Holiday Hunt — 6mmBR for Deer

Forum member Jerry S. posted this story yesterday in our Shooters’ Forum. It shows that, with the right bullet and good shot placement, the diminutive 6BR is more than enough cartridge for deer.

I decided to try something different this year. Instead of dragging out my trusty .44 Smith or the 6.5×55 Remington 700, I took my 6mmBR Norma Prairie Dog rifle deer hunting. We got a lot of wet sloppy snow the week before the opener and had a freezing drizzle on the first morning. I decided to hunt close to the house since my old bones couldn’t handle the trip to my normal hunting stand.

I set the 6mmBR P-dog rifle up on my shooting bench and began the long, cold wait. The deer trail I was watching is about 180 – 230 yards from where I was sitting.

Buck Lined up in Cross-hairs
At about 2:30 this afternoon, I was watching some does feeding along the trail and looked away for a minute then looked back and saw a third deer moving up behind them. A quick check in the spotting scope showed horns and I got behind the rifle. There is no safety on my P-dog gun so it wasn’t loaded and I quickly chambered a round. The does stepped into the woods and the buck stopped for a minute and looked right at me. I centered the cross hairs on his chest and touched the trigger. I could hear the impact as he leaped straight in the air and hit the ground running into the woods.

I figured it was a good hit, so I poured a cup of coffee and relaxed for a bit to let him tire out and drop. After my coffee, I picked up my 6.5×55 and went out to where he was shot. I was 190 yards from my bench and there was no blood. He was headed toward a swamp south of me so I figured I’d cut him off and see if I could cut his trail farther into the bush. I hadn’t gone ten yards when I came across a good blood trail.

I followed it for a few more yards and found him crumpled up. He had only gone 25 yards from where he was shot. While I was looking at him and taking photos, two more deer showed up. You can see one standing on the other side of my rifle.

My buddy brought his 4-wheeler over and helped me drag it to the house where we skinned it out. The bullet had taken the top off the heart and he was totally bled out. All in all, it was a successful hunt, and the 6mmBR did its job.