10-27-2013, 07:21 AM
Gents, thanks for the words.
BJORN - The Ontario RAT 3 in D2 is a great general purpose knife that always sits on my hunting belt.
LRRPF52 - IMHO the bolt action Grendel compares favourably with the 257 Roberts - a well known killer of deer. A 100gn bullet at just on 3000fps is central to the success of the Roberts. My father's Model 70 Winchester is a Featherweight 257 Roberts so I'm quite familiar with the cartridge (the Model 70 will become a 338/06 when the barrel arrives from Lilja as the Roberts tube is truly stuffed).
Today was spent out recovering some long term cameras on a property I have permission for, but don't spend much time on as they get pigdoggers in regularly to control the pig population. The property does have Fallow deer, but only a very small, transient population. I suspect the pigdogs make the deer nervous and they have moved on.
Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when driving alongside the lower floodplain at 0730 I spotted a mature Fallow buck trying to hide under a Willow tree. He was obviously not well as he should have been haring off for the other side of the swamp - in fact he shouldn't have been there at all if he was well. Anyway, I Grendelised him at 90m for lack of another rifle handy (I was expecting pigs), but due to his sheer bulk I had to stalk him down across 300m of swamp to finish him off. The Grendel was a poor choice for this as most shots presented to me were stern shots - I wasn't convinced the 100gn NBT would penetrate the gut to do some real damage. A 100gn TTSX might have been more confidence inspiring - but almost any other rifle in my safe would have been more confidence building. Eventually he turned to go around a tussock and presented a quartering shot which I took. That put him down hard (although the first shot should have) and I closed in and put one through the back of his skull.
He had already cast for this year, and was just going into velvet for next year. Apart from an obvious gammy foreleg (possibly the result of a past hunter) he was in fine condition. Can't understand why my initial shot (front of chest) didn't anchor him - but it didn't. He was starting to fatten up and the condition was so fine (probably >70kg - 160lb) I couldn't drag him out of the damn swamp and had to butcher him on the spot. The backstraps, eye fillets and hindlegs were carefully whipped off (with the RAT 3), bagged in some old pillowslips and walked across to a shady tree to hang for a while. Then I schlepped back across 500m of swamp to get the car! No photos as I didn't have the camera with me and wasn't going to go back for it.
Got back to the car by 0900, washed my hands off, and the knife, then went and collected the cards from the cameras, changed batteries, spotted some poachers tracks (more to follow on these bastards) and collected the meat at 1130. Back home by 1300 after leaving one hindquarter with the caretaker.
BJORN - The Ontario RAT 3 in D2 is a great general purpose knife that always sits on my hunting belt.
LRRPF52 - IMHO the bolt action Grendel compares favourably with the 257 Roberts - a well known killer of deer. A 100gn bullet at just on 3000fps is central to the success of the Roberts. My father's Model 70 Winchester is a Featherweight 257 Roberts so I'm quite familiar with the cartridge (the Model 70 will become a 338/06 when the barrel arrives from Lilja as the Roberts tube is truly stuffed).
Today was spent out recovering some long term cameras on a property I have permission for, but don't spend much time on as they get pigdoggers in regularly to control the pig population. The property does have Fallow deer, but only a very small, transient population. I suspect the pigdogs make the deer nervous and they have moved on.
Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when driving alongside the lower floodplain at 0730 I spotted a mature Fallow buck trying to hide under a Willow tree. He was obviously not well as he should have been haring off for the other side of the swamp - in fact he shouldn't have been there at all if he was well. Anyway, I Grendelised him at 90m for lack of another rifle handy (I was expecting pigs), but due to his sheer bulk I had to stalk him down across 300m of swamp to finish him off. The Grendel was a poor choice for this as most shots presented to me were stern shots - I wasn't convinced the 100gn NBT would penetrate the gut to do some real damage. A 100gn TTSX might have been more confidence inspiring - but almost any other rifle in my safe would have been more confidence building. Eventually he turned to go around a tussock and presented a quartering shot which I took. That put him down hard (although the first shot should have) and I closed in and put one through the back of his skull.
He had already cast for this year, and was just going into velvet for next year. Apart from an obvious gammy foreleg (possibly the result of a past hunter) he was in fine condition. Can't understand why my initial shot (front of chest) didn't anchor him - but it didn't. He was starting to fatten up and the condition was so fine (probably >70kg - 160lb) I couldn't drag him out of the damn swamp and had to butcher him on the spot. The backstraps, eye fillets and hindlegs were carefully whipped off (with the RAT 3), bagged in some old pillowslips and walked across to a shady tree to hang for a while. Then I schlepped back across 500m of swamp to get the car! No photos as I didn't have the camera with me and wasn't going to go back for it.
Got back to the car by 0900, washed my hands off, and the knife, then went and collected the cards from the cameras, changed batteries, spotted some poachers tracks (more to follow on these bastards) and collected the meat at 1130. Back home by 1300 after leaving one hindquarter with the caretaker.