Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 2023 Iowa Antlerless deer

One tag filled. Two to go. I purchased an antlerless tag for the late muzzleloader season in our county here in Iowa (Muscatine) because my kids are demanding more jerky. We still have two regular any deer tags to fill. We hunt the late season with handguns, which is a legal option. Iowa should just call it the "Late Season" instead of "Late Muzzleloader Season" because legal methods of hunting include muzzleloading rifle, muzzleloading pistol, centerfire handgun (must have a 4" barrel, fire a projectile no less than .355" and no more than .500", and produce 500 ft/lbs at the muzzle), bow, and crossbow.
My weapon of choice is an XP-100 in .350 Remington Magnum with an 18" heavy bull barrel. 60 gr. of TAC pushing a Hornady 200 gr. is 3" high at 100 yards and dead on at 250 yards.
This gal stepped out with two yearlings about ten minutes before legal shooting time was over. I was thankful that my Burris 2-7x32 Pistol scope is one with an electrodot reticle, as it was useful last night. Laser rangefinder said 259 yards. I held on her armpit, perfectly broadside, and touched off. Her running gear was clearly gone when she dove into the woods. I found her piled up about 20 yards in. The heart was mincemeat - the bullet went exactly where I told it to go. Using a Trifecta handgun rest on top of a tripod. Very pleased with this setup.
Photos here. https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/19026770#Post19026770

Congrats and some mighty fine shooting.
For a lot of people that would be a long poke w a rifle !

Thanks! It's not a short shot with a rifle by any means. It's not my longest kill with a handgun, but it's the longest kill with this particular gun. My longest shot was a wee bit under 400 with a .260 Remington barrel on my TC Encore. It takes practice and fortunately the .350 RM is very friendly with cast bullets and I have a couple of molds that work well for doing range work. I can't run them full throttle, but can get them around 2000 fps and still have good groups, which means I can shoot at a lot of steel for not much money. Practice makes perfect. The only downside is that the recoil with full house jacketed loads is...significant. I've considered putting a good brake on it, but haven't done that yet. It may be an offseason trip for the gun this year. Last year I used moderate loads with the 180 gr. Speer and it worked splendidly, but trajectory and precision beyond 200 yards was iffy. I was confident with this load and wouldn't hesitate to poke at 300 yards if I don't have a crosswind. I had a shot earlier in the evening that would have been 310 yards, but with a gusting crosswind from 15-25 mph I wasn't willing to chance it. The wind died at sundown, otherwise I probably would have passed on this shot also.

Looks like the kiddos are getting their jerky! Good shootin'.