GreeneMachine

....ok, well not really. But maybe my favorite! Got him on our first evening out. 560 yds with a 7mm, 168 berger vld. This round leaves holes...of the large variety!! Big thanks to my coues slaying brochacho, Mr. Long. Couldn't have done this one without you! We'll laugh at this one looking back at it years from now.

This Lilly guy is my hero!!! Lol

Crazy symmetrical. Great deer!!

Man, y'all straight up GET IT DONE every year. Tons of respect for you guys. Congrats.

Appreciate the compliments, fellas!

It's probably about golf ball size. Maybe slightly bigger. But it seems to do it every time. My hunting buddy and his wife have used it for 2 years and every animal has the same hole. Entry and exit holes are solid every time. I was using an accubond for years and the hole it created is nothing like this VLD. Almost lost a 100" deer because the accubond was going straight threw deer with hardly any damage, no blood trail. The VLD damages. I'll take the chance of meat damage over a lost deer all day.

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IMO the most important factor in being successful at taking big animals is time spent in the field. Time in the field before and during your hunt. Being in shape undoubtedly helps you stay in the field longer without discomfort. Not saying being in shape makes you a better hunter. Plenty of fat dudes are great hunters and plenty of Cameron Hanes wannabes can't hunt. But being in shape definitely makes it more comfortable to be whatever kind of hunter you are for a longer period of time. Even a broken clock is right twice a day!

That's an awesome typical archery buck!!

Maybe she ate the entire buck and you just caught her licking the last bone dry!

Second to bottom kinda looks like horned coral. Pretty cool!

I'd enjoy seeing a line up of the deer you and Justin have taken these past few years. That'd be an impressive wall!

You two and your bad a$$ bucks. Very impressive! Congrats.

300 grain bullet...wowsers!! What caliber?

I said for years that id never switch from the accubond. That's cause I used 180 grains on everything and notta single animal took a step after being hit with it. However, I started noticing that there was also never much damage to the animals, which was great as long as they drop in their tracks. Not great if you're trying to track. Maybe it's just me but it seemed like the Accubonds were going straight through the deer. Saw what the Berger vlds do to a deer and I'm switched for good. That vld can leave a massive hole. Almost lost a 100"+ wt last year cause there was zero blood after being hit with an accubond. I'll take some meat damage from a vld over that scenario any day!

I just finished a bunch of load testing for my 7mag using 168g vld. If you email the customer support address from bergers web site they will send you all the recommended loads (no need to buy their reloading manual). In my research, it seemed RL22, H1000 and Retumbo were some of the most commonly used powders. I settled on 71.0gr of Retumbo. I'm getting just under 2900fps from my 24" barrel. You could prob get that bullet going a bit over 3000fps pretty easily. I settled where I'm at because it's shooting so well. When using the vlds, the seating depth is important. Berger will send you the intel on how to find the right seating depth for your particular rifle. I tested the way they recommended and 0.04" difference made a noticeable difference. My best seating depth turned out to be 0.01" off the lands. Most important, that vld will slap a deer! That's why I switched to it. I haven't downed anything with it myself yet, but the last two coues that my bud took with it had nice holes in them!

Disagree with ya partner. Missing is part of the game. Happens to the best, most ethical hunters out there. No one likes it, but it happens.

You and your crew impress me. Can't imagine many fellas walking around that have put down the type of bucks you guys have past couple of years. Absolutely not shocked at all that you come up with these studs each year...I've heard through the grapevine how hard y'all work for em. Congrats...that's about as sexy a buck as I've seen...(alright, done stroking you now!).

It's also Women's Equality Day...I'm not even gonna say it!

Good luck on the draw tjhunt2. Man, can't imagine waiting 40 yrs for a tag! Personally, I'd prob stress myself out so bad if I got drawn in your situation that it'd be hard to really enjoy the hunt...would be nervous I'd mess it all up on the big one! But I'd manage!!!! Fingers crossed for you!

Imperial case sizing wax! Sounds simple and insignificant, but it's the bees knees!!

I don't comment too much on gear recommendations because there's a million opinions. But I always put my two cents in about bivy sacks. I'll never use one again. Had a late December tag few years ago and planned a backpack hunt. Bought the best "waterproof" bivy REI sold. Forecast called for a storm the first night and I was excited (for the deer activity). One of the worst nights of my life. Storm came through with rain/sleet/snow. Once your zipped in your bivy, your basically stuck until it stops raining. If you open it up, your sleeping bag and whatever gets wet. This particular storm didn't want to stop. And go figure the bivy starts to leak. In two spots. Now my down bag is slowly getting wet. It's 10 degrees out and down doesn't do well wet. I've got a horrible headache but can't get out of the bivy to access my meds in my pack. I get so wet and cold from the leaking I start worrying about my well being. Started to think about bolting back to the truck in the middle of the night. But I didn't know if all my thick warm weather clothes were drenched (again, because they are in my pack and I can't open the dang bivy to check). So making a run back to the truck in drenched gear wouldn't have been safe in 10 degree weather at night. My option was to lay there in misery all night. Couldn't sleep a wink. My suggestion, compare the weight of one of those super light backpacker tents. They literally weigh nothing these days. Well worth it. Gives you space to have your pack with you and out of the weather at night. Room for your rifle or bow. Bivy sound cool and some like them a lot. Never enjoyed them myself.

Whatchu all talking about...archery season starts in bout 5 weeks. Sure is fun to get out so early but man it's tough roughing this 85 degree weather here in SoCal. Some days I can hardly stand it. Jimmyc, I know exactly how you feel brotha!

Did it have large talons?

You see any bears?