When the guys at work rekindled the urge to hunt after years of work, work, work, I headed to the dnr for a firearm permit. All they had left where ml permits so I bought one even though I didnt own one. On the way back to work, a club member pulls up alongside of me at a light and I tell him what I just did. He says, no problem, come by the house and I'll set you up with one. Got to love it when you get in sync with lifes timing.
Anyway, he offers me either a Renegade that is extreemly accurate or a TC Hawken that is all shot out with a badly mistreated barrel he had given to him. Well that Renegade sure would shoot. I settled on 100 gr of blackpowder and a 185gr .44 xtp. I could hit with this out to 145 yards. A doe presented itself at 25 yards and I put one right behind the shoulder. She ran 30 yards and it was over. But that entrence hole was so huge (4 to 6") that when we took her to the check in station, all the guys suggested we turn her over so we wouldnt have to explain that hole!!! I suspect I'd turned that light .44 into a varmint round.
The next part of the story still agrevates me. At my second job, an experienced ml overheard me talking about the .44 I was using. He tells me that Illinois law requires a .44 cal projectile and that the .44 really is only .429 and that in Pike County he'd heard of a conservation officer giving tickets for this combo. I suspect he was fooling around but I couldnt take that chance. After shooting the doe I switched to a .45 sabot, sighted it in the field, but didnt have the same level of confidence with it. A really nice buck presented a shot at about 70 to 80 yards, and I decided to wait till he came closer. I would not have hesitated with the original load. Instead, something spooked him and he turned tail and left. Asked many an officer about that load and none ever thought it would be a problem even though technically it wasnt really .44.
Last edited by grizzly 2; 01-27-2010 at 11:35 PM.