot slug and I never was able to plunk one with that or my AR-10 260 , also wanted to get one with my home cast handloaded 0000 Buck . Have some Lyman 429215 HP loaded up for my circa 1967 444 I wanna take one with and my 1966 Retro 444P is still set up with the Lyman 429649 . That oughtta be a pretty good start for next season !

[piller]

Those 10 gauge slugs would probably be like getting hit by a pile driver. Not terribly fast. Just an impact that is going to cause whatever it hits to go down.

Congratulations on filling your freezer with high quality protein.

[fordwannabe]

Well you certainly aint going hungry this winter.

[6pt-sika]

Well you certainly aint going hungry this winter.

I only keep the backstraps and tenderloin . The rest goes to a friend to make burger . I usually get a few pounds back , but not to much .

[6pt-sika]

Those 10 gauge slugs would probably be like getting hit by a pile driver. Not terribly fast. Just an impact that is going to cause whatever it hits to go down.

Congratulations on filling your freezer with high quality protein.

I suspect those 10 gauge slugs are cruising around 1000 FPS as the bird shot load with 1 1/4 ounces of shot pushed with the same powder charge is doing a bit less then 1175 FPS . The result with these two slugs was the same as I had three years ago with a Parker 12 gauge shooting the Lyman 525 Sabot Slug , shot a little buck at 26 yards and like the other two boom flop . I suspect the 16 will do the same thing and time will tell .