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Hello Folks,

Our deer season ended yesterday, which I spent listening to and watching birds. It was a beautiful day in the woods. Earlier in the season I shot two does, but every day spent in the woods was rewarding.

The modern muzzleloader seems to be working okay. This year I hunted with it exclusively throughout the “regular gun” season. As I said earlier, my intent with this gun is to have greater range than a rifled slug, and be legal in all Virginia counties. Centerfire rifles are not allowed in many counties, and many also don’t allow slugs. Muzzleloading rifles, including modern, scoped rifles, are permitted everywhere.

The first deer was downhill, behind me on my left, between 100 and 150 yards. I twisted around and shot over my left shoulder. Before I broke the shot I thought to myself “this is going to hurt.” It did too. The scope busted my nose wide open. The deer was positioned for a perfect side shot, but before I could shoot it turned and was facing me, head down to the ground, feeding. The bullet entered at the base of the neck and exited between the hams, penetrating the full length of the animal. Sierra says the 300 gr .4515” pistol bullet is the hardest bullet they make. This one created a terrible surface wound; that deer looked like I had killed it with a hand grenade. It turned out that the cause was bone fragments blown from the neck. Obviously, the deer didn’t go anywhere. There was almost no meat damage.

On the second deer I waited until the doe turned sideways to me before I shot. Again, the Sierra pistol bullet performed perfectly at between 100 and 150 yards. The deer dropped like the proverbial sack full of hammers, and had a mouthful of green leaves when I field-dressed it. The exit wound was about the size of a quarter, and the lungs were destroyed. Performance was perfect, with no meat loss.

Our freezer is now well stocked with red meat, but my wife says I’m to get out and replenish our supply of fish as soon as the weather permits. She’s so demanding and hard to live with! :-)

Take care, Tom

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