Not everything is bigger in Texas

[fiver]

technically...yeah.
reality,,, I think it's called a reverse THS.

my first deer with the old mexican mauser Parker re-barrled for me took a THS.
it was probably the easiest time I ever had cleaning a deer, and it didn't mess up a single bight of meat.
we never did get the look of surprise off that Deer's face though.

 

[Ian]

Fiver called it, reverse THS. He was ever-so-slightly quartering to my left so I put the bullet through the second rib on his left to get the heart.



The Bismith/tin/antimony bullet shattered the rib to powder and made a 2" hole, but the bullet didn't itself blow up until it hit the heart.







Years ago at the pistol range perpendicular to my 100 yard butt, about three yards from where this one fell, I popped a slightly larger spike with my cap and ball pistol at about 22 yards. He walked up and stared at me, I raised the revolver (which I had just loaded) and cocked the hammer, he just stood there. I was like well, I got tags in my billfold, it's season (only time the bucks move in here on my property), and he had every opportunity to run, so I fired. I heard the ball whack him with a deep thud and I swear he gave me that same look of shock, surprise, and a little bit of betrayal before he keeled over in his tracks.

 

[Tomme boy]

LOL!!!

 

[Winelover]

A 7 point did the same for me, at 15 yards with a ROA............bang flop. Of course, I was actually hunting.

 

[JonB]

You may want to add the rifle caliber to the OP, For archival sake.

80lbs wow, that is small.
My buddy shot a average southern MN 4 pt buck this season, he said his Dad figured it was 260 on the hoof
Now I've hunted with that party before, they like to tell tales But there is lots of corn for them to eat in this County.

 

[Ian]

edited to include rifle and caliber.

 

[uncle jimbo]

Today was the first time I have read this thread. Ian you have lived the caster's, reloader's, shooter's dream. In all my years of reloading and shooting have I ever heard about someone being able to have it all brought together at one time. Working up a new bullet with other material than lead, testing it, and then shooting through a crono and taking a game animal, all at the same time. And you documented it. I truly envy you.

 

[popper]

Last week the RO announced the 'range cat' is on the prowl and NOT a legal target. Squirrels running the target boards are also not recommended. May flies and locust are legal.

 

[Ian]

The amazing part is not that I was able to get the testing done and have some successful results (and an incredible stroke of luck that I wasn't even looking for), but also got the photos edited, uploaded, and posts composed almost entirely with my phone and one hand (one thumb, really). Our six-week-old boy requires constant coddling and any time I'm in the house he's my charge so his mother can have a break to do chores or rest. That means feedings, burpings, rockings, ticklings, etc. pretty much non-stop and that takes more than one hand most of the time. Thanks to my wife for letting me have a few hours to do the casting and range testing, it really is expensive time for to give me right now.

 

[Ian]

One more note, I bought a metal detector and first search was the gut pile to see if I could find any fragments of the bullet. I'd dumped it way back on my property and covered it with rocks to hopefully keep the buzzards off for a few days, but no luck, nothing left but bloody rocks scattered about. I scanned the area anyway but found nothing. At least I can rest easy that the buzzards won't get lead poisoning!

I did find the gas check in the hide and that the bullet broke into three pieces as it passed through the heart, so I can tell that the check stayed on all the way through the deer unlike when fired into the sawdust trap.

 

[Ian]

I finally tried marinating venison last night and for grilling, i think that's the way to go. Made a mix of corn oil, orange juice, salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder and a little Worcestershire sauce. Grilled the sliced, marinated backstrap tonight and I have to say it is fork tender and turned out quite well. If you havent tried marinating with something other than vinegar and/or "Italian dressing", both of which if you're like me, you dislike, give it a go.

 

[S Mac]

Looks tasty.

 

[creosote]

Reading that is worse than going grocery shopping hungry.
I think all we have left in the freezer is stew meat.
I do have that written down though.

 

[wquiles]

Looks really yummy Ian

 

[oscarflytyer]

one word - YUM! Taken 2 like this this year. one for me, and one for son who helped me cut some shooting lanes.

 

[Winelover]

Our marinating preference uses red wine vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, @ tablespoon of ketchup and a dash hot sauce.

It was originally a marinade for whole pork tenderloins and Cindy still uses it for that. A whole pork can take marinating over night. Not the case with a whole venison tenderloin or backstrap. It will adsorb too much vinegar, if marinated over 4-6 hours. The key is to marinate the piece of venison based on size. Smaller the piece, the less time..............we want a hint of vinegar but not overpowering.

I never cut my backstraps into chops. We grill them whole, no more than 20 minutes, on a gas grill. Turning every five minutes..........pink in the center. Doesn't dry the meat out. Juices must flow, upon cutting.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I think ya just needed a bigger target maybe...

 

[Ian]

John, the beauty of making a marinade without vinegar is that it can tolerate a 24 hour soak without making the acid overpowering. If you have less time to prepare, I can see the vinegar doing better but personally I still don't like the taste.

I used about 2:1 oil/aqueous ratio and two teaspoons of salt and 1/2 t. black pepper for the whole backstrap. The meat was moist all the way through and the surface still wet after 6 minutes/side at 300⁰F on the gas grill, so this definitely works out for pre-slicing. This a cross between salt-brining and citric acid marinade and the oil gets a good chance to soak in over 24 hours too. Pork has its own sweet fat and IMO doesn't need much more than salt to be yummy, but venison needs a the help it can get.

I'll have to try rolling it up and doing it whole next time, done that once a couple of years ago and it turned out a tough, dry medium...but I didn't marinate it either and that makes a difference.

 

[fiver]

I use a water and salt base marinade just like for fish and give the deer like 3-4 days.
dry it off well then run through the smoker at like 180-200F to get it all heated up, and add some light smoke.
usually the marinade [long A according to Martha] has some sugar and some hot which isn't when it's wet so you get the low key pepper flavors instead of the capsaicin.