Well I got a nice six pointer last week. First buck, a spike, I nailed with the same gun went to the land owner. I like to give him plenty of meat, because he never charges us to hunt on his land.
For this guy I was using my NEF Sidekick with a 300 grXTP and 90 grs. of Pyrodex RS. He was walking inside a woodline about 15 yds. He caught my eye while he moved and I tracked him till he made it to an area that I could take the shot. It was about 80 yds distance in between two large tress; an opening of about 15 feet. He only made it about 25 yds.and dropped:
Not the biggest buck in the woods, but pretty nice looking. I think he is a two year old. They grow them small in the part of Va.I was hunting in. Large deer are the exception here. The wound is the exit shot. He was quartering away slightly and I shot him just behind the right shoulder. Didn't see any expansion. It killed him cleanly, but I would like the hollow point to expand:
He is in the freezer now and will fill my meat requirements for now. Still need one more good sized doe if I can get the shot. Still have yet to see the big guy I caught on my trail cam.
Muzzle season is over and gun season is in now. This means the dogs will be in the woods. I have mixed feelings about this subject and will not bore you for now. Season will be in till the first weekend of Jan. Still plenty of time to see the big guy. I have yet to see any rut here in the Tidewater region of Virginia. It is finally getting a little cool. That should make the difference.
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Just Another Voice in the Crowd!!!
Well congratulations. That's a nice deer. And IMO a trophy is in the eyes of the beholder. I believe there is too much emphasis on shooting 'trophy' class bucks. And I blame TV shows for that. If I was hunting and saw that 6 pt, you can bet your butt that I would have dropped the hammer at him. You don't need to make any excuses for sure.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
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I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
Congratulations on a nice buck.. I would have dropped him as well. My Dad used to say. I boiled them horns for hours and hours and the soup was not worth a sh*t.
Where I live now, we do not let a legal buck walk by us. It might be the only one you see all season. Although I can shoot a doe, the DNR has tried to get the herd shot off, so I will not shoot a doe or let one be shot on my property.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
We miss the old days in PA when you saw horns you shot! Now we have to count and in our Wildlife Management Unit I have to count 4 points on a side to pull the trigger. Try that in heavy brush or a trotting deer. Good eating on that buck!
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"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory." --American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910)
You are right. My biggest deer bagged in Va. was in Cumberland Cty. It was a very large six pointer that weighted in at 203 lbs. So yes they do grow a little bigger in your area west of 95.
Corey that is a swamp deer. I live in the tidewater region on the Chesepeake Bay. Now if you want to see monsters on a continuious basis in my lical area, you must go to the eastern shore. They have deer that have migrated down from Maryland and Pa. In my area they can go either way. I think the acidic environment works against building big deer. There is an area in the next county, Surry, that has a nuclear plant and they have some monsters living there. I guess that when you get in the western part of the state, they tend to be a little bigger. But I can tell you that when I picked up my processed meat, it really filled up my freezer so much that we have to get another freezer. I don't have any room for our turkey and the wife is a liitle mad. But I told her that with all this deer meat it helps with this crappy economy. When I talk money she listens.
Now I will be able to put more meat in the freezer!!! That is the part I like.
I am still disappointed in the performance of the XTP. I know I killed the deer effectively, but the bullet never expanded. It was the regular XTP and not the magnum design. I am thinking of switching over to the SST that I also shoot. That has performed very well and never failed to expand. My first deer this year was a good example to this. Small hole going in and a big hole going out.
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Just Another Voice in the Crowd!!!
Well I got one, or should I say two...
