The deer herd in the great State of Texas is currently estimated at 5.3 to 5.6 million animals, but it wasn’t always that way. The Depression was a fiasco of the first order for all of this country — even more so in the Southwest where there was so little rain that the area become known as the “Dust Bowl”.
My Dad and his family were sharecroppers back then. Dad had to quit school for a year to pick cotton just so they could make it. His recollection of the weather was that “it was so dry out there that in Noah’s Flood, San Angelo got a quarter inch.” (San Angelo is a small town in West Texas where the cotton was). Maybe that gives you an idea of the conditions.
That kind of situation is incredibly hard on game populations. Not only did most of the young fawns die from lack of water, what did survive frequently wound up in some subsistence hunter’s stew pot long before they had a chance to reproduce. By 1940, the deer herd in Texas was down to 300,000.
Thanks to some sound game management efforts and support, those numbers are up to where we have them today. Part of good game management requires that populations be maintained in accordance with what current resources can support. One of the methods used to do so is a well-staged cull hunt.
Doing Their Part
My son, son-in-law and I have been privileged to take part in such a hunt for the last several years at a ranch that covers several thousand acres west of San Antonio, Texas. The flora and fauna are both somewhat challenging in this arid environment. The local comment is that “If it don’t bite, sting or scratch, it don’t grow there.”
The ranch owner, assisted by professional wildlife biologists, helicopters and four wheelers, gets an annual count on how many and what kind of deer are present. Then we are told what our target animals are. We are normally tasked with culling mature does and mature bucks with small racks. We just get to look at the trophy bucks and then wish them well in the rut. With free rein to “shoot what we can eat”, my normal harvest is four medium-sized deer for my freezer along with one more that we donate to a ministry at church. I know, poor me!
Some people are into hunting for the trophy on the wall. I’m a meat eater. My wife and I love the taste as well as the lack of hormones and fat in good venison. Being a writer kinda person, I’m also into the gear. I like to experiment with different rifles, different calibers, different optics, etc. and see what works.
This year’s rifle selection was the Redline from Springfield Armory. With its light weight, compact 20” barrel and 6.5 Creedmoor chambering, I thought it would be perfect for the deer stands common to a South Texas deer hunt. I added my Dead Air Sandman-S suppressor and the appropriate QD mount. With everything attached and loaded, the whole rig measured 45.5” long and weighed 9.4 lbs. A trimmer scope and a titanium can could shave a pound a half from that number, easily.
The Fuel
I have hunted deer successfully with rifles chambered for the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge several times in the past. Having always used factory ammo, I wanted to see what loads tailored to that rifle could do. I’ll let you work up your own loads, but please note that all powder charge/bullet combos used in these experiments came from data published by major bullet and powder manufacturers.
As always, I started with powder charges well below maximum listed and carefully worked my way up. All the loads I selected for the hunt represented what I considered to be the best combination of velocity (measured by a Garmin Xero C1 Pro), accuracy (by group size) and consistency (as standard deviation derived from the shot strings).
Since all my earlier success had come via Hornady 143-gr. ELD-X (Extremely Low Drag — eXpanding) factory ammo, I started with their bullets for my load development. The mid-weight Hornady bullets have done well for me over the years. Believe it or not, when the 6.5 CM craze was first starting, Hornady used to print the load on the actual box. I wound up trying about 1,200 rounds worth of testing to wind up back at Hornady’s load using Hodgdon’s H4350 powder. That is where I started this time, and they did not disappoint.
My best reloads load clocked 2,680 feet per second (fps.) which yields almost 2,300 foot pounds of energy (ft-lb.). The standard deviation was an amazing 1.53. This figure tells me how close to the average each velocity hit. Note that that a standard deviation (SD) of 15 fps is good — especially for factory ammo, 12 fps is very good, 10 fps is great, and 8 fps or less is outstanding.
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Then I experimented with lighter bullets. Barnes 120-gr. TTSX performed the best. My load settled on Vihta Vuori N555 powder and Federal Gold Medal Large Rifle primers. My best groups averaged just under .4”, and clocked right at 2,900 fps with a SD of 4.36! That load yields over 2,200 ft. lbs. at the muzzle leaving me the 1,000 ft-lb. I want as minimum energy for whitetail deer to almost 500 yards. I worked up another load with heavy 156-gr. EOL bullets from Berger Bullets and Vihta Vuori N565 powder.
Shooting Performance
In My Sights
The rifle/cartridge combination is obviously very important, but if I can’t see the animal, I can’t shoot it. Admittedly, the older I get the more demanding my requirements for optics become. That said, I’ve never regretted saving for and buying good glass. I used the outstanding Leupold Mark5 HD 3.6-18×44 scope for this hunt. It is compact, relatively light weight, the mid-range magnification gives me everything I’ve ever needed for hunting situation. The PRS-1 mil reticle provides lots of data and aiming options without cluttering up the view.
My other two primary pieces of optical kit were made by Vortex. The first thing I do when I sit down in any new deer stand is to measure the distances to various markers. How far is the feeder, the tree line, etc.? I use the Vortex Razor HD 4000 laser range finder for that task. Able to range accurately a lot farther than I am willing to shoot at a live target, the HD4000 has provided consistent ranges for me well past 1,000 yards and carries the Vortex unlimited, unconditional lifetime warranty. ‘Nuff said. My binos are also from Vortex. Whether I need to see a buck back in the bushes at dawn or a steel target at a PRS match, I carry Vortex Razor HD (notice a pattern here) 12×50’s. The clarity and field of view at higher magnification are great. For this hunt, I was able to discern a good 9-point buck — which I could shoot — and the 10-pointers I couldn’t.
The Edge
When the hunting is done and the messy work begins, I pull out a couple of my favorite knives. The first is from TOPS — those people cost me money every time I run into them. My latest purchase was their 4.5” blade named the “Muley Skinner”. Imagine that. Pointed and curved enough to have a good cutting edge, it is light enough to be lively and easy to use. Since two is one and one is none, I always go into the field with at least two knives — if not more. My second is a good, old-fashioned Case knife that was a gift from my son. It sits easily in the pocket and does a great job in tight spaces.
We have to have a good way to get all of this out into the field the new chest pack from Mission First Tactical fits the bill nicely. Designed to carried in front — imagine that since it is a chest pack — it is just large enough for my Vortex binoculars and range finder, along with a knife, phone, and water bottle. It provides an additional zippered compartment in the rear tailor-made for a handgun ready for all those things that bight, sting or scratch. I also find it to be a great companion or when taking the dogs for a walk at night when we’re camping and I don’t feel like holstering back up. If you think I was being paranoid in carrying the Springfield Ronin as backup, see the attached photos. The Redline travels in a beautiful canvas and leather rifle case from Galco. It is pretty on the eyes, protective of the rifle and easy to carry.
The Hunt
We hunted mid-December — in short sleeves — with the rut finally having started and all the big does hiding back in the brush. Monday morning netted me a medium size doe and a 9-point buck that dressed out to 131 lbs. Kansas deer hunters may laugh at our haul, but these are big deer for South Texas. I used the Hornady 143-gr. ELD-X factory loads for both with very satisfactory results.
The doe made it about 40 yards as she ran a semi-circle around the field before dropping and the buck packed up within 20 yards. We found the spent bullet in the doe (who was shot while facing me) after it had traveled from just inside the left front should all the way to the ham on the same side.
Monday evening brought an even larger buck that I shot with the 120-gr. Barness TTSX loads. We weren’t quite as impressed with our handload as, even with a good bit more velocity, it only managed to penetrate from shoulder to shoulder at a close 47 yards. We also recovered the spent round.
My compact Redline was perfect. Easy to maneuver inside the blind, it hit where I pointed it. That includes the one shot I sent a bit high. My target deer had, apparently, never heard a suppressor before and didn’t know what he was hearing when my shot went just over his back. So, he stood there and looked around while I nailed him with shot #2.
We’re already set to go next December. Can’t wait to try those Berger loads in my Redline.
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