like throwing a switch
I posted on 21Dec that things were poor, but was hoping for change. The next morning I saw two different bucks, but no reasonable shot (rifle) on the bigger one, and I could never get a point count on the second so as to abide by club rules. Two days later, I missed a spike on other pvt. land with my bow, but stuck a tree. I risked death and injury, but managed to climb the tree and get my shaft back, but there is a vintage Bear Razorhead stuck in a red oak limb about 12 feet up!
A week after that, I shot a 5 pt on a public land hunt, with the tube feed Ruger .44 auto carbine, distance appx 60 yds, and got a thru and thru wound with the 200 gr XTP hollowpoint. That is the first pass thru wound I've gotten with that load, but also the longest shot with that combo. I suspect velocity was down enough at that distance to reduce expansion and allow more penetration.
Most recently, on 4Jan, on a PM hunt in the same hollow where I saw the two bucks before Christmas, I killed a 7 pt at about 75 yds with the .308 Hog rifle. The buck was working a scrape on the opposite hillside, having moved from a pine plantation out onto the hardwood hillside, and I was more than pleased with the shot, having to thread the bullet from hillside to hillside, up a tree 20', and the wind working me side to side. The early "solid base" .30/180 Ballistic Tip is actually a good expander on deer, I wish I could come up with a supply of those older slugs, the Hog Rifle really stacks 'em in there, and they are deadly on deer. I hear the "newer" .30/180 b-tip is tougher for bigger game.
Both of those bucks were where I thought they should be, doing what I thought they should be doing, and I find that as rewarding as the kill itself, maybe even more so. I plan to butcher the 7pt tomorrow, and have a stand up in a favorite spot for what I hope to be my last buck for this year.
From famine to feast, my year took a real change in about 3 weeks, like you'd thrown a switch.