So, I'm heading home from work this afternoon when my cell phone rings.  It's my dad.  He says "I just got a deer, can you come help me drag it out of the woods?"  So he starts the dressing process and I drive the hour from where I work to where he hunts.   Throw on my hunting coveralls and boots (conveniently in the back of my car) and schlepp the half mile into the woods to find him leaning up against a tree, out of breath from the gutting but happy as a little lark.  He looks up and goes, "Not bad for 77 year old eyes". 

The particulars:  Whitetail doe, dressed at 90 lbs which is about normal for this part of southern New England.  Rifle is a Winchester 94AE in .30-30 wearing a Simmons 44 Mag 1.5X6 and shooting Remington factory 170 grain RN.  What makes this worthy of the post is the fact that it was a measured 140 yard shot right through the boiler.  No real expansion.  It was a shoot through, entry and exit wounds for the most part the same size.  Truly, not bad for 77 year old eyes.

I put the thing on the old Dead Sled, got it to his truck and sent him off to the butcher.  He's tired and happy and I'm glad he's had another great season in the woods.  I learned the craft from him and owe him a lot more than dragging his kill out of the woods.

Peace guys.  788

788Fan;

Thanks for the story.  I appreciate the telling. 

I'm a bit surprised at the no expansion of the bullet though.  After all, 140 yards is a perfectly reasonable shot with a .30-30, & I'da thought every manufacturer would have long time since made sure that their bullets opened up at that range.

I do boycott Remington for other reasons & don't use a whole lot of their products including ammo.  Maybe this is another reason to continue to shun Big Green.

900F

788fan,

  Great story. I would love to have been able to see my dad stil hunting. He would have been 76 this year. As far aas the bullet not expanding, that seems a little odd. I shot my last buck with 150 gr. Cor-lockts from my .30-30, and got great expansion.

Great story and an adventure you will remember every time you think of your dad.

I've killed a lot of deer with the 170 rem flat nose (30-30 bullet).  I shoot them at low velocity out of many 30 cal rifles just because they do expand on deer pretty good.  And I've killed deer with one shot out to 200 yards.  All killed deer dead and fully penetrated so no bullet to look at.

But neither the bullet failed nor the shooter, both did a successful job.

Thanks for sharing the story.

excellent story, 788 - congrats to your dad!

i've got a marlin m336c in .30/30 with a pretty much the same scope, except it is 2-7x that .30/30 is a good rifle out to about 150, no matter what the naysayers say.