I also intend to take a whitetail deer with it next fall, albeit at very close range.
Please don't try that stunt, buckstix. All you will do is wound the poor animal, to let it go off and suffer a slow death.
JR
+1 John.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels a whitetail deer should only be harvested when a clean quick kill is the likely result. I have my doubts that anyone could be certain that a 52 grain lead bullet at 1160 fps muzzle velocity can be counted upon to reliably penetrate a deer's skull, and destroy a part of the brain that will provide a quick kill. I have no doubt that it could be done if everything was perfect. But there is really no margin of error or extra energy to help mitigate a less than perfect shot. A small head movement or slight sighting error could turn a shot behind the ear into a broken jaw. Several years ago, I helped a buddy recover a nice big whitetail doe that he had hit with a .338 Win. Magnum. It jumped forward as he pulled the trigger, and the 180 grain bullet went in behind the liver, and into the paunch. We tracked it in the dark for three hours, and he finally finished it with a head shot as I held a spotlight on it. Not sure how legal that was, but it finally ended the deer's suffering.
