Hey everyone, thought I'd let everyone know how my season went this year. I wasn't able to make it back to Ohio for gun season, but my dad borrowed my ML and managed to get himself a small 8-pointer.
This was about 3 weeks ago. He was up in his tree stand and saw the buck limping along- someone earlier that morning (probably one of our drunk neighbors that tend to send wounded deer over onto our property) had shot one of its rear legs almost completely off. So he lines up and fires. Well, my dad is no Davy Crockett to begin with, and on top of that he just had eye surgery, so he hits the buck too far back- clips the liver and hits the paunch. The buck slowly walks away- about 80 yards, and lays down. My dad's friend comes up about 5 minutes later to see what was going on and my dad told him what happened- so he sneaks up, sees the buck with its head still up, so he shoots it through the neck to finish it off.
Here's a pic of the bullet my dad shot - a .40 cal 200 grain XTP. As you can see, this was really pushing the limits of what this bullet can do. It did fully penetrate the deer- found under the off-side hide, but it did shed its jacket and pancake out. It was only a 25 yard shot, so the impact velocity was at or over 2000 fps. But they did get the deer, so that's really what matters.
Fast forward to yesterday- the bonus weekend of Ohio gun season. It was snowing all night, and then snowed all day. It was a beautiful day to hunt. By the end of the day there was 7 or 8 inches on the ground.
I didn't see any deer in the morning. My dad saw some does, but got busted when he tried to raise his gun. My hunting buddy's daughter shot a button buck at about 9am. Shot was about 60 yards and she was using a Traditions Tracker loaded with a 240 grain XTP and 70 grains of JSG. She hit it a little far forward and they had to track it 80 yards or so and finish it off.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until about 3pm when we did a little mini-drive of this strip of land. Only my hunting buddy was driving and he must have spooked almost 20 deer out of there. He ended up shooting a doe, also using a Traditions Tracker with a 240 grain XTP. I was up on a ridge overlooking some open area that the deer might come through on the drive.
I had been there awhile when I saw 2 does booking it out across the open field, but they were at least 400 yards away. Soon after, I see a single doe coming up out of a draw, straight towards me. I get ready and crouch down, since I'm out in the open with no cover except the tall grass. As it comes up towards me, it sees me and stops. The only shot I had was a severe quartering-to shot, almost head-on.
I didn't want to shoot because I didn't have clear shot - there was a bunch of high grass between me & the doe, but I didn't really have an option because it had spotted me. So I shoot, and through the smoke see the doe collapse like a rag doll. I reload, walk up and see no follow-up was necessary- it was stone cold dead. Turns out I hit about 6" high, and 6" back from where I was aiming, and pulverized the spine. Don't know if the grass threw the shot off or not, but hey, it didn't matter
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I was pretty happy to say the least. Again, I found out that I'm probably pushing the limits of what the 200 grain XTP can do. It was about a 40 yard shot, impact velocity of 2000 fps or more. The entrance hole was bigger than a golf ball, and it appeared that the bullet fragmented upon hitting the spine. I say "appeared" because I didn't find the bullet, though I will be looking for it tomorrow morning when I skin & butcher the deer. But again, 1 shot, 1 dead deer, so I'm not complaining. But I am going to think about backing off a bit on the powder in the future. I was using 95 grains T7 FFFg with a .45 cal CVA Hunterbolt.
So the 5 of us went home yesterday with 3 deer, which is pretty good in my book. We also had a blast, which is the important thing- that and the fact we have a lot more meat than we did before
. In fact this year has been a record year for us- so far 15 deer taken by 6 hunters on a 60 acre piece of land. To say that that part of the state has a deer overpopulation problem is a gross understatement. Here's us 3 posing with our "trophies".
Good 2009 Ohio Season -Update w/recovered XTP
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