14yr old cousin, 1st deer / SMK results

[RDM416]

I took my cousin's 14 year old son out for his first deer hunt over the weekend. The kids dad does not hunt so he has not had a lot of exposure to hunting or shooting. The kid asked me to take him deer hunting so I happily agreed.

We had a special youth hunt here in Arkansas over the weekend. Kids can shoot any deer. I am harvesting mainly doe off my place this year, so I told him he could shoot a big fat nanny!

Sat morning was a dissapointment, we only saw two deer, a spike buck and half grown fawn. I wanted to take him to one of my favorite elevated box blinds that evening, but was worried since it is set up for long range shots. You see lots of deer from it, but most are 200 to 600 yards out. He had brought his dads old 30-30 with open sights, so it was out of the question for the long range stand.

After we ate lunch I set a target at 250 yards with a 6" stick on target dot. I got out my 18 pound 338 Kahn and set him up with a sand bag rested on a metal rail. It took a little talking to convince him the rifle would not kick him into the ground. It does look pretty intimidating for a 14 year old kid. His first shot hit about a 1" high of the target dot. He looked at me and said, Hey this thing really don't kick! His second shot was dead on! He was ready for the long range stand.

After about 30 min in the stand three does came out, I ranged them at 188 yards. Dialed in the range on the NF NXS scope and handed him the rifle. At the shot, the big nanny he was shooting at dropped like a rock, kicked a couple of times and was still! I had one excited kid on my hands. I had to make him wait and calm down a few min before I let him climb out of the stand so he would not fall. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

This was the first deer I have used a SMK on. The load is a 250grn SMK at about 3100fps. The entry hole was about 6" in diameter and the bullet did not exit. There were chunks of lung as big a a fist that had blown back out of the entry hole. It was impressive! Not to reopen the SMK debate, I'm sold on the SMK for deer, still not sure about them for larger game since I did not get an exit on even a 90 pound whitetail doe.

Take a kid hunting sometime, it's great fun [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

PS sorry, no pictures. The battery was dead in my digital and I did not get to take any pics.

[LOBO]

Good on you for taking him hunting and good on him for making a great shot!

[300winnie]

250 grain .338 caliber bullet fired at 3100 fps at a 90 lb doe at 188 yards and it did not exit [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] Doesn't leave much to debate in my opinion.

[budlight]

How big of a tree did the 250 smk go through first? 6 inch entry had to be shrapnel.

[Boss Hoss]

Wow--very interesting as I have killed several 250lb+ feral hogs with my AI AWM in 338 Lapua using the 250gr SMK and all left very large exit wounds but the impact ranges were 250 to 300 yds. We shoot them out of our observation tower at the ranch--I wonder if being closer and having a higher MV makes that much difference???

[RDM416]

Budlight,

No trees, the doe was in an open field. It may have hit a rib going in is the only thing I can think of.

Note, I am not being critical of SMKs for hunting here, I'm just passing on an interesting observation.

I was very surprised that there was no exit. However, as far as terminal performance it was pretty awsome. As I stated before, there were 2 or 3 large chunks of lung on the ground, and what was left of the lung / liver area looked like it had been run through a blender! (the shot was a little high and back)

I am going to continue to use SMKs on deer this season. One shot is not enough for me to pass judgment. I have also read the posts of others on this site who have shot LOTS of game with SMKs with great results, so I am inclined to just say hmmmmmmmm........and shoot some more critters with the SMKs for my own field testing [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]