First deer with my reloads

Outstanding! That's what it's all about!! Great job!

Awesome!
As I did the first time, I bet you had a twinge of uncertainty whether you may have made a mistake or not loading that round. Definitely a confidence builder when the results are there!

Nice job barnfrog. If you’re meat hunting, sometimes it’s take what you see, and in my mind there’s nothing wrong with that. I’d have done the same.

I have yet to take an animal with a hand loaded center fire round. Did get one with a flintlock once, so sorta but not quite the same.

Congrats!

Congratulations, barnfrog! In truth, it's all about shot placement. Nice job.

I only hunt with my reloads, mostly because I'm cheap (not "thrifty", I'm cheap). There aren't many opportunities to harvest a deer, so it's nice to know the round is going to go "bang" when needed. The modern tipped rounds are awesome for humanely putting down a deer. Had two DRT this year.

The younger, smaller bucks taste better to me - not so tough, less testosterone.

Yep, that's a good feeling.
I did it several years back and at this point have killed substantially more deer with handloads than factory loads.
Now I'm trying to get one with a cast bullet out of a handgun, or with buckshot that I cast myself.

It's a fun goal.

barnfrog said:

Tuesday evening, my last chance to hunt this year, so with an empty freezer I took what I could get. Small buck with a small rack. The 80-grain TTSX effectively took off the top of his heart and scrambled his lungs but good. He only went about 40 yards. Then again, it was only a 45-yard shot, so I probably could have gotten the same result if the IMR4350 was topped with a pencil eraser instead of the Barnes bullet. Still felt cool to take something with ammo I assembled.

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Congratulations! Good Job! Like someone else said, thats quite a confidence builder.

barnfrog said:

Now there's a new one on me. How tall are you going to build your shot tower?

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You don't need a shot tower for buckshot, down to "0" Buck; it can be molded.

Lee makes 18-cavity molds for 00, and #4 Buck.
I have the #4. Works well.
I’ve been using a 0.31” round ball mold to make #1Buck for decades.
No need for a shot tower.

They are handy for making Trap & Skeet shot. I know a couple guys why have them. They don't have to be very tall.

Pretty satisfying isn't it!

Congrats, a good feeling taking game with your own handloads!!

Congratulations! I find the venison tastes better when dropped with handloads

barnfrog said:

Tuesday evening, my last chance to hunt this year, so with an empty freezer I took what I could get. Small buck with a small rack. The 80-grain TTSX effectively took off the top of his heart and scrambled his lungs but good. He only went about 40 yards. Then again, it was only a 45-yard shot, so I probably could have gotten the same result if the IMR4350 was topped with a pencil eraser instead of the Barnes bullet. Still felt cool to take something with ammo I assembled.

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Congratulations! It's definitely a good feeling taking game with handloads.

I wish I could have gone out this year for rifle season, but I caught COVID soon after Thanksgiving, and come out of quarantine on the last day (Saturday! Woohoo!). I hunt on shared land, so I just didn't want to put myself in a position where I could spread it. Oh well, there's always next year!

Congrats! I get a lot of satisfaction in taking a deer on my land, in a spot that I scouted, with ammunition I loaded. By the way, in what cartridge were you firing that 80 gr TTSX?

barnfrog said:

Now there's a new one on me. How tall are you going to build your shot tower?

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As has been said, there are buckshot molds. Lee makes pretty inexpensive ones, and their stuff seems to work well.
I'm wanting one from Marty's Arms, those look really good.

Right now, I'm using a 2 cavity .31 caliber Lee round ball mold. That puts the buck between a #1 and 0. I can get 18 of them in a 3" hull, loaded with a stiff charge of 800X.
They pattern well.
But let me just tell you, it takes a really long time to cast up enough of them to do a loading session. lol

I still havent harvested anything with mine. Great job

barnfrog said:

.243 Winchester. 42.2 grains of IMR 4350 has them traveling just over 3100 fps out of my rifle.

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Nice. I was hoping you were shooting a .25-06. I'd love to try the 80 gr TTSX in that cartridge. I believe the MV should be about 3,500 fps.

It is known, game killed with your hand loads taste better than game killed with factory rounds.