Bang-Flop X3 in Ohio

[mountainam]

I don't think 3 full moons during our 3 gun seasons helped with the total harvest at all. I shot a button buck on the Friday of gun season. Nothing spectacular. 40yds top of the brisket shot. Down and out. Got zip on the 2day extended gun season weekend. I shot a small doe on Saturday of State wide ML season. 85yds through heavy cover in a stripper cut. It jumped and ran when I peered down over the edge of a highwall. High shoulder shot at a downward angle-- same result-- down and dead. Then on the last day at 5:04PM I saw a raghorn buck on the high side of a spoil bank headed for an even thicker ription. I was on the opposite hill down low near a creek bed looking up at a 15-20 degree angle. I was sitting on a small folding stool with my rifle on the side of a 12" dia Ash tree. He was moving upward to the next level of spoil banks when he stopped for a split second. I squeezed one off and I could hear it impact. Boy, I love that sound. He dropped and was hung up in a snag of fallen limbs. It was 254yds as lasered by my buddy. I had the scope set on 3x in case something ran at me. I hit him in the low shoulder and was stumped by the instant kill. That is until I rolled him over and saw the exit hole out the middle of his neck. Evidently he was traveling at a more oblique angle than I thought. That and my shot traveling upward in excess or 15*. These deer were all taken by my .45 Rem 700ML using a .410" 210gr XTP moving at 2540fps. This is my longest kill with it so far. I beat last year's buck by 15yds. He's no trophy but he is for me. I was just contemplating chopping a few inches off the 26" barrel for quicker handling, but it was sure handy for that shot. I still don't know how that bullet made it there through all those branches. Man, do I love this rifle! That 118lb buck did take his revenge on me with a 3/4 mi drag at night with about half of that UPHILL. Making my estimation of his dressed weight increase exponentially. I had a headlamp ,but came to the conclusion that I woun't make a very good coonhunter. All in all an excititing season.

[edwardamason]

Jan 11, 2012 18:27:51 GMT -5 mountainam said:

I don't think 3 full moons during our 3 gun seasons helped with the total harvest at all. I shot a button buck on the Friday of gun season. Nothing spectacular. 40yds top of the brisket shot. Down and out. Got zip on the 2day extended gun season weekend. I shot a small doe on Saturday of State wide ML season. 85yds through heavy cover in a stripper cut. It jumped and ran when I peered down over the edge of a highwall. High shoulder shot at a downward angle-- same result-- down and dead. Then on the last day at 5:04PM I saw a raghorn buck on the high side of a spoil bank headed for an even thicker ription. I was on the opposite hill down low near a creek bed looking up at a 15-20 degree angle. I was sitting on a small folding stool with my rifle on the side of a 12" dia Ash tree. He was moving upward to the next level of spoil banks when he stopped for a split second. I squeezed one off and I could hear it impact. Boy, I love that sound. He dropped and was hung up in a snag of fallen limbs. It was 254yds as lasered by my buddy. I had the scope set on 3x in case something ran at me. I hit him in the low shoulder and was stumped by the instant kill. That is until I rolled him over and saw the exit hole out the middle of his neck. Evidently he was traveling at a more oblique angle than I thought. That and my shot traveling upward in excess or 15*. These deer were all taken by my .45 Rem 700ML using a .410" 210gr XTP moving at 2540fps. This is my longest kill with it so far. I beat last year's buck by 15yds. He's no trophy but he is for me. I was just contemplating chopping a few inches off the 26" barrel for quicker handling, but it was sure handy for that shot. I still don't know how that bullet made it there through all those branches. Man, do I love this rifle! That 118lb buck did take his revenge on me with a 3/4 mi drag at night with about half of that UPHILL. Making my estimation of his dressed weight increase exponentially. I had a headlamp ,but came to the conclusion that I woun't make a very good coonhunter. All an all an excititing season.

I know you have been working on your loads for quite some time. So glad to hear you had some success this season. Anytime you want to come to TN for a hunt feel free to hit me up. Ive got 60 acres of my own land that backs up to about 5000 acres of area we have permission to hunt.

[edwardamason]

Jan 11, 2012 18:27:51 GMT -5 mountainam said:

I don't think 3 full moons during our 3 gun seasons helped with the total harvest at all. I shot a button buck on the Friday of gun season. Nothing spectacular. 40yds top of the brisket shot. Down and out. Got zip on the 2day extended gun season weekend. I shot a small doe on Saturday of State wide ML season. 85yds through heavy cover in a stripper cut. It jumped and ran when I peered down over the edge of a highwall. High shoulder shot at a downward angle-- same result-- down and dead. Then on the last day at 5:04PM I saw a raghorn buck on the high side of a spoil bank headed for an even thicker ription. I was on the opposite hill down low near a creek bed looking up at a 15-20 degree angle. I was sitting on a small folding stool with my rifle on the side of a 12" dia Ash tree. He was moving upward to the next level of spoil banks when he stopped for a split second. I squeezed one off and I could hear it impact. Boy, I love that sound. He dropped and was hung up in a snag of fallen limbs. It was 254yds as lasered by my buddy. I had the scope set on 3x in case something ran at me. I hit him in the low shoulder and was stumped by the instant kill. That is until I rolled him over and saw the exit hole out the middle of his neck. Evidently he was traveling at a more oblique angle than I thought. That and my shot traveling upward in excess or 15*. These deer were all taken by my .45 Rem 700ML using a .410" 210gr XTP moving at 2540fps. This is my longest kill with it so far. I beat last year's buck by 15yds. He's no trophy but he is for me. I was just contemplating chopping a few inches off the 26" barrel for quicker handling, but it was sure handy for that shot. I still don't know how that bullet made it there through all those branches. Man, do I love this rifle! That 118lb buck did take his revenge on me with a 3/4 mi drag at night with about half of that UPHILL. Making my estimation of his dressed weight increase exponentially. I had a headlamp ,but came to the conclusion that I woun't make a very good coonhunter. All an all an excititing season.

I remember the first year I hunted OHIO (hocking co). It was a much different hunting experience than what I was use too. The terrain where we were hunting was rolling so I was pretty stumped why we were limited to Handguns, shotguns and ML's. My first season there I hunted with a TC contender in 44 mag. The next year I took a Benelli shotgun and finally wound up taking my brand new BK Knight the next year. It was the very first year the Knight was made and all my buds up there looked at it funny and laughed at it. They quit laughing when I brought in a huge buck shot at 125 yards. They were on board with inline ML's at that point.

Glad to see OHIO has expanded its hunting permits. The first year I hunted (91 ish) we were only allowed 1 deer per season buck or doe. Then I think the next year it was one buck and one doe but only had one week of Gun Season. It was really amazing to see the orange brigade hit the woods after hunting for several weeks of bow season and not seeing a soul. Once gun season hit that one week you were covered up by them.