Update: I was not clear on my emotions when I wrote this. Then I had to ask Hagar for the right words.
It is not that I feel remorse over harvesting that deer. It was done ethically. Nothing was wasted. It is that I feel the immensity of the life I took. I need to honor it.
I hope that helps clarify.
I’ve waited a bit before writing about this.
Earlier this season, I was able to harvest a deer. I’m not a great hunter, I just do my best.
The first deer I harvested was taken at about 500 yards with a 7.62×51 through a Remington 700. My hold point was about 8 inches over the deer’s spine. The round was a good shot. The deer stood there for a moment, then with the rest of its group bounded into the tree line.
I hiked out there, lugging that rifle. Three times I was about to give up when I finally spotted the blood trail. I followed it into the woods, found the deer. We used every bit of the meet of that deer.
This time was a little different. The shot was at about 50 yards. I was using a 30-30 out of a Winchester Model ’94. A 75-year-old rifle.
We talk about how a round performs into jugs of water. We talk about how rounds work in ballistic gelatin. We even use “meat targets” if we can afford them.
All of these are simulations. The only way to know is to see how it actually performs.
In this case, it performed amazingly well. The round entered between ribs a little higher than I wanted. It then traveled through the interior, tearing up everything except the meat.
The buck took one step forward and its left front leg gave out. It fell the rest of the way to the ground with a short scream. Its smarter brother had already taken off. Stopping at the 75-yard range.
By the time I got to the buck, it was dead. Almost no blood outside the body.
When I field dressed it, the main cavity was full of blood. That round did a number. One shot, one kill, about 30 seconds.
When I got to that left front shoulder, I found that the scapula(?) was cracked. I believe that is why it stumbled. No signs of bullet damage there.
The load was 160gr Hornady FTX over 33gr of LeveRevolution. DON’T USE OR TRUST MY LOAD DATA!
Bacon wrapped backstrap steak for dinner tomorrow.
I’m going to do a product review on the Weston #32 meat grinder soon. Having that tool was one of the reasons I went hunting this year.
Oh, why the wait? Because I am an ethical person. I can still close my eyes and see the sight picture, feel the recoil, hear the round going off. I can still see the ejected casing flying off to my right as a chambered the follow-up, in case it was needed. I can still hear the cry it made.
It took a while to be able to write about taking a life. We wasted nothing. The hide is going to a good home. The bones are being used by people that create things the “old ways”.
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