I was fortunate enough to harvest of big fat doe for the freezer yesterday. Shot it at 5:30 PM. Start.ed tracking around 11:30. Found her pretty quickly 75 yds total. Field dressed and had her on the gambrel in the barn by 12:15 am. Skinned and quarter her last night and was showered and in bed by 1:30. Finished butchering, vacuum packed and in the freezer today. Sorry, no pictures. It was 80 degrees and I had to really hustle to beat the flies. There were already tiny maggots squirming around the entrance hole when I recovered her 6 hours after I shot her. That was new to me. I guess I've never killed and butchered a deer in this hot of weather.
Actually, here's a picture. I found this .22 bullet just under the skin of the hip, all healed. Some of my neighbors are sketchy to say the least.
Nice work mike! I watched a few doe's tonight. Waiting on a buck right now. Definitely gotta get them processed fast in heat like this
Congrats mike! I' too have dug my fair share of projectiles out of deer from poachers, and hunters with shot placement issues. Can you weigh that bullet in grains? Curious if its a 22lr or 223. Looks like a cheap soft point 223 that lost it's copper jacket to me....due to the lack of rifling marks on the base of the projectile.
85 gr. I'm thinking 22LR just because of the complete lack of penetration. Your opinion would be appreciated. Of course, finding bullets and broadheads is nothing new. It just pizzes me off that someone was clearly shooting an entirely unethical, and probably illegal round. Rimfire is illegal for big game in PA and AR15's were just allowed for this coming year. Suppose it could have been a .223 varmint gun. If it was a .223 rifle, it makes no sense that it barely made it through the skin, unless someone was reloading and did a super crappy job. Oh well. It's fun to do a little Deer CSI. This reminds me. A couple of years ago, I was sitting in one of my treestands during firearm season and watched a neighbor (#1) track a deer that was bedded only about 20 yds from my stand. It turns out that a different neighbor (#2) took a head shot at her and blew lower jaw up. Since she didn't drop immediately, he didn't bother tracking her, just left her to starve to death. Thankfully neighbor #1 saw the deer walk by his stand and noticed the injury, tracked her down in finished her with his proper deer rifle. YUCK! Nobody's perfect, but clearly there are some sick people around here.
Do rimfires come with a boat tail? I'm not really good with fire arms. I'm assuming rimfire due to lack of penetration and the fact that my Jack-Hole neighbors are well-known to take pot shots at deer with their pistols.
The very tail of the bullet was .210 on my micrometer. That's why I'm assuming a boat tail even though the front was mushroomed.
Rimfires don't go that heavy. Could be a .223 .243/6mm/6.5 hard to tell after impact. I've recovered cores that aren't close to their original bullet diameter. If it's 85 grains and retained 80 percent of it's mass (Wich is good retained weight for a quality hunting bullet) you are in the 90-100 grain range.
Boomstick is spot on mike bayerl . That's no 223 or 22lr. Too heavy for it number one... even without the copper jacket. Plus the jacket would have added .020 or more to the diameter. Your looking for a poacher with imo a 243, shooting junk bullets In The 100 Grain Range.
Good job on the doe, I'm going out next weekend and I plan on doing the same , put one in the freezer than go after the trophy
Archery. That's all I shoot for deer. FWIW, 125 gr., 1 3/4" Grim Reaper on an Easton ACC. I got 2 lung and liver. Dropped in <75 yds. GR broadhead have been absolutely lethal for me. I've tried a whole bunch of different head in targets and a couple others into deer, but honestly, I have had nothing go more than 100 yds if I put it anywhere near the vitals. I think I'll stay with them.
Great job on punching a tag on an archery deer. Question though why did you wait 6 hours? I understand not wanting to jump the deer especially archery hunting. I usually wait 30-60 mins.
I recovered the arrow after about 30 minutes and looked for the start of a blood trail and didn't find anything. It was very confusing because the arrow was soaked with blood, no bubbles and no poop. After about another 1/2 hour I got my wife out to help me (she is amazing at blood tracking) and we searched about the first 20-30 yds down the trail where the deer ran and still no blood. By this time I was pretty sure I got liver, it was getting dark and the UM vs. MSU football game was starting, so I decided to watch the game and let her die. I went out about the end 3rd quarter (maybe a little less than 6 hours) when I couldn't stand to watch any more and found her. I never did find any blood, except right around where she bedded down an died. Weird! Her chest was full of blood and the shot was a little bit high so maybe it took time to fill up to the drain hole?
I once shot a huge mule deer with my 30-06 that had a .223 sized lead slug under the skin with no rifling marks. Turned out to be one of those accelerator rounds that have a 223 slug in a sabot that is made to shoot in a 30 cal rifle. The buck had been shot at extreme range. The slug looked just like yours!
LOl, I clicked on the thread and didn't pay attention to the date and thought where is a deer season open now, it was over 100 here today.