Ah but the growing season is still Young. My dang sniper rifle got a casing hung in the chamber and wont come out. It is a full metal jacket and a ram rod wont touch it. May have to retire this gun as it never wanted to load correctly from the get go. Bolt kept wanting to hang up and would not load freely like a good bolt action should. It is a model 700 Remington .223 bolt action. You may laugh and ask Why so small a gun for shooting deer but I will tell You the reasons this is the perfect caliber. Cheap bullets, little recoil for shooting at multiple targets quickly, flat shooting gun, my dad as far out as 600 yards with hardly raising the crosshairs. Does not have a lot of knock down power but when You want the deer to run out of the field so You don't have to pick them up then it is perfect. Of course we drop may of them right where they stand but we are mostly trying to gut shoot them. You can tell You hit them when they run if You hear the bullet hit them or you see their tail twisting around in circles when they take off. Then the buzzards lining the trees a few hours later is always the final confirmation. We have some of the fattest buzzards around down here.CF