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Huge public lander! 2nd biggest buck EVER! New 6.8 cartridge deets

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Big props to Luis Rosales for shooting this 10-point, 162″, 200-lb stud! On public land!! Which is how he rolls:

> “It’s more of a raw hunt. It’s a lot of work, but we have had a lot of success.”

> After a 45-minute paddle to his spot and with the temperature at 28 degrees EMOJ, he saw…”2 sprays and a big rub.” Then “he was 30 yards away coming towards me and picks his head up and gets behind a tree. At 20 yards, I drew back and put a good shot on him. He was quartering to me, but I didn’t get a pass-through…only hit one lung.

> “I went back to where I found last blood and circled around…covered about 3 miles to find him. I had to stumble across him because I was going off nothing. It was 4:45 when I found him and I was pumped up, but it took a lot out of me. I was excited because he’s a massive deer. It’s not too often someone kills a monster like that on public land.

> “You have to put the work in for sure. We have laid eyes on some monsters. It’s not easy, but it’s rewarding if you’re willing to put in the work. We started the channel to inspire people to get out of their comfort zones and hunt public land and not limit themselves.”

Yes! Put in the work! Btw “we” = Luis and his brother Eduardo. Their YT channel is called Public Land Mafia. 👊 Here’s the video on that hunt.

In Oct 2019, Brian Butcher arrowed the 2nd-highest-scoring buck ever taken – a ridiculous 321 3/8″ EMOJ. He told Field & Stream the KS kill wasn’t much of a story, but the scoring was for sure non-typical:

> “We were trying to count points and came up with 30 – then 40, then 50. I thought it was a 200-inch deer but I didn’t know. Bowhunters dream of a 200-inch deer.

> “You fill up an entire sheet with measurements and add it up, and it’s overwhelming. So we measured it again the next day and again a couple days later. Every time it measured over 300 inches net, but Brian [Crowe, his bud] wasn’t positive what the common base was on the left antler.”

> …initially concern that the deer couldn’t be scored at all…B&C has a couple policies that disqualify certain bucks from entry. One is the “Freak Trophies” policy, which says antlers without a discernible main beam can’t be measured using the B&C scoring system.

> The other is the “Stags not Eligible for Entry” policy…because bucks that have been castrated somehow often keep growing antler masses without shedding them and sometimes without shedding velvet. …ruled out…[because] springtime trailcam photos of the deer that clearly showed the antlers growing normally.

> “The real sticking point was whether or not the crazy side could be defined as a main beam. A few days later, I got a call and they’d voted unanimously to score it.”

> The buck was finally measured…taped out at 321 3/8 net and 343 4/8 gross. That is the accepted entry score, but per B&C rules anything in the top 5 all-time must be verified by a judge’s panel scoring before being officially recognized.

INSANE buck! Congrats Brian and enjoy the well-deserved “deer tour” when things get back to normal! Gotta include this, from right after he walked up on it:

> “I was blown away. I knew it had a bunch of antler when I shot, but I had no idea the number of points or the magnitude of it. I’d never seen anything like it. I stood there a few minutes, took in the moment, and then took off running back to my truck. I never get cell phone service out there, but somehow I got a call out to my uncle. He answered, and I was out of breath and full of emotion. ‘You all right?’ he asked. I told him, ‘Yes, but come quick – and bring the 4-wheeler if you can.'”

Love it! 🏆

Biggest question from the get-go: Will this new cartridge – a collab between Winchester and Browning – be here for the long haul? Well, maybe: The US military is adopting it to replace the 5.56 and 7.62 so it LOOKS like it’ll stick around and might even be widely available…when ammo is available….EMOJ

GoHunt’s Brady Miller got to test some out. Highlights from a good post:

> ‘More energy than a 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC and 7mm Rem Mag…plus increased penetration versus existing .277 and 6.5 bullet offerings.’ When I heard that first sentence, I was instantly intrigued.

> This new cartridge is absolutely ideal for hunting and produces match-grade accuracy and works wonders when it comes to terminal performance for big game across the entire spectrum of yardages. I received and tested a Browning X-Bolt rifle this past fall chambered in 6.8 Western and instantly built the rifle for an upcoming mule deer hunt.

> Unfortunately I didn’t have a tag, so I set this up for a friend to use. A few days later he was able to take a one-shot kill on a great mule deer at 690 yards.

> With Browning’s 6.8 Western you get the ease of shooting a similar 6.5 cartridge, but you are getting magnum-like energy…. So put another way: Less recoil than bigger cartridges, but the 6.8 Western still packs a punch.

Few more points from the post:

> Browning utilizes faster 1:7.5″ twist rates to stabilize these heavy-for-caliber bullets….

> The 6.8 Western is a beltless short-action cartridge that is made by taking a 270 WSM and shortening the case. Bullet diameter for the 6.8 Western is 0.277″.

> Factory options will be offered in 165 grain Accubond LR and 175 grain Sierra Tipped GameKing Long Range Pro.

> While testing the 6.8 Western I was getting 2,830 fps out of a 24″ barrel….

Few of our fave comments under the post: 😆

> If you want to shoot an animal at 700, 800 or 1000 yards, buy a goat (my cousin will sell you one), stake it out and shoot it.

> …the sheer number of specialized cartridges today is getting to be like walking into a microbrew beer distributor.

> Heaven forbid anyone put a fast-twist barrel (1:9-1:8) on their .270 Win for $500 and let all this new ‘awesomeness’ go collect dust….

> So…can’t get a box of 308 hunting ammo, so we bring out another whiz bang chambering ( won’t say “caliber” since I wouldn’t want to have to be educated) that will be the end all to shoot 120 pound whitetails at 50 or 100 yards.

If you jump on this cartridge, this could be you:

Would you shoot a deer with an ear tag and a big ol’ collar around his neck? MS hunter Bob Lloyd did – and the scientists are cool with it! (Maybe because he didn’t shoot it in the neck lol.) They say they’re wanting to see what secrets that collar data gives up:

> Bob: “He’s been here for almost 5 years or so. We had him on trailcams and we even saw him out the back window of the camp house quite a few times.”

> He was a part of a study to better understand the movements of mature bucks…how mature bucks react to hunting pressure. Movement data was collected in 2017 and 2018, and the collars were programmed to drop off last year, but that didn’t happen in all cases. …some of the data was transmitted by satellite, most of it is stored in the collars.

> At this point, researchers don’t know much about Buck 335. The battery life of the collar had expired before it was collected, so it had to be sent to the manufacturer to have the data extracted.

> …the study has been eye-opening and revealed things such as some bucks have 2 home ranges they use at different times. One such deer, Buck 27, traveled more than 13 miles between his 2 home ranges.

2. AR broke its harvest record and archery’s open til 2/28.

> 214,022 deer during the 2020-21 [season]…more deer than any season since the Game & Fish began keeping harvest records in 1938.

3. PA may get more Sundays to hunt?

Might allow unlimited doe tags too.

4. MN looking at getting rid of shotgun-only zones again.

> …would eliminate the shotgun-only zone for deer hunting during the regular firearms season….

Sounds like the “pro” is simplified regs, the “con” might be safety in certain areas….

5. MD ready for 1st “primitive deer hunt.”

Pretty sure they mean primitive WEAPONS deer hunt – runs Feb 1-3.

6. VA legislative committee rejects Sunday hunting bill.

7. ND considering disabled vet season.

#strong 💪

8. MI: Private land grant application period is open.

For improving deer habitat.

9. MS bill would allow air bows for deer.

Only during primitive weapons season but some folks worry it might bleed into archery season.

10. NA Whitetail editor in chief Gordon Whittington is retiring.

Gordon is a long-time legend in the whitetail biz. Thanks for all you’ve done to help us hunt better, and enjoy retirement life!

12. GSM buys Truglo sights.

GSM also owns Stealth Cam, Muddy, Hunters Specialties and many other brands.

13. NRA files Chapter 11 to move from NY to TX.

> The plan aims to streamline costs and expenses, proceed with pending litigation in a coordinated and structured manner, and realize many financial and strategic advantages.

This Ammoland post is a little skeptical about the NRA’s motives.

14. KS: Convicted 60-deer poacher gets 14 months in prison and…

Article says:

> “As part of the felony sentence, Blick was assessed $310,234.68 in restitution that is owed to the KS Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism for the value of the deer killed,” the department said.

15. TX: Largest-ever taxidermy auction happening Fri-Sat.

16. AL: New Shooting Sports Showcase Mar 8 at in Talladega.

17. NY getting $16 mil fed funds to battle Lyme disease.

18. 2A stuff.

New NRA partnership with USFWS to help recruit new hunters.

Bloomberg friend wants credit card companies to monitor and stop firearms purchases.

Guns.com got cyber-attacked.

Check out Outdoor Life’s full writeup for the full rundown, but here’s some highlights:

> Mathews Archery V3 27 (^) – …27″ V3 is Mathews’ most compact bow to date…new Mathews innovations like the CenterGuard Cable Containment system that’s designed to provide ideal cam timing, and the vibration-robbing Nano 740 damper.

> Xpedition X Series – The riser is a blend of 2 alloys, Xloy and Magnite, giving each bow in the series an airy feel combined with…toughness. Another hat-tipper is the all-new Lever Cam…engineered to allow shooters to push kinetic energy and momentum to new levels.

> Bowtech Solution SD – Built around a cam system that allows shooters to tune their bow without putting it in a bow press….EMOJ

> PSE Carbon Air Stealth – …ultralight (3.5 lbs) bow has adjustable letoff between 80-90% and hits a top speed of 332 fps.

> Bear Whitetail Legend – A single-cam shooter offered with a package that includes all the Trophy Ridge accessories you’ll need to get out into the field, Bear’s Whitetail Legend is a nod to Fred Bear’s classic Whitetail Hunter. Just meat and potatoes, the bow was born for the whitetail woods.

What’s the DB and who does it?

The DeerBlaster is a weekly roundup of the best, funniest, newest and most important stuff about whitetail deer hunting – culled from around the interwebz for DIEHARD whitetail hunters and blasted into your inbox.

The DB is put together by some deer nerds 😁 – Ted, Jay, others – from around the country. We excerpt content (and credit EVERYONE!), comment on content, do some original content…because we can’t get enough deer hunting – bet you’re wired the same!

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