So, after what has to be the worst season we’ve ever had of hunting, The Wife(tm) decided that she’d had enough of this not-shooting-anything thing. So, this morning, we headed into the MU she has a whitetail doe LEH in. She setup on this nice bench area, and I headed off down the road about a kilometer and started a long slow walk back towards her.
I saw a pile of cow elk milling around in several openings, and so I spent a good hour trying to find a bull in their midst. No bull. No surprise.
Eventually, I finished making my way along the bench and past The Wife(tm)’s position about 150 yards down-mountain from her. I then turned around and headed back to the truck, still moving very very slow. You’d think I should be expecting the shot, given the area, and the fact that The Wife(tm) was going to shoot the first whitetail bigger than a fawn that stuck it’s head out. But, I wasn’t – and so when the gun went off about 150 yards up-mountain from me, I jumped bigtime, and my heart did a backflip in my chest.
I stopped moving and sat tight, waiting for the call on the radio. I didn’t have to wait long – “deer down” The Wife(tm) says, “deer down”. Sweet! Tenderoloins for supper tomorrow night!!!! (they’re better eatin if you give em 24 hours for the rigor to get out of em).
I headed over, and sure enough, there was The Wife(tm) standing over a nice fat little doe. Not quite the matriarch of the valley, but she’d definitely had a couple of years or so to put some meat on her bones (as my achin back can attest!). A few photos, and some quick field dressing (I am amazed at how fast/clean I’m getting at that job – 5 minutes flat, and hardly a fleck of blood on my clothes), and a 1/2 kilometer drag back to the truck, and that was that.
Ballistic performance – the ole’ 168 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip had knocked it clean over when it hit, and the deer had staggered to it’s feet and only gone about 20 yards before it went down for good. During the post-mortem, it had done exactly what I’d figured it would do at the lower velocities I’m running them at (impact in this case would have been approx 2600FPS); lots of expansion, plenty of shrapnel through the vitals (they were all pretty much jello), and enough bullet/bullet parts left to complete a clean pass through and leave an exit hole I could put 4 fingers in. Had blood trailing become necessary, that would not have been a problem – a blind man could have followed the blood trail she left. Didn’t mess up the meat too bad either; typical bloodshot around the holes, but nothing too radical (I’ve seen my 303 do just as bad or worse). Unlike my experience with the non-expansion of the 180 Sierra’s and the apparently poor expansion of the Hornady Interbond’s last year – I am totally happy with how these performed.
Anyhoo, before someone whines about no pic’s, here’s a pic.