Congratulations. Nice to hear of an old cartridge getting a workout.
2024 Hunting Season
- Thread starter JD338
- Start date
Was able to get this buck down Monday night. Rifle was cheap old savage axis 308 with Barnes 130gr TTSX. Shot was across a creek bottom. Bullet entered right in front of the onside shoulder and stopped in the hide of the off side shoulder. Buck dropped in his tracks. Retained weight 130.2 gr (I obviously did not get all of the meat out, lol). Second buck I have killed with that combo and it is phenomenal. When I shot I thought I had killed a 130 inch 9 pt. Pleasantly surprised to have ground growth instead of ground shrinkage when I walked up to him.
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- Thread starter
- #304
- Nov 4, 2004
- 25,207
- 8,512
Congratulations on a nice buck. The 130 TTSX worked well.
JD338
JD338
gerry
Ammo Smith
- Mar 1, 2007
- 6,865
- 1,663
Beautiful buck, congratulations! He's a big boy! That Barnes TTSX performed perfectly.
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,328
- 6,019
That old boy definitely displays some fine genetics and access to some good minerals in his ramblings.
salmonchaser
Handloader
- Dec 13, 2013
- 4,993
- 4,974
Breakfast with Dr. Mike.
Probably the highlight of my trip, Dawson Creek was near where I was hunting , got ahold of Dr. Mike the night before I left and we were able to have breakfast at Lee’s on my way thru town. Mike is very well known and highly regarded at Lees. It was very good to meet up with Mike.
My hunt was largely a bust. I had done quite a bit of research of this out fit, great recommendations from the refrences and even used the folks I had talked with to locate others who may have not filled there tags or otherwise didn’t have a great trip. Mike and Gerry were also familiar with the area and acknowledged I simply needed to show up and open the tailgate to fill it with moose.
I was very optimistic going in and even into the first couple of days, so I violated my standing rule and passed on a bull on day two I would have gladly shot for meat the last two days. It was very warm, 50 degrees kind of thing the first two days and sighting were few, then it dawned clear and cold and we got a little snow and things picked up. We were seeing 10 to 15 cows and calf but no bulls. With a little snow we were able to cut a few bull tracks, followed one to the west quite a ways. From a vantage we could see some open country not far off, this might work. Guide and I are glassing as we get within shooting range of the more open ground and he utters a four letter word. Gotta go he says, looking at his Garmin, we crossed into BC. Hot footed it back to Alberta. On my last day morning we looked at a young animal about 1000 yards away that had the classic bell under his chin but no visible antlers. Figuring it had to be a spike we used available cover to close the distance to 500 but still no antlers. Got to 225, nope, using the falling snow and a favorable breeze we got to 100 yards, no visible antlers.
In my research I hadn’t asked how many bulls were killed per year as the success rate was very high. The refrences all told me there were only a hunter or two who didn;t tag out and always it was poor shooting or passing on smaller bulls. Dinner the last night the owner expresses his surprise we hadn’t killed any bulls as there had been 22 moose hunters in camp since bow season opened and 19 moose had been killed. The man I had been paired up with was a very experienced hunter from Montana. We looked at each other on hearing that information and formed the same opinion, the place was essentially shot out, for this year anyway. I did talk to several guys who had hunted the same time period in the past, all had been successful. Given the ground we had seen there just couldn’t be that many bulls left. Explained why we would see so many cows and no bulls but the one small one. The late season tags we had limited us to about a third of the area the outfit operated in. The deer hunters in camp mainly were in other areas, none saw bulls that they mentioned but they were seeing cows.
That being said I may hunt with them again, hunting is hunting. For moose I would do a rut hunt, for deer I would go next week as the rut was just kicking off at the end of my hunt. I’ve attached a picture of the smallest buck taken by one of the deer hunters.
Probably the highlight of my trip, Dawson Creek was near where I was hunting , got ahold of Dr. Mike the night before I left and we were able to have breakfast at Lee’s on my way thru town. Mike is very well known and highly regarded at Lees. It was very good to meet up with Mike.
My hunt was largely a bust. I had done quite a bit of research of this out fit, great recommendations from the refrences and even used the folks I had talked with to locate others who may have not filled there tags or otherwise didn’t have a great trip. Mike and Gerry were also familiar with the area and acknowledged I simply needed to show up and open the tailgate to fill it with moose.
I was very optimistic going in and even into the first couple of days, so I violated my standing rule and passed on a bull on day two I would have gladly shot for meat the last two days. It was very warm, 50 degrees kind of thing the first two days and sighting were few, then it dawned clear and cold and we got a little snow and things picked up. We were seeing 10 to 15 cows and calf but no bulls. With a little snow we were able to cut a few bull tracks, followed one to the west quite a ways. From a vantage we could see some open country not far off, this might work. Guide and I are glassing as we get within shooting range of the more open ground and he utters a four letter word. Gotta go he says, looking at his Garmin, we crossed into BC. Hot footed it back to Alberta. On my last day morning we looked at a young animal about 1000 yards away that had the classic bell under his chin but no visible antlers. Figuring it had to be a spike we used available cover to close the distance to 500 but still no antlers. Got to 225, nope, using the falling snow and a favorable breeze we got to 100 yards, no visible antlers.
In my research I hadn’t asked how many bulls were killed per year as the success rate was very high. The refrences all told me there were only a hunter or two who didn;t tag out and always it was poor shooting or passing on smaller bulls. Dinner the last night the owner expresses his surprise we hadn’t killed any bulls as there had been 22 moose hunters in camp since bow season opened and 19 moose had been killed. The man I had been paired up with was a very experienced hunter from Montana. We looked at each other on hearing that information and formed the same opinion, the place was essentially shot out, for this year anyway. I did talk to several guys who had hunted the same time period in the past, all had been successful. Given the ground we had seen there just couldn’t be that many bulls left. Explained why we would see so many cows and no bulls but the one small one. The late season tags we had limited us to about a third of the area the outfit operated in. The deer hunters in camp mainly were in other areas, none saw bulls that they mentioned but they were seeing cows.
That being said I may hunt with them again, hunting is hunting. For moose I would do a rut hunt, for deer I would go next week as the rut was just kicking off at the end of my hunt. I’ve attached a picture of the smallest buck taken by one of the deer hunters.
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DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,328
- 6,019
I'm bummed that you didn't tag a bull--even a young one! Really enjoyed meeting up with you. I would have loved to go into the mountains with you to show you some nice bulls, or maybe a few grizzlies (which I always enjoy watching).
- Thread starter
- #309
- Nov 4, 2004
- 25,207
- 8,512
Don
Sorry you weren't able to fill your bull tag. Hopefully next time you will be successful.
Glad you were able to meet up with Dr. Mike.
Safe travels back home.
JD338
Sorry you weren't able to fill your bull tag. Hopefully next time you will be successful.
Glad you were able to meet up with Dr. Mike.
Safe travels back home.
JD338
Congratulations on a great buck!
Sorry that you didn't fill your tag. At least you got to meet Dr. Mike. Safe travels.
8MMX57JS
Beginner
- Apr 14, 2022
- 56
- 303
Cut my mule deer tag this weekend. 80 yard shot with Fox Classic all copper bullets. 8x57 with 160gr at 2860 fps. Deboned weight was 124lbs of clean meat, looking forward on having sausage made out of him.
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,328
- 6,019
He's a beauty, that's for sure. Congratulations on tagging a fine specimen. 
- Thread starter
- #314
- Nov 4, 2004
- 25,207
- 8,512
Nice muley buck, congratulations.
JD338
JD338
gerry
Ammo Smith
- Mar 1, 2007
- 6,865
- 1,663
Had to look up Fox bullets, they obviously worked fine on your mulie. He's a good looking buck and that's a good amount of meat for the freezer. Congratulations, the 8x57 strikes again!Cut my mule deer tag this weekend. 80 yard shot with Fox Classic all copper bullets. 8x57 with 160gr at 2860 fps. Deboned weight was 124lbs of clean meat, looking forward on having sausage made out of him.
Thank you sir!
Thanks Dr Mike!
Thank you sir! I have fallen in love with that bullet out of the 308 for whitetail.
