paia said:
......................................What happened that turned you off the SW's and SST's anyway?
My first 5 muzzle loader kills were made using sst. Upon opening up the first kill, i was some surprised at the little amount of tissue damage done by the bullet, but being new to muzzle loading, i didn't know really what to expect. It was a surprise to me that the sst was stopped by the back bone in either that first kill, or it may have been the second kill; i don't really remember right now. The third kill was a through and through lung shot that ran near 150 yard, if i recall correctly.
The forth kill nearly escaped. It was a mortal shot in the lungs, but the deer didn't know it was dead and ran out of the meager amount of snow that was on the South hill side. The blood trail was sparse, and if it weren't for patches of snow here and there, i couldn't have tracked it. It really tricked me when it started down hill, and went into bare ground. I figured it would be laying there somewhere, but couldn't find it. The real mystery was where the ground was snow covered further down, there were no tracks.
So i marked the very last place where i was on it's trail, and looked up, down, and all around. It took much longer searching for that deer, than it is taking to write this. I even circled up even though i 'knew' the deer had gone down. My old memory tells me i circled up and down 3 times before i gave up, and decided to head back to the truck. On the way back to the truck, i went up higher than i ever had, and headed out. After just a few steps kinda toward the truck, i saw the deer. The autopsy revealed the minor tissue damage i had seen before in the other deer. I was some surprised the deer headed down, but turned, and back tracked it's trail up. That was enough for me; i decided to try a different bullet when i could.
Rather than take time to sight in the rifle for a different bullet, i hunted the next day with the sst, and killed a sleeping deer at about 125 yard across canyon. It never was able to get up, and died right there. There was a lot of blood, and the damage looked good, and the way i thought it should look. However, the sst never got another chance.
The next 2 deer kill were done by a Nosler Partition. Now that was an eye opener. What that bullet does to deer is just plain wicked. Wow, is what went through my mind when i examined them. Since then, i have witnessed what an XTP does on deer, and what a Gold Dot does on deer. They both have what it takes to put the hurt on them critter. For some reason the Gold Dot is my bullet of choice as i write this, and it can be had for a non-premium price, if one can find it.
