Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only A damned adequate whitetail round....PICS WORKING NOW!

Finally got around to getting my camera to the same place I had a computer I could upload to.

Took my new to me .375 H&H No. 1 with a Leupold 1.75-6X with a German No. 1 reticle out on Nov. 27. Not long after sunrise I heard a shot from the direction a neighbor is always wounding deer so I was craning my neck to see if anything would come limping along to which I could put the coup-de-grace.

Saw a flicker in my peripheral and looked up just in time to see a doe run by about 75 yards out through heavy brush with a set of smallish antlers hot on her heels. Poot!

I hadn't shot a buck since November of '06 due to concentrating on getting my youngest son some shots. He didn't get up to go with me this morning so I intended to finally take one for myself.

Fifteen minutes later I saw a fairly large rack (for our area) moving my way but it was so thick I couldn't count points the mainframe looked thick enough, that I would shoot it.

When it stepped into a small opening I squeezed the trigger. With its muzzlebrake removed the No.1 still didn't kick much, and due to auditory exclusion seemed about like shooting one with a .270. Problem was the deer spun around and ran on his backtrail apparently unfazed or hit. WTF, over?

He stopped, reversed and started moseying back the way he'd come and I held on an opening and when he stepped into the gap I clearly saw the reticle in the heart area and squeezed.

This time he took off at a dead run and showed no humping, tail spinning or any other signs of a hit. By the time I reloaded he was just a white patch fading in the distance. WTFx2! This rifle was zeroed dead on at 100 yards with Federal 270 gr. softpoints. How could it have shifted? Had I hit a limb?

Decided to wait 20 minutes then go look for blood. After 10 minutes, here he came back along his backtrail! This time I picked a spot about 85 yards away that was totally clear of any possible obstruction. When he stepped into the gap I whistled, he stopped and I squeezed.

He first reared up on his rear legs and then sprang straight into the air like a Lippizaner stallion. When he landed on wobbly legs he lurched forward with blood pouring and steam roaring from the visible wound. He flopped after staggering about 25 yards. I reloaded and covered him for a couple minutes until I was sure he was breathing no more and NOT going to jump back up.

Figuring clear I'd somehow bypassed his Kevlar and ceramic plates on the final shot, I got out of the stand and approached him.

Talk about ground shrinkage! Those mainbeams had indeed diminished. It was a young, small 7 pointer. He sported a caliber-sized entry and slightly larger exit.

Backtracked as I always do and there were buckets of blood that came out of him with just about every step. Got to the Airs Above the Ground impact site and saw where the big slug had drilled into the soft ground beyond him.

Uh oh, 10 yards to the left of where he'd been shot was a glistening, palm-sized patch of blood. Surely not.

But I went and checked and sure enough five yards further west was a thumb sized drop, then a couple of pin pricks then a bigger spot. I started glassing ahead of me, and there he was; THE FIRST DEER I SHOT!

Crept up on him but he was long gone. This one was a big 5 pointer. Post mortem it looked like my young elephant gun's projectile had struck a branch between my stand and the deer on the first shot and hit back in the paunch sideways! Nice.

The second shot was a near copy of the killing shot on the smaller buck, except it apparently just grazed the leading edge of the heart and it took him awhile to bleed out. He'd gone nearly 100 yards through heavy brush before laying down to die.

So, what I'm gonna do is put the skull caps of both these bucks on a piece of rough white oak lumber with three empty .375 H&H hulls and a placque that says: "Trust yourself!"

Dang near killed myself trying to drag these suckers out of the woods by myself, finally went back to town, woke my son up and had him help. Gotta get an ATV.

Meanwhile, the backstraps and burgers have been good.

The H&H Bros.




Tropical Heat Closeup


Right Up to the EXIT Hole



Long Drag


God Bless our Troops

OK what am I doing wrong on pics?

Apparently flickr is sucking for some reason, switched back to photobucket and now it's working

has to have a .jpg at the end of the url.

your url is also bad.

Nice bucks.

Thanks. Not whoppers but they ended a dry spell for me. Wish my boy had gotten one of him.

He's got his first real girlfriend and ain't been in the woods since this day. Sigh...hopefully he'll come back to the hunting fields when the new wears off of wimmen.

If he has discovered women hunting will be on the back burner for a while.

Invite the young lady, too!

BTW, I also enjoy using my mediums and larger on deer-sized game (and smaller). It's just fun and great practice.

Getcha a deer cart....trust me.

Try the 200 gr Sierra Flatnose @ 2200 fps. 41 grs IMR4759.
It will put them deer down RFN. No recoil your son's girlfriend could shoot it!
whelennut

i took my first whitetail this fall with my new .375H&H using a 270gr hornady i loaded up with imr4064. the deer was 26 STEPS from my ladder stand broadside when i let him have it. bang flop! i laughed a cynical laugh (probably sounded like something you would hear on bevis and butthead) and then went wow that was awesome. .375 diam hole going in and maybe a .50 cal hole going out. i was so impressed i may not ever take any of my other rifles out again.

I have been shooting deer, elk and African plainsgame with the 375 and 416 for that matter for years...I find a flat nose solid or Nothfork cup points where legal works as well as anything in the big bores.

The 300 gr. softs are excellent on deer and elk..I am not sure their is such a thing as failure with a .375 H&H on deer and elk.

Also, you will not bloodshoot and ruin nearly as much edible meat with a big bore as you will with a .243, 22-250, 270 or 30-06 for that matter..

The exit holes were not large (see pic), there was some bloodshot meat on the ribs (minimal) due to shattered ribs.

I really do need to try Whelen's light loads; got the components for it. That is, if I keep the rifle.

My .45-70 does less damage to deer than my .30-30 does, even with the bullets of both moving at about the same speed (2200ish). And it (the .45-70) does far less damage than my .308 or .30-06 will do at woods ranges, especially with bullets like the SST Hornady, which is another story and a bullet I will no longer use.

I talked to a guy today that was using a .375 H&H. Had a real nice setup, a 700 with a Mickey stock and Zeiss scope.

Congrats on the deer.

You might have to change your sig line now.

I shot two this year with my 375 H&H w/ factory loaded Hornday 270grs. Pretty much the exact same results.

I love the 375 for deer! No meat damage like most other calibers and drops em right there ... most of the time

Klong, you is cheating with that new-fangled repeater! Where are you at? Beefan is another Middle Tennessee loony who's taken a deer here and an antelope out west with his Tropical. Hope he posts those pics.

We might orta start a support group for "idjits" who use junior elephant guns in Tennessee!

I would like to start a citiot chapter in Minnesota!
There is a buffalo herd just a few miles from here. (Surrounded by five strands of barbed wire.)
whelennut

Congrats on the deer AND finding both!

Thats one of the things I don't care for, folks get so used to expecting bang flops they don't even go look if the deer doesn't fall..... wastes a lot of deer that way.

Thats another reason I wish we'd not worry about bang flops but let em run a bit so we get used to going to look and trusting ourselves....

I shot one the other evening, I never even went to look for him, he hopped at the hit, and I was confident, I just went back to the house to eat and work on my truck and a bit later went back with the truck and the lab this time, to go get him. No doubt in my mind at all. Yep, there he was 50 yards away dead....

Jeff

Jeff, I always look even if they don't show a sign of a hit. Me and my brother spent four hours searching for one my dad thought he hit several years ago; no luck.

When that smaller buck came sniffing back along the first buck's backtrail so soon after the shooting I assumed it was the same deer with a death wish.

I never did use my binoculars, which was my bad. We get three antlered deer per year in Tennnessee, but I really wish I hadn't gotten the smaller one. I'd of rather seen my son take him or let him get a little bigger.

That's why I'm going to put that "Trust Yourself" plate on the board.

I still have one more buck coming to me this year; trying to decide if I should go this afternoon or in a.m. Prolly use an AR this time.