mcb
Member
Warning long rambling post inbound.
So my brother and I squeezed in a hunt before the holiday chaos and hunted yesterday afternoon and this morning. Yesterday afternoon was quiet until right at sunset. A big old scarred armadillo showed up. This time though I had Thumper (450BM) with me instead of the the suppressed 300 BO pistol. As much fun as whacking armadillos with the 300 BO sub-sonics was two weeks ago the 450 Bushmaster does it with so much more dramatic authority. This was the third armadillo I have shot with my 450 Bushmaster and they never move after that 275gr TSX goes through them. Thumper thumps.
This is the entrance hole not the exit. Notice the scars on the front-most segment of armor.
This morning I headed out to another stand before first light. Got into my stand and got comfortable. It had rained most of the night but this morning is was only spitting rain occasionally. Lot of squirrels as usual.
The view from the stand.
About 8:15 two does showed up. I first spotted them out 80-100 yards on the horizon through the trees roughly above the right fork of the shooting sticks in the picture. They browsed through the trees moving slowly to my right. They were hard to follow through the thick brush and I would loose them an refind them over the next twenty minutes and at some point a third, unseen earlier, doe joined them. They work around to the edge of the food plot on the right edge of the photo. They stay about 10 yards into the far edge. As I watched them I notice the one doe did not have a tail. They were all roughly the same size so when I had a clear shot I took the tailless doe. She over and slightly left of the deer feeder (been empty since two weeks before muzzle loader season) about 10 yards or so into that far edge.
Now I took an unorthodox shot, and did so on purpose hopping to recover a bullet. She had turned facing head on to me and when she put here head down to browse I put the cross hairs on the back of her neck in line with her body. The shot broke and she fell directly in her tracks and rolled onto her down hill side against a small tree. She barely twitched after she hit the ground. It was about a 35 yard shot.
Later after field dressing her I found that the TSX went in her neck about five inches behind her ears clipping the right side of the spin. The bullet travel the length and height of her neck and enter the body cavity low inside the front right leg punching about a two inch diameter hole through the ribs. It then put a 1.5 inch groove through the top of her heart and then continued through the inside edge of the right lung, the liver and the bottom edge of her stomach exiting her abdomen about 6 inches in front of her rear leg. I was sort of bummed I did not recover the bullet but she was a nice deer.
Here she it with my 450 Bushmaster.
Her tailless rump. There was no scares where her tail should have been nothing to indicate it had be lost. Just a small nub where her tail should have been.
Now for the question? What do you think she weighed. Both my brother and I guessed wrong. So I thought I would see what you guys would have guessed. For scale that 450 Bushmaster has a 20 inch barrel.
So my brother and I squeezed in a hunt before the holiday chaos and hunted yesterday afternoon and this morning. Yesterday afternoon was quiet until right at sunset. A big old scarred armadillo showed up. This time though I had Thumper (450BM) with me instead of the the suppressed 300 BO pistol. As much fun as whacking armadillos with the 300 BO sub-sonics was two weeks ago the 450 Bushmaster does it with so much more dramatic authority. This was the third armadillo I have shot with my 450 Bushmaster and they never move after that 275gr TSX goes through them. Thumper thumps.
This is the entrance hole not the exit. Notice the scars on the front-most segment of armor.
This morning I headed out to another stand before first light. Got into my stand and got comfortable. It had rained most of the night but this morning is was only spitting rain occasionally. Lot of squirrels as usual.
The view from the stand.
About 8:15 two does showed up. I first spotted them out 80-100 yards on the horizon through the trees roughly above the right fork of the shooting sticks in the picture. They browsed through the trees moving slowly to my right. They were hard to follow through the thick brush and I would loose them an refind them over the next twenty minutes and at some point a third, unseen earlier, doe joined them. They work around to the edge of the food plot on the right edge of the photo. They stay about 10 yards into the far edge. As I watched them I notice the one doe did not have a tail. They were all roughly the same size so when I had a clear shot I took the tailless doe. She over and slightly left of the deer feeder (been empty since two weeks before muzzle loader season) about 10 yards or so into that far edge.
Now I took an unorthodox shot, and did so on purpose hopping to recover a bullet. She had turned facing head on to me and when she put here head down to browse I put the cross hairs on the back of her neck in line with her body. The shot broke and she fell directly in her tracks and rolled onto her down hill side against a small tree. She barely twitched after she hit the ground. It was about a 35 yard shot.
Later after field dressing her I found that the TSX went in her neck about five inches behind her ears clipping the right side of the spin. The bullet travel the length and height of her neck and enter the body cavity low inside the front right leg punching about a two inch diameter hole through the ribs. It then put a 1.5 inch groove through the top of her heart and then continued through the inside edge of the right lung, the liver and the bottom edge of her stomach exiting her abdomen about 6 inches in front of her rear leg. I was sort of bummed I did not recover the bullet but she was a nice deer.
Here she it with my 450 Bushmaster.
Her tailless rump. There was no scares where her tail should have been nothing to indicate it had be lost. Just a small nub where her tail should have been.
Now for the question? What do you think she weighed. Both my brother and I guessed wrong. So I thought I would see what you guys would have guessed. For scale that 450 Bushmaster has a 20 inch barrel.
I am not a real active metal detector user I tend to use it for finding property corner posts or water lines etc rather than actively looking for treasure and lost items. My wife borrows it occasionally to find lost arrows. Well as I was packing up to do some hunting after Christmas and remember the metal detector and how disappointed I was I did not find a bullet inside this doe I shot lengthwise hoping to recover the bullet. So I grabbed the detector and took it with me.
