Had several uneventful days driving roads in the mountains of Idaho looking for fresh deer sign in the snow, trying to get some ideas where to try and set up to hunt. Finally found a gated road nobody had walked in on yet as the fresh snow from several days prior was still untouched. Walked 1 mile in on the road and found a large clear cut. Sat for a while, rattled, grunted, doe bleated. After several hours I heard a buck grunt back one of the times. Unfortunately he came into the clear cut too far down for a pistol shot and quickly winded me in the swirling wind. I tried to shoot him with my '94 30-30 but the front sight covered up just enough that far that I didn't see a minute snowy rise in the flat light 20 feet in front of him and my shot skimmed a snow covered dirt patch and showered him with snow and dirt. He beat a hasty retreat into some steep nasty dark timber with blow-downs everywhere. I went and checked his trail from the shot to make sure there was no blood. Everything looked good, clean miss. Sat for a few minutes there and figured eh, what the hell, I'm already down here and sweaty. Tied some flagging to a tree and left my rifle leaned against the tree. Grabbed the GP100 out of my pack, and followed his tracks in the snow quietly for a couple hundred yards into the dark timbered blow-downs. All of a sudden I caught movement 10 or 15 yards in front of me and saw him moving through some thick trees but he didn't seem to be overly aware of me. Once he moved behind some thicker trees I made a clumsy tip-toe-sprint to get to the next opening. He caught my movement and kept going but seemed utterly confused by my spastic movements. I caught a good clear opening and fired at him at 20 yards quartering away, he stumbled and fell, got his feet under him and went over a small rise. I waited and listened... no crash, but no sound of his bolting into the depths of the dark timber either. After 30 seconds or so I crept forward where I could see a little farther, saw him struggling to keep his balance and navigate some downed logs, and quickly got the front sight settled and fired. Down he went! After several excited minutes I gathered my thoughts, looked back uphill with an anguished realization at just how far I'd gone straight down into the dark timber. I quickly got him gutted, cut in half, and arduously packed up to the road. Then began dragging him with the harness drag the 1 mile back to the gate where I had parked. Once back at camp I started my post-mortem exam. My first shot was about 1.5-2" higher than I anticipated (due to sighting it in zeroed for 100 yards, was about that high at 25 yards) and because of the angle the 158 grain XTP exited high on the other side so it only caught the top of the lungs, but the second shot, also quartering away, went in high behind the shoulder and the 158 gr XTP penetrated 18" or so and came to a rest in the neck after breaking a vertebrae but stopping. The recovered bullet weighed 141 grains and appears to be peeled back to roughly the cannelure. The 158 XTP was going 1500 fps at the muzzle out of my 6" GP100.

.Eric.

Awesome and huge congrats!!!!!!

Thank you for the kind words. More luck than skill went into the circumstances of the hunt and kill itself, but I'll take lucky over good any day.

Nice going and good story.Nice buck too. Those blow downs are tough enough just walking thru,can't imagine dragging a deer out and up. you earned that one!

Congratulations

Congrats!!!

Congratulations nice buck!

Nice Buck!

Grats!

All the work was worth it!!

Congratulatins!

Congrats on a nice buck. Thanks for the story.

Good story. Great shooting. Well done!

That is awesome.

WooHoo, buck with the GeeP and XTP, gotta love it. Good show!

Good job and with a .357 Maggie to boot.

Great buck!! Congrats

Congratulations on the nice buck!

Nicely done.

The GP100 shot better than my Blackhawk 45LC or my Kimber 10mm with the loads I had available at the time so I took it. Was a little worried about the smaller diameter bullet because the longer hair on the whitetail in northern Idaho lets much less blood hit the snow than the blacktail I'm used to shooting here in California. My worries were for nothing, as it worked well and the XTP's performed as I had hoped, and held together well for starting off at 1500 fps.

Very nice deer & you did it right! That's a pretty toasty load from the 357 but your GP100 is a strong gun & that XTP did a fine job. I tip my hat to you, well done! Another deer taken with a caliber that won't work, at least on paper.

Dick

It was a factory load offering from Underwood Ammo. Not sure I could have gotten that speed safely with the powders I have on hand to reload with.

Another angle of the recovered XTP. Weighed 141 grains.

Like I said "a monster"....

Nice buck, congrats!

Perfect day. Congrats.

Way to go!

Congrats! Nice Buck!

Congratulations!

Congrats and great story too!

Certainly boosted my confidence with the 357 at reasonable ranges.

They work just fine.

Very nice I consider a 357 but wonder if it is up to the task but your post answers that question. I may of missed it are you using reloads ?

Congrats! on a great hunt.

I do reload for the 357, but I was using some factory ammo from Underwood Ammo, it's a 158 grain Hornady XTP HP, and it's right at 1500 fps from my 6" barrel.

Thanks,

Eric.

Congrats

I GOOGLED UINDERWOOD AND THEY HAVE SOME PRETTY AWESOME AMMO

Congratulations on a beautiful buck. Now that you know you can get it done with the handgun you can leave that nasty rifle at home next time!

I was getting ready to ask about which 158 XTP.
You answered the question. Looks like the 158 XTP-HP did just fine at 1500 fps. Expansion looked about perfect.

A 1 mile pack out would be a real job. Waaaay back in the days before my first 4 wheeler. I tracked a wounded buck the father in law shot on opening morning. He had to head in to the lumber yard to go to work, and left it with me. I finished him off down by the river. I did have a logging road back up the hill to the pasture, but it was way to muddy to drive down. I was in my 20's and was still worried about a heart attack.

Great job by the way. The 6" GP100 is a very good revolver. I benched mine a while back with some heavy loaded 180 lead bullets for Bowling Pins. It was way more accurate than I had ever hoped for.

With A Jack Weigand Base, and a 30mm UltraDot no telling how well it would shoot. Lots of good things about a 357 Magnum. Reasonably cheap to practice with is high on the list. Mild Recoiling. Good bullets to reload with that are way cheaper than the bigger stuff. You might play with some 300MP or H110 powder. You should be able to get the velocity you are looking for with a little experimentation.

Keep up the good work. Good write up also.

Bob

Edited a couple of my previous comments to include it, but for those that asked and don't want to reread the thread, the 158 grain XTP had a recovered bullet weight of 141 grains.

Eric.

I have the Weigand mini base for the GP100, it arrived only a few days before the hunt so I didn't have time to get it on the gun, and I haven't bought a reflex sight for it yet. I'm still kicking it around in my head whether I want the Leupold Deltapoint or the Burris FastFire. But I'll make a choice sometime in the next few months and get it on the gun and get some handloads worked up. As much as I enjoy the XTP's, living in California requires the use of lead-free bullets for hunting here. So I need to work up some loads with the 140 Barnes XPB's for here, and hopefully will be some minor adjustments between them and my XTP's. I'd like to keep using the XTP's out of state, I am planning on going back to Idaho again next year or the year after.


Thanks,

Eric.