Daughter bags a buck and other critters w/ Howa 1500 mini

[txgunner00]

Howdy!

I haven't posted in a long... long time. I blame life It’s hard to accept that my younger daughter was 3 when I joined this forum. Time flies. She's 15 now and we finally got out to the family property to spend some time in the woods together last weekend. This was the first time she got to hunt with the Howa 1500 mini since I bought it for her late last year. Just last week I broke the rifle down, cut the barrel to 16.5" and re-threaded it. The goal was to get it more portable for her with the suppressor on. I have not had time to do any load development with it so I just zeroed it for some Hornady eld-m factory loads I had in the closet. Not my first choice for hunting loads but it's what I had.

All in all, it was a very successful weekend. She took care of some vermin that have been causing trouble for her grandmother and cleanly harvested this buck at about 100 yds. She threaded the needle through a fence and brush to centerpunch the vitals. The Eld-m pretty much grenaded and didn't pass through. We recovered the jacket and core on the opposite hide, but it did the job. He jumped, bounded about 3 times, and crashed within 15 yds.

I have never seen so much FAT on a whitetail before. I should have taken some pictures of it. The acorn crop is insane this year and they have obviously been gorging themselves on it.

Anyway- needless to say I'm a proud dad and thankful to have more meat in the freezer.

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[mtnlvr]

Very cool. So awesome to be able to spend time with your daughter in the woods AND have a successful hunt. Congrats!

[biodsl]

Congratulations, Dad. The time does go fast. Don't let this be the last hunt with her!

[sundowner]

Congratulations to both of you for you hunt together .

[kmon]

Way to go young lady and Dad!!!!!!

[Remington Jim]

Congrats ! Nice

[gldprimr]

Great stuff - the very best of times and memories

[LRRPF52]

Congrats! It’s scary how fast these kids grow up. That’s way cool that she was able to make that shot through a fence and brush.

Awesome shot and harvest.

I’m not quite there yet with my little ones, but close.

They’ll have a plethora of 6.5 Grendel AR-15s to choose from for sure.

[txgunner00]

Congrats! It’s scary how fast these kids grow up. That’s way cool that she was able to make that shot through a fence and brush.

Awesome shot and harvest.

I’m not quite there yet with my little ones, but close.

They’ll have a plethora of 6.5 Grendel AR-15s to choose from for sure.

Thanks Bud. Good to "see" ya again

[CJW]

What a great story, happy for you both.

[gwtx]

Congratulations on both a great daughter and buck. Good shootin.

[603 Country]

You are a lucky fellow, and she’s a lucky young lady. Our daughters never hunted, but I have hunting grandkids now.

[Stinky Coyote]

way to go! great thread, story and pics, nice work on the bullet info also, surprised that stayed in there, my observation has been we need quartering away and at least ~18" to catch an eld-m, so most of our broadside deer size game have been pass through, are you able to weigh that bullet? and is that hornady black? what barrel length?, do you have chrono velocity, I hear suppressors add a few fps but my 20" howa's had tight barrels and slow, 2475 fps to start and 2500 fps broken in with black, there is great data here to discuss further imo

ps that's normal that the jacket/core separate right at the tail end as they come to a halt, the lead likely trying to go just a bit deeper when the flesh finally grabs the copper jacket and then both found right there together, love the performance of these bullets and will take that every time, some look at that as failure...nope...what happens the last 1/2" doesn't matter but they sure do open up well and do the work all the way up to that, think of that jacket/lead separation at end of travel like the landing hook on the fighter jets when landing on aircraft carriers, it's that final grab of the hook/jacket that tug is needed for the heavier higher sd core to pull out ahead of the jacket just at the stop

I have had the jacket just under the hide and lead got away before, but multiple times found them together like yours, I shot a buck at 200 steep quartering away, 2100 fps impact (16" barrel, 2386 fps launch), went in 2nd last rib and finished in brisket meat, 99.8 grains recovered, 18" penetration, that was 81% retention and expansion was like 3x. So be curious to find out more about your example as I find it rare it stayed put in a broadside deer.

[txgunner00]

Thanks!

Yes, Hornady black. 16" barrel

[Stinky Coyote]

Thanks!

Yes, Hornady black. 16" barrel

should have launched around 2385 fps as my 16.1" barrel ruger bolt actions do, making that a pretty high velocity impact, be nice to see what it weighs, if you got an archery buddy or archery shop around they usually have a grains scale for weighing broad heads and arrows etc.

[Billinthedesert]

Seeing sweet kids with deer harvests and big smiles gives me hope for the future.

[JASmith]

Seeing sweet kids with deer harvests and big smiles gives me hope for the future.

Yea verily!

Congratulations to txgunner00 and Daughter!