Traveled to SW Montana over the weekend for another whitetail hunt, 4 of us were going for the second time, I used my Lipseys flattop 44 special using the 250 gr slug & Skeeters load of 7.5 gr Unique, this load from my 4 5/8" shortie runs about 925 fps. The other 3 guys were using various rifles.
Last year we took 7 doe's in 2 days, this year we decided to just take one each & call it good. The locals can hunt bucks but we were just buying the doe tags over the counter, they are $75 dollars & I think you can buy up to 5 of them. Having used my 41 Bisley last year on both of my deer I decided this time to use one of the newest additions to the herd, my flattop 44 special is extremly well finished, Ruger has does a great job on the few I've handled. If you haven't been able to get one just be patient, Ruger has announced they will be a regular catalog item for 2010.
The river bottoms these little rascals like to hide in has lots of brush, tall grass & hundreds, maybe thousands of big cottonwood trees. Its ideal habitat for whitetails & there are lots of them in this area. Because of the heavy cover it was necessary to try & get elevated somewhat & hope you could catch one sneaking back past the others. I found 2 large cottonwood trees that had fallen & were sloped up to about 8-10 ft off the ground, carefully walking up the slight incline I was able to gain a pretty good view of my surroundings, I was a little more out in the open than I wanted but didn't have much choice so I decided to stay a while.
After spotting one of the other guys working his way in my direction I waved & he made a wide circle towards the river. This area had a lot of little pools of water that made getting around very difficult, we were constantly having to wade 4-10 inches of water in order to make any kind of a drive towards each other.
After just a few minutes I spotted 2 doe's sneaking past one of the guys but they were out of handgun range & I just watched them in the glasses, they were moving around in heavy brush & didn't seem to want to leave. Walking down that old tree was pretty spooky, much tougher than walking up it, one slip would have landed me in a lot of thorn bushes & at 65 years old I didn't want to fall 8-10 feet!
When I got on the ground I knew it would be too noisy trying to approach the alert deer, my best chance would be to ease into the shallow water & try to make a stalk, easing the 44 out of the holster I started closing the gap towards the last place I had spotted the deer. Normally when I get in close on a game animal I cock the gun, place my left thumb between the frame & hammer & carry it in my left hand, this way I won't spook the animal by cocking the hammer, I've done this hundreds of times but only if I'm quite close.
After wading 50-60 yds I spooked one of the doe's, I had walked right up to her, she blasted through the tall grass & I went to work at maybe 25 yds, she was running broadside & I took 2 shots, cocking with the left thumb & firing, she jumped up a slight incline facing straight away from me & I took one more shot as she disappeared into the heavy grass. The grass had slowed her escape somewhat as she didn't appear to be running full blast, that really helped.
Walking up the incline I couldn't see her anywhere, too much grass & dead trees everywhere to see more than a few yards. After about 5 minutes of pushing back the grass I almost stepped on her, she had covered 25-30 yds, perhaps only 4-5 seconds & she was down & out, the little 44 flattop was blooded!! Yippee!
Two of the three shots had hit her, one through the front part of the front shoulders & the second one through both lungs, both slugs exited, I think shot #3 was a miss as she was facing directly away as I shot. This isn't a heavy load but a very good bullet, I've taken much game with it over the years, everything from elk, muleys, whitetails, antelope & bears. It doesn's need magnum velocities to work. Iron sighted sixguns are short range guns, 100 yds or less, it doesn't take 1400 fps with 300 gr slugs to work, what it does need in a good bullet in the right place, easy to shoot & deadly! I love hunting these neat little deer, its much like jump shooting quail, one second nothings happening & then suddenly your hearts in your mouth & all "Pelosi" breaks loose.
Not sure if I was saying Boise State is #1 or if this is my first deer with the 44 special.
Dick
