Into the woods before first light...duh!

[Picher]

Several years ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go to my stand before first light. I parked my truck at my daughter's house, grabbed my scoped, Remington 700 BDL .270, folding stool, ammo, and walked up the paved road to the end, then walked up the old woods road. It was a cloudy day, so still a bit dusky. I put out some deer lure on cotton balls and sat down about 30 yards from the trail crossing.

About 15 minutes passed and it was decent light, so I loaded-up. Then, I heard a deer walking on the dry leaves, coming my way. I saw the antlers, then a few seconds later, the deer broadside, about 40 yards away. I put the crosshairs on the lungs and fired.

The buck took a couple of jumps and got behind some small evergreens, then I heard it coming towards me on the trail. I was pretty sure I hit it and since it was coming toward the old woods road, decided to wait and see if it would drop. If it didn't I'd shoot as soon as it came into the road.

It kept coming and coming and I had my rifle up and ready to fire, but just as the deer's nose came into the road, it dropped DEAD!

I walked over to it and saw the bullet hole in the middle of the lungs and decided to clear the ammo out of my rifle, in preparation to gut the deer. I noticed that I'd grabbed the wrong ammo box, the one with my light turkey-shoot rounds, having 90 grain bullets. No wonder that deer walked so far before dropping!! I felt pretty stupid for having that ammo in the vehicle, in a box similar to that of my hunting ammo.

 

[<*(((><]

What's the velocity on those 90 grainers? Too funny, only because it ended well.

 

[troy fairweather]

Lol, I have all my ammo marked with marker. HUNTING AMMO.

 

[Picher]

What's the velocity on those 90 grainers? Too funny, only because it ended well.

I didn't have a chronograph back then, but using the Lyman manual, I figure they were going out about 3,150 fps., pushed by 48.5 grains of IMR 4895. The load resulted in reduced-recoil and was quite accurate for target shooting.

I won a couple of running-deer matches with that load, but that's another funny story.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

the biggest deer I ever saw, a massive 11 pt buck. he must of weighed close to 250 lbs on the hoof. a very large deer for our area.

I saw at 280 paces from my stand. he was so muscular and massive I hesitated to shoot him with my model 7 Remington in 243.

after studying him thru the scope I decided to shoot. I shot and it didn't seem to have any effect so I shot him twice more. 2 perfect lung shots and one high in the back just under the backstraps but missing the spine. he ran off looking pretty healthy.

I waited about 30 long minutes and went looking for him.. he lay about 50 yrds from where I shot the first time.

the kicker was, when I got got home I noticed I had grabbed a box of shells loaded with 70 grn bullets instead of my 100 grn core lokt loads I hunted with for 25 years.

the results? either one of the lung shots would of easily killed the buck. the lungs were shredded with good exit holes.

 

[Picher]

Over time, and with knowledge from seeing several deer shot off a long abandoned, straight road from nearby to over 400 yards. There are lots of evergreens on each side of that road, so any deer that leaves the road and doesn't leave blood, hair, or bone in it results in difficulty finding even a deer that's under 50 yards from the impact site. There are usually lots of deer tracks in the road, compounding the problem.

I've encouraged those I hunt with to shoot deer crossing it low in the shoulder, so it will drop the deer in the road and still get the lungs for a quick kill.

 

[Dibbs]

Have you gone to the range for practice, and mistakenly fired off a mag or two of expensive SD ammo, yet?
I know I've made my share of hunting mistakes. Over-dressed, under-dressed, forgot the bug spray.
Here's one to watch out for:
Yesterday, I unplugged the barrel on my hunting rifle, AGAIN. Apparently debris of some sort keeps getting in my rifle barrel.
I hunt almost daily, (retired, hunting coyote and other predatory and invasive species) so maybe it's a personal problem, but I'm
going to start checking my barrel every week, from now on.

 

[Picher]

Have you gone to the range for practice, and mistakenly fired off a mag or two of expensive SD ammo, yet?
I know I've made my share of hunting mistakes. Over-dressed, under-dressed, forgot the bug spray.
Here's one to watch out for:
Yesterday, I unplugged the barrel on my hunting rifle, AGAIN. Apparently debris of some sort keeps getting in my rifle barrel.
I hunt almost daily, (retired, hunting coyote and other predatory and invasive species) so maybe it's a personal problem, but I'm
going to start checking my barrel every week, from now on.

I've had similar results in the past, but learned that a strip of electrical tape along the sides and across the muzzle would eliminate many problems when the muzzle hits the ground, snow, etc. It's a good idea to make it long enough to re-position the remainder, after taking a shot, even if you're done hunting and dragging the deer out. (Melted snow or "ground-crud" aren't good for bores, especially at the muzzle.)

No, it's not a problem for the barrel. The tape is blown off by the air ahead of the bullet and doesn't affect accuracy. Somebody makes tiny "barrel condoms", but electrical tape works fine and doesn't cost much. I wouldn't use fiberglass-reinforced tape, since it's quite strong and though it probably wouldn't cause a problem with the barrel, might affect accuracy a bit.

JP

 

[d2wing]

Yup happens. Once I loaded my rifle in the dark. At that time I brought 3 rifles all different caliber along. My first mistake. In the dark I grabbed the wrong box. Good thing I didn't see a deer. .243 shells in a 30-06. I am much more careful now and do not bring extra guns usually.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I've had similar results in the past, but learned that a strip of electrical tape along the sides and across the muzzle would eliminate many problems when the muzzle hits the ground, snow, etc. It's a good idea to make it long enough to re-position the remainder, after taking a shot, even if you're done hunting and dragging the deer out. (Melted snow or "ground-crud" aren't good for bores, especially at the muzzle.)

No, it's not a problem for the barrel. The tape is blown off by the air ahead of the bullet and doesn't affect accuracy. Somebody makes tiny "barrel condoms", but electrical tape works fine and doesn't cost much. I wouldn't use fiberglass-reinforced tape, since it's quite strong and though it probably wouldn't cause a problem with the barrel, might affect accuracy a bit.

JP

I use that trick on muzzleloader when it's raining. It works like a charm.

 

[Random 8]

Ammo mix ups are no fun. I once put 8 m25 tracers downrange in the prone rapid fire stage of a John C Garand match. It was not my fault, they were mixed into clipped and bandoleered LC M2 ball from an ammo can that was presumably last opened in 1962, and marked as such on the bandoleer. The orange tips were so faded as to be barely noticeable but under extreme scrutiny. Sure got the attention of the pits and the RO though! Fortunately it had rained all morning so nothing ignited. If anybody's curious, they grouped about 1 moa higher than the first 2 which were legit M2Ball.

 

[Lennyjoe]

Even worse is driving 8 hours to a buddy’s farm in Missouri only to realize you left your reloaded hunting ammo back in Ohio.....needless to say the 06 sat in the truck while I used his 45-70. Glad he had extra rifles available.

 

[Picher]

Yup happens. Once I loaded my rifle in the dark. At that time I brought 3 rifles all different caliber along. My first mistake. In the dark I grabbed the wrong box. Good thing I didn't see a deer. .243 shells in a 30-06. I am much more careful now and do not bring extra guns usually.

Good thing you didn't shoot with the wrong ammo in there. It could have caused a nasty gash from blow-by.

 

[Eddietruett]

Years ago I was a member of a Cub where the only hunting was dog drives. A young kid started coming with his father when he was around 5-6 years old and patiently sat with his dad on a stand every Saturday rain or shine and watched his dad kill several deer. His father had promised him at age 10 he could have his own gun. For Christmas at age 10 the promise was kept and his father bought him a 20 gauge mainly because the lad was very small for his age. Reluctantly his dad gave him some 20 gauge buckshot and took him to the stand, fearing that if he did shoot a deer that the 20 gauge wouldn't have the power to kill a deer. As fate would have it, the first day with his gun, the kid shot a massive 12 point buck! One shot, one kill. Hit the deer in the neck at about 25 yards and dropped him stone cold dead. Like the OP, he was a little undergunned, but shot placement was the key.

 

[Encoreman]

I was at a sporting goods/ shooting range and a doctor came in asking for a cleaning rod as he had a fired cartridge that wouldn't eject. He brought it in the store and we finally got the .308 cartridge knocked out of his 30-06. It looked like a straight walled cartridge. Bad thing was he said years before he was deer hunting and shot 3 or 4 times at a nice buck, he was shooting .270 win out of a 30-06. Good thing it wasn't 30-06 out of a .270. People need to be very, very careful and our guns and ammo makers don't help by making a .270, .270 WSM, .270 Weatherby magnum plus other similar types. Some people just aren't that gun savvy and I would prefer only 1 cartridge that begins in 270. If they want to develop something else, call it a 271 or whatever, just not that similar. Rant over.

 

[double bogey]

My brother shot a .308 out of his .270 M700. Didn't hurt the rifle any. Had gunsmith check, and a friend in the metal inspection biz x-rayed it for him.

 

[jmorris]

I wouldn’t worry about it, shortly a “.223 for deer” guy will stop by and ask you why you were using such heavy bullets.