35 Whelen
Member
I posted this on Prem.'s thread, but figgered some folks missed it. Opened the freezer last week and realized we needed some meat. (My wife never tells me when we're low. She just cooks it like it'll never run out!)
So Saturday evening I walked down behind the house and sat down under a mesquite tree. Carried my little "Scout Rifle-ized" FR-8 with a Burris 2.75X Scout Scope loaded with 172 gr. home-cast hollowpoint bullets handloaded with 22 grs. of Alliant 2400 yielding1853 fps. Right at dusk a spike (one of many around here) stepped out at a little over 70 yds. and began a nervous stare-down with me. Rather than wait for him to calm down,(it was getting really dark) I shouldered the rifle, wrapped the sling tightly around my arm, settled the crosshairs at the juncture of his neck and shoulder and squeezed.
At the shot he gave to his shoulder, whirled around and disappeared in the mesquite and chaparral bush. I thought sure he'd be laying behind the closest bush, but no buck. I looked until dark thirty with no luck. Finally walked to the house and got a flashlight and "Dolly" my young Border Collie. She's not a hunter by any stretch, but I've seen her wind (smell) deer when we're out walking, so I thought she might help. So off we went, with me telling her "get him Dolly, go get him." Sure enough, after 10 minutes or so of looking, I heard her barking off in the disatnce like she does when she's found something. Made my way through the brush and there she was, standing over my buck! (For those who've never been around Border Collies, the intellegence of this breed of dog is mind boggling)
He'd run in a direction opposite of what I though he had and in fact probably hadn't gone even 50 yards. At this writing, he's skinned and hanging in the shop for the beginning of two weeks of aging, afterwhich he'll be processed.
Entrance hole (betcha can't see it!):
Internal damage (bullet travel, right to left) This bullet impacted the buck at a little over 1600 fps. Broke three ribs going in and two going out. And people think they need magnums with big scopes!!
Exit hole.
Is this amazing or what? No semi-auto rifle with a high-cap magazine, no magnum cartridge, no high magnification variable scope, no fancy jacketed bullet with a plastic...errr..."polymer" tip, yet I still managed to kill a deer! And that's not the least of it. My daughter, beginning at the age of 11 killed her first three deer, all with one shot with this same rig and load, the furthest of which was 110 yds. distance.
This rifle, despite not being very "kewl" is my go-to deer rifle. With a load running a 150 gr. Core-Lokt 2700 fps has killed as many or more deer than any of my other rifles. I own plenty of other centerfire rifles that are more powerful and sport larger scopes, but I've found this little rig will do about 90% of what I need to do!
35W
35W.
So Saturday evening I walked down behind the house and sat down under a mesquite tree. Carried my little "Scout Rifle-ized" FR-8 with a Burris 2.75X Scout Scope loaded with 172 gr. home-cast hollowpoint bullets handloaded with 22 grs. of Alliant 2400 yielding1853 fps. Right at dusk a spike (one of many around here) stepped out at a little over 70 yds. and began a nervous stare-down with me. Rather than wait for him to calm down,(it was getting really dark) I shouldered the rifle, wrapped the sling tightly around my arm, settled the crosshairs at the juncture of his neck and shoulder and squeezed.
At the shot he gave to his shoulder, whirled around and disappeared in the mesquite and chaparral bush. I thought sure he'd be laying behind the closest bush, but no buck. I looked until dark thirty with no luck. Finally walked to the house and got a flashlight and "Dolly" my young Border Collie. She's not a hunter by any stretch, but I've seen her wind (smell) deer when we're out walking, so I thought she might help. So off we went, with me telling her "get him Dolly, go get him." Sure enough, after 10 minutes or so of looking, I heard her barking off in the disatnce like she does when she's found something. Made my way through the brush and there she was, standing over my buck! (For those who've never been around Border Collies, the intellegence of this breed of dog is mind boggling)
He'd run in a direction opposite of what I though he had and in fact probably hadn't gone even 50 yards. At this writing, he's skinned and hanging in the shop for the beginning of two weeks of aging, afterwhich he'll be processed.
Entrance hole (betcha can't see it!):
Internal damage (bullet travel, right to left) This bullet impacted the buck at a little over 1600 fps. Broke three ribs going in and two going out. And people think they need magnums with big scopes!!
Exit hole.
Is this amazing or what? No semi-auto rifle with a high-cap magazine, no magnum cartridge, no high magnification variable scope, no fancy jacketed bullet with a plastic...errr..."polymer" tip, yet I still managed to kill a deer! And that's not the least of it. My daughter, beginning at the age of 11 killed her first three deer, all with one shot with this same rig and load, the furthest of which was 110 yds. distance.
This rifle, despite not being very "kewl" is my go-to deer rifle. With a load running a 150 gr. Core-Lokt 2700 fps has killed as many or more deer than any of my other rifles. I own plenty of other centerfire rifles that are more powerful and sport larger scopes, but I've found this little rig will do about 90% of what I need to do!
35W
35W.
