I was sitting in my stand yesterday on doe day when a nice little 100 lb'er stepped into the shooting lane at 40 yards. It wasn't a difficult shot or a long shot and she was broadside to me. I placed the cross hairs on the left shoulder and set the rear trigger, took a breath and slowly let it out as I pressed the front trigger. A slight boom and puff of smoke and the little .40 caliber lead bullet whistled right through both shoulders and into the trees while the deer just fell over on its right side. DRT. I was impressed by the little pipsqueek! Not very loud and ZERO recoil! I could get used to this.

Sorry no pics, it was getting dark

Stuff happens when soft lead goes out for a stroll and hits meat.

Ask me how many steps the winner of this one took.

That was the first time I have shot a critter with the Leatherwood scope and was glad I had it for this one. It was just after sunset with about 20 minutes until the end of shooting time. The scope made it a little easier on these old blind eyes to put the bullet exactly where I wanted it.

OK, how many steps did it take?

Ed

Congratulations, pacecar! What cartridge did you use?

Ed

A little pipsqueak .40-50 Bottleneck. It really looks like it would be the perfect chambering for a Winchester model 92. It is in a sweet Shiloh Saddle Rifle with a 26 inch half octagon barrel with a Leatherwood 3x scope on it.

I have a Whitney Phoenix single shot rifle chambered in the 40-50 SBN that I have shot whitetails with no problems at all. As the OP said DRT kills. I use a 335 grain round nose bullet w/ smokeless and blackpowder loads. Very fun and accurate cartridge to play around with. Shooting game w/ a 100+ year rifle is very rewarding also. I could see that Saddle Rifle as a very handy woods gun too!! NICE.

It handles well despite it being a "heavyweight" by today's standards. I am going to try some paper patch bullets in it. I have a brand new adjustable, nose pour, paper patch KAL Bullet mold I want to try

pacecars, is that Hvy half barrel?

standard half

Beautiful rifle!

Ed

I know I am veering off topic here, but do you guys the difference in weight between standard half and heavy half on the Shiloh's?

A deer should be proud to be shot with such a classy rifle.