Eventually they moved into an area about 50 yards from my stand and I shot at the larger of the two. The doe was DOI (dead on impact) as I was using my Marlin 1895 GBL in 45-70 which of course is overkill as it is powerful enough to drop any critter on the North American Continent using the proper load. I was shooting Hornady’s 325 grain FTX LEVERevolution factory loads. The second picture shows the internal results.
The entrance on the right side of the photograph shows damage to the ribcage. The bullet destroyed/vaporized the heart and surrounding area and continued through the deer as witnessed by the hole on the left side of the photograph. I was highly impressed with the rifles performance as named it “Bad Medicineâ€
On Monday (11/26/18) I decided to set up another tree stand on the property near three large oak trees with plenty of sign around. Beside the oak trees I discovered a rub line on some small pine trees along the property line fence leading away from the oak trees. I put up an old Loggy Bayou climbing stand with some climbing stick ladder steps and additionally secured the stand with a ratchet strap as it is the old steel band type.
On Tuesday afternoon (11/27/18) I thought I’d try out the stand for the first time. I managed to get situated in the stand around 3:45 PM. I saw a couple of hen turkeys’ wonder by and later on a few raccoons getting down from their trees and wonder around the oak trees. The sunset was at 5:30 PM and since the canopy in the woods is thick light was fading fast. At 5:40 I noticed some motion behind one of the oak trees and caught a glimpse of a deer with some horns. He wondered out to the property line fence along the trail and walked into a small opening in the trees just showing his neck and not the rest of his body. I scoped him out with the Redfield 2x7 which is mounted on my Marlin 45-70 GBL.
I made a snap decision and shot as light was at a premium and took a neck shot which I usually don’t take. The impact on the 9 point buck was tremendous and knocked him against the fence where he instantly died. The rifle is overkill I know but has become my woods favorite as I shot it twice this year and have two deer in the freezer.
I ended up putting the deer in the shed for the night as the coyotes are frequent visitors to the area.
She weighed 135 lb. on the old scale.