Santa Claus brought me two more deer for the freezer.
Whitetails, of course, not reindeer.
The windfall came Dec. 26 while hunting with Dr. Bobby McGehee in Grant County. He had some Deer Management Assistance Program goals to meet, and we intended to bag a deer with handguns. McGehee also recommended bringing a rifle.
We arrived at McGehee's lease at about 3 p.m. The weather was cold and gray, and the wind bit sharply. Battling the after effects of a bad cold, I swaddled myself in many layers that made me look like the Michelin man. I was comfortable, but the icy gusts that swept through the blind made me cough. The only remedy was menthol cough drops. A deer would certainly notice that odor, but I had no choice.
The stand cupola was formerly a sleeper compartment from a semi-tractor. It is spacious, but it tilts sharply due to one leg having sunk farther into the soil than the others.
Inside is a swiveling office chair that requires you to keep a foot on the floor to anchor it. When I first sat down, the seat spun on its axle and left me facing the far corner at a sharp upward angle. Then, my weight forced it into a reclining position that seemed destined to dump me on the floor.
Almost horizontal and with my head well beneath the windows, I kicked and flailed as I struggled to return upright. The binding of my layers constricted my motion, and I panted when I finally resurfaced.
That's when I noticed the folding camp chair with the cloth seat in the corner. The cloth was torn halfway across, so I perched carefully to keep from completing the rip and plunging to the floor. It was a stable and comfortable perch that was at just the right height to rest my gun at eye level on the window sill.
The stand is at the edge of a large field bordered by pines. It's about 230 yards to the opposite corner. If a deer appeared within 75 yards, I would take it with a Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter chambered in .41 Remington Magnum. In the cylinders were custom reloads featuring 180-gr. Barnes XPB powered by 12 grains of Accurate No. 7 powder.
Beyond 75 yards I would use a 25-06 Browning A-Bolt Stalker and reloads consisting of 100-gr. Barnes TTSX bullets and 51 grains of Reloder 22. This has quickly become one of my favorite combinations. It is extremely accurate at least to 300 yards, and it drops deer where they stand.
I attribute that largely to the Barnes TTSX. The 100-gr. TTSX is 1.295 inches long, compared to 1.09 inches for a 100-gr. Sierra GameKing. That's nearly a quarter-inch difference. The longer bullet mimics the outstanding aerodynamic qualities of the notoriously long-for-weight 6.5mm bullets. Their exceptional accuracy is why the new 6.5mm Creedmoor has taken the shooting world by storm.
At 250 yards, with a 100-yard zero, point of aim and point of impact with this 25-06 are indistinguishable.
I also like the all-copper construction of the Barnes bullets. They expand into four petals that cut like the vanes of a broadhead arrow, but they also retain nearly 100 percent of their weight for maximum penetration.
An all-copper bullet also eliminates the possibility of contaminating the meat with lead. I do not know how much a threat that really is, but there is no doubt that a lead bullet sheds a fair amount of itself when it travels through a deer, especially if it hits bone.
A Barnes bullet sheds almost none, and the minuscule amount it does lose is non-toxic.
At about 4 p.m., I heard a shot from the direction of McGehee's stand. He rolled a doe backwards with one shot from his Smith & Wesson 500 handgun.
Light was fading when three deer entered my field. A big doe moved quickly toward me, and I thought I would get a shot with my revolver, but she stopped near the middle. She seemed to have found a spot she liked and was content to stay there.
One round from the 25-06 made sure she stayed there.
The other deer appeared puzzled, but not alarmed.
McGehee texted me the green light to shoot another if I wanted. The bigger deer was almost at the edge of the field. One shot from the Browning struck like lightning.
Sports on 01/04/2018