This story begins months ago, and you will see how as we go on the fourney. I will start out covering the handgun. My brothers hunting revolver is a 9.5 inch Super RedHawk in 44 Magnum. We installed a Weigand Scope Base for a 480 Ruger on it for the most secure mount. The sight is a new UltraDot 30 mm MatchDot. The reasons we chose the 30mm MatchDot were One a much better field of view through the 30mm tube and Second the MatchDot has multiple Dot Sizes. Deer hunting the ability to go to the 2 MOA Dot size really helps with Bloom early and late.
The next topic is ammunition. We started out shooting Cast bullets from a Lee 6 cavity 310 WFNGC mold. The bulk of the practice was done with this bullet. A few months ago I placed an order for a new Mountain Mold. As most of you casters know Mountain Mold has NO CATALOG. You design every mold on a CNC Program on line. Not complicated at all Pick the Caliber, Pick a Bullet Weight, Pick the Percent of Maplat, Number of Grease Grooves, and the Base Design. Our bullet was a 310 grain, with 70% Meplat, set up for Hornady Gas Checks, with a single large Grease Groove.
We have had issues with the RCBS Lube O Matic not running the bullets straight. We cured this by first Tumble Lubing with Rooster Jacket, we then ran the bullets with Gas Check installed through a Lee .429 Push Through Sizer base first. We then ran the bullets through the LAM and installed the White Label Carnauba Red in the Grease Groove.
The 44 Magnum Rounds were then loaded with a charge of 300MP that would push the 310 grain bullet to 1200 fps.
Next came practice. over the last 3 months we have put in several range trips to the Big Piney Sportsman's Club. We have worked from 25 to 100 yards on the upper range shooting at White Dots cut from card stock glued with spray adheasive to cardboard. My brother put approximately 200 rounds through the 44 Magnum during the range trips. Out last range trip just before deer season we switched over to the 310 Mountain Mold bullets for a final zero check. All was still well. Something I have missed covering was shooting steel plates at 200 yards. We would shoot a few rounds at 200 on the steel plates most range trips. Andrew was getting up to speed.
Andrew has hunted from a 17 foot Double Wide ladder stand for several years. We have a plywood shelf approximately 16 inches wide around 3 sides of the ladder stand. We drilled holes around the perimeter of the plywood, and have Camo material zip tied around the edge of the shelf to camo anyone in the stand.
Just before deer season I took the tractor down in his valley and brush hogged the weeds down. A good thing or he would not have been able to have tagged this deer.
The stage is set.
Opening morning Andrew saw a total of 13 deer. Twelve were does or unidentified, and one Big Buck. The Big Buck was running a scrape line behind his stand about 60 yards. No shot that direction due to lots of small diameter saplings blocking the shot. We will fix this shortly and have a Shooting Lane behind the stand for next year. Andrew next saw this buck in the gravel road behind his ladder stand around 11 PM. I told my wife that buck was making a big mistake running that scrape line regularly.
Sunday Day Two of the Missouri Deer Season. My brother was seeing several Does, and 3 smaller bucks. Deer were moving in multiple directions. At 10:15 Andrew spotted the buck crossing the neighbors field South of his stand. The buck was out of sight near the neighbors pond in the corner of his field for a few minutes. Then he came back into sight at the corner of our field. Andrew got on the rest and fired the first shot. The deer jumped, but did not run. Andrew thought he missed and recocked and fired again this round hitting the front shoulder. The deer bolted into the fence. Andrew recocked and fired again this shot hit a back leg low. The deer went down but was still trying to get up. The forth shot hit him in the spine, and angled through the chest. Skinning the deer out we found that shot One was high behind the shoulder, just under the back bone, and had missed ribs on both sides. Round Two was about a text book shoulder shot. Round Three the deer was in a ball thrashing without a good shot, this was the back leg hit. The last shot was the backbone hit with the deer down. Four Shots and Four hits.
We went back to the stand with my Leica Range Finder and a plywood target. The range was 135 yards.
Andrews 10 point Missouri Buck.
We recovered 2 of the 310 grain bullets. The shoulder shot, and the final backbone shot. Both just under the hide on the off side. I have wondered if a 310 grain 44 Magnum was more bullet than needed for Missouri Deer. I am now of the opinion that a 310 WFNGC Cast Bullet is about perfect.
Without all that practice and Trigger Time at yardages out to 200 yards Andrew would have never been able to connect Four out of Four at 135 yards.Everything came together from his Revolver set-up, his Ladder Stand configuration, and ammunition choice. A job well done.
I hope you enjoyed the story
By Bob Roach
