Well, I killed my first buck yesterday and it actually sounds a bit strange to say. Weird I know. But here's a little background.
I was raised hunting small game here in Alabama. My dad was a duck hunter so that's what I did growing up back in the 70's and early 80's. My grandfather hunted quail, there were always dove shoots too and most everyone had a dog that would tree squirrels. But the deer hunting just never took root. There was a season of course but the deer population in West Central Alabama was nothing like it is today. I remember they had the first "doe day" back then. Now the entire season is either sex. We mainly hunted with dogs back then. The herd wasn't cultivated as it is today.
After high school, I joined the Marines and did my tour, but didn't hunt much. Married, moved off and still no real hunting although my love for shooting remained. Started having kids and moved back to Alabama.
So, it was actually my kids that rekindled my desire to hunt. Now, deer hunting is much more accessible and duck hunting is harder to do. Funny how things change.
I started looking for places to hunt and had a friend that would allow us to sit in one of his shooting houses when his family wasn't hunting. A few years ago my son scored his first buck. It was about 30 yards away, my loads, 64 grain Winchester Power point. High double lung, dropped in his tracks.
Not to be outdone, my daughter get's her first this year. She has a Savage Hog Hunter in .308. 118 yards, one shot, did not move.
I made it a point to never take a rifle when hunting with them. I wanted the kids to know that it was them or nothing.
So I head out with my son yesterday. Put him on a stand as he's now hunting by himself. He had the Savage so I took his AR. I'm now loading it with 65 SGK over a healthy charge of N133. It will shoot 5 into .65" at 100 yards with this load.
Once he was on the stand, I decided to get the climber and walk around to an area about 200 yards away. Just to be near him if he needed me but far enough away to not interfere with his hunt. That's when I saw this guy. He was trotting across a field about 100 yards, slightly quartering away, when I broke the offhand shot. I practice a good bit of offhand and am a pretty fair wing shot, so I felt good about it.
Here is what a .223 will do to a mature whitetail.
Entry wound, just aft of the ribs.
Exit wound
They punctured a gut when cleaning, so I didn't get a change to really examine the internal wounds but from what I could tell, I clipped the top of the lungs, barely missing the guts and also hit the main artery. He went about 20 yards and piled up in the thickest crap I've ever seen. Zero blood trail. I mean none. I had to go old school but I picked up where he went in the thicket and crawled on my hands and knees until I found him. There was not one drop of blood until I moved him off the exit wound that he was lying on.
Here you see the entry wound from the slight blood stain up at 10 o'clock and the exit wound at 4 o'clock. I didn't lay a tape measure on it but I'd say it was a solid 14" of penetration, maybe a bit more and took out a piece of rib on exit. I've always felt like it was enough for our distances (100 yards or so) with adequate placement.
It was fun and I really enjoy hunting with my kids.
He'll be eaten and the antlers will go up on a wall, "down in your reloading room" according to my better half. It was a good hunt. Thanks kids for helping your Pop get back in the groove.
I was raised hunting small game here in Alabama. My dad was a duck hunter so that's what I did growing up back in the 70's and early 80's. My grandfather hunted quail, there were always dove shoots too and most everyone had a dog that would tree squirrels. But the deer hunting just never took root. There was a season of course but the deer population in West Central Alabama was nothing like it is today. I remember they had the first "doe day" back then. Now the entire season is either sex. We mainly hunted with dogs back then. The herd wasn't cultivated as it is today.
After high school, I joined the Marines and did my tour, but didn't hunt much. Married, moved off and still no real hunting although my love for shooting remained. Started having kids and moved back to Alabama.
So, it was actually my kids that rekindled my desire to hunt. Now, deer hunting is much more accessible and duck hunting is harder to do. Funny how things change.
I started looking for places to hunt and had a friend that would allow us to sit in one of his shooting houses when his family wasn't hunting. A few years ago my son scored his first buck. It was about 30 yards away, my loads, 64 grain Winchester Power point. High double lung, dropped in his tracks.
Not to be outdone, my daughter get's her first this year. She has a Savage Hog Hunter in .308. 118 yards, one shot, did not move.
I made it a point to never take a rifle when hunting with them. I wanted the kids to know that it was them or nothing.
So I head out with my son yesterday. Put him on a stand as he's now hunting by himself. He had the Savage so I took his AR. I'm now loading it with 65 SGK over a healthy charge of N133. It will shoot 5 into .65" at 100 yards with this load.
Once he was on the stand, I decided to get the climber and walk around to an area about 200 yards away. Just to be near him if he needed me but far enough away to not interfere with his hunt. That's when I saw this guy. He was trotting across a field about 100 yards, slightly quartering away, when I broke the offhand shot. I practice a good bit of offhand and am a pretty fair wing shot, so I felt good about it.
Here is what a .223 will do to a mature whitetail.
Entry wound, just aft of the ribs.
Exit wound
They punctured a gut when cleaning, so I didn't get a change to really examine the internal wounds but from what I could tell, I clipped the top of the lungs, barely missing the guts and also hit the main artery. He went about 20 yards and piled up in the thickest crap I've ever seen. Zero blood trail. I mean none. I had to go old school but I picked up where he went in the thicket and crawled on my hands and knees until I found him. There was not one drop of blood until I moved him off the exit wound that he was lying on.
Here you see the entry wound from the slight blood stain up at 10 o'clock and the exit wound at 4 o'clock. I didn't lay a tape measure on it but I'd say it was a solid 14" of penetration, maybe a bit more and took out a piece of rib on exit. I've always felt like it was enough for our distances (100 yards or so) with adequate placement.
It was fun and I really enjoy hunting with my kids.
He'll be eaten and the antlers will go up on a wall, "down in your reloading room" according to my better half. It was a good hunt. Thanks kids for helping your Pop get back in the groove.
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