He committed suicide

[contender]

I mentioned I had a small 8-point buck that was just trying to commit suicide. He was a regular passing my stand. I kept holding off,, as I have a few bigger deer in the area, and was hoping for a chance at one of those bigger ones.
Well, it's the last week of the season, and I decided to hunt with a different gun,, and figured I only had a few days left at best.
I decided to use my Ruger .357 Maximum,, which has a few options added. It's wearing a Fermin Garza front sight, a Belt Mtn #5 Keith base pin, a RW/Garza rear sight. I decided I wanted to use it,,, AND use the Bradshaw/Martin bullet.
I had plans to try & have the Bradshaw Bisley grip by Ronnie as well, but hunting season arrived before I could spend the necessary time to fit the grip frame & make the grips. (That will be for next year.)

So,, with the heavy rain ending last night,, and knowing it was going to sorta clear off today,, I figured I might get a good chance at a good deer. Maybe that 9 pointer would surprise me & show up. Well, the day started off wrong. My clock didn't go off at it's set time,, because the operator failed to push the button to the last notch. I didn't get up until about 6:30. Uuhhgg!!! I quickly got my stuff together,, and headed to the woods. Sneaking as quietly as I possibly could,, I made it to my stand. As I got into it,, I noticed a deer moving my way. With almost NO time to think,, I quickly looked him over & recognized the same small 8-pointer I'd been seeing a lot. Ok,, I decided he had been given too many free passes through here. I took a rest,, and as he was easing through,, he stopped about 55 yds out. Quartering towards me. Knowing his pattern,, I knew he wouldn't give me a better angle or opening,, so I settled those wonderful sights upon his shoulder & as Dick likes to say; "I lit the switch."
He hit the ground right away. Apparently,, I had clipped the bottom edge of his spine,, and with the angle,, tore part of a lung. Now,, I will admit to having aimed a bit lower,, and kinda missed my selected spot,, but it still did the trick. That little 8-pointer had plans to commit suicide,, with the fact he just kept coming by my stand,, offering me all kinds of chances at inviting him to be dinner.
I think he's only 2-1/2 years old,, and has a normal body size for our local deer. He'll be providing us with many good meals this coming year. Here's a few pictures.

My regular camera battery died as I was trying to take pictures. The picture of the exit wound is on my phone,, and I'm having issues trying to get it to transfer easily to where I can post it. I've managed to get it from my phone to my "ICloud" folder. But apparently I'm computer stupid to where I can't get it from ICloud to my actual picture file right now. I'll work on it & try & have it up later.

Haa,, I was able to get a picture from my computer screen with my camera & all. Not the best,, but it shows how that bullet performed. I'm going to try & take my metal detector out there in a few days to see if I can recover the bullet!

 

[Wvfarrier]

Congrats. I have never used the "maxi" but have taken a lot with super powered 357 mag loads.

 

[Bullthrower338]

Dinner is served!

 

[Pál_K]

Nice deer.

Is the entrance wound visible?

How long is the barrel on your Ruger?

Did you recover the bullet?

 

[bedfordboy]

Good shot and nice deer. Sometimes they don’t give you much choice, I’ve let them walk during muzzleloader season before and then the acorns dry up and they go to the bottom land and you can’t buy a deer. Congrats, now the fun is over and the work begins…

 

[arfmel]

You might not have hit him where you planned to, but as my coach used to say “results is results”!:cool:

 

[contender]

The entrance wound didn't leak much,,, but the exit wound did. I hit him on the side shown,, and I did wipe off the little bit of blood for the picture.

The barrel is the factory 10" one. And the bullet may be recovered when I get my metal detector out. It was a complete pass through,, and since he hit the ground pretty much where he was standing,, I have a pretty good chance at finding it.

Obviously,, this deer had a serious pattern of travel. I think he walked in front of me on 9 different days during the season when I was in the stand. On one day,, he came by twice.

I just figured he was doing a spin-off of the "suicide by cop" thing by modifying it to be; "suicide by hunter" instead.

 

[Watertender]

You granted his wish!

 

[arfmel]

A buck that dumb/careless, you probably saved him from being hit by a vehicle.

 

[Hvymax]

How did he get 8 points on those tiny little antlers? Hopefully it's long enough after the rut that he might be edible at least. I remember my son got one at the peak of the rut and it was only good for jerky and sausage.

 

[Hankus]

Contender, sometimes it’s just easier to email the photo to yourself from your phone then log in to your email on your computer and download it there. That’s a nice little guy, and the revolver too! At that range with that round the hydraulic shock is probably what did him in.

 

[arfmel]

I post photos directly from my iPhone all the time. It's easy. Tap on the "picture icon" at the top of the window you post in, tap ""Drop Image", tap "photo library", scroll through your photos in your phone and pick which one you want, tap on it. Tap "done" and you'll be back to the window with your post , wait for it to download, then tap "Done" and "post reply".

 

[contender]

Yeah,, I think this buck used my area as a main travel point to avoid the highway. He was a predictable regular.

As for the small size & the rut etc. I've never had issues with eating steaks or roasts etc from a buck during the rut. It's a LOT in what they eat as well as how they are handled & processed. Hvymax,, I noticed you enjoyed the backstrap we cooked when you were here,,,,,! :D



Hankus,, good tip. I forgot about that method. I think I've done that before. I'll try it later.

arfmel,, thanks too. However,, I'll tell ya what Miss Penny says about me & computers & such. "You shouldn't even have a cell phone much less a computer or a smart phone."
It's her way of describing my often horrible abilities with doing stuff. You lost me at "Tap on the "picture icon" at the top of the window". Looking at my pictures on my phone,, I don't see a "picture icon." My apologies,, I'm NOT very good at such stuff. That's why I have a separate camera for computer pictures. I know the steps I need to do to post pictures from my computer. I don't often post on the forum with my phone. (Different look and not all the buttons my computer has.)
I was wanting to put the picture from my phone to my picture file in my computer. Then I could post it here. ICloud is a PIA to try & do that.

 

[steveodtw]

Any deer with a pistol is a good one. I've encountered similar suicide deer where, on the last day of my hunt, I decide when he comes out this time I'll take him. One of his friends must have taken him aside and 'splained things to him. I never saw him again. Maybe another hunter did him the favor.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

You mercifully and dutifully ended whatever life troubles he was going through as a young buck......he's in a better place now.....your freezer...YUM.

 

[larry8]

Venison, Now I'm hungry.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

Legal game taken in a highly sporting manner, no apologies needed. Enjoy the fruit of your hunt!
I'm off to a slow start on the venison gathering this year due to a lot of factors, including recovering from heart surgery, but still have over a month left to put some meat in the freezer.

 

[arfmel]

"Looking at my pictures on my phone,, I don't see a "picture icon."

The picture icon isn't among your pictures. It's here on the forum. Right in the window where you write your post. In this photo it appears above the word "pictures" in your sentence I quoted. I circled it for you in the picture below:

 

[contender]

Thanks arfmel. But I wanted to get the picture from my phone to my picture file in my computer. I have too many problems trying to use a phone for the Forum stuff. It was easy to get it from the phone to my computer in ICloud. But from ICloud to my picture file is the issue.
I can EASILY get pictures from my computer to a thread here if they are in my pictures file. That I DO know how to do.

And just to show you how computer stupid I am,, I had a big problem today. I needed to renew my NC Wildlife ADC license. I had to do an online continuing education course.
I had the email. I had the link, the user name, and the password. NOTHING worked. I made 2 emails to Wildlife, 2 phone calls to the office,, and finally a phone call to a cell phone for the person coordinating this. She tried to help me over the phone. She could log in, she could "see" my account, yet I still couldn't log in. She & I tried several things. Nada. She finally asked me what browser I was using. When I mentioned "FireFox," she said that might well be the problem. She wanted me to try a different server. Talk about totally lost. LUCKILY,, Miss Penny (who does the serious computer work here,) could hear what was going on. She came into my office,, and told me to "Just move out of my way." I was on the speaker phone,, and the lady in Raleigh could hear us. (She laughed a few times at us,) But Miss Penny was able to fix it & get me on a different browser and I was able to log in,, FINALLY! That lady in Raleigh was chuckling at me,, as I readily admitted to my inabilities on a computer. She was quite helpful & patient with me too.
So,,,, trying to use a phone for the Forum isn't easy for me,, or only used to VIEW stuff & occasionally post a reply.

Besides,, I wanted to keep the pictures of this buck and the results in my permanent picture file.

Apparently,, this buck is the second deer taken with the Bradshaw/Martin bullet,, after Dick, (sixshot) took a deer last year with one. But I think his deer was a mule deer. So it's the first (as far as we know,) Whitetail deer taken with that bullet. And it's also the second one (as far as we know,) taken using the RW/2Dogs sights on a gun.
Kinda special to me.

 

[arfmel]

I feel your pain. I can’t use a computer well enough to participate on the forum. :p

 

[NC FNS]

How did he get 8 points on those tiny little antlers?

Photoshop.
Naaah, not with Contender’s legendary computer skills.

Glad you finally got him! Hope you find the bullet, would be interesting to see how it did.

 

[contender]

arfmel,, I had to chuckle about that one. I think both a smart-alek phone & a computer are both too complicated in general. In 31 years of a wonderful life together,, Miss Penny & I have only had ONE area of "discussion" where we got heated & very upset. It's when she's tried to teach me stuff on a computer. I look at it kinda like; "Build it to do a function one way, and leave that alone. Never change it. Don't do upgrades, or whatever." And I always want to know "why" I can do something one way,, but trying to do something similar,, why I can't do it the same way I do other stuff. Miss Penny finally came up with the perfect comeback to my constant question of "why",,,, her response; "It's because Bill Gates & his computer nerds just want to screw with you personally!"
Heck,, on the picture thing,, I'm still a bit pizzed at a recent "upgrade" or whatever. My camera,, I used to be able to easily plug the USB cable into it & the computer, push one button and it'd link to the computer, and show my pictures, and allow me to click them & upload them in just those few steps. About 2 months ago,, I noticed when I clicked on the link button,, a whole new page from Microsoft Edge pops up. And while it has all kinds of "stuff" on it for me to do to my pictures already in my computer,, nowhere is a place to allow me to download pics from my camera anymore. I had to change how I got those pictures. I have to just remove my SD card, insert it in the computer,, then go through several extra steps just to get them to my files. Luckily,, I already knew how to do that,,, because my game cameras use SD cards & I already learned how to do that. But my direct linking from the camera to the computer,, gone.
And to really pizz me off,, I didn't ask for the "Microsoft upgrade,, it just happened.

I'll have to get a better picture of the antlers once I finish cleaning the skull plate.

"Glad you finally got him!"

Actually I could have taken him several times,, easily. He wasn't the one I was truly after.

 

[Hvymax]

He was a nuisance like all those stupid squirrels that keep rustling leaves everywhere!!!

 

[muleye]

Great kill, Congrats

 

[contender]

Thanks muleye. Most of my hunting is done with a handgun.

I've been out once with the metal detector, looking for the bullet. I did find the following,, (so far.)
Several small pieces of old fencing, (3) .45 acp bullets,, (likely from early days of my range,) 2-1/2 bullets from previous years where I used my T/C Contender in 7x30 Waters. (one intact, the others were either the core or the jackets,) and as for the Bradshaw/Martin .357 Maxi bullet,, I did find the gas check,, but the slug eluded me,, so far.