I killed a...

GC

GC

Well-known member
I killed a deer with my COYOTE rifle! After the big thread about Bearhunter loosing faith in the .243's deer capabilities, I decided to hunt with my favorite COYOTE rifle. I took my Browning BAR Lwt. Synthetic Stalker .243 with its 20" barrel deer hunting. I didn't take the time to work up a deer specific load, simply picking up several boxes of Remington 100 gr. Core-Loct. Sighting in proved the load to be accurate enough for this chore with four shot groups at 100 yards clustering into 1 1/4". I hunt the Ozark timber in the National Forest so ranges are usually well within 100 yards given the heavy woods, brush, and steep terrain.

Shortly after daylight this morning found me still hunting along the edge of a clear-cut, following the ecotone, scanning the side hill benches for deer feeding on the abundant acorns. Bucks are chasing right now and I watched a nice buck run a doe out of sight along a spur ridge. Not long after I heard drumming hooves and watched two does running up a steep slope toward the ridgetop where I was leaning against a large whiteoak. The pair dodged around a fallen tree and began to angle toward the saddle I had just came through. They were motoring at an angle that was opening more toward broadside. I couldn't see anything below them chasing, I had a antlerless tag, and wanted some sweet venison for the freezer.

I whistled to attempt to stop them. Many times that works wonders causing the deer to lock up like a bird dog giving time for a nice standing shot. Not these two knuckleheads! That caused them to grab another gear, one considerably higher in speed. I snapped the BAR to the shoulder, the Baush & Lomb scope was set at 3X. I found the largest doe in the scope at 70 yards, swung with her planting the crosshairs on her chest, kept the swing going, hit a clear spot and crushed the trigger. BANG! I saw her falter and begin the stumble that would carry her for another forty yards ending when she crashed blindly into a tree.

The hit was nigh on perfect(proving even the blind hog finds the occasional acorn!), low in the chest tight behind the foreleg. I guess there's no surprise with the outcome. The field dressing chore revealed her innards were pretty well pulped. She proved to be around 100 pounds field dressed and will be great on the table!
 
GC,

Yep... I popped a nice 4pt buck today with a muzzleloader. My experience wasn't as easy. He went 80 yds to a thick creek bottom with a hole in his heart... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I gave him about 5 minutes to bleed out and when I found him he lifted his head and thrashed himself another 20 yaerds downhill into the bottom of the creek bed where he expired.

Dragging him out of that creek bed to higher ground where I could get the truck to him was a chore but I got-er-done.

He's cooling in a cooler in the garage and I'm headed out this morning for a black powder 'yote.

Thanksgiving day is the opener for centerfire rifles and it'll be nice to drag out the BAR's for some fast action.

$bob$
 
The versatility of the BAR 243 is certainly one reason it's my most used rifle out of the safe. The accuracy of a bolt gun and the quickness of an autoloader combined in a lightweight carry rifle that shoots heavier "deer rounds" just as well as the faster varmint bullets. Hard to beat. Good story GC! kyray
 
Thanks fellows. Bob, seems you and I share the same luck. That usually sounds like my story, shoot one on a ridgetop and watch it run off in to a dark hole! Around here that dark hole can be hundreds of feet nearly vertical and a real pain in the rear to get one out of. Then the drag back to the truck...

kyray,
I have upwards of a dozen deer capable rifles, to include another steel frame BAR chambered for the .30-06. I sort of got a wild hair when a fellow at another forum stated that after many years of using his .243 BAR he began to doubt its effectiveness. Seems he shot a near 200 pound buck at around 160+ yards with the 85 grain Sierra BTHP, the hit was a heart shot and the buck ran sixty yards before piling up. I thought that decent performance and no reason to lose confidence of a trusted rifle and cartridge that he had killed many deer with. I mean, let's face it, heart shot deer do the death run nearly everytime. Regardless of what you shoot them with. The more I thought of it, the more I decided to hunt with my BAR .243 just for the heck of it! It worked today on another doe just as well as the first time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

Christopher,
No buck this year, however, I did plant another doe in the freezer today on that antlerless bonus tag. The coyote rifle worked just as well on this doe. I saw a bobcat, red fox, and a couple of coyotes while deer hunting the last few days. Found a coyote kill on a turkey today. Weather in the beginning of the week was lousy, hot and high winds. Opening weekend saw the kill down 23% from last year! The tail end of the season was much more typical weather. Friday when I killed the first doe it was 19 degrees at daybreak. Today was warmer, 28 degrees with an on again, off again light rain with zero wind at dawn. It rained lightly until noon and warmed into the low 40's. Wind never came up today, it was great. BTW, congrat's on the Youth Hunt! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Good going GC. You have proven that with the right load the little tinker toy is as good as they come. Thats one thing a lot of folks never think about is bullet weight and composition. In my opinion that guy with the 85 grain hollow point might as well have been using a 22-250 with a spire point bullet. Same affect as the 243 85 grain hp.

It's jerky making season around here as well. Doe had enough fat on her, over an inch thick! I think I need another for some summer sausage. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gifJimmie
 
Jimmie,
IMHO, it's all about choosing the correct bullet for the job at hand and placing that in the right spot to be effective. I've shot deer with a whole bunch of calibers to include hopped up 405 grain .45-70's. Heart lung shots are all about the same story regardless of what you hit them with. We have so many acorns in the woods it's hard to walk on these side hills. I told dad that it was like walking on ball bearings and one slip and you'd tumble to the bottom of the ridge! The deer are fatted up like good beef cows! Really good eating as the last bit of this tells. Here's a cut/paste from another forum of yesterdays hunt:

I still hunted another doe on a bonus anterless tag yesterday afternoon. Yesterday was dark cloudy, cool, on again - off again light rain, and about zero wind all day. I slipped up on three slick heads feeding along a side hill below a clear-cut and at sixty yards I shot the largest of the trio with the BAR .243. This was the typical lung shot, actually aimed to take out the plumbing over the heart. She high kicked and ran hard for about 25 yards then began stumbling down. There was an exit on this 115 pound doe. Both these deer were fat and slick, pretty as can be. When I got home from hunting my wonderful wife had fried deer steak, mashed spuds, gravy, sweet corn, rolls and cold sweet tea set on the table piping hot and timed just as I walked in. After the cold, wet day still hunting, the 1 1/2 mile drag to the truck over rough terrain, the hour and a half drive... let's just say I did her proud at the table!
 
Haha, I think I can do you a bit better.

With the winds and all I too figured on sliding in and still hunting through the mid day hours. I got delayed and didn't get there until a bit after 1:00 pm. I left the truck at 1:30 and walked to the woods a few hundred yards away where I would begin.

About forty yards out I stopped to chamber a round and begin slipping up to the edge cover, checking it as I went. A few steps later a button shows under the one white oak in that corner. I froze and dropped when his head turned. I hitched closer with each move he made knowing that somewhere nearby was his mammy. As I got to the edge where I could stand up behind a tree, mammy gets up from her bed giving me a broadside at a bit under 30 yards.Steadied the cross hairs behind her shoulder for a second and dropped her where she stood with my pet 7mm08. By 1:50 she was field dressed and I was headed out to get the truck. Parked within thirty yards for a short drag to load her up.

Left the truck where it was sitting and sat in the oposite corner until sundown. I counted another 21 slicks before dark. Two of them could have been shot within ten feet of the truck where it was parked. They just kept eating and staring at it.

And I agree the mast crop this year is almost unbelievable. Even the walnuts and hickory nuts are more than plentiful. That corner had several large walnut in it. The floor of hte woods was almost all walnuts there on the ground. SHould be one heck of a squirrel and rat crop next year.

I must be getting a little nutty myself. I find myself picking up the scaly bark hickory nuts and eating them on stands.Jimmie
 
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Funny that y'all should mention the mast crop. It was a record huge crop here this year too... Strange. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Our summer was incredibly wet then our fall was incredibly dry. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

$bob$
 
Good going Jimmie! She'll be fine eating.

Bob, we had late spring frost and a real dry summer. I didn't expect much for the mast crop, but man oh man! Makes the hunting tough, deer can eat literally from their bed. I watched three little grey squirrels come out of a den tree and go right to the base of the tree, grab a acorn, then scamper right back up beside the hole they came out of. They did this repeatedly until full, then went straight back into the den. Never did they stray more than 3-4 feet from the base of their den tree. Safe, secure, and easy eating for them. Same for deer and turkey. Hunting should be good next year if the weather doesn't get too terribly bad. Ice is the worst.

I'm going cat calling tomorrow. I saw one while deer hunting and have solid information on another from a reliable source. This guy has called this old tom twice while turkey hunting, once in the spring, once in the fall. Both times in the same place! He tells me it's bigger than any coyote he's seen! I'm stoked!
 
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