What have you seen lately?

How far of a shot? I sited mine in using the 250 grain arrow light. Designed for a hundred gains of triple seven. I stuck with them because they shoot super accurate. But I think velocity really starts to drop at a hundred yards. I have some 275 grain Platinum. I'm not switching this year, but I think next year I'm going to start shooting them with 150 grains of triple seven.
Just curious why you are considering 150 grains 777. I've had no problems knocking deer of their feet with a 240 or 250 grain hornady or TC Shockwave hollow point projo and 100 grains 777. If you hit the boiler room they just drop like a rock. Killed many many deer QUICK with that load.
 
Just curious why you are considering 150 grains 777. I've had no problems knocking deer of their feet with a 240 or 250 grain hornady or TC Shockwave hollow point projo and 100 grains 777. If you hit the boiler room they just drop like a rock. Killed many many deer QUICK with that load.
No real reason. Not questioning The lethality of 100 grains. Same argument could be applied why 12 gauge when 20 gauge does it. I just figured more power the better. You would be shooting a little heavier projectile about 300 ft a second faster. But I'm assuming you're correct it's not the charge it's the power belt. I've seen mixed reviews on them some say they overexpand and fragment some say they pass straight through. It's probably a poor performing bullet too soft. Lucky for me I purchased a metric s*** ton of them.
 
No real reason. Not questioning The lethality of 100 grains. Same argument could be applied why 12 gauge when 20 gauge does it. I just figured more power the better. You would be shooting a little heavier projectile about 300 ft a second faster. But I'm assuming you're correct it's not the charge it's the power belt. I've seen mixed reviews on them some say they overexpand and fragment some say they pass straight through. It's probably a poor performing bullet too soft. Lucky for me I purchased a metric s*** ton of them.
I've just found from my experience that jumping to 150 grains throws accuracy to shit. Tested 150 grains and found unburned powder everywhere on the Gravel in front of the firing line along with a wider grouping on the target. Most of the extra 50 grains doesn't even burn. Not saying don't bother but just giving you my experience.
 
I use the Hornady SST. Over 3 777 50g pellets. @whacko uses them as well IIRC but he uses loose powder. I don’t hunt ML much so I think that he has more experience when it comes to their performance.

I Have tried all the combinations with 50g pellets and 60g pellets and the most accurate load out of my rifle is at 150g.

Bob

ETA:

To be clear I shoot the Hornady SST LNL (Lock N Load) 250g sabot. The pellets slide on to the tail so inn the field it all goes in as a unit for a faster reload.

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Oh those are cool.
 
I’ve had poor luck with Powerbelts, with the hollows they fragmented like crazy, the butcher told me not to bring him any more if I continue to use them, the tipped ones are ok accuracy wise but mostly penciled through, the SST are by far the most accurate but the poorest performers by a long shot, they pencil through in and out every time. I shot 4 or 5 with them from 50-170 yards and all double lung/heart shots and they all went a long way and zero blood. The absolute best I have used is the Barnes TMZ 250 or 290, the expansion is crazy and they retain all the weight of the few I’ve found I weighed after and it was 247 grains and looked like a pancake, it only lost 3 grains. Heart picture was 198 yards on the bigger doe, smaller one was 20 yards both excellent performance.
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3.5 miles of trudgery over mountainous terrain, through driving rain & thick cover, yielded only a squirrel sighting. I walked right up to within 3 feet of it.

I had a plan to test my new goretex jacket and pants, and locate bedded deer in spots I had planned to ambush. Other than my soaked gloves, the first part of my plan was a success. The deer failed to make a showing.
 
We were just leaving work yesterday. My daughter looks out the window. “Falcon!”

it was 3 of them. One went left, one right and one right over the building.
 
Today was the last day I can hunt deer this year so I took a long walk out in Truro starting at first light. About 7:30 I spooked a nice sized one up about 40 yards ahead of me and couldn’t see if it had a rack or not. Darn. I was being very quiet and playing the wind but a hidden twig gave me away. I hate those. I think I’ll spend more time in the stand next year than moving around.
 
Looks like a healthy one. Do you just put a round in its head when you approach it?

I did a round through the lungs with a .22lr pistol but it didn't finish him, it knocked him down but I had to finish him by thumping him on the throat. Turns out I think I only hit 1 lung and spine, next time I'll have to be more careful. Tough angle on the shot when they are laying down.

Working on tanning the hide now.
 
The powerbelt did fragment as I hit the shoulder blade you can see the broken bones when I was removing front shoulder and only found a few pieces of the sabot

Now you know what happened. You have plenty of time between now and next season to work up a s.owner load for that bullet or change to another projectil.

Bob
 
I did a round through the lungs with a .22lr pistol but it didn't finish him, it knocked him down but I had to finish him by thumping him on the throat. Turns out I think I only hit 1 lung and spine, next time I'll have to be more careful. Tough angle on the shot when they are laying down.

Working on tanning the hide now.
Handsome hide too!
 
Wow. Very gray. The only ones I ever see are completely "coyote" colored. So odd to see that color in the wild. It's not any "natural" color but blends in well everwhere. Hence they have it and hence every .mil wannabe jackhole ensconces himself in the color. ;)
 
A CCI .22 Quiet to the eye at about 30 yards gets the job done today.
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Congrats.....I've Never taken rabbit with a 22. Considering a sunrise sit in a spot I know holds rabbits and see if I can catch em out and about in the morning but.....don't know what it is I just love hitting a flushed and running rabbit with the shotgun. They do cartwheels you know. 🤣
 
Wish I could trap. Did it growing up in NY. Here in MA, it’s damn near impossible....
Last month, Meat Eater podcast had a trapper on. Fascinating guy. Talked about when Wash St banned trapping. This guy invented new traps that didn’t violate the regulations AND ended up being more effective.

as far as my contribution, my daughter found this in a bag of hay from Canada. Given all that, I’m really shocked the thing lasted in a half year or more without being eaten by mice and voles and such. FE450F0A-70E6-4EF1-A512-8C1702FFC7B6.jpeg
 
Yep. I heard that podcast. Took me back to my roots. I didn’t know it, but according to them, me and my pals hit the fur trade high point 1976-1982 or so. Jr. High and HS, trapped coons, fox and muskrats. Canadian buyer came to local GS every every third Thursday and all the guys would go and sit around this guy who held court with a huge wad of cash. $45 for a nice coon, $70 for red fox, 60 for gray and 6-$8.00 for rats. I’d run my traps at 5am before school and then we’d all lie about what we caught in homeroom. Loved it! Made some good cash for a kid.
 
OK, I give. Fishercat??? Mink?? Marten???? (I didn't know until last week that Martens and Russian Sable are effectively the same animal. Which makes the 80's thriller Gorky Park - which was on TV this week, coincidentally - a bit silly.)
 
Fisher. I need to start feeding it. Keep it around for the summer and maybe it will knock down some of my chipmunks and red squirrels.
 
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