7 mag with 150 gr Partition = Buck down

Got lucky this morning. Shot this old boy at 9:50 am. Ran across a wheat field chasing a doe and he stopped at about 225. I shot and he ran into the woods. Right after I shot I realized he was a bit quartering to me when I shot. I went to look for blood and found none. I walked around for a bit in the direction he went and came across blood. Found another spot of blood about 10 yards further and then nothing. Walked around for about 6-7 looking for blood and walked right up on him. My entry was perfect right behind the shoulder however my angle was poor. The bullet traveled all the way through the deer and exited about 4 inches in front of the back hip. He only ran about 100 yards total. All kinds of blood inside of him when I field dressed him. Based on my shot selection (not ideal) I am pleased with the performance of the Partition.

This deer has for the last 3 years this buck has only grown one good antler and the spike on the other side. He is very mature. Big body and a ton of mass on his antler. This is the only mature buck that we had pics of in this area. My theory is that he is a big old bully and runs all of the other bucks off. He has scars all over him and his lips on one side were split wide open. I am very happy to have harvested him.

You can tell he is an old warrior! He had been out fighting all those other bucks with one horn tied behind me his back!

Actually a buck like that could kill another buck more easily as that spike can slip between the competitors rack and fatally gore the other buck.


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Cool buck! You got a pretty special one right there. Congrats!

Thanks for the good report on the Partition's performance.

Guy

Congratulations on your buck. He is a brute.

JD338

Congratulations on taking a terrific buck. He sure looks like an old warrior. Good job tracking him down.

Dan

I like those character bucks


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Very nice

Congratulations on a big old, cool looking buck! It would be interesting to see when you butcher him up if he had some kind of injury at some point that caused the strange antler growth. Could be genetics too I guess. When I was in my early 20's we had a one antlered moose live close to our house. We saw him as a young bull like that and a number of years later I saw him with a huge antler on one side and nothing on the other. He must have passed on his genes since a friend shot a young one antlered bull a few years later in the same area.

Gerry I do all of the butchering myself so I will definitely by checking that out. My brother and I both wanted to get this buck. He just happened to come out while I was hunting that spot. We knew he was old and mature and my goal every year is to kill a mature buck. It just so happened that this year I got lucky. Last year there was another different one horn buck running that area along with this one. So as you mentioned about genes in the area, you may be on to something. This year the other one horn buck has not shown up. Maybe he will come back now that this old bully is gone.

That is definitely a character antler. Congratulations on taking a fine deer.

Congratulations on a bruiser. Definitely a strange looking guy.

Are you going to get him mounted?


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I am going to do a Euro mount. With the jacked up lip, scars and hair missing, plus the missing antler I am just going with the European mount.

ReloadKy":3j5qts5b said:

I am going to do a Euro mount. With the jacked up lip, scars and hair missing, plus the missing antler I am just going with the European mount.

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It does look like he didn't have any protection on his right side and took a beating on that side. Sure didn't slow him down at all though considering how dominant he was.

That is an odd looking rack. Bet there was some deformation at or soon after birth of the head that caused this to happen every year. Could also be genetic. Are they any more running around with similar rack near by? On a big farm in east NC I helped crop damage control for years there were a lot of strange racks because on in-breading for about the first 15 years. After 30 years there was still a trend of the bucks having no brow tines or maybe just one.

As to him running off 100 yards or so and being no blood trail for a while and then it was very light but when you find them they slosh on the inside was my experience with the 7mm Rem. Mag no matter what bullet you shot them with if you did not hit CNS. After having them run out of the fields and having to crawl around in the green briar and swamp of east NC usually in the dark because most of my hunting was in the evening I gave up on the 7 mag. I told people I could not carry enough flashlight batteries to hunt deer with one. LOL My hunting buddy had the same experience as I did with the 7 mag. I went to the 25-06 iwith 117 Sierra's mainly and with the same shot placement if they don't drop in their tracks they don't go far and a blind man can trail them. I have the same results with most anything in 6.5 cal. 6.5 Grendel, 6.5x55 and 264 Win mag. BANG FLOP.

1shot, I appreciate you sharing your experience with the 7mag. This is only my second harvest with the caliber. First was a big old buck that I hit in the lungs with a factory deer season xp. Deer ran 40 yards and crashed. The experience this weekend could have and should have went better if I had paid closer attention to the angle of the buck when I shot. I am just glad that the bullet went all the way through the deer and left two holes. I am going to continue to experiment with the 7 mag and hopefully put to use again next year for some on game experience.

Best bullet that my buddy and I found and others as well is the 154 Gr Hornady Interlock or SST. My buddy did a lot of hand loading for people and that is the bullet that they found worked the best. I had best luck with this bullet especially when the shots were over 200 yards where the bullet has slowed down some. Part of the problem I think is the high velocity at closer ranges. the bullets are either too soft or too heavy. They either blow up and do not exit or they don't expand fully or like the Partition blow the nose off and petals fold back against the shank or the bonded expand but fold back also and leave a small exit and that sometimes allows the hide to snap back sealing the hole. As you stated shot placement also has a lot to do with it. Deer shot in the upper half of the ribcage have to fill with blood before it will come out. Deer shot in the heart don't have anything to pump the blood out. The size of the deer also has to come into play. The smaller frame deer 80 to 120 lbs seem harder to kill in their tracks for some reason. I have become a shoulder shooter because I just don't want to have to trail them up. The Rem. 700 Stainless 7 mag I had was one of the most accurate rifles I have ever own and I have owned some mighty fine custom rifles. I seemed to want to shoot any bullet I tried as long as the case had been fired in the rifle and then part sized (neck sized using a FL die). You could just about fill the case with AA3100 and stick a bullet in it and it would shoot bug holes. I would have kept the rifle if there had been any hope of me ever getting to go after Elk but that would never happen. I believe the 7 mag would make a great Elk rifle because they have the body mass to allow the bullet to really do it's thing. I did acquire a 27 3/4" Shilen barreled Rem 700 in 264 Win mag that is a real deer killer for waaaaaay out there. If Elk were some how to come into the picture that is what I would use as a primary weapon. Good luck in your hunting and may God bless.

What a neat deer! Congratulations on the hunt! I’ve been following this your whole season but my forum
Permissions were fouled up. I think they are now working! I can see those awesome pictures!


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Congrats on that buck! He is an old warrior! Well done!

Can't ask for much more than that Partition did either, with the shot angle, an exit didn't hurt anything, but if you wanted to try a Swift 150 Scirocco, those will open up WIDE and still penetrate very, very well.

Unique looking buck. Never tried the 150 Pt in 7mag but did use the 150 BT and Sierra Game King BT with good results. Dan.

1 sided or not, he's a BRUTE. That's a trophy buck in my mind. Big congratulations!