Headed to our cabin this past weekend for the end of ML season. We had 8 guys, took 6 deer and had a couple misses. 1 buck and 5 does. Overall it was a great trip.

I had decided to take my .54 MK-85 to (hopefully) test out ShawnT's hand cast bullets on a deer. They are 336gr lead with a purple MMP sabot, with 100gr pyrodex. Well I did end up getting a small doe, shot her at about 45yds slightly quartering to. Entered just behind the point of the shoulder, exited at the rear of the ribs. She ran about 50yds straight downhill, and was piled up. Blood trail was nice, after about 20yds. The damage was actually quite substantial on the entrance hole. The entire shoulder was bloodshot and destroyed. I forgot to take pics as we were cutting them all up, but we were all fairly surprised at that.


My son ended up getting a shot at a decent 8pt. It was about 50yds away also, uphill. The deer ran uphill to and his left about 50yds after he shot and stopped and stood there for a second, then headed just over the edge of the ridge heading back down the mountain. He thought he missed it because he said the deer didn't really react at all when it ran off, and he couldn't find any blood in the area he thought the deer was standing when he shot. I went over to help him look, and after hearing what he said I told him he may not have a good blood trail at that start, and we should look around more. Long story short, he only ran about 40yds straight down the ridge after he saw him standing up there and was piled up. The blood trail was real good on that last downhill run.

He made a real good shot, hit him right at the rear of the ribs, and it angled forward. The exit hole was actually higher than the entrance because of the steep angle uphill. After talking it over afterwards, he said he thought he heard him crash right after he last saw him, but got discouraged when he couldn't find any blood. He learned a good lesson that will hopefully help him in the future. He was using his .50cal MK-85, with 100gr pyrodex and 240gr speer deep curls.

He was real excited, this was his first ML deer ever, and a nice buck to boot! We were all happy as heck for him.

Congratulations to both of you WVH. Good doe, a nice buck, and lots of meat. What could be better?

Congratulations to both of you. Some real nice deer there. And a lot of good eating.

Congratulations!!!

WV Hunter

Awesome - the best part a family outing success - Congrats

Sounds like a great time. Congrats on the great eatin'

A great lesson learned as well. It's one I had to learn at an early age.

Man that is a great Job Guys!!!

Awesome! Sounds like a fun time, and way to go on the harvests.

Thanks guys. We had a blast, as we typically do every year that weekend. Good times with great friends and family, and plenty of great memories made.

I was downloading some pics from my phone and came across this one. Pretty cool scene of my son and his buddy dragging out his buck. I sure love hunting them mountains!

Congratulations, I used to love hunting southeastern WV. Its a hunting paradise. Now I stick to just around Bland Virginia. Looked like yall had a great time