Posted By: wvhitman
Young at Heart - 10/22/2017 10:02 PM
WV, in all its wisdom, has a Youth Doe Season now. To qualify you has to profess to be young at heart and meet age requirements( younger than 15 or older than 100, I believe). This year I met both criteria.
It came at a good time since I'm planning on a hunt for a smallish animal and I needed gun/load testing as I always do. I started testing on groundhogs. 6.5JDJ,120 gr. AB; .250 Sav. AI 85 gr. BT and 100 gr. X; .25-06, 100 gr. AB, 100 gr. x, 120 gr. NPT. All of these created too much damage in 'hogs. Then I tried my "black sheep" gun, my 6mm AI. It did good on SD prairie dogs with 70 gr. BTs, but probably not the right bullet for my purpose.
I was in an old country store that dabbled in reloading supplies. I saw a super dirty box (it was so old) of 6mm 85 gr. NPTs. Ah! Ha! The price was super cheap, so nothing to loose.
I went to a farm that had 2 groundhogs that no one had been able to kill, mostly by being impatient. I took magazines and my Bog Pod with the 6mm AL Encore. I sat a total of 2 1/2 hours and got both of them at 110 and 170 yds. Exits were small and damage was not bad.
I still needed a bigger test. Enter Youth Doe Season. I went to a friends farm, magazines, Bog Pod, 6mm AI, 85 gr. NPT. I wanted a shot at 150-250 yds. Didn't know how it would do at long range. I sat for 3 hours before I saw deer. Six came out, but not where I wanted them. The largest doe was 352 yds. I hesitated taking the shot, but I'm not one to be mild mannered.
I put the proper Plex of my 3-12X BPlex scope on the doe and fired. To my utter shock, she dropped without any movement!
The autopsy showed the hit to be 4" behind the shoulder (I forgot to hold for the 3-4mph wind), with 2 1/2" of internal damage and a 3/4" exit. Big doe, big hit, big shot. I felt "young" again.
It came at a good time since I'm planning on a hunt for a smallish animal and I needed gun/load testing as I always do. I started testing on groundhogs. 6.5JDJ,120 gr. AB; .250 Sav. AI 85 gr. BT and 100 gr. X; .25-06, 100 gr. AB, 100 gr. x, 120 gr. NPT. All of these created too much damage in 'hogs. Then I tried my "black sheep" gun, my 6mm AI. It did good on SD prairie dogs with 70 gr. BTs, but probably not the right bullet for my purpose.
I was in an old country store that dabbled in reloading supplies. I saw a super dirty box (it was so old) of 6mm 85 gr. NPTs. Ah! Ha! The price was super cheap, so nothing to loose.
I went to a farm that had 2 groundhogs that no one had been able to kill, mostly by being impatient. I took magazines and my Bog Pod with the 6mm AL Encore. I sat a total of 2 1/2 hours and got both of them at 110 and 170 yds. Exits were small and damage was not bad.
I still needed a bigger test. Enter Youth Doe Season. I went to a friends farm, magazines, Bog Pod, 6mm AI, 85 gr. NPT. I wanted a shot at 150-250 yds. Didn't know how it would do at long range. I sat for 3 hours before I saw deer. Six came out, but not where I wanted them. The largest doe was 352 yds. I hesitated taking the shot, but I'm not one to be mild mannered.
I put the proper Plex of my 3-12X BPlex scope on the doe and fired. To my utter shock, she dropped without any movement!
The autopsy showed the hit to be 4" behind the shoulder (I forgot to hold for the 3-4mph wind), with 2 1/2" of internal damage and a 3/4" exit. Big doe, big hit, big shot. I felt "young" again.
