walkinhorseman
Beginner
- Sep 28, 2010
- 140
- 87
It was 5 o’clock and I had just decided to stay in my stand until dark. I was in a tree stand overlooking a wooded bottom flat, adjacent to farm fields. The deer first appeared trotting along the fence line in the field to the West. He was heading North and appeared to be the same deer that I missed under my stand earlier in the day. As soon as he reached the bottom flat, the deer jumped the fence on to my property. It was game on. The deer turned and started walking the bottom in the Easterly direction. He was quartering toward me at a little over 100yards. From my stand above the bottom flat, the shooting angle was about 20 degrees.
At the crack of the shot, I immediately saw white belly in the scope as if it was picked up off of its’ feet and rotated in mid-air. The deer was down. I chambered another round and waited a minute to see if the deer got up. I got down out of the stand and went to the deer. The shot entered the neck about half way between the shoulder and the head. I couldn’t find an exit hole anywhere on the off side of the deer. That was curious. The bullet was the 185 grain Barnes TSX Federal Factory load for the 338 Federal at an advertised muzzle velocity of 2750 fps. I had recovered these 185 TSX’s from backstops at 99% weight retention. There was about a 3” long opening in the top of the deer’s neck. When the deer was opened, the stomach cavity was clear of blood. The chest cavity ahead of the diaphragm was full of blood. I was stumped by the lack of an exit hole on the off side of the deer.
When I skinned the deer, I was amazed at what had happened. The bullet entered the neck at an angle, centering the spine. A full 6 inches of spine was completely pulverized. The 3” hole through the hide in the top of the neck was due to secondary missiles of bone chards that were blown through the hide. The bullet continued between the leg bones of the off shoulder and the ribs and penetrated the chest cavity from the off side about the third rib back. The penetration was impressive, after pulverizing fully 6” of neck bone. I did not recover the bullet. I know that it did pass through the lungs. Most notable was, that although there was a lot of meat destroyed by the secondary missiles of fragmented bone, there wasn’t extensive bloodshot tissue from hydrostatic shock. I’ve seen hydrostatic tissue damage from high velocity bullets extend the whole length of the rib cage in the muscle sheath. Maybe Elmer Keith was on to something.
This was the first deer that I have killed with a rifle over 30 caliber. I’ve killed deer with 243 Win’s (100 gr), 7mm-08 Rem (140 gr), 308 Win (165 gr) , 270 Win (130 gr), 280 Rem (140&150 gr) , 7mm Rem Mag (154 gr), and 300 Win Mag (180 gr). I have skinned and processed most of them myself. This type of large caliber low velocity killing power is very impressive. It validates comments that I’ve heard from hunters about the 35 Whelen. I hope to use the 338 Federal for more deer and pigs. Dr Mike said the 338 Federal “punches far beyond its’ weight class”. I’ve often looked at the 338-06 and now the 9.3x62, 35 Whelen are getting my attention.
At 10 AM, this same deer approached to within 30 yards of my stand through a screen of mature Juniper trees. I first saw the deer’s legs as it approached. It’s body was obscured by the screen presented by the Juniper if front of me. The deer turned to the left, started down over the bank and then stopped out of view. It then reappeared under the Juniper, through which I had a small window about the size of sheet of paper. Through all of this, I saw that it was a small Y-buck. I vacillated on whether to try and shoot it or not as this was the first day of deer season. The deer did not present a body shot. We had not been seeing many deer on our game cameras and I decided that it would make a good freezer deer. About that time, the buck must have caught a whiff of me as he raised his nose in the air while facing me in the window through the Juniper. I placed the crosshair on the white patch under the chin and squeezed. At the shot, the deer vanished in the Junipers. I got down out of the stand and found my shot in the dirt, no blood and no hair. When I finally got up to the deer at 5 PM, I found that the main tine of the right antler, past the Y had been shot off. He must have dropped his head just as I was breaking the sear. This is a shot that I have missed on deer before. It would have been more prudent to wait on this buck. However, it was clear that he was about to vanish back into the Juniper screen. That’s huntin’.
At the crack of the shot, I immediately saw white belly in the scope as if it was picked up off of its’ feet and rotated in mid-air. The deer was down. I chambered another round and waited a minute to see if the deer got up. I got down out of the stand and went to the deer. The shot entered the neck about half way between the shoulder and the head. I couldn’t find an exit hole anywhere on the off side of the deer. That was curious. The bullet was the 185 grain Barnes TSX Federal Factory load for the 338 Federal at an advertised muzzle velocity of 2750 fps. I had recovered these 185 TSX’s from backstops at 99% weight retention. There was about a 3” long opening in the top of the deer’s neck. When the deer was opened, the stomach cavity was clear of blood. The chest cavity ahead of the diaphragm was full of blood. I was stumped by the lack of an exit hole on the off side of the deer.
When I skinned the deer, I was amazed at what had happened. The bullet entered the neck at an angle, centering the spine. A full 6 inches of spine was completely pulverized. The 3” hole through the hide in the top of the neck was due to secondary missiles of bone chards that were blown through the hide. The bullet continued between the leg bones of the off shoulder and the ribs and penetrated the chest cavity from the off side about the third rib back. The penetration was impressive, after pulverizing fully 6” of neck bone. I did not recover the bullet. I know that it did pass through the lungs. Most notable was, that although there was a lot of meat destroyed by the secondary missiles of fragmented bone, there wasn’t extensive bloodshot tissue from hydrostatic shock. I’ve seen hydrostatic tissue damage from high velocity bullets extend the whole length of the rib cage in the muscle sheath. Maybe Elmer Keith was on to something.
This was the first deer that I have killed with a rifle over 30 caliber. I’ve killed deer with 243 Win’s (100 gr), 7mm-08 Rem (140 gr), 308 Win (165 gr) , 270 Win (130 gr), 280 Rem (140&150 gr) , 7mm Rem Mag (154 gr), and 300 Win Mag (180 gr). I have skinned and processed most of them myself. This type of large caliber low velocity killing power is very impressive. It validates comments that I’ve heard from hunters about the 35 Whelen. I hope to use the 338 Federal for more deer and pigs. Dr Mike said the 338 Federal “punches far beyond its’ weight class”. I’ve often looked at the 338-06 and now the 9.3x62, 35 Whelen are getting my attention.
At 10 AM, this same deer approached to within 30 yards of my stand through a screen of mature Juniper trees. I first saw the deer’s legs as it approached. It’s body was obscured by the screen presented by the Juniper if front of me. The deer turned to the left, started down over the bank and then stopped out of view. It then reappeared under the Juniper, through which I had a small window about the size of sheet of paper. Through all of this, I saw that it was a small Y-buck. I vacillated on whether to try and shoot it or not as this was the first day of deer season. The deer did not present a body shot. We had not been seeing many deer on our game cameras and I decided that it would make a good freezer deer. About that time, the buck must have caught a whiff of me as he raised his nose in the air while facing me in the window through the Juniper. I placed the crosshair on the white patch under the chin and squeezed. At the shot, the deer vanished in the Junipers. I got down out of the stand and found my shot in the dirt, no blood and no hair. When I finally got up to the deer at 5 PM, I found that the main tine of the right antler, past the Y had been shot off. He must have dropped his head just as I was breaking the sear. This is a shot that I have missed on deer before. It would have been more prudent to wait on this buck. However, it was clear that he was about to vanish back into the Juniper screen. That’s huntin’.
RJ
