Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Buck with the Flat Top

Yesterday was the opener for our Idaho deer season & good friend Tank Hoover joined me for a handgun hunt in endless thousands of acres of prime hunting country in south east Idaho. Tank arrived a few days early so we could practice eating burrito's, fresh french fries, cinnamon rolls, huckleberry & strawberry cheesecake, homemade biscuits & gravy, fried chicken, fresh mashed potatoes, fried potatoes & great chicken fried steak!
Finally Tuesday arrived (opening day) and we headed out before daylight & 3 minutes into the hunt we spotted several deer with a nice buck in the bunch but the doe's spooked before we could get a shot so we kept going to another spot I had picked out for Jeff & we ended up seeing quite a few deer & a few more bucks but didn't get a shot because of being limited on distance with my old model flat top 44 magnum & Tank packing a Bisley 454 with heavy 45's snuggled inside.
We came back to town for lunch & went to work on El Toro's Burrito's again (wow) came home for a nap & headed back out for an evening hunt about 5pm. Tank went back to the same spot where he had seen several deer earlier & I decided to go to another spot but ended up with too much sun in my eyes so about 5:30 I decided to move across the grain field about 200 yds & get into the Quakies a little bit. It was the right decision because about 20 minutes later a deer came out of the trees about 250 yds from me & started feeding. At first I thought it was a doe because it blended in with the trees but as it fed towards me I could see it was a fork horn buck.
I had my 357 Maximum set up on the rear of my 4 wheeler in case I needed to take a long shot & needed to use a scope but as the buck got closer it looked like I would be able to use the iron sighted flat top. I eased the 44 out of my Barranti cross draw & slowly raised it up onto my leather covered rest. As the buck got closer he started to get a little bit goosy & I could tell he knew something wasn't right.
He was too close to range & was starting to move slightly to my right but still almost straight on. If he moved anymore to my right I was going to be in trouble because it would be hard to move the gun without him seeing me move. I guessed the range at 50 yds & made a little grunt to stop him. He faced me straight on but his body was just a bit to the right as I broke the shot. The 245 gr cast HP broke the right front shoulder & he whirled & ran about 30-35 yds & went down. I ranged to where he had been standing & it turned out to be 64 yds. The bullet had broken the right front shoulder & took out the right lung. I haven't skinned him yet to see what other damage was done but I'm very happy with the gun, the bullet & the results.






Dick

Everything about that- buck, terrain, pics, story and Ruger is really cool! Thankis for posting.

Love it!

Nice!

Great pictures and story.....love the Ruger "Classic" as well.

Great report and congrats on the buck! Hope to do the same with my Blackhawk next month..

Enjoyed your story and photos, congrats.

Congratulations on your successful handgun hunt. Enjoyed the story and pictures. Bet that tinder young buck will taste good, too.

L.W.

Nice! A 64 yard shot with iron sights on a pistol is quite a feat.

Good work and that is some open country for pistol hunting. Bet that one will be tasty. What I call a skillet buck, one you can cut the meat with a fork.

Curious how much range do you gain with the 357 max.? I shoot a Bisley like your buddy but plain old 45 with loads Elmer Keith would approve of. My max is about 50 yards for a sure thing.

Very nice! Any deer with a revolver is sweet.

Great story and thanks for the pictures.

tejano, my 357 Ruger maximum is scoped & I've taken several animals with that caliber, both scoped & with iron sights. My longest with iron sights was 94 yds & my longest with the scope was (I think about 211) Last month I took a muley doe in Utah at 90 yds with the scoped 357 Blackhawk & I also got a Utah antelope at 122 yds with it using 204 gr cast, powder coated bullets. I like the 180 cast bullets better but sold that mold & I'm waiting on another one. I've also taken 3 other deer with it at different distance. The 2 Utah animals I wrote up last month here on the forum. I think "Beehive Deer" & "Beehive Antelope" They might be located in the Handgun section, can't remember.

Dick