Last night as I was processing the 8 point buck I shot on Friday, I was thinking about how it reacted after being shot and some of the posts lately about .243 vs. 308, using Super Duper Magnums, lost deer etc.
I was hunting a cut-over in a pine thicket, this buck stepped out about 75 yards away. I had a full broadside shot with my Marlin in .375 Winchester using my reloads of with a 255 gr bullet.
When I shot I knew I hit him because he did the classic hunch up in the center. He ran 65 yds. ( measured with range finder) into the pine thicket and crashed. As he ran through the thicket he made three leaps as he ran high enough I could see half of his body (the pines are 8 -10 ft tall) . As he is running though the thicket like Tigger, I thought I had completely missed.
It was a clean through double lung shot (a little high for the heart/liver area), As many deer as I have shot it still amazes me what an animal will do when its shot. I'm convinced that if I could re-shoot this deer (hit the same spot) with any caliber that provides enough penetration ( 243, 30-30, 300 Win Mag, what ever ) it would react exactly the same.
Which IMHO, its not the gun, scope, caliber or any of the fancy gadgets we have, its the skill and knowledge of the hunter that makes the clean kill not the hardware.
Just my reflections on a good day of hunting.
