Bagged a nice buck with my G2 pistol!

[Dezynco]

Yesterday evening I got me a nice buck with my G2 Contender!  I was using my custom 12" Bullberry 7.62x39.  He didn't have a big rack, but I figure any deer taken with a scoped pistol is a trophy!  I wish I could say it was a "bang-flop", but the bullet must have glanced off a limb (the brush was pretty thick) and went a little too far back.  However, all's well that ends well, and I retrieved my buck in the dark last night.  He didn't run too far.  Wish I had photos, but it was pretty dark and I didn't have a flash on my camera phone.  Anyway I feel as if I have accomplished a great feat, I've been hunting with my Contender pistol for a year now, and this is my first score with it!

[JW/OK]

Congrats on the handgun buck!! Gotta love that close range hunting!

[Tommyt]

Congrats On the Handgun shot
any hunt thats comes with a good ending
Is a Great hunt
Merry Christmas

Tommyt

[Silvertp]

Congradulations.  Taking a deer with a pistol qualifies as a trophy in my mind.

Silvertp

[shot1]

Congratulation on your kill. Give us the details on the hunt. What load were using. Give us the facts.  Merry Christmas.

[Dezynco]

As I said, I was using my 7.62x39 barrel.  I was shooting a 130 flat point Speer (usually used in a 30-30) loaded over IMR 4895.  It was a relatively short shot, about 40 yards from a stand. 

I must have shot through a twig or some pine needles because I hit about the very back of the rib cage just below the back(the only shot I had was sorta through an opening in a pine tree.)  The bullet exited right near his butthole, didn't even expand!  He bounded off, but I knew I hit him because he ran through a fence and ran face-first into a small tree.  I came back with a light and found him about 20 yards in the edge of a stand of pines.  When I dressed him out, I discovered that the bullet didn't even hit any vitals, just ran through the cavity above his innerds and below his back bone.  Didn't even leave a blood trail, I had to follow all the limbs and crap that he broke as he ran through the brush.

Go figger'!

[shot1]

Thanks for the information. It helps others to find out what works and what does not work on game. You would think you would get some expansion from that 130 Speer FP bullet.

That bullet had to hit something vital to life or it would not have killed him. I bet it got some liver or a major artery. I once shot at a deer with a 30-06 and hit a limb and it deflected the bullet and it hit the deer in the back leg between it's knee and ball socket. It cut the femoral artery and broke the leg and the deer only went about 30 yards before it dropped and died from blood loss. It is my understanding that your bore is .308, correct? Give the 125 Nosler Ballistic Tip a try for deer. It will open up and they are really accurate and you will be able to extend you range quite a bit because it has much less drop and will retain it's velocity much better than the 130 FP bullet. I have killed a bunch of deer with this bullet in a 308 and 30X47 HBR rifle and I am going to be using it in my 14" 30-30 AI barrel I have coming in Jan from MGM for my Contender. You might try a faster burning powder like Accurate Arms 1680 or IMR 4198 it will give you a bit more velocity.

I just love to hunt deer with a pistol. I have taken deer with my Contender with a 10" 357 mag barrel and a custom 14" 6mm-225 Winchester but I want a little more horsepower so I am going to the 30-30AI. I have also take deer with a 44 mag revolver and 45 ACP pistol. Good luck and good shooting.

[Paints-n-cows]

This year, around here anyway, there is still so much corn in the fields that the deer have over an inch of fat along their back and buttocks.  I have harvested six deer so far this year and the blood trails are very, very spotty.  The deer that I shot with the .500 S&W made it about sixty yards on a through-the-heart-shot and I only had five drops of blood on grass about waist high.

I agree that your bullet had to have turned something to jelly.   A liver shot would not be out of the question with the direction of your bullets impact/exit and the liver is full of blood.  Enough trauma to it and it sends the body into shock quickly.

[shot1]

Paints-in-cows The reason that you did not have a good blood trail if you busted the heart is because there was no heart to pump blood out of the deer.

Where I hunt in NC there are a lot of soy beans and it puts some fat on the deer but when they use to plant peanuts that really put the fat on the deer. It was so thick that you had to cut it off.

[kynardsj]

Congrats on the buck. I agree with shot1, load some 125 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and expansion won't be a problem. I shot them in a 14 inch 30-30 Contender with fantastic results.

[Paints-n-cows]

Paints-in-cows The reason that you did not have a good blood trail if you busted the heart is because there was no heart to pump blood out of the deer.

The fat actually sealed up the hole on the entrance and exit...I could actually see the fat when I was doing an analysis on the deer. There is usually a least a little blood that leaks out of one of those holes but not on that deer.  The does that I killed (they were all good shots as well) did not leak either.  When I skinned the deer out, I had to physically remove over an inch of fat before I could get to the meat inside.

[David D.]

Congrats on the buck. I agree with shot1, load some 125 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and expansion won't be a problem. I shot them in a 14 inch 30-30 Contender with fantastic results.

Congrats, and yes I agree with the above. Nosler B-tips are the bullet of choice for most my hunting pistols. Hornady SST's also work well in some of mine.

My two 6.5JDJ's, 257JDJ, 30-30IMP, 6.5X284Win, and 6.5TCU all prefer Nosler B-Tips for hunting and accuracy.

My 6.5X55S.M. and 22Hornet will not shoot the Nosler B-Tip with exceptable accuracy to suit me. For both these I use Hornady SST's. The 6.5X55S.M. has had several DOA shots on deer with the 129GR.SST. The 22Hornet shooting Hornady 40Gr.SST over LiLGun shoots outstanding and has taken four Turkey with this load out to 136yds. laying prone using my fanny pack for a rest.