My best friend called me Saturday night and relayed the following story. Saturday evening about a 1/2 hour before sunset, my friend is walking a levee back to his truck after a day of not seeing any deer when he notices something on the levee running toward him. He raised his rifle and it was a young buck who had mistaken his outline for another buck. Charlie immediately slid the safety off and pulled the trigger of the Ruger 77/44. At the moment of firing the deer ran off the levee and into some woods 30 yards away. Charlie followed and found a large amount of lung blood on a log. Another 30 yards in he found the deer dead. He was using handloads in his 44 magnum consisting of 240 grain Sierra's pushed along at 1000 fps to keep it subsonic. The big surprise came when he field dressed the deer. The bullet entered the front chest and was found between the rear legs. It plowed through more than 4 feet of tissue and muscle. As I told him later, the old buffalo hunters of the 19th century understood what a large chunk of lead moving at a 1000 feet per second can accomplish. Just wanted to share his good fortune. 
Last edited:
