first blood with nos. E tips

[Lloyd Smale]

we started crop damage shooting last night and i popped 2 does with the 7mag using 140 nos e tips. One at 270 yards and one at 310. Both folded on the spot. Pretty good damage done without tearing the whole deer up. A bit less then what i would have expected with ballistic tips. Probably on the same scale as damage ive seen from partitions in the past. I dont know if it was just me or just the field i was in but ive never heard louder bullet slap on a hit then i did last night with that bullet.

[max1138]

how do you see a deer 300 yards away at night? not trying to be rude or anything, i just have never shot at rifle distances at night and wonder if you use spotlights or night vision gear or how does this work?

[Grumulkin]

how do you see a deer 300 yards away at night? not trying to be rude or anything, i just have never shot at rifle distances at night and wonder if you use spotlights or night vision gear or how does this work?

You can use:


1.  A spotlight.


2.  Night vision or thermal vision.


3.  Provided you have a good moonlight night, a scope will work sometimes even without a lighted reticle.

[Lloyd Smale]

actually it was a missued term. When i said last night i said that because thats when we got home. We can shoot up to a 1/2 hour past sunset. Most deer are shot well before that. Some states allow crop damage shooting at night with night vision but not michigan. I would think that a bigger problem then seeing them at night would be finding them when they ran off.

[shot1]

I helped do crop damage control on a big farm in NC for 15 years. We could not shoot them after dark but we did find out that if you use a 25-06 with a 117gr Sierra at around 3000 fps or so muzzle velocity you DON'T HAVE TO GO LOOKING FOR A DEER THAT RAN OFF.  BANG FLOP.  Worst caliber my buddy and I both found was a 7mm Rem mag. We used all kinds of bullets and loads and unless you used a high shoulder shot were you hit the spine also most of the time the deer would run 50 to 100 yards. If they got out of the fields they were hard to find because the fields were surrounded with cut over woods that was as thick as a jungle and was full of green brier.

[Lloyd Smale]

kind of odd and my buddy and I have favorites too do to experince with dropping deer in there tracks which is what we want doing crop damage because we dont want them running out into the crops. the 2506 is one of them but we prefer 100 grain bullets. the 257 wby with 100 grain. 264 mag with 120-140s the various 300 mags with about any bullet and both of us will tell you the absolute best weve seen at dropping them in there tracks over the years has been 7 mags with 140 grain bullets. I dont remember ever haveing a deer shot with one go more the 25 yards. to be honest i was a bit skeptical about these etips. Im not a big fan of premium bullets other then partitions for the same reason as you. Fields are surrounded by tall grass and thick woods and i want them down where they stand or at least down within sight. Sierras and nos bts are my favorite bullets speer hotcores arent bad either.

[shot1]

Best 7mm bullet we used was the 154 Hornady SP interlock. It killed in the tracks better. One fellow I know said that he had better luck with 140 gr bullets when he showed them down to around 2800 fps muzzle velocity. I told him whats the use of having a 7 mag if you were going to shoot it at 7-08 velocity. My 264 mag with 130 Accubonds at 3350 fps is a real deer dropper.

[john keyes]

Lloyd, what boolit do you like in the .280?
 
I'll never forget the pics of your loading "room" you posted a few years back. that is one of the sickest setups I've ever seen.   

[Lloyd Smale]

ive got  280 win featherweight and its favorite bullet and the one ive shot the most deer with out of it is the 145 speer hot core. Second in line would be the 140 sierra. Both shoot real well and have done real well on whitetail.

Lloyd, what boolit do you like in the .280?
 
I'll never forget the pics of your loading "room" you posted a few years back. that is one of the sickest setups I've ever seen.