Button Buck.

I got a little button buck yesterday. That's not interesting. I don't think that deer hunting is particularly interesting at all. For me, hunting's about putting marksmanship skills to practical use. And here in WV (at least in this area) it's a rare shot on a deer beyond a couple of hundred yards. The VAST majority of shots on deer around here will likely be closer to 50 yards. I think missing a deer with a slingshot at 50 yards would be inexcusable marksmanship. I've never missed a deer. I've never needed more than one shot on a deer. But the longest shot I've ever had was maybe, 85 yards. That particular shot did actually require a degree of marksmanship because of the angles. It allowed me about a four inch target to make a clean kill. I hit exactly where I was aiming. But I digress...

Shooting a button buck at 65 yards (my shot yesterday) isn't really any display of marksmanship at all. So, that's not the interesting part to me, even if the bullet actually did pass directly through the deer's heart. Yeah, ok, it was a decent, if not easy shot. But what IS interesting to me, is that I recovered the bullet when field dressing the deer. It was a 150gr soft-point. When recovered, it weighed 79.5 grains. More than half that bullet's mass was just gone. Wonder where it went? The bullet opened up like a flower. It did exactly what it was designed to do, how it was designed to do it. But where'd the mass of that bullet go? Interesting. And I have no answer.