john k
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing a great story and a good buck. Great load and shot. That Hammer was packing a punch. Nice have confidence in the set up your shooting. Enjoy the venison!
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Idaho Muley
- Thread starter BrianID
- Start date
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crashlanding
Well-Known Member
Really nice buck and great story, thanks for covering all the details
Charles Keethler
Well-Known Member
Great looking muley and I love the county around you, congrats.
Huntnful
Well-Known Member
This buck ran 100 yards. Sometimes…. They just run. Had the same bullet drop 2 other deer in their tracks. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
I'm surprised he evaded the wolves long enough to grow that big. Well done!
Chico guy
Well-Known Member
Nice write up and good buck. Congrats
Good gawd! That's some nasty damage there.
Longrangers
Well-Known Member
CongratulationsI used hammer hunters on my first big game animal earlier this week. I was shooting 199gr hammer hunters from my 300 win mag. I have a 26" proof research barrel with a OSS helix suppressor. Muzzle velocity was about 3042FPS with 76gr of H1000, new peterson LONG 300 win brass, federal mag primers and COAL of 3.610". After about 75 rounds down the new barrel it does seem to be speeding up a little. My last few shots were around 3060 FPS on LabRadar. It is getting close to 1/2 MOA which I'm very pleased with considering I haven't taken too much time to develop a load for this rifle.
I spotted a doe bedded across the canyon around 10:00am in a snow storm. After glassing for surrounding deer I spotted a buck mixed in with a group of about 8 does/fawns. I had plenty of time to set up my tripod and pack for a back rest and get in my preferred prone shooting position. The falling snow made it difficult to get a range on him but I was able to range a couple trees close to him and knew he was about 350 yards. I hit him exactly where I was aiming on his close shoulder and bullet exited right behind the off side shoulder. Bullet impact velocity was around 2580 FPS and hit major blood vessels and lungs just above the heart. At the shot he made a mad dash of about 50 yards before tipping over dead. I've seen Nosler and hornady bullets kill multiple deer faster than the hammer hunter but a dead deer in less than 30 seconds after a well placed shot isn't anything to complain about. I also didn't loose hardly any meat which is one of the reasons I decided to try the hammers.
Attached is a picture I took about a minute after shooting.
I was by myself so I didn't get any great field photos. At about 27" wide, I'm pleased with him for an Idaho general season buck.
This is a picture of my pack.
It was about 100lbs after I strapped my gun on it. After packing out a deer(120lb+ pack) in a single trip about 6 years ago I told myself I would never do that again. I wasn't packing 20+lbs of optics/tripod this day because visibility was only about 500 yards or less in this snow storm so I decided to do it in one trip. It wasn't fun with about a foot of snow on the ground but the route out didn't have too much steep elevation or downfall to cross so it was doable. I was able to cover 2 miles back to the truck in about 90 minutes.
Lot of hard work but definitely worth it.
Nice buck Brian, what unit if ya don't mind me askin? I'm headed back up to the hills tomorrow morning, I saw 19 doe/yearlings so far but no bucks. I cannot believe the amount of people we saw on opening morning crazy how populated Idaho is becoming!!! 
Congrats, way to get it done.
Sorry, not going to share the unit. I've hunted over 30 units in Idaho and have either killed or helped friends/family pack out animals in at least a couple dozen units. There is no general season unit that is substantially better than all the others. All the general season units get hunted hard and require effort or luck to kill a good buck in. Both effort and luck helped me get this buck.Nice buck Brian, what unit if ya don't mind me askin? I'm headed back up to the hills tomorrow morning, I saw 19 doe/yearlings so far but no bucks. I cannot believe the amount of people we saw on opening morning crazy how populated Idaho is becoming!!!
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I've seen deer run 100 yards with a bullet to the heart before too. I've killed or watch dozens of big game animals get shot with all kinds of bullets and cartridges. I've shot 3 mule deer and a coues deer with 300 gr bergers from my 338 Lapua. Even a big bullet like that doesn't always drop them in their tracks. I agree that some animals just have a stronger will to live than others and can run for a few seconds even if the shot placement is in the heart/lung area and bullet performs as expected. I do think if I had shot this deer with a 180 gr nosler ballistic tip in the same spot it would have more likely ended quicker but I would have lost a lot of meat on the off side shoulder. He probably tipped less than 15 seconds after the shot. I was just surprised he made it as far as he did. I probably shoot 50 coyotes a year and most are dead in their tracks but I shoot most of them at closer ranges with explosive bullets that have an impact velocity often over 3000 fps. I did have a coyote run 50 yards once that had a grapefruit sized exit out his off side ribs/shoulder. I can't explain how he was able to run without lungs, heart and a missing leg but he did. Some animals are just tough.
DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
Wow! You know what you're doing and you listened to yourself based on experience! Sweet 300 WM set up. I'd hunt with you anytime!
