Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

Deer hunting in WV

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
There is a Doctor in WV that hunts deer with a handgun only. He is a member of J.D. Jones club the Handgun Hunters International as I am. he has been giving this report for 32 years now.
He does a yearly writeup of his deer kills with detailed bullet performance on each deer.
In 2012 he had a off year and only took 83 deer. 81 with singleshot pistols and 2 with revolvers.
He does crop permits for farmers and shoots does only and all meat is donated to needy families.
In 32 years he has taken 2085 deer with over 122,000 lbs of meat donated. Now thats a lot of knife work as he puts it.
He does that same with groundhogs and I will look up his last report.
I not saying I condon his work just reporting a interesting report.
Frank
 

Fullbore

Senior Member
6,439
126
South Eastern Ohio
Wow! That guy has done well! I've hunted Wirt Co.before and there's a shit load of deer there. One thing is for sure, he stays in tune with his pistols. Lol.
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Seems like that would get boring after while!

It doesn't appear he gets bored after 32 yrs. His shot by shot report is great. He does the same thing on groundhogs and takes 100-200 per year. I have to check his last writeup but I believe he is over 8000.
Plus he almost aways goes on one big hunting trip per year to Alaska or Africa and hunts with pistol only.
He starts shooting deer in May and takes 15-25 per month. Then he deer hunts a state or two during gun season.
Just a world of info on pistol shooting. He must hunt almost everyday. Just think of it with 83 deer and 100-200 groundhogs last year alone. Plus he practices family medicine 6 days a week. Busy guy.
He had a house fire about 4-5 yrs ago and lost everything and had to rebuild his entire gun inventory and reloading setup.
Frank
 
Last edited:

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,707
191
Mahoning Co.
I have often said that mostly hunters never begin to kill enough deer to really have a good opinion on how a bullet works inside an animal. This guy really would know.

Frank are many of his kills with rounds legal in Ohio?
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Yes he took 270 deer with revolvers. He only took 2 revolver kils in 2012 which was a 454 Casuall with a lifetime total of 170 with the 454 Casull. He only list year by year kills.
The other 1815 were with single shot hand cannons in every caliber you can think of none of which are legal in Ohio.
He test bullets and gives a report on each kil with a detail report of internal damage.
A list of some of the hand cannons he used this year.
.375/284, 7MM Sarum, 309 JDJ, 300 Wisper, 325 WSM.
He took his longest shot this year at 718 yrds with the 7MM Sarum and dropped it dead in it's tracks. It was done on a guest's pistol so he stated he found a new passion of long range shooting. Now this will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
Frank
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Do you know his preferred bullet in the Casull? It might be worth looking at for a ML bullet.

I will have to dig out some past year articles.
This year he used a 265 gr. discontinued bullet by Accuracy Unlimited. The 2nd was a 265 gr Swift HP.
I really have never paid much attention to his bullet reports as I am a lead bullet guy myself. All 23 deer I have taken with a pistol was with lead bullets. 22 deer with the 44 mag with a 240 or 310 gr solid. With almost a 1/2 hole going in an out I really see a need for expanding bullets. When handgun season came into Ohio almost 25 yrs ago jacketed hollowpoint pistols bullet were not dependable. Some would not expanded and some would blowup on impact and this is out of the same box of bullets.
I did take a deer couple years ago with a soft lead hollowpoint in my 45LC iron sighted Ruger. My friend cast me up some special five sided hollowpoint hole 45LC and I really liked the results. So I ordered a 2 cavity 44 mag mould with 2 differant nose plugs so I can cast either the 5 sided hollowpoint of a flat point.
When I pick up a Savage ML in 50 caliber for smokeless powder this year I hope I can make this bullet shoot in the ML. It should be a good expanding bullet.
On another note if anyone is famliar with Lee's 310 gr 44 Mag bullet. Myself and Dale a friend of mine designed that bullet so I could carry it when I was in Alaska about 20 yrs ago in brown bear country. We got it right on the 1st design. I had Lee make me up a custom mould and it just shoots great. When I got back from Alaska John Lee had a message for me to call. He wanted to change the design to make it look more of a normal design. I told him go ahead for his use but make my moulds for resale as is. He didn't change the design and it's been a great seller for Lee. I had a mould made up in the same designed bullet type in 357 caliber at 180 grs but I never put it into production and Lee hasn't either.
Frank
 
Last edited:

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
good stuff Frank! Would your full name happen to be Frank Elmer Keith? Lol

No. But I have had a good past in lead bullets. About 20 yrs ago I had a contact with Lyman Products and started a line of reproducing discontinued lead rifle bullet moulds. The aggreement from Lyman that they would produce me one mould design per month in amounts of 10 moulds each for resell.
Well that worked fine for about one year then Lyman lost interest and wouldn't get me the new designs and only would fill reorders of existing moulds already made up. So I lost intereset and didn't bring anymore new designs out and stopped buying the reorders. The only thing I never figured out was Lyman never put into production any of my top selling proven designs. They had no cost involved as they had the cherries already made.
I shipped these moulds all over the world and was still get calls from past ads of 20 yrs ago until I shutoff my landline phone and use cell phones only now.
If I wasn't enjoying my leasure time I would start the mould business back up.
Frank
 

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,707
191
Mahoning Co.
I don't have much cast bullet experience other then for my muzzleloaders. Always been more of a rifle/shotgun guy then handguns. And while I have a few big bore rifles my rifles tend to be those in which jacketed bullets work better.

Fred is the other guy on here that knows cast bullets, he uses a bunch in his lever guns.
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
I don't have much cast bullet experience other then for my muzzleloaders. Always been more of a rifle/shotgun guy then handguns. And while I have a few big bore rifles my rifles tend to be those in which jacketed bullets work better.

Fred is the other guy on here that knows cast bullets, he uses a bunch in his lever guns.

In years past I shot lead bullets in everything. The only pistol jacket bullets I ever bought is for my carry pistols.
30 yrs ago I shot NRA 100 yd rifle matches with a Rem 700 heavy barrel in 308 Win with lead bullets and took 1st place in my class every year. My 1st groups with the 308 was 7 inches at 100 yds. Through technics and load development I would clean the 100 prone match with 10X's. My friends always told me if the bullet didn't go all the way through the paper it wouldn't count.
The 1st yr I shot NRA matches my friend told me I needed a repeater to compete in the timed matches. Well don't tell Frank he can't do it. So I used my 45-70 Sharps single shot and took 1st Place in my class for the year. I would have a group of guys standing behind me to watch and I guess the helped me perform. Some of the oldtimers still talk about it. OH the good old days and they will never return.
Frank
 

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,707
191
Mahoning Co.
Oh I know cast bullets can be used for rifles. Just never interested me, or maybe I should say too many things interested me more.
 
I am not casting right now ( will before next deer season )
In my Ruger Super Redhawlk 454 and Knight inline muzzel loader

I use the Lee 300 Gr gas checked bullet ( Not lubed or gas checked for the Knight )
I cast them out of a softer alloy and they kill deer well
And yes after shooting 50 or so shots
I have some leading in the barrel

But the accurcy and proformance is great

John
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
I am not casting right now ( will before next deer season )
In my Ruger Super Redhawlk 454 and Knight inline muzzel loader

I use the Lee 300 Gr gas checked bullet ( Not lubed or gas checked for the Knight )
I cast them out of a softer alloy and they kill deer well
And yes after shooting 50 or so shots
I have some leading in the barrel

But the accurcy and proformance is great

John

Is the Lee bullet the one wioth the double crimp grooves and wide nose? If so that is the bullet my friend and I designed. It is a great shooter all these years. Too bad I never had a chance at a brown bear years ago.
Frank