Not totally Dick. Deer hunting is different all around the country. Reading about "cull hunting" and "paying by antler class" and "shooting in front of feeders" and calling deer "dinks" is a style of hunting that I don't care for. If shooting the deer through both shoulders is the only way to prevent losing a deer in the brush and rattle snakes, I can accept that. Shooting a deer through both shoulders or blowing out the hindquarters so you can get those horns just to save a little tracking is meat wasteful. I was hunting WI with a guy who said if he saw nice antlers on a deer, he would shoot it in the hindquarters just to get it. We were on busy public land so it may be a conditioned mindset to allow that. There is a sickening trend of people dumping headless deer here in MN because all they wanted is a shoulder mount. So when does blowing out all the meat blur over to cutting the head off? My father always told me if we shot the hindquarters out that he would take my hunting away because we are wasting the meat. That's how I was raised. I assume Texas allows you to take several deer so throwing the shoulders in the scrap bucket isn't a big deal. Up here in MN, we are quite limited to one deer typically and only a few days to hunt so maybe you should expand your mind to my perspective, huh, Dick?
We ain't all like that. There are certainly some hunters in Texas, as well as others states, that get too caught up in the mount over the respect for the animal, but I can most assuredly vouch that there are MORE of us in Texas that'd be happy with a doe with no meat damage over a wall hanger that got all torn up. I make the analogy to the huntin' shows being a fair and accurate representation of the actual real world deer hunting opportunities available to the average hunter. Yeah right. We don't all drive King Ranch diesel F-250's with matching bass boats and we don't all get a chance to shoot even 100 class deer.
Enough on that. I really like Winchester's 100 gr PowerMax bonded pointed hollow points. They punch straight through and they hold together. Last year I blew a softball sized chunk of spine out of a wild hog at 215 yds with one, and I wouldn't have any issue trying to break both shoulders on a deer if I absolutely had to.
Now one last thing. As far as shooting a deer in a certain spot so as to limit the amount of potential tracking that might need to be done, the one thing the Texas weather has going for it is that we have the opportunity to use the world's FINEST blood trailing dog, the Texas Blue Lacy. If the deer or hog runs more than I can see into the brush, I just go get my lacy girl, Lilly, and she goes straight to em. The 243 has not needed backup in my experience, but should I ever need a little help, Lilly has my back!
