California Buck downed by Levergun!!

[oklahoma red]

Took this nice CA buck October 5th on my own property in Shingle Springs, using my Puma 357 "big loop" Carbine. He Measures 27" wide and 16" high. Nice and heavy, looked well fed!



Forgot to get the Rifle in the picture, so here it is:



Happy Shootin to Ya,
OkR

[Chuck 100 yd]

Nice buck, GOOD JOB !!

[Shasta]

Whoa! Super nice buck! Congratulations!

I gotta get myself busy and find one of those or the freezer will be near empty this winter.

SHASTA

[FWiedner]

Looks like oone of those Ching sling things.

How do you like that set up?

[ollogger]

Nice Buck & I like your gun set up like that

ollogger

[Pitchy]

Very nice, congratulations.

[Marc]

Good buck! Congratulations!

[RustyJr]

How far away was he when you took the shot? What bullet and load were ya using? Gotta have details don't ya know Very Nice deer by the way.


RustyJr

[Griff]

Congrats! That's an awesome lookin' buck!

[iceman]

Nice deer! more details of the hunt would be nice.

[handirifle]

Yea like I see you're east of Sacramento, is that north of the stupid condor zone? Hope so for you guys.

Nice buck! Details man!

[pwl44m]

Nice looking Deer OR. I hope He didn't know You were shooting a Levergun, He might have kept on going.
Congrats - Perry

[El Chivo]

great buck; and if you miss the shot you could just hook him with that lever.

[Old Savage]

Tactical kill. Levrevolution?

[Dave B]

Very nice!!!

Dave B

[bigbore442001]

Excellent shot. Maybe I live in a cave but I haven't seen too much on the internet about bucks taken from California. How far was the shot?

[bdhold]

nice buck and good hunt.
Curious about what ammo you were firing.

[oklahoma red]

Thank you all for the kind words! Let me see if I can answer all the questions at one time:

I am really proud of the little rifle. It's a Puma 357 I picked up from a good friend who had to part with it; and YES is does have a BIG LOOP! I fit a ramline stock to it, a raised cheek piece and a little dot sight. Its not a long range gun, at least with this ammo. Will hit a paper plate at 100 yards, but that is about it.
I originally built the little carbine to ride on the handlebars of an old honda trail 90. Its much handier than the 26" barreled 1895 cowboy I usually hunt with!

Good eye... the ammo was Lever-evelution.

The shot was only about 30 yards. For a change, it was windy, cool and cloudy that morning. All of that was in my favor that morning. I had been checking the place of a morning for deer, since the season started, before work. While I was walking the place, I caught him sneeking along the fence line. He stopped to feed on some brush, so I snuck to a tree, waited for him to turn broad-side and nailed him. As soon as I shot, I racked another shell in the rifle because I had to make sure he would go down. He made about a half turn, and dropped. The little 357 passed through both lungs.

I had seen a bigger 4X4 earlier in the year, before season, I honestly thought that was who I was after! This guy was everybit as big as the larger horned buck.

Happy shootin to ya,
OkR

[JohndeFresno]

Great post, O. Red!

OK, as Old Savage noticed - that looks like LeverEvolution rounds, and what - Silvertips?

Are they handloads? Were you using the LE rounds, or do you load 'em alternated like on your bandoleer?

Finally - how does that Red Dot thing work for you in varying light at deer shootin' ranges?

[Nath]

Excellent, if you suggested using a 357 for deer over here they would laugh and laugh and laugh, the stupid miserable fools!

Good on ya'

Nath.

[oklahoma red]

Good afternoon to ya all again.
Thank you all again for the kind words.

To JohndeFresno:
In the picture the sling is full of Lever-ev's and silvertips --alternating. The dot is sighted in at 100 yards with the little rubber tipped buggers. The silver tips shoot lower at 100 yards; so while I was making the rounds that morning, the rifle contained the Lever-ev's. Both the bullets types are factory loads. I have been playing with some 180gr handloads and lil'gun powder, but I haven't found the right mix yet.

I made the sling out of an old nylon ammo belt. Our local range has what they call "fun-three-gun" matches. I have used the little rifle a couple of times in those matches, so I needed be able to carry more ammo on the rifle, when shooting the stages.

The little dot works quite well I think, its VERY fast in the brush. There is a pic on this site somewhere, showing two pigs that couldn't run faster than I could shoot it. A bigger tubed dot would likely be brighter, but I was looking to save size and weight when I put the carbine together.

To Nath:
Those 357s have worked well for me before, on CA wild pigs, and "coast" deer. And as I said before this guy just made half a spin and went right down.

Happy shootin' to ya all,
OkR

[El Chivo]

The little 357 passed through both lungs.

Well, the bullet itself is not that little... and considering the range you shot at, probably packed quite a punch, big hole to start with, expansion, etc. Ok the deer didn't explode but that way you get more meat.

Curious, how big was the exit wound?

[oklahoma red]

Good day to you El Chivo;

The bullet entered through a little shoulder meat, back of the main bone, went between two ribs on the near side, and took out about a one inch section of a rib on the far side (popped both lungs, of course). The exit wound in the hide was about the size of your thumb, and had a couple of copper shreds in it.

No, not much meat wasted.

Happy shootin to ya,
OkR

[Dave]

Nice buck and a trick rifle!