Redemption!

[Franksauto]

It's been a long, long, frustrating season packed with downfalls but! Finally I made it happen this afternoon. I smoked a giant doe. We have had pretty crappy weather here with gail force winds. I just locked into a new property and I was dying to give it a try so I decided to go in anyway. I was running very late but I had to go in. Got to the property at 3:30, gathered my stuff together and proceded to walk to my newly erected stand. Just before I reached the tree line I spotted 4 nice big does. I would have shot but they were on the other side of the stone wall (dont want to mess up a new thing). Well I proceded to my stand, climbed up and pruned a few limbs. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the deer had crossed the wall but they were gone. I had only been in the stand about 15 minutes and was already bored and cold not to mention I didnt like my stand placement. I was texting back and fourth to a friend and heard the unmistakable sound of deer crunching through. I looked about 50 yards in front of me and here come 2 does. I focused on the bigger one, stood up, cocked the hammer back, put the cross hairs on her and booommmm! She bucked and trotted off. The second deer just hung around but that was my last doe tag. Waited about another 15, got down to look for blood and not a drop but I spotted the deer only 40 yards from where I hit her. Wow! Shes huge. Dressed close to 140#. I looked her over and noticed just a small hole, no blood. I looked all over and there wasnt a drop of blood anywhere. I was using a 260gr Nosler Partition
HG. When I dressed her I found that I hit 1 lung, completely blew apart the liver and shot through the heart. I didnt notice an exit hole till I got home and washed her out. Just a tiny hole coming out.
This has got me pretty worried. I just switched from Powerbelts because I was concerned about the lack of blood and never had a pass through with them. Anyway, is this just a fluke or is my load under/over powered. The shot was only 50 yards using two 50gr pellets out of my new Omega.
Anyway I was in the stand less than 20 minutes and it paid off.
I will try to get some pics posted.

 

[TJJ]

Congrats on your Deer. Dead is dead and you're way money ahead with the noslers. The PB guys will give me a lashing, but thats ok. Sounds like you made a good shot. I stopped trying to take the "vitals" shot. The high shoulder has anchored them well for me. We love pics.

 

[sabotloader]

Franksauto

i have been shooting those bullets for years now and very rarely do I net get a very good blood trail. But, they do such massive internal damage deer have never wandered to far.

The whole you decribe are about right... the Nosler can only expand so far and then it just continues to drive through the animal. This action creates a great deal of Hydrostatic Shock - most often this shock is so dramatic it over-rides the animals flight response.

Here is an example of a recovered Nosler 260... They are a very good bullet..

You can see when the petals peel back and reach the copper divider - expansion stops. You can get a bigger exit hole if you happen to drive the bullet through a major bone - but it gets pretty messy...

 

[Franksauto]

Congrats on your Deer. Dead is dead and you're way money ahead with the noslers. The PB guys will give me a lashing, but thats ok. Sounds like you made a good shot. I stopped trying to take the "vitals" shot. The high shoulder has anchored them well for me. We love pics.

I am primarily a bowhunter and cant get out of the bowhunter mentality! I lost a deer last Saturday and swore I would only aim for the shoulder but when the moment of truth arrives I forget I'm hunting with a gun and aim for vitals. I will try to get this down next time. By the way I have had great success with Powerbelts and have always found my game within 50 or 60 yards until last week.

 

[Franksauto]

Sabotloader do you recomend aiming for the shoulder or for the vitals. I have always been told to aim for the shoulder but always aim at the vitals. I have now recovered 8 out of 9 animals aiming for vitals.

 

[sabotloader]

Franksauto

I normally really try to get in behind the shoulder. As the bullet passes through the vitals it will do tremendous damage to the organs. Very seldom do they go more than a few yards.

If you need to break one down to keep it in place you might shoot the shoulder then, but normally the bullet will do the job just fine....

 

[TJJ]

I'm in no way trying to discourage a vitals shot. Its the high percentage, lethal shot. I personally don't like to follow an adrenaline charged animal 100 yds for the recovery. Just gettin lazy in my latter years I guess.

 

[CowboyAl]

Congrats on the success. I never had any luck shooting noslers through my omega. It sprayed em all over, I ended up going back to what I know works through it. That's 250 hornady sst's, it doesn't matter if I'm using 2 pellets or 3 they group and perform the best in the field. So far 5 deer, 2 bears, 1 mtn bou and a moose to their credit.

 

[Franksauto]

TJJ
I am also growing lazy and the shoulder shot will be the way to go if I can just remember to do so. I did it once on my first ml deer. Just followed the front leg up to where it meets the body and squeazed the trigger. She didnt go anywhere.

CowboyAl
I have to say that I am not getting the greatest group with the Noslers either but I think it's good enough for 75 yards and under. I do have a pile of Shockwave 250's which are the same as the Hornadys. I will give them a try next trip to the range. I just bought the gun and after the hunting season is over I will experiment to find the most accurate load. I think I want to go back to loose powder. I just ordered a pile of powder tubes.

 

[hawgslayer]

:applause: :yeah:

Congrats are in order :!: :!: :!: I use PB 295 gr H/P's and they do the trick. First doe this season was shot at 32 yards. The bullet took out 1/3 of her heart. She ran about 15 yards and went to sleep. The second doe was hit quartering to me from right to left. I put the crosshairs right behind her shoulder and the 295 gr took out lung and liver. Shot was at about 40 yards. Blood trail was good enough I could have followed it at night in the dark. Found her after 46 paces. I've heard to many horror stoires were guys wounded a deer and wound up not finding them. I wait for that vital area to confirm a good shot. Both shots were pass thrus :!: :!:

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats! I love big does. Lots of meat and they taste sooo goood! I like vital shots. My daughter hit her doe low on the shoulder this year and what a mess and wasted burger.

 

[fliowa]

The 260 grain nosler partition bullet you are using is the same bullet I shoot out of my 20 gauge H&R Ultra slug hunter. Winchester partnered with nosler to build the 20 gauge slug round. Out of my slug gun it has a muzzle velocity of 1900 f.p.s. I have taken enough deer with it to know it is a devastating bullet. Most deer were dropped in their tracks. The rest only ran off a short distance and the blood trail depended on shot placement. All deer were recovered in a short time. I just picked up a few boxes of 260 grain nosler bullets (found them cheap) and am planning on working up a load with them out of one of my Knight muzzleloaders.. I think your 2 pyrodex pellet load probably has a muzzle velocity close to 1650 to 1700 f.p.s. I am going to use a little hotter load than you in a effort to get the muzzle velocity near the 1900 f.p.s mark where I know from experience it works extremely well. I will be using 777 loose and and hopefully find a pet load between 100 to 120 grain mark.

 

[cayuga]

congratulations on the deer. Bullets do strange things sometimes. At least you had no trouble finding her.