Pa rifle season opened today, finally. Wasn't expecting much in the way of deer, what with the strong moon still and clear skies for a change, and I was partially right. The deer herd that normally hangs around behind my house must have moved while still dark, but about an hour after sunrise noticed that my neighbors cows which I could just barely see from inside the woods, acting skittish all of a sudden. Five doe and a yearling entered into the woods; must have come accross the valley to escape the shooting. Put the crosshairs on the lungs of the largest one, who was about 75 yds away, and sent that 400 gr Speer FN on it's way at 1750 fps. Saw her rear up, then turn into the brush so I knew I'd hit her solid. When I walked up to where she had been hit there was the start of a blood trail that a blind man could have followed, and she was lying about 30 yds away. Typical big PA deer, she probably dressed out at around 80 lbs based on my educated Walmart throwing arm(I'm an unloader for them). First deer with the 400 gr, and I really like what it did. When I skinned her, I found a hole slightly larger than a silver dollar, and perfectly round where the bullet had taken the offside ribs out. Lungs were, of course, both collapsed. It had also hit the off shoulder low, and the same sized hole in that. Not a bit of blood shot meat, even in the shoulder.....the ol' "eat up to the hole" attribute this caliber is noted for when not being frantically converted into an oversized 270; something I was also guilty of. That makes 23 deer in 25 shots over the years. Hell, even if I didn't handload, this here weapon makes the eatin' cheap enough.
