wildcat junkie

I think she's older than 3 1/2. She's been turning up for the last few seasons and she was a horse in 2016 which was the 1st time we noticed her size. I wouldn't be surprised if she 5 1/2 or older. In 1999 we were noticing a large hoofprint that was deformed. We thought it was a buck due to the size of the print. In 2003 I killed a huge solitary doe that was 42 inches heart girth. She turned out to be the "buck" with the deformed hoof. She had to be over 5 years old.

I'm about 25 miles WNW of Malone.

She also has 2 tails!

We saw this doe several times last year. She is one of the biggest deer that frequents our woods including bucks. She is easy to pick out not only because of her size, but her dark coloration. The only deer I have seen over the last 4 years that appeared larger than her was the 205# 10-point pig I shot last year. She never shows up in our late ML season and we are not allowed to shoot does in the early ML season. l'll be in the penthouse again this year on the late ML season to see if I can get a crack at her with a .535 round ball.

I shot a buck once at the usual 240 yd distance. He was facing my right when I shot and I was not able to recover from the recoil soon enough to see what direction he went. Since the long shooting lane is quite rough and difficult to walk, I walked 100 yds back to my truck parked behind the tripod in the hayfield. I got in my truck, went to the house to get wifey and drove the roundabout route on the horse trail that leads to the back end. I parked the truck and walked around the corner where I found a small spot of blood a few yards to the left of where the buck had been standing at the shot. Assuming that the deer had whirled when hit, I spent the better part of an hour with wifey looking for more blood, to no avail. We had given up and as we walked back to the truck. a spotted some blood smeared on the waist high ferns on the side of the trail. It had not been obvious when walking in the opposite direction going in. Assuming that the buck had done a fish hook move I followed the now obvious blood trail back to where the buck had stood when I shot. I reversed direction and followed the blood back to where it met the horse trail and soon picked it up on the brush across the trail. (there was little of no blood on the ground) We found the buck about 15 yds beyond the horse trail. As I looked back on the what was going on leading up to the shot I remembered there had been a doe standing in the shooting lane when the buck stepped out. It seems that the bullet had passed through the buck and struck the doe resultung is a probable non lethal hit that resulted in just enough blood to send us on a wild goose chase in the wrong direction. The buck only had 1 bullet wound that just clipped the lungs and took out the liver. There was little blood spurting from the wound but it had soaked his flank and rubbed off on the ferns and brush as he ran. He went less than 75 yds after the hit.

That would be my guess too. I posted about a 160#+ dressed doe that I killed back around 2003 and many thought I was exaggerating. Hunting pressure here isn't that high and many will not shoot does anyway. The block of land that I am located on is about 7 square miles between roads so there is a lot of acreage for them to hide in. Housing is sparse along the roads too.

I shot her boyfriend last year, just about exactly where she is standing in the picture.

Well, if you look closely in the upper left corner of either picture, about 1/4 of the way down and 1/4 of the way to the right, you'll see my tripod stand about 250 yds away. The "penthouse" stand is about 70 yds to the left. Look real close in the center of the picture and you can barely make out the rectangle shape nestled between a hemlock and white pine. Here it is from the opposite direction where we enter it.

OK how about some field dressed weight guesses for this big mama. Compare her to this big spike buck. I'm guessing the big spike would dress about 120-130#, the small one about 100-110# The doe is clearly much bigger. I would not be surprised if this is another 160#+ doe.

Thanks everyone.

As long as you don't get into the paunch you should be fine. Any quartering shot or ant shot near the back of the rib cage would be suspect

Besides deer, I got some pictures of squirrels and a porcupine in the last 24 hours at this location.. There were also at least 2 different does that showed up after dark. One looked a little scrawny and the other was in better shape so I could tell there were at least 2 different ones.

I moved the camera around the corner from the previous photo location. Turns out that spike has a little brother. You can see my tripod stand just over the hindquarters of the bigger spike. About 250 yds distant. The "penthouse" is about 70 yds to the left

230 grain .535 round ball with 100 grains ffG black powder.

Not a shooter, but I'm pleased with the performance of the trail cameras I bought for my son at Christmas. I had it set for 3 shot burst with 10 seconds between bursts. He certainly looks healthy and should be a nice buck if he lives for 2-3 more years. I caught him feeding the next night at 11:00 PM on another camera located about 100 yds to the north. I got 15 pictures of him that time. I also caught a doe 2 days later at the same location pictured above at about 40 minutes after sundown. I got 12 pictures of her.

Why do people call clay targets skeet? Skeet is a game shot on a range built to specifications It has a high house and a low house with 8 different shooting stations. It provides singles, doubles crossing shots going away shots and shots that are oncoming. It is more fun than sporting clays IMO because it provides more shooting for a given amount if time and is generally less expensive than sporting clays. .

Make a chamber cast from "Cerrosafe". It melts at 190F . This is how a gunsmith will identify the caliber and is the only 100% sure way ti get an accurate measurement of the chamber and throat. It is perfectly safe as if you do screw up, all the have to do is immerse the receiver into a pot of boiling water to melt the Cerrosafe. It will flow out and sink to the bottom of the pan. In order to control the the temperature of the alloy before pouring, i actually melt the Cerrosafe in a ladle suspended in boiling water. That limits the temperature to 212F

A smaller bullet will expend energy faster, especially if it is easily deflected from the normal path and it becomes unstable enough to yaw or even turn 180 degrees or more as it is moving on through.. A 230gr .535 lead round ball @ 2000 fps has less energy than a 220gr .308 bullet @ 2400 fps but I've seen .535 round balls hit deer at close range with reactions/results that far exceed anything I've seen with either a 12 ga RS or various CF bullets. A round ball dumps its energy faster than just about any other projectile. All of those factors also play into the hydrostatic shock. A projectile that is pointed and does not expand will not dump energy very fast. It will retain the energy even as it passes through soft tissue and will still have retained a lot of energy as it exits. That energy is wasted.

I didn't say it "was more deadly", but I did say it "could be more deadly". 30-06 has far more energy, but on a soft tissue hit with a FMJ bullet, most of that energy would be wasted as the bullet plows through and continues beyond. The 5.56 FMJ is far more likely to expend all of its energy inside the body. It's subjective, not a definitive statement.

Didn't see your last post until after I replied. Yes it was the 30/40 Krag. Some could argue that the Spencer Carbine and Henry rifle, both of which were used during the Civil War, would meet that criteria, but neither was issued in large numbers and the Spencer was a carbine while the Henry was a low powered rimfire.

1) I asked because you brought up the fact that the Garrand could not be topped off. 2) The '03 can't be topped off without opening the bolt. 3) Neither the 1911 nor the Thomson is a "battle rifle" and the M2 certainly isn't. 4) The correct answer precedes all of those. And it did not have a detachable magazine.

What was the first "battle rifle" that could have the magazine topped off in a "ready to fire" conduction? Ready to fire is defined as a closed bolt with a cartridge in the chamber.

223 is a whole different ball game. with FMJ bullets it can be more deadly than the 30-06 loaded with the same type projectile.. The light bullet traveling at 300+ fps is more likely to tumble or otherwise make an erratic, larger wound cavity than a heavy 30 caliber bullet. Again the original posts were about man stopping capabilities military ammo.

I was referring to the FMJ military ball that would have been used in the Korean war. After penetrating thick layers of 1950s era cold weather clothing that the Chinese were wearing, there wouldn't be a lot of energy left for immediate man stopping trauma with a non expanding FPJ 30 cal 110gr bullet.