It was about a 40 yard shot,used a 240 grain Hornady XTP bullet,a .45 caliber bullet with a .50 caliber sabot,with 2 50 grain pyrodex pellets for a 100 grain charge.
The load develops around 1750-1780 fps,as chronographed.
Depending on where I’m hunting,I’ll use the above load for close/medium range shots,for longer range shots-anything from 100yards out to 250 yards,I use 100 grains of triple 7 FFFG powder instead of pellets.
That load gets 1900-1930 fps, depending on whether I use a .44 caliber bullet w .50 caliber sabot,or a .45 caliber bullet w .50 caliber sabot.
At 250 yards,either load still has over 1000 ft lbs of energy remaining,for deer,anything over 900ft lbs is plenty of energy to make a quick,clean,humane kill.
The 40 yard shot I made pretty much liquified the lungs,as the bullet went through both lungs,and got part of the heart.
The inconsiderate prick still ran about 60 yards,then dropped dead in a creek-a really deep creek.
Fortunately,his back legs were still in shallow water,so I was able to drag him out without getting soaked.
I shot him from a blind I made using camo burlap,the 2 pieces I used cost a total of $28.00,also used a few zip ties,4 six foot wooden stakes,and some jute twine,making the total cost under $35.00 I had some leftover green and black spray paint laying around,so I made a camo design on the wooden stakes.
Blind is big enough for 2 people to hunt from comfortably,youngest daughter and I hunted out of it,the days she had to hunt were lousy days for hunting,15-20 mph wind out of NW kept the deer bedded down during daylight hours.
I had 6 scent wicks with estrous doe urine hanging just off the 3 main trails,used a grunt tube and estrous bleat can call,there were a few freshly made scrapes,so I enlarged them,and made a few fake ones on Thurs. and added scent on Fri. and Sat am’s.
The rut peaked here the second week of Nov. I started seeing lots of signs of the rut starting the first week of Nov.
The does that were not bred in Nov. cycle back into estrous 28 days later-so that's the first two weeks of Dec.
Any late cycling does that still are not bred in Dec. will cycle back into estrous the first two weeks of Jan. Ohio's muzzleloader season is 1/2-1/5 2015,so it coincides with the last does cycling back into estrous. Estrous scent wicks,grunt tubes,and estrous doe bleat cans will work in the first two weeks of Jan. just like they did in Nov. and Dec.
The deer I shot was partially behind some brush,couldn’t see the head clearly at all,saw enough of the shoulder to make the shot-I thought I was shooting a doe.
I had already reloaded before I walked to the creek,as I thought I may have needed a second shot.
As I said,the 240 gr JHP XTP passed through the deer,got both lungs,there was very little left of them-and the heart had a hole all the way through it.
Hell of an adrenaline dump for him to run 60 yards with no blood pressure,and no oxygen being inhaled.
The weather is perfect for letting the deer hang to age the meat.
I’ll let him hang ’till Fri. or Sat,then butcher him on the weekend.
I’m going to grind a lot of the meat,I’ll keep the 2 good shoulder roasts from the front,two good roasts from the hindquarters,cut the backstraps-(loins)- into steaks,smoke the tenderloins,slice the other 4 roasts-2 from shoulders,2 from hindquarters for jerky,the rest will be ground with some beef fat,with 1/3 being made into burger,1/3 into Italian sausage,the last 1/3 into country style/breakfast sausage.
One of my good friends also got a deer-he got a really nice 8 point-has an 18″ antler spread with a perfectly symmetrical rack-it’s not a big deer though-it’s about 140-160# hanging weight.
We’re going to cut his up Wed or Thurs,as he got his last Thurs. That one will be processed the same way as mine.
I still have another tag,so I’ll continue to bowhunt until end of Dec,hunt the 4 day Jan muzzleloader season,then go back to bowhunting the rest of Jan.
I’ll try to help the daughter get a deer,and my brother get his.
The $24.00 for an either sex deer tag is well worth it for the 100# or so of meat I’ll get from the deer I just got,another $24.00 for another 100# or so of meat.
Where else can you get 200# of organic,free range meat for $48.00?
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