Semisane

About five years ago my brother-in-law shot a doe head on with a 385 Great Plains bullet out of his Gray Hawk. He hit her high in the forehead, center skull. She stood straight up on her hind legs and fell over backwards, dead with her feet in the air. The bullet put a 3/4" crease across the top of her skull, but did not enter.

oldsmellhound

Well, probably my weirdest one was just this season. 95 grains T7 & 200 grain XTP - range was about 40 yards. I hit the doe which was sharply quartering to me just behind the front shoulder right in the spine. The bullet fragged, but a large chunk penetrated almost the whole length of the deer and lodged in the rear ham.

The weird part though, was the entrance hole - it was at least 2.5" in diameter! My buddy swore that had to be the exit hole, but that wasn't the case. So the bullet somehow exploded with enough force upon hitting the spine to open up that big of an entrance hole, but still managed to penetrate over 30" through the deer. I'm still scratching my head over that one....

grizzly 2

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.

keyshunter

This one, which occurred during out early ML season this year, still has me scratching my head. A small 8 point walked slowly by broadside at about 30 yards. I was 17 feet up in a treestand and I held just behind the shoulder for a heart shot. The edge of the field he was in sloped away, so the shot was at a rather steep DOWNWARD angle. At the shot, he fell and was DRT. The bullet had hit exactly where I aimed (I am pretty reliable at 30 yards) but there was no exit hole. This year I switched from XTP's to 300 gr Gold Dots to try to get better penetration. While I was looking over the deer, my g/f walked out of the woods looked at the deer and noted a lump at the top of the deer's neck about 8" behind the head. I cut the hide, and the "lump" was a perfectly expanded Gold Dot. Somehow, that bullet, pushed by 90 gr Pyro RS, had hit the heart, turned right and angled UPWARD through the neck stopping just under the hide. In several hundred deer over 55 years, I thought I had seen it all. I guess not.

Breechplug

After reading a few of these stories I was remembered of 2 that happened to My Father in Law when I was with him. The first was exactly like (Bronko2200)'s story. My Father in Law was using his TC 50cal. Hawken, 70gr's 3F a patched round ball. We were walking to a spot I was going to do a small push to him when a Doe jumped up in the Golden Rod and stood there, she heard us comming but did'nt know where we were. She was looking directly away from us, My Father In Law fired and the Doe ran and went down. When we came upon her I looked the hit as I always do, I could'nt find it, eventually I did and the ball entered her rectum perfect, there was a small drop of blood that I saw and that's how I noticed the hit. Like Bronko2200's deer this one was also messed up bad insside to say the least!
One more quick one and again it was My Father In Law's and (Sorry) but this was with His Shotgun. He was uding his Old Original Belgium Browning 12Ga. We were Hunting togeather not too far apart when I heard him shoot, as I was'nt too far from him as I had only travled about 60yds and had not got to my spot yet so I walked back to see what he got. When I arrived I noticed a small 5 Point Buck laying on the ground, he said I kicked the Buck to him when we split up and the Buck came running at him when he shot. I congratulated him and we walked to the Buck. As My Father in Law was getting his knife out the Buck stood up and looked as if he was in a Daze, My Father in Law grabbed his Shotgun and quickly fired again and put the Buck down.
After all the excitement cleared I checked to see where the shots were on the Buck. I found the kill shot the entered the lower part of the neck shoulder area but I could'nt find the first shot?????? after a long examination I noticed the Bucks eye was bruised and had blood in it. From what we both came to figure when the Buck came at My Father in Law and he shot, his Slug missed the Buck but the (WAD) from the Slug hit the Buck in the eye and knocked him out!!
That had to be the strangest shot on a Deer I have ever seen!
(BP)

cayugad

Knock them out then cut their throat.... that's the way to do it..

Amazing some of the paths these things were taking. So when someone tells you it should have went right down.. there might be an different answer to the question.

ampelart

I had a 58cal zwauve it was the most inaccurate gun with round balls I went to a turkey shoot, 10 targets 1-10 at a 100y my ball hit the ground at 50y bounced and hit my target x ring #4 dead center got the turkey.a week later my gun smith asked if i heard about the guy at the shoot that bounced a ball 50y and won a turkey

cayugad

amperlart - never tried that fancy ricochet shooting.

I talked to a guy today that has an original 1842 Springfield .69 caliber. He thinks it is the rifle and not the smooth bore. He wants to sell it. He said it is in fair to good shape, all parts work and all original parts are there. So maybe I can learn that fancy shooting too. If his price is fair, I always wanted one. Being an original, and he said it is stamped, made in Massachusetts, I just hope he does not want too much for it.

He said he took it in trade for money owed to him. He also said, I think it might still be loaded.. So I told him to be real careful with that. But it does sound interesting.

Semisane

Wow Cayugad, I hope you get it and it's in shooting condition. We'll be awaiting your post titled "Ricochet Range Report - The Springfield Surprise".

Hunting for guns is almost as much fun as hunting with them. I've been exchanging e-mails with a Coastguardsman stationed in Mobile, AL - dickering over a Cherokee and Hawken. Here's part of one I received from him today.

Krypt Keeper

2 yrs ago I was in the stand waiting with my .45 CVA Elkhorn. I had used this gun the yr before and taken 3 deer with it. Had a Redfield 3-9 x 40 scope on it and was cloverleafing shots out to 75 yards only days before. Using same combo as always 90 grains (by volume) pyro and a 250 grain shockwave using 777 209's.

So I am in the stand sitting and had a six pointer walk out at 25 yards perfect broadside. I lined up the crosshairs right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger.. "clunk" the 209 failed to fire... The buck looked up and was wondering what he heard. After about 20 seconds he lowered his head again. My hunting pack with my extra shots and caps was sitting next to me and knew there was no way to get another with the buck only 25 yards away. I eased my hand up and lifted the bolt and reset it. Buck still there feeding on acorns, placed the crosshairs there in the boiler room and squeezed again.. This time I got a "boom". The deer ran off about 30 yards and stopped and just looked around for a minute and then took off again. I reloaded and waited, got down and found the plastic, the hole in the ground from the bullet, push off marks from the buck and no blood. Looked for over an hour at the shot area nothing. Went to where he stood and nothing, walked all over and nothing.

Shot the gun the following day after cleaning it and at 25 yards I couldn't hit a pizza box size target. Got a huge piece of cardboard and found out the gun was shooting 3ft to the right and about 2ft high. Was so mad I could have wrapped the gun around a tree. The gun sat in the cabinet till this past season. I got a wild hair in the middle of the season and pulled it out. Took off the scope and put on another scope, same powder and bullet setup and dialed it in. Did manage to shoot 2 does with it this yr and both were right back into the boiler room.

Still aggrevates me to no end...