First "shot" at Long-Range-Hunting!

[Mysticplayer]

jb, your bullet arrived 'perfectly'. Remember that group size. At 770yds, being 2" off the cross hairs is bang on.

I always take into account the area that the bullet will land in, not just where my cross hairs are. We don't drive them into one hole at 300yds. Why would we expect to do that at 770yds?

The deer I shot this year was at a whopping 50yds. Took it through the chest from my '06. Had enough drive to move about and try to run. Deer don't know they should just lie down and die. Same reason why their bodies will keep moving (trying to run) even when there is a hole in the head.

You did the right thing by waiting for your shot. You did a shot with correct placement. The bullet did its job. The deer just didn't know it was supposed to die right away.

Jerry

[Charles A]

The 142gr SMK is the only one I have heard that doesn't create massive wounds. However it looks lik the exit hole is somwhere around an inch and a half, which while not great(for matchkings) isn't bad either. The reason that the deer acted like it did is because he only hit one lung(I think) and liver. Deer act completly different when shot past 300yds or so, in that there not scared at all, which in turn means a bit longer death since its not running, ie. not pumping blood like crazy, for its life, it takes longer to bleed out. Similer to an arrow hit deer shot the sam way.

Just this afternoon I shot one at 770yds (on camera) that when hit just calmly walked of, and finaly died after going about 50yds. She was hit sharp qourtering toward me, liquified both lungs, with severe hydrostatic shock to the liver, exited center of right side chest, leavin a 4.5in exit wound, yet she lived, and ate, for a couple of minutes. This one was shot with a 220gr MK out of a 300tomahawk. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[bigbrother]

I had the same problem with the smk's out of my 6.5x284. I switched to the 140AMAX and have had great success with it. They expand well on groundhogs and have given me 2 to 3" exits on whitetails to 750yds. The 2 we shot this year at 537 and 525 never moved. We shot the one in her bed through both shoulders and her head just flopped back on the ground. We high shoulder shot the other one, so expectedly, she just kind of fell on her nose and flipped over. They shoot a little tighter out of my gun than the smk's but the expansion was more of a concern. The groundhogs I was shooting with the smk's just ran to there hole unless head shot.

With all that said, the shot you made was a good one. And congrats. There's something about those 6.5's! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[marketello]

JB, you were able to range a doe at 700 yds with your Leica?
Was that hard to do, did you have the unit mounted on anything.
I just bought a Leica 1200 and have been practicing with it on cattle, I haven't been able to range one more than 500 yds yet, hard to hold the box steady.