Who killed the deer? Story, prize

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BigFatKen

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Walnut Hill, about 35 miles west of Auburn, AL
In 1977, I was driving my Chevy truck west with a number of other hunters through a field. A big buck appeared about 280 yards away running east. I stopped the truck, took up a sitting position and fired my Ruger M-77 .30-06 with 180 gr round nosed bullets. Everyone in the truck got out by then and starting firing. The buck continued coming closer until he got to a line of brushy trees. You know, the ones you see between every 40 acres in some place where the rocks are thrown. The buck turned north to run at a direct broadside to us and even Grace, who was "riding the hump" of the Chevy was shooting. Terry emptied his Winchester M-94 .30-30 and also added three more for a total of nine shots. Grace fired her excellent Ithaca .308 with a palm swell grip, light trigger and 3x9 scope firing 150 gr pointed bullets. Larry fired his Uncle's .35 Rem auto loader. Bill shot several times with his nice Browning BAR .308 deer rilfe, also a 3x9 scope. The buck continued out of sight.

We found the buck dead a little past a woodline. He stopped after he got ten feet into the woods. Since I was considered the smartest about guns, I was given the task of figuring out who killed it. There was only one bullet hole in the side but several nicks here and there. When they retrieved the bullet, I looked at it and thought the process of elimination was best.

I asked Larry for a .35 Rem first as I thought there was little chance he hit it at 220 yards. His bullet was too fat and he said it was not his. The bullet was clearly one of the thirty caliber shooters. It was too mangled to determine if it started as a round nose or a pointed bullet. Looking at the bullet more closely, it had four lands and grooves. I dreaded the chance that Terry got it as I feared we would have to see if it had a slower twist than the newer barrels. This is not easy until you get to some good tools or a spent bullet from each shooter. I'm afraid that it was a cheap factory bullet and even at the extended range there was a core seperation and all that was recovered was the copper jacket. All of the lead ended up in the guts in tiny unseen pieces.

The real identiy was determined in the field.

So, can we figure who killed the buck? Grace, Bill, Terry, or your humble coresponcent, Ken.

The first correct answer with the real reasons wins a simple web site for 60 days. The web address is about selling houses. I usually sell real estate there.
The time is 5:00pm CST. Good luck.
 
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I'll give it an only slightly educated guess. It was the shooter who fired the lightest bullet. The rifles that fire heavier bullets use a higher number of lands in the barrels. Therefore I would giesstimate it had to be either Grace or Terry. Next I am going to hesitate a hypothesis that no one currently manufactures a rifle barrel with only 4 lands. My guess would be this is one of the hallmarks of the 30-30 so I am going to go with Spray and Pray (he doesn't kill someone) Terry. I figure a gun manufactured to war time specs in WWII cut corners. If his gun is made to those specs then I figure it has the fewest lands.

All guess work based on an extremely limited knowledge of this stuff. probably wrong, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Of course it could be the deer actually died of a heart attack from being frightened out of its wits by all those gunshots.
 
One way would be to weigh the bullet and see if the retained weight exceeded the original weight of any .30 cal shooters. You could also pull apart a loaded round and compare the base of each bullet against the recovered one.

However, I'm going to guess that the kill was awarded to Grace, since she was a woman and you three guys decided to do the chivalrous thing.
 
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I'm afraid that it was a cheap factory bullet and even at the extended range there was a core seperation and all that was recovered was the copper jacket. All of the lead ended up in the guts in tiny unseen pieces.

The choice of Grace was a sound, logical deduction. Of course, we need a more rifle like approach on this web site.

If you say that no one makes a rifle barrel with four lands today, then the year 1977 must be a hint.

The real identiy was determined in the field.

Since I did not put these facts in the story, Ya'll both may have another try if you like.
 
Since you states that it's obviously a .30 cal, and not .35 that eliminates Larry. I'm going knock Terry out, since anyone who takes 9 shots probably didn't hit with any of them. Since it's been stated that the M77 is a 6-groove, that should knock Ken out, as the bullet was a fired from a 4-groove. That would leave bill and Grace. Since you implied that Grace only fired once with all the other .30 cal shooters firing mulitple times, I will again award Grace the honor of making the kill. That, and I'm going make the WAG that the Ithaca was a 4-groove, vs the BAR being something other than 4-groove.
 
the Butler did it , Really
I think it was Mr. Green with a candlestick in the kitchen


It was Ken
 
The description of that buck slaying would make a good screenplay for a scene in a hollywood piece humorously portraying southernors, hunters or yokels. I'm not criticizing your hunting technique, I just find the imagery humorous.
 
I'm taking a WAG that the entry hole was in his left side and none of you got him. He was already shot by an unseen hunter?

I don't really believe this, but I want to make sure I'm subscribed to this thread when the real answer comes out, and figured I should at least take a guess. Although Mr. Green with a candlestick sounds good, too. :)
RT
 
hint

If a deer is going east, then it turns north, its right side is presented to anyone to its east. The deer was shot in the right side. This really happened. I changed some names and the date was a couple of years before. This was changed as I have told this story before in the last thiry years and if the true details were not changed a little, anyone who knew the exact story would know who was the shooter.

It did not occur to me to say that I was transporting the other hunters between fields about a mile apart. We were not "hunting" at the time by driving around in a truck waiting to find a deer. If I thought I was going to be presented with shots over 200 yards, I would have been using my .25-06 It was not my farm. I was told my max shot would be 100 yards when I got to my assigned stand on the edge of a different treeline.

Hey, no sour grapes please if you cannot tell with 100% certainty.
Sherlock Holmes said "When you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however unlikely, must be the truth." Figure it out. I'll give ya'll a hint.

MOST OF THE STORY IS MISDIRECTION AND "RED HERRRINGS". You only need to read one line and know the answer. This has been solved with an iron clad explanation of exactly how it is done in a manner that would hold up in any Court of Law. The first man gave me the answer in a personal message, but he had no interest in the prize. He said "It is too much fun reading what everyone is writing to solve it so soon."
Ken
 
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BigFatKen said:
I stopped the truck, took up a sitting position and fired...

Not sure who killed deer but based on your description every one of you could be arrested for firing a rifle within the road right-of-way... most states have stiff rules preventing "road hunting"... :uhoh: Yeah I know...you were driving "through a field" but still, shooting from a truck is pretty pathetic!

Besides if you aim is so bad it takes you more than two shots to kill deer...who really cares who hit it? ;)

And the answer...if the truck is going west and the deer is running east and all of a sudden "The buck continued coming closer" I recommend you maniacs buy a new compass!
 
If a deer is going east, then it turns north, its left side is presented to anyone to its east.

I'm confused. Anything headed north will have its right side presented to the east, not the left. Unless it's running backward.
 
Hard to decide when over a dozen shots were fired. So you all are the cowboys I hear shooting up the country every deer season? I prefer the one shot method. Ammo is too expensive. :D

In all honesty, its hard to tell. At that distance, from a sitting position, you have my vote.
 
At first I figured you'd be able to tell by who was shooting when it was broadside versus coming straight on since you said it had a hole in the side (although lucky_fool is right, you should have had the deer's right side facing you once it turned north). But re-reading the original post it appears that everyone was shooting both before and after it turned.

Don't know how many lands are in the barrels of any of those rifles, but did you look down the bores and determine that only one had four?

Heh heh...but now I'm subsribed to the thread and I can't wait to hear the answer.
 
My vote is that none of the shooters from the truck hit the deer with the killing shot. It was shot by someone else, and reacted to being shot by changing direction from eastbound to northbound.
 
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