The Freedom Arms 475 Goes Deer Hunting
Daylight of opening day found me setting under a tree in woods, waiting on
a deer. I was hunting with the Freedom Arms .475 Linebaugh for the first time and
was hoping I could connect with it. During testing Mike Rocole had sent me a bunch
of 325 gr. LBT LFN bullets and these proved to be real accurate in the 5-shooter. I
worked up a load that ran them a little over 1500 fps and figured it would work pretty
good if I could get the sights on a deer.
I was hunting with my partner Mike Harmon (of the Freistatt Prairie) who
was using a Rossi .357 Magnum levergun for the first time. We both had high hopes.
We figured for the deer in this part of the country a 140 gr. JHP would be about
right in the short levergun. These crank along better than 2000 fps out of the Model
92 clone.
I sat under the tree and waited until about 9 AM when my butt was numb. I looked back up toward the truck and was grateful to see the blaze orange of a hunter there. Since no one else was hunting this piece of property I knew Mike had gone back to the truck to get some coffee and that was all the excuse I needed to go get some myself.
Mike and I talked over plans and decided to work down the small valley that ran to the east of us. I would work the north ridge and Mike the south one. Maybe we could push something between us if nothing else. The wind was in our faces and I liked that. The woods are very dry here and even going slow you sound like a herd of elephants.
Working my way down the ridge I tried to go slow and watch carefully. In the thick timber a deer can take a few steps and be completely out of sight. Even though Mike and I were less than 300 yards apart there was no way we could see each other, but I figured we were going at about the same pace. About 10 AM I came down the hill a bit to where I could see into the bottom of the valley and had just set down and leaned against a tree when I heard Mike's rifle go off. I saw a deer run downhill into some thick brush and by the way the brush thrashed I could tell it was down.
Just then 3 more ran out to my left and down into the bottom. I lined up the crosshairs through the brush on one and touched the trigger. At the shot the deer took off running uphill on my left. I stood up, moved to where I could lean against a tree and track them. They ran about 50 yards and stopped, looking around. I had a pretty good view of one and put the crosshairs on it and fired. At the shot the deer stared directly at me and then took off again, uphill.
I ran uphill myself to where I could see them and they were going across in front of me about 70 yards out. The woods opened up a bit here and I did not have any brush in the way as I watched through the scope. After a bit they stopped again and one was directly in my view. I thought about the last shots and figured I must be shooting over. I put the crosshairs low on the chest of the doe, directly on her front leg. At the shot the gun recoiled past my head but I could see she went down.
I watched for a bit to make sure she did not move, then went back downhill. I knew Mike had hit the deer he shot at but I was not sure he had seen where it went. When I got down to where I could see him he had just come across it. It was a nice spike buck. I left him to clean it and worked my way back uphill to the doe. Grabbing her legs I pulled her downhill again into the valley bottom where I could clean her.
Once they were cleaned we had about a quarter mile drag out of the woods to a gasline road where I could get the 4WD in. Mike waited with the deer while I went and brought it around, and it was all over but the skinning.
The .357 Magnum worked very well. The shot was in the right side behind the shoulder, clipping the heart and punching the lungs. It exited the off side, leaving about a dime-size hole. The deer did not go more than 30 feet after being hit. The doe I shot was hit in the left leg shattering it completely. The bullet went up through the chest (it was an uphill shot) and exited the point of the right shoulder. The exit wound was massive! The exit hole in the hide was large. The wound in the meat was larger. Massive almost-instant incapacitation.
While it might seem like over-kill, I sure appreciate the accuracy of the Freedom Arms .475 Linebaugh. So far all my handloads and any of the factory loads I have fired through it are very accurate. I told the guys as Freedom Arms I was going to load some .454" diameter bullets in it just so I could have an inaccurate load to write about. They did not seem amused.