Looking for Thor's hammer

[Bart Solo]

Shot placement is more important that just about anything.  Bullet selection is a damn close second.  You can knock a deer down with a properly placed 100 grain .243.  You can cause a deer a lot of suffering and you a lot of trailing with an improperly placed 338-06.  

Personally I think most of us are better off with a lighter gun we can shoot (maybe a 270 or a 280) than some cannon that causes us to flinch-no matter how macho we might be.

Remember the bullet is the weapon.  The rifle is only the delivery system.  Your job is to use the delivery system to put the weapon on target.

[lilabner]

Good luck in your search. Just to muddy the waters a bit, I'll tell you what I observed on a deer hunt last fall. One hunter shot a nice Texas whitetail behind the shoulder at about 100 yards with a .300 WSM. The deer ran in circles for about 30 seconds before dropping. Another hunter shot a nice buck behind the shoulder with a 7MM Mag. The buck jumped a fence and took off at a full gallop. Dropped after running about 50 yards into the brush. This was a shot of less than 100 yards.  The quickest killing deer gun I've owned was a pipsqueak .257 Roberts.  I killed a half dozen deer with it and none of them went anywhere.  Go figure!

[Bighorn75]

Thor's hammer was, is, and ever shall be the 250-3000 Savage.  I know the truth can hurt but you had to be told :eek: .

[RaySendero]

Thor's hammer was, is, and ever shall be the 250-3000 Savage.  I know the truth can hurt but you had to be told :eek: .

250 Savage? - OK?

Let me describe that bang/flop with the 270 Winchester I mentioned earlier and maybe you can tell of yours.

I had a Rem M700 bolt rifle in 270 Winchester with me that day in a box stand.  Was using my reloads - 150 Sierra GameKings over 53.5 grains of IMR-4350.  That combination of rifle and load will reach out and touch a deer.  Plus that stand had a possible 350 yard shot to the north!

Half way through season and had not shot a deer yet.  Was last day before I had to return to work for another week before I could hunt again.  Had been patently waiting on a particular 8 point buck but figured I'd take either a buck or doe today if chance presented.

Well a large doe stepped out at just under 100 yards.  She never even looked toward the stand!?  She didn't know I was there.  She was quartering toward me.  I pulled onto her left shoulder about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of her chest but the shot looked too far back.  So I pulled onto the chest area just inside of the shoulder and fired.

She was knocked upward off all 4 feet.  She did 1/2 back flip landing on her back with her head now laying away from me.  NEVER EVEN KICKED.  When I when came up to her, I could see a solid stream of blood about 6" wide on the ground for about 6 to 8 feet from where she was when I shot her to where she fell dead.

I remember commenting to a buddy at the time that it looked like she had been hit by an upper cut with a sledge hammer.  We could see an exit hole at the center of the off-side (right side) ribs exactly where you would have expected to find it.  We both still figured that the bullet had fragmented and maybe another piece had hit the spine.  When we autopsied, we found the bullet had hit a little more left (right on the deer) and shattered the sternum, taken-out top of the heart and part of the lower right lung.  But found no sign of fragmenting.

I still have some sausage left in the freezer from this deer and it was/is good.  

[riddleofsteel]

I shot a white tail deer last evening with the Remington Model Seven in 6.5-284 that I had built for my son. This rifle has been featured in several posts on these boards if you are interested in its features. Suffice to say it has a 20 inch custom barrel and pushes the fine 129 grain Hornady SP to 2950 FPS with sub MOA accuracy.
I was hunting an area of steep foot hills covered in laurel and hardwood forest laced with deep open creek valleys growing in honeysuckle and biars. Our land is centered around a huge creek that winds thru thousands of acres of logging cut-overs in various stages of growing back, ideal deer country.
About 4:00 I caught sight of a doe moving fast thru the hardwoods on the hill next to mine. I was in a tree stand overlooking a creek bottom that contains a deer highway. From my stand I saw her cutting across the next hill top about 175 yards away. As I watched her I spotted a deer following. Then I saw a glint of polished antler on his head. If he had continued moving at that pace he would not have offered a shot. However, he paused with his head behind one tree and his rump behind another. All I could see was a front shoulder between two trees at around 175 yards! (That, my friends is why MOA accuracy is important) I knew he had horns so I settled the Model Seven on the rifle rest of my stand's rail and squeezed off a shot.
At the shot the buck just fell over!! It was if he had been pushed over! I have been practicing "aim small, miss small" so I had been looking at the point of his shoulder closest to me when I fired. As he fell over he slid down the other side of the hill but never moved! I climbed down and walked/climbed over to where he was laying. The bullet had struck EXACTLY where I was aiming. I briefly felt his shoulders and both were broken! No exit wound but I could feel the bullet under the skin on the ofside shoulder.
The deer weighed out to 157 lbs field dressed. When I skinned him out I found the 129 grain SP had entered the closer shoulder, fractured the humeral head, expanded to around .50 caliber, devestated the neck base with a huge .50++ hole and hydrostatic shock, blood, bruising, and continued on to shatter the off side shoulder into a blood soup mess. Sharp chunks of the off side humeral head were blown into the lungs, neck base and muscle tissue. The perfectly mushroomed bullet was found just under the skin on the offside shoulder. Nearly perfect performance. I have no doubt the bullet would have exited if not for the job of shattering both humeral heads. This performance is nearly identical to .270 and heavy bullet 25-06 hits I have made on similar size game at that distance.
Early conclusions indicate that perforance will be a little better than a hot loaded 6.5x55 with the same bullet (which is excellent). I think, however, I would opt for a semi-premium 140 grain bullet if the game was much larger, like a mule deer, black bear, hog, or elk especially if I plan on breaking down shoulders ect.
The only problem now is that this super sweet little 20 inch Custom Model Seven with .270 ballistics is going to be hard to give up. I may have to start building another one......for me!

From an earlier post. Later my son used the same rifle to take a doe. At the shot she hit the ground as if she had been mowed down by a truck, I remember seeing her feet in the air as she rolled.

[victorcharlie]

My guess is I've shot more than 50 deer with a .243 winchester and sierra 85 grain BTHP.  Only 2 have taken more than a step after being hit with the 85 grain, and those 2 only managed about 50 yards.
 
There is something about small high velocity bullets that knock em down fast.
 
Some will tell you the .243 isn't enough gun for white tails, but don't believe them........I got a .270 earlier this year, but haven't tried it on deer.....I'm sure the results will be spectacular......
 
As for the build on the 98 action........I'd love to have a .257 Roberts or 7X57mm Mauser.....perfect length for the action...classic calibers...and more than enough gun for these parts......

[Garthag]

My secondhand BANG-FLOP story:

A buddy of mine from Mississippi is (was?) a tank driver in the Marine Corps.  Apparently, at night, through thermal imagers, two deer standing the right way look like the front aspect of a training target.

I knew this guy for 4 years, and it was hard enough to understand him when he wasn't trying not to laugh while telling a story.  125# soaking wet, he was one twisted character.

Anyway, one 120mm sabot round later, only 1 very surprised deer was left.

He probably had a heck of a time explaining the shot because he said pot shots with the co-ax were not exactly uncommon.

[lilabner]

Here's another "bang flop" story. Years ago, a friend of mine shot a nice Colorado mule deer which dropped in its tracks. It wasn't a long shot and he got there quickly and pulled out his hunting knife. The buck jumped up and took off like nothing had happened. He shot it again and it went down again, this time for keeps. The first bullet had taken off an antler tine and apparently knocked the deer out momentarily.
My friend's reaction to all this is etched forever in my memory. It really spooked him.