40-70- 1 deer -0

[rdnck]

Sorry about the cell phone picture, but... Anyway, I got the opportunity to hunt a friend's ranch in central Texas in mid Nov. The rut had just ended, and this 10 point was cruising with an 8 point looking for a late estrus doe. This is not the prettiest or the biggest white tail I have taken, but he is the Real Deal. He had been fighting, and his 10 point rack had two tines broken off the left side and one off the right. I caught him with a high shoulder shot at 130 yards on the rangefinder, and the 385 grain round nosed paper patched bullet put him straight down, right now. I had never taken an animal with a 40 caliber rifle prior to this, and I have got to say that I have never heard a bullet make as loud of a "whack" when it hit, and have never had one go down quicker.

The 40-70SS delivered, big time, and gave a complete pass through. This got me to thinking, as the load chronographs 1295 fps, and the same paper patched bullet out of my 40-65 goes 1285. We may be overlooking a really good hunting round in the 40-65. I plan to try this 40 caliber paper patch bullet again on hogs, as it hits really hard and is both accurate and fun to shoot with minimal recoil in both the 40-70SS and the 40-65. Shoot straight, rdnck.