GOT A DEER

[IOWA DON]

Got lucky about 10 minutes into the season.

[GRIMJIM]

Nice buck, congrats!

[pozoutdoors]

Thats a dandy!!! What kind of shotgun is that!!! I'm a big fan of singleshots!!! I guess thats why my encore is my favorite!!! Nice buck, I hope I do that well!! I will be hunting 2nd season!!!

[JW/OK]

Just by looking at the picture I would say the shotgun is a TCR 87 made by Thompson Center Arms.
BTW congrats on the quick deer!

[pozoutdoors]

I think you are right. I checked on them and thats what it looks like!! I think I want one now!!!!

[Skunk]

WTG Iowa Don!! Big Congrats on a nice trophy.

[hunt-m-up]

Nice buck Don. Now get yourself in the picture next time, guns don't kill deer, people kill deer. Thanks for sharing your buck with us. What's the story behind it?

[IOWA DON]

The gun is a TCR-87 with a custom 20-ga barrel and a Leupold 1.4-4X scope. The factory slug barrels were in 12-ga and very light weight. This custom 20-ga barrel has the outside contour of the factory 10-ga barrels and is 23 inches long. The gun weighs 8-1/2 pounds with scope and the center of balance is about 6 inches foreward of the trigger so it holds steady for offhand shooting. It is plenty accurate with the pointed Hornaday SST sabot slugs.

[IOWA DON]

Forgot to tell the story: (Thought I already got it posted but must have pushed the wrong button.) Anyway, Thanksgiving weekend doe season I saw two nice bucks close to there. This is on a 1-mile by 1.5-mile section with no houses and with few trees but with creeks, gullies and fence lines with few gates so the drive hunters can't get around in it very well with their trucks. There are feeding areas to the south and there is a real good high grass bedding area to the north. Early every morning deer head north but are ususally going into a north wind. Yesterday the wind was from the south so I thought I could make an ambush. This was the third buck I saw traveling north. However, it was too dark to size up the antlers on the first two (and was before legal shooting time). There are bucks around with bigger antlers, but I've never got one with bigger backstraps.

[IOWA DON]

In case it does not show in the photo, that is a 6-inch ruler on the rear end of the back strap.

[Skunk]

Mmmm, Mmmm, that almost looks good enough to eat raw.

[JW/OK]

pzoutdoors - that TCR 87 will cost you plenty! They also made a TCR 83 Aristocrat that had a set trigger. Don't know abot the 87's but the TCR 83's are running around $800 at the gunshows with a rifle barrel on them. The shotgun barrels are higher.
JW

[Cuts Crooked]

Nice Buck and good shootin skills there!

I've seen a few good looking racks in pick-up beds this week, nothing spectacular, but some good ones are being harvested in south central Iowa.

This blizzard may slow things down a bit though. That's ok, though...I'm not hunting until last frontstuffer season and maybe a few will be left fer me to toss sum lead at!

[goodshot]

The does are going to miss him out there!
The rack looks close to the one I have on my wall, he wouldn't have happened to come from Johnson County would he?
Glad you aren't out there today, this should leave more deer out there for the 2nd season hunters.
Best Wishes,

[IOWA DON]

This buck was from south central Iowa and I think the does will miss him. I went out Monday and Tuesday with my son and a friend of his. My son's friend got a nice buck Monday and my son got a nice buck Tuesday. Tuesday it was windy by mid morning. I would guess there were very few deer harvested Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday because of the blizzard. I like hunting for bucks but probably have more fun shooting a bunch of does during the January antlerless rifle season. One of the rifles I use then is this Thompson Center TCR-83 with a custom stock and a custom 6MM-06 barrel. It shoots 105-grain Berger VLD bullets at 3,300 fps.

[pozoutdoors]

My wife and I went out this evening, checking out deer and busting drifts. We seen two shooter bucks and lots of does!! One buck is quite large. It will be a chore walking this weekend. But, it will be fun. I two enjoy the antlerless season. And will be carrying my encore with the .25-06 barrel on it. I shoot varmint bullets in it. But, I don't tell the deer that so they are fooled and drop!!!  It seems that other deer in this country must be tougher than our Iowa deer. I buy lots of doe tags. Usually about 10 every year. I hunt them with: Bow, handguns, shotguns, rifle and muzzleloader!!! Yes, I do eat lots of deer. I do give away some too. There's no reason for anybody to go hungry!!!

[IOWA DON]

I had been using a 6MM-06 barrel on the TCR-83 with a slow twist and varmint bullets (70-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips).  I have other rifles but wanted to use bullets that would fragment rather than ricochett in case of a miss. I shot quite a few does with them during the first 3 (or 4?) rifle/antlerless seasons. They often ran 75 yards before going down. It seemed that kills were quick up close but slower at 300 yards. Anyway I decided to have a fast twist barrel (1-in-7.5 inches) made and use the Berger VLD's which have a very good ballistic coeficient and also fragment. They do seem to kill quicker and are good out to 400 yards. I think I got about a dozen does with them last January. I also use a heavy barreled .338-.378 Weatherby for real long range shooting, but only where there is a good backstop since the heavy constructed bullets in that calliber have more ricochett potential. I have access to about 5,000 acres of land and am retired so have the freedom to hunt on the best days so can often shoot more than one deer per day and generally get about 20 doe permits.

[pozoutdoors]

That sounds like me!! I use an 85gr. ballistic silver tip!!! I have shot deer close and way out there!!! I have a new pentax gameseeker scope this year and it is good at 400 that I know of!!! I will try it out on a target at a farther distance when I get a calm day!!! I still love your tcr's!!! I do love my encore too!! Alot of people around here don't understand why anyone would want a singleshot!!! I got in a little shooting contest with a guy from missouri. He said all us Iowans can shoot is shotguns and a buddy of mine from down there told him to shoot againt me. He wanted to put a milk jug at 300yrs. I told him that was not far enough. He just looked at me. So they took it farther. About 400-450 yards. Again, he just looked at me. I told him to go first.  He fire 3 shots and missed every time with his .270!!! I hit it the first shot with my .25-06!! With a bit of luck because where was a bit of wind form left to right and I aimed a about a foot high and about a foot to the left!!! I havn't heard any more about us Iowans and our shotguns!!!

[IOWA DON]

I don't think single shot rifles are a handicap, at least for the way I hunt. If you miss a standing animal on the first shot, how are you going to hit a running animal on the second shot? I use a Leica 1200 range finder. It's only good for 1200 yards under the best conditions but almost allways good for 600 to 700 yards except for rain or snow. The first photo below is the reticle for the scope on my .338-.378. The main crosshairs are zeroed for 300 yards and the dots below are for 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 yards. The reticle was installed in the 4.5-14X Leupold scope by Premier Reticles. The dots were installed where I asked based on output from my ballistics program for the load I use (225-grain Nosler Accubonds at 3,330 fps). I check it out at 600 yards before each January season. If there is not much wind it's good for 6-inch groups at that distance. I also have a 7MM STW and wanted a similar reticle for it. However, Premier Reticles no longer works on Leupold scopes and that's what's on the gun. So I had Leupold put one of their range compensating reticles in it. The problem is that the extended range aiming points are not in the correct locations. That is, with the 300 yard zero the 400 yard aining point may be a couple inches high and the 500 yard aiming point a three inches low and the 600 yard one the other way. Anyway, I have not used it for any long range deer even though the reticle is close enough for targets that large. But it's not good enough for smaller targets like coyotes. The bottom photo shows the wind drift for extended ranges for a 10 mph cross wind. It's fairly easy to convert the drift quickly for an approximate drift for other wind speeds or wind angles. I make it a rule to not shoot if drift is over 12 inches. The duct tape around the trigger guard is to protect the trigger finger. The bolt release is above the trigger on the Canjar single-set trigger and has sharp edges on it as does the floor plate release. Even with the tape my trigger finger gets pretty bruised up in a few shots. The gun probably weighs close to 12 pounds with scope but recoil is still bad. Anyway, with this setup and a calm wind and a good rest a deer is in real trouble at 600 yards.