357 and a big deer

[Moon Tree]

Let me explain my shooting sequence a little better:
First the 2 entrance wounds were 2 different shots and were at 25 yards-ish.

Now remember I left my glasses at the cabin. I can't see the notch in the rear sight. Instead of seeing a notch and 1 white diamond below it, I see TWO white diamonds merging at the inside corners. I can't see how far down the notch the front fiber optic sight is sitting. That's probably the reason those 2 shots are high.

I'm swallowing a lot of humble pie here. But, if it helps others it's worth it.

1st shot hits the spine. The deer drops, but is trying to pull itself with his front legs. Not wanting the animal to suffer, I shot more.

2nd through 4th shots: One shot went through the shoulder blade as seen in the forensic photos. One shot went through the rib cage causing a double lung shot. And one shot him in the hip/spine joint. That's the bullet I recovered. (The only explanation for the hip shot is the deer was in some fairly dense under story and I misjudge the body orientation to the head. The other 3 shots, albeit high had an outside spread of less than 6 inches.) The deer went belly up on the 4th shot.

By the time I climbed out of stand the deer had righted itself, but was down except for it's head being up. I walked over using the Blackhawk I put a shot through it's neck.

All total the deer kicked and slid about 15 yards down hill. So, determining if there would have been a viable blood trail is difficult. RD, after looking at the holes in the tissue, I'm in agreement with you. Had the first shot been a double lung shot, the deer would have ran over the hill and expired rather quickly.

[Ranch Dog]

I have almost a dozen Lee factory crimp dies in other calibers and do like them--but don't you think for a wheel gun a heavy roll is the way to go?

I use the rifle collet FCDs. I prefer it's ability to apply a uniform crimp despite the very small differences in brass length. The collet marks seem less invasive than the heavy roll. I use rifle style collet FCDs with the 38 Spl, 357 Mag, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt. I also use them for the 454 Casull and 480 Ruger but these latter two are leverguns, not revolvers.

[Archer]

Darn it they don't seem to have the .357 or .38 ones and I'd REALLY like to pick up the ones I need in one shipment rather than buy them one by one.

I was just about to see if I could find them especially for .44 Mag and .357 Mag (and anticipating that Midway would NOT have them) when I noticed this post.

I think a good crimp that will hold in a lever gun under magazine compression PLUS recoil will be pretty likely to hold in a revolver although the pulling effect on a revolver might end up and be somewhat more pronounced than the compression effects in the tubular mag.

[Ranch Dog]

The 38 Spl will not work with the 357 Mag Collet FCD, just a bit too much difference in brass length. I was discussing this with my contact at Lee and he suggested the die be built using the Bottle Neck Cartridge FCD. This die uses the same collet that the rifle style FCD uses but it is inverted in the barrel of the die and acts against the "cap" or top of the die. Problem solved!

When I started to think about these dies as an inventory item in my online store, Lee told me that they had looked at them but worried about the steel of the short collet being "overworked" and only lasting about 100,000 rounds. I figured that was probably more rounds than a average handloader might load in his lifetime so didn't have a problem ordering the inventory.

[TGC]

180 lbs is a Big Deer. Congratulations!!!

I've shot a few animals with cast bullets and I'm not really sold on them. I think thats the reason bullets evolved into jacketed bullets with protruding soft lead for hunting. Especially thin skined game.

I think the hornady XTP does a good job in handgun caliber bullets. I've only shot deer with .44 magnum in the XTP, but it did great.

[Moon Tree]

Thanks TGC. It was a big deer. My previous large weight deer was 142 lbs. I kept the lower jaw bone to age the deer. Initial inspection, it was 3 1/2 plus year deer. I need to clean the jaw bone/teeth better to determine the actual age, but I'm thinking 5 1/2 or better.

I shot another large deer for a doe that would have been 120 plus pounds. I didn't have scales at the time to really measure her. But, she was a huge doe. Seem like when I hunt with the "small gun" I get bigger game.

[coyotebc]

Beautiful deer
How did your December hunt go

[Moon Tree]

Coyotebc, if you're referring to wild boar hunt in Dec. It went well. I took both the Rossi and my Blackhawk. Fortunately or unfortunately (as per more Rossi testing), the boar gave me a close range shot, so I used the Blackhawk. Here's the link:
http://www.rossi-rifleman.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3227