Here's a nine I shot Friday morning. I found this spot on a ridge along the creek bottom Thanksgiving morning and put a ladder stand in there.
I hunted it for the first time the next day and saw 4 other bucks, including 2 8-pointers, before spotting this one easing through the swampy bottom along the creek.
I shot him with my .270 handloads and dropped him in his tracks. He had a 19" inside spread. He has been aged at 5 1/2.

Thanks for sharing, great picture and storyline. There is something special about hunting Thanksgiving morning followed by a great meal with friends & family afterwards. You are living right! jorge

Spring,

That's one heck of a nine pt! Congrats on the trophy.

What load did you use on him?

I assume he's a GA buck?

Reloader

Hey Spring, Congratulations indeed on a Buck that age. Sure hard to come by that old.

Really appreciate the flicks with the "water" in them. Reminds me of where I prefer to hunt.

Continued good hunting and clean 1-shot kills.

Spring,

A rack with a 19" inside spread, some looong daggers plus there looks to be a bit of 'web' on that rack..........Priceless!

Congratulations! One heck of a great buck!

Regards,
Dave

Vic,

Absolutely awesome! That is a lifetime buck for Georgia. Congratulations. I saw the pic you posted in GON forum, but that shot in the bed of the pickup really shows the body. How much did he weight?

Hugh

A very nice GA buck!! Just shows there are still some good quality bucks in the state still.

Spring, that's a magnificent buck, congratulations. We had a great Thanksgiving up here as well! Nephew got his first, and bro in law got his best ever. A day to be thankful for. Well done.

Great buck, congratulations!

Drummond

Spring, that is a dandy buck! Congratulations! Great pictures too.

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader:
Spring,

That's one heck of a nine pt! Congrats on the trophy.

What load did you use on him?

I assume he's a GA buck?

Reloader

Thanks, Reloader, and yes, he's a Georgia buck. I shot him at my farm in SW Georgia. The load I used was 59.5 grains of IMR 4831 shooting 130 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. That's a pretty hot load, but it works for me!

That is a very nice Ga buck and I want to go home now. As soon as my wife is done with nursing school we may move north about 200 miles.

Very nice looking buck! Congrats

Congrats....

very very nice buck!

cheers
seafire

Nice Deer.
Nice Rifle too.

wow ballistic tips work? kidding
what range was he at?
what do you think impact velocity was?
did the bullet exit

Great looking buck, what gun is that you have?

quote:

Originally posted by PATRIOT76:
wow ballistic tips work? kidding
what range was he at?
what do you think impact velocity was?
did the bullet exit

Yes, the little yellow-tipped bullets seemed to do their job. This is the first year I've used them and I do have mixed feelings about them. On the good side they are indeed very accurate, which of course is easy to like. I've shot two bucks with them this year (an 8 and this 9) and have noticed a couple of things. It seems they do not mushroom to the degree that I've enjoyed with Sierra GameKings in the past. The Noslers definitely did their job and brought down the deer, but there is a difference in the exit wounds you see with them than what I've found with others. Have you noticed anything similar?
As for bullet velocity, the load I shot with this particular batch of bullets was firing at 3140 at the muzzle. That’s probably a bit too hot, though I've seen no pressure signs, so I've moderated other batches to shoot in the 3025 area by cutting the powder by 1.5 grains.
As for range, the other deer I had seen that morning were all within 40 yards up on the ridge where I had my stand, but this buck was walking straight through the swampy creek bottom. It was very thick in there and getting a clear shot was very difficult. I could not get on him until he had moved down the creek and stepped through a slight break in the trees. I was lucky his path ended up taking him where it did. It took a very quick shot to get him at about 200 yards.

i am suprised you had exits on 40 yard shots at those high of velocities! BT's can blow up if used at close range with fast speeds. the 200 yards shot is what they were intended for. I have no doubt they kill a ton of deer every year at close range though, just dont expect an exit with them..
I use accubonds which hold together.......

quote:

Originally posted by PATRIOT76:
i am suprised you had exits on 40 yard shots at those high of velocities!

I probably wasn't clear about it but I passed on the bucks I saw that morning at 40 yards. The one I finally took ended up being at 200 before I could get a clear shot.
As I mentioned, I haven't had much experience with the Accubonds other than the two bucks this season. Both were shot at in the 200 yard area. What would be an ideal velocity for these particular bullets if it appears mine are too hot? Like I said, they shoot really well, even at the higher speed, but my last batch has them shooting at around 3025.

I dont htink there is an ideal velocity but what the BT's were designed for was longer range shooting. SOme people will load a BT in a 300 RUM and shoot a deer @ 40 yards and aim for the shoulder and the somewhat frangible buillet blows up and they say it is a crappy bullet when in reality with a caliber like that, it should be used at long ranges. I htink with your caliber at close range you are ok but dont aim at the shoulder if you dont have too... They were designed for good expansion at longer ranges thus they can over expand or disintegrate at short ranged with magnum velocities and bone added in... I think the accubonds are an improvement and dont necessarily see the need for the BT anymore but they do work as you saw. I would stick with them if your gun shoots them well.

That's great advice, Patriot. Thanks. I've used Nosler Partitions on elk but their Accubonds on whitetails is a new thing for me.

quote:

Thanks, Reloader, and yes, he's a Georgia buck. I shot him at my farm in SW Georgia. The load I used was 59.5 grains of IMR 4831 shooting 130 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. That's a pretty hot load, but it works for me!

4831 was meant for the 270

I really like the accuracy of the 130 NBTs and H4831. I'm running 59-60 grains and it is max in my 22" barreled M700. I can get much better velocity from R22 but the H4831 just seems to be consistantly more accurate. I bought 300 of the 130 NBTs a while back for that rifle.

I wouldn't worry too much about what folks say about the NBTs, I've taken dozens of deer w/ em' from 100 pounds to my largest 240lb bruiser and none have ever failed. Even took a huge Russian Boar w/ one clean shot.

The last good sized buck that 4831/130NBT load has slammed was a bruiser 220lb 9pt at 60 yards the buck was quartering too and we were busted(rattled him in) so my buddy(usin my rifle) placed the 130NBT half way up the neck and the bullet traveled down the neck through the goodies & was mushroomed against the hide behind the far side shoulder. That was very good penetration through some dense bone and meat.

Vic,

That's a heck of an 8pt too! Man, your having quite a season over there. I wasn't aware they grew em' like that over in GA. You must be doing some intense deer management.

Have a Good One

Reloader

quote:

That's a heck of an 8pt too! Man, your having quite a season over there. I wasn't aware they grew em' like that over in GA. You must be doing some intense deer management.

Thanks but quite honestly my deer are small! The big deer for some reason are about 15 miles from me. Why in the world just a few miles makes such a difference I don't know. Every year a buck scoring in the 160-180 area comes from over there. Below is one shot about 2 weeks ago by my farm manager's grandson. It was his first buck and it grossed 159.5. Why can't I get deer like this????
We do try to manage the deer and I'm hoping that helps. That's as much fun to me as pulling a trigger.

And while we're pulling out pictures, here's a familiar face to some of you...It's JudgeG when he came over and shot a doe at my place last year. Looking good!

Yeah, Vic that is a bruiser the young man took.

I know what you mean, There's some clubs just 15 or so miles from our camp and they get some nice bucks. At that camp we don't hardly get many that go over 110BC and the biggest we've harvested was 128 I believe.

And then just 40 miles east of there I've taken 140 class. It is sort of strange how the bucks differ from area to area. I always say it's the dirt . If you've got good soil, you can have good bucks. That is usually the case as we go from piney woods to crop fields here in North La. My last trip through GA showed similar piney woods to cropland terrain.

Have a Good One

Reloader