Hell of a deal on that buck Sir Ron! nice job Sir, i have the same in mind with the mighty 458 WM+
Sir Jerry, Your 450-grain TSX load at 2418 fps from your .458 WM+ Beauty will no doubt leave a good blood trail from whatever angle you hit the vitals. I look forward to your images of dead deer.
I stopped by the local emporium and there was a Happy Hunter getting the disembodied head of his buck B&C scored. I overheard that it went 150-yards after being shot with a .300 WinMag and there was no blood trail initially, though the buck was "double lunged" or shot through both lungs with a handloaded 180-gr TSX. It ran about 50 yards then turned 90 degrees and then started bleeding on ground for another 100 yards. Happy Hunter kindly texted me a couple of images of his deer on the spot at my request. There was an exit wound, through rib cage with no shoulder bone or heart hits. The deer was shot at close range, 60 to 70 yards. Happy Hunter estimated the weight was about 180 pounds on the hoof. I "unofficially" measured the rack outside spread and it was a hair over 20 inches (B&C uses inside spread, IIRC). It had a very symetrical 8-point set of antlers.
The.458 WM+ will more likely make that blood trail start right where the deer was standing when hit. The blood trail length may be zero yards long, or more, that's as precise as I can predict.
Sir Ron, you bet, i have four deer tags left over in Arkansas, i hit a nice 8pt with Saint Bagwell cut paper patches wrapped around a 475gr bullet from my 44-77 last Thursday, 60 yard shot in the clearcut, in left shoulder out right ribs, DRT, i cast these bullets soft at 40/1 alloy after thinking about what Digital Dan said and speaking with Kirk at Shiloh, if i head after heavier game i can certainly cast harder, all that said and four tags left, i'm headed to tag out tomorrow with the mighty 458 WM+, it's going to be a tough daylight to dark hunt, i'll report the outcome, one buck and three doe await the 450gr TSX's you gave me, 2400+ fps will give me a three hundred yard reach.
