I took a good sized (body, not antler) buck with my fairly new Bushmaster M4 the wife bought me last year for my birthday just before the election. She knew I wanted one for when Hildabeast (I was convinced) was elected. Well, that didn't happen, but hey, I have the M4 now, so might as well use it.
I loaded Barnes 62 grain TSX over a dose of 4198 for near 2900 fps from the 16" barrel. I got a good hit at only about 30 yards, point of the shoulder, exit out the last ribs on a quartering shot. Were it one of my hunting rifles, I'm sure it'd dropped in its tracks, but it ran maybe 25 yards and dropped dead. I mean, dead is dead, right? I could have shot it in the head, but that would not have told me anything about the effectiveness of the cartridge. I got good expansion and 100 percent penetration through some decent bone in the shoulder. Nothing wrong with that bullet, just ain't packin' a lot of whop when it hits. It ain't no .308, put it that way, but it worked.
I'll be back to my .308, or maybe my Hawken, next season. I wanna finally shoot something with that Hawken I've had for over 20 years. I've done it with my inline CVA, but the Hawken is cool.
No scope on it, but my cataracts are gone now, don't need the optics as bad as the past.
