Every year I start jonesing over my successes after the season ends. You can see it if you look back here in this weblog. Deer season ends, and sometime before the first turkey gobbles, I get all wound up over my deer rifles and their loads. Somehow I get to thinking things could have been better, even though the freezer is usually crammed full. Somehow, I feel like I could have done it better. In the wake of all that fussing, I have learned a few universal truths:

1) Any modern legal centerfire rifle cartridge will produce venison. Deer are just not that hard to kill.
2) If you find a dead deer at the end of the search, you cannot claim bullet failure.
3) Not every deer falls over when dead. Some run. Some go back to feeding. Some stand there and look at you.
4) If something bad happens, it probably ain’t the rifle that caused it.

I’ve been at this over 30 years. I still get hung up on these ideas, and sometime before the Super Bowl, I get worried.

This year, I took two nice deer with the Whelenizer from out at Midway. I shoot a 200 gr Rem Corelokt SPCL out of the Remington 7600 at a slightly reduced velocity. It ends up being more like a very hot 358 WIN than a 35 Whelen, and that is fine for deer. You would think no one would throw dispersions. One deer was taken at about 100 yards, the other at about 15 yards. Both ran a good 100 yards before piling up a stone’s throw away from each other. Over on the 24HourCampfire.com, I gave vent to my yearly worries. It made sense, after all. Normally deer hit with the Whelenizer fall over as if hit by lightning. I was a bit surprised to have both these deer run.

As I write this, the responses are still coming in. I really like 24HourCampfire, because it is an interesting mix of outdoor writers, rifle loonies, and serious hunters. It also has a few serious wackjobs to make it fun. The suggestions?

1) Change bullet– make it heavier
2) Change bullet– make it lighter
3) Change bullet — make it tougher
4) Change bullet — make it softer
5) Change velocity — crank it up
6) Change velocity — crank it down
7) Switch to a 30-06
8) Switch to a 223 AI
9) Switch to . . .
10) Bring in a dozer and cut a road to the bottom of the ravine
11) Stop your sniveling, shaman.

10 Refers to my concern that I preferred to take my deer close to where I can get the truck. Both these deer ran down into a ravine.

My current belief is that, if there is a reason for these two anomalies, it is perhaps that I shot these deer at closer range than most. Perhaps I have been raising the point of aim a bit higher in the past and the shots have been landing higher on the chest. This may account for the discrepency.

11 is the choice I’m probably going with. What fascinates me is not only the number of different opinions, but the certainty with which each was given. Along the way you can see that I had some of the oldies-but-goodies.

a) Speed kills– Contra-indicated by the fact that I’ve had a string of deer fall over dead shot at longer distances and therefore the same bullet going slower.

b) The bullet was going to fast to open up. This idea has been floating around since before I first started reading OUtdoor Life in the barber shop. It made sense to a kid. Then I took Physics in High School. No. Cut it out! Yes, I know that is kind of what the original premise was hinting at when I started the thread, but . . . NO! My point in starting the thread in the first place was because I know this old chestnut is not true. I thought someone could set me straight as to what was really happening.

c) What you really need is a . . . At 15 yards, What possible difference would a change in a few grains of this or that or a point-oh-something change in bullet diameter make? Nobody makes fun of a .357 Magnum pistol at 50 yards on a deer. Why should they question a .358 inch 200 grain chunk of metal, breaking the sound barrier with lots of room to spare.

d) . . . Oh, Come on! You’re not going to pull THAT one out, are you?

In all honesty, I want to remind you that it was 24HourCampfire that convinced KYHillChick to buy me the Whelenizer back in 2005 as a Saint Hubert’s Day present. I still love the rifle. I love the load. I appreciate all the advice. Now that I’ve vented, I can go back to watching the SuperBowl and turkey porn and enjoying my venison chili.

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