UPDATE:
Yesterday I hunted in a woodlot at the invitation of my childhood buddy. He had set the stands, scouted the property, acquired the permissions (family member) and even marked the trail. So I am giving credit where it is due...my buddy Bob is one of the kindest and generous friends a man could ever have.
At 6:30 AM, after a short uphill walk of 250 yards from the house, I was in the stand, panting because I have the cardio health of a 500 pound man carrying a bank vault. I had the TC in my lap and by binos around my neck. Peacefulness set in as the woods quietly started to come alive. Dawn broke at 655 AM with a pink glow in clear skies, 23 degrees. No wind and 55 degrees forecasted.
Besides one fox squirrel the diameter of a small sewer pipe (looked like a small cat) the first 40 minutes were quiet. I could see 120 yards to my right and behind me, 60 yards to my left and in front, uphill, 100 yards to the left, behind me. Perfect TC territory.
At 732 AM I caught motion of a deer headed my way, left and uphill, 60 yards out on a path that would bring it upwind of me, but nearly eye level due to the hill, and about 15 yards out. I saw a flash of antler, but quickly ascertained it was a "Twinky". It has a spike left and a fork right. PA here has a "3 up" rule where one side has to have three up besides a brow tine, to be legal. Twinky kept coming. At about 20 yards he saw me, and became nervous. At the same time I saw another deer coming on the same path 60 yards out. When Twinky looked away I started to raise my binos to see if deer #2 had a rack. About three seconds into that thought I saw antler and knew immediately...SLAMMER INBOUND! All thoughts of binoculars disappeared, along with all other conscious thought!
A small shot of buck fever hit. I had already been spotted by Twinky, but he hadn't blown (yet). Slammer was still coming. Pistol was in my lap and I had 20 yards of time to get set. At that moment Twinky looked at me again. I turned my head and lowered my eyes and he seemed to lose interest in me, then he turned to look at Slammer, who was full of attitude. I think Twinky was being run off by Slammer. Twinky moved to put distance between the two and turned his head away. As Slammer passed a tree I raised the TC. I took an unsupported (sling wrapped) two hand hold. Slammer slowed broadside at 80 feet. I found him in the 2x and settled the crosshair on his shoulder. I had a moment of doubt, but told myself "It's just a beer can your are shooting dummy, just knock it over"...and I did. I felt a clean trigger break and a solid scope view follow-thru. Slammer jumped and his tail slammed down tightly. Twinky left in hyperdrive with Slammer following, downhill. I popped the cartridge, reloaded and I watch Slammer run, not bound, about 60 yards and then slow. Then I saw his front legs go goofy, then his rear end wobble till he keeled over and after laying down, I heard a death rattle.
I have killed 23 deer with that TC. From 12 feet to 167 yards. 11 of those deer were shot at 98 yards, each taken at the same bush from my treestand in NY. All but one of the 23 were one shot kills. But I always seemed to shoot the Twinky deer. You know, the little turd that no one else would shoot, but I consider a trophy because I did it the "hard way". All the antler mass I ever shot would not make one side of the 214 inch 14 point my friend took from that same stand in NY. That just seemed to be my lot in life.
But with Slammer, I finally shot a decent buck.
I walked to find him.
Turned out to be a 9 Point. A close look revealed an entry on his right side just above the shoulder joint (right thru good meat but below the spine). I find that offhand I shoot three inches high consistently from POI when I shoot off a bench. Of course by missing the shoulder AND spine it allowed him to run, downhill, to a place in a thicket that it was now an uphill uphill drag in every direction through brush...not DRT where he stood when I shot, ten feet from a trail straight downhill to the truck!) Thankfully, my best buddy Bob is also gracious enough to do the lions share of the drag because I have a back injury that has limited my mobility a bit (hence the cardio fitness issue)
The exit hole, oddly, was at the left
back rib. I don't know what that bullet did or what it hit, or maybe the deer wasn't really broadside (hard to tell in a 2x) but the bullet hit the top of a lung, an artery and a bit of liver and stomach too before going out.
More on that in a minute.
I was quite amazed that after no effort on my part to deserve this deer, here I was with the biggest deer I ever shot, 40 minutes into the day.
His spread is decent. That's a Super 14 barrel on a Contender for scale. Mass was good. He had some significant holes in his hide around his neck and a chunk gone from his ear, apparently fighting other deer. I would like to see my buddy get his sparring partner because I know for certain it wasn't Twinky!
After field dressing I went back to measure the shot. @80 feet from the stand. I found hair stuck to a tree and a little blood (apparently blown there from the exiting bullet.) I also saw this nick in a poison ivy vine on the side of the tree.
I looked down below the to the base of the tree and found this...
So here we go boys...ACCURATE SHOOTER STUFF!
In all the years I have shot deer with the 357 Herrett I have used this or similar 180 grain Single Shot Pistol bullets. Years ago it was either a Speer or maybe Sierra...it was a green box I think. I would get great accuracy and holes on the other side of a deer in silver dollar size. Never recovered a bullet. In 2008 I used Hornady SSP because no one else still made this bullet.
Another interesting fact. Old manuals (40-50 years old ) showed a max load of 27 grains of IMR4227. Newer manuals call for 21 max. I used to use 27 grains. That pistol barked and bucked like an untamed 44. Now I use 20 grains. I have since 2008. It is tamer now, but I guess I have no worry of stretching the frame!
I do not know if:
This bullet is an odd duck
This bullet is tougher than the old ones
The load makes the difference
???
In the end, a 35 caliber ole thru the lung, artery, liver and gut is good enough I guess. Just no idea why it turned, why it didn't expand.
You can see deep rifle engraving and remains of some moly (bought that way cause I was a beggar, not chooser at the time) I found those Hornady bullets.
I don't think I will mess with any changes, as in the end it did kill this old boy. For a PA suburban deer, I think he is big enough. I will likely not shoot one bigger in my lifetime. I plan to mount it.
In all, I am glad I lived thru the trip to the range, and got to shoot my best ever deer.
Best,
Snert
We didn't bother this year.
hammerbullets.com
