My brother, myself, and the ol' lady went to hunt on a new MLD 3 in North Central TX this year. The other property we've hunted for years now is up for sale so no hunting operations are going on
MLD = they manage the land so we use their tags rather than our tags which = we can bring back as many deer as the property allows us or has tags to harvest.
We brought back 10 deer (8 does, 1 weird horn cull buck, and the meat of a trophy buck another hunter donated to us) and 1 little hog.
This MLD ranch is not nearly as well organized or professional as the one we've hunted for years in the past so there were no weights on our animals but I believe most were about 100 pounds or higher with the smallest maybe being 90 pounds.
The hog might have been 40-45 pounds.
Here's the pics of the first 5 deer and the pig killed. I didn't kill my 4 until the next day with no pics. Read on for more hunt details!
300BLK Kills
3 does and the weird horn cull buck were all killed by our first time female hunter using my bolt action 300BLK with 110gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos supersonic rounds I loaded this year with H110.
The 110gr CC performed superbly with no deer runing more than 50 yards, 1 DRT, and all with massive internal trauma.
The DRT on the cull buck was not the greatest shot placement (a little high on the shoulder) but the CC knocked out the spine in addition to the other internal trauma.
1 Doe was a quartering towards shot with an exit back in the ribs, the heart, lungs, and liver took the trauma.
The other 2 doe were all near perfect lung/heart broadside shots.
Other Kills
My brother took a doe and the mini porker with his 7mm Mag.
I took 4 doe with my 30-06 loaded with the 150gr GMX bullet and loads I've posted about here in recent times.
The 150gr GMX did amazing with 2 DRT and 2 deer runing about 40 yards.
The 2 DRT were facing me and I put it in the heart/lung area. They dropped dead.
The other 2 doe were broadside with heart/lung placement and they didn't run far. One ran to within 4-5 yards right in front of the stand and piled up. Easy to tracking on that one
I took my other 300BLk and intended to hunt with it but it at sight in the shots were jumping around and we didn't have time or tools to diagnose.
My first guess is the rings are loose, the base is nice and tight.
This was a new mount, ring, scope combo and I need to check there first for any loose ring screws and work back from that point. It sucks but I had the 30-06 for the backup since my other 300BLk was taken and being used to fill coolers
Our First Time Hunter and Her/Our New Hunting Stories
I'm extremely proud of our first time hunter and how she knocked down the deer like she was a seasoned pro!!!
After sitting in the stand with me last year and helping spot while I shot, I saw she had the hunting bug and got her good and ready for this season.
She didn't have any shakes, nervousness, or panic in her. It was like clock work as she knocked them down with wonderful shot placement!
The 110gr CC bullet helped her out with her one slightly high shot. I took her to the range and let her fire away.
I sat with her and went over pictures and video's on line of deer and hog shot placement... she was prepared.
I made the plan to let her use the simpler 300BLK bolt gun and get some extra assistance with the 110gr CC to maximize a successful hunt for her.
She was excited and even getting a little cocky after knocking down 4 deer and she really wanted to take a pig next.
During our adventures trying to get her a pig she learned the lesson of humility when it comes to hunting that hopefully we have all experienced.
We rode around on our last hunting day in off and on rain trying to scare up a pig. I didn't even take a rifle. We had about 4 opportunities but EVERYTHING went wrong hahaha.
My brother missed a pig and he even hit one but not very well. He then later was failed to get shots on 2 other pigs after psyching himself out from the other hog attempts hahaha.
She was ready and waiting for shots on pigs when my brother failed to hit the only pigs in sight. She didn't have an angle on them so she was skunked there.
We finally got to a point where she was able to square up on a pig and had the crosshairs dead on between the eyes and then.. CLICK, no bang... the primer failed!!!
She quickly tried to load another round and JAM. She worked the bolt again and JAM, and again and JAM hahahha.
The primer fail was a fluke. I think the jams were all due to a combo of the rounds in the magazine sliding forward, the rounds being naturally a bit short, rain on everything, and her holding the rifle turned so the chamber/ejection port was facing up (vs facing to the right) while working the bolt.
The pigs got away and she now had her a hunting story that was the direct opposite of knocking down 4 does as a first time hunter hahhaa.
As we rode back to camp with almost no light left we were all laughing and talking about the crazy pig adventures. I was no holding the bolt action 300BLK while she sat in the back seat of the SUV.
Well we ran up on another pig and my brother hopped out and couldn't get it in his sights not to mention he was still psyched out hahaha.
I hopped out and tried to chamber a round and the bolt couldnt close... it was getting caught on the stupid scope lens cap hahha!!!
I whipped off the cap and got a round chambered, raised the rifle, and looked through the scope... to see nothing but water droplets on the lens!!!
I quickly wiped off the furthest most lends, raised the rifle, looked through the scope... more rain droplets!!!
I quickly wiped off the closest les, raised the rifle, looked through the scope... and saw a pig butt disappear into the brush. Skunked again!!!
While this was going on my brother was also failing to get light in his scope, fight the rain on his scope, and Un-psych himself out for a shot.
We all got back in the SUV and cracked up again laughing and going over our final pig miss hahhaa.
So we all went out and knocked down a total of 10 animals for our hunting success stories but then all in the same evening were collectively skunked by those pesky pigs when we were really gunning for 1 more hahhaa.
This is the joy of hunting. This is why it's called hunting and not "killing".
She is still talking about how she sees that pig in her scope with the cross hairs right between the eyes and she is determined to hunt more and to get revenge on a pig for skunking her!
She is hooked as a hunter and loves filling the coolers full of wild meat that we process and enjoy throughout the year.
It was another great year of hunting. Another successful 300BLK hunting story.
Most of all it was a wonderful experience I got to share with loved ones and that I get to share with all of you here!
Best of luck on all your hunting this year and be safe!
