Deer Season 2025 - I'm Excited but Not Completely Ready

 Who would have thought that having a full time job and being a Dad to a 1 year old would be time consuming? Sarcasm aside, I managed to get my lever actions zeroed up and validated for rifle season here in Georgia. I now have access to a new piece of tucked away land I am able to hunt owned by family so I'm able to use a suppressor without issues. The Marlin 1894 CST will be the primary critter-getter for the start of the season. 

If you have read anything else from this year, you might recall that I had intended to take a Taurus 66 with a red dot out for hunting. I still do, however, I failed to follow through with the primary tenant of handgun hunting. I failed to practice, practice, practice. 

I did manage to work up a load of 16.6 and 16.7 grains of H110 over the Hornady 158 grain XTP. The recorded velocities at the time of testing were 1242 and 1239 FPS with the 16.7 actually being slower on the average for some reason. The 16.6 grain load had an extreme spread of 36 FPS and the 16.7 gr load was at 37 FPS for the ES. I have concerns about the 16.7 loads and specifically if I made the correctly. They're more in line with my previous testing of 16.6 grains and not the previous 16.7 grain version.

The velocities aren't as good as the factory Hornady Custom with the same bullets but they're still usable speeds for what I want. I did make the decision to replace the Burris Fastfire 3 8 MOA dot with the Vortex Venom 3 MOA dot I had on hand after swapping the optic on another pistol.

I still need to confirm zero with the Taurus, Venom and16.6 grain loads before I start using that. The season opens in less than 24 hours. I may still get a chance to deer hunt with a handgun but I absolutely can squirrel hunt! I think I got my old High Standard .22 revolver zeroed with some CCI Standard and the PAC-LITE with new BSA pistol scope is zeroed too. I just need to find the holster for the MKIII I have somewhere.

Anyway, I'm mostly ready. I do wish I had taken more time to get the Taurus sorted out but really I just need to zero it and practice. I can hit up the local range one afternoon to zero.