Jim Taylor
Freedom Arms .475 and Whitetail Deer
Tuesday, November 01, 2022, 07:12

Back some years ago at the Shootists Holiday Bob and Wayne Baker brought a truckload of Freedom Arms guns and let us play with them. They were various calibers and among them was their .475 outfitted with a scope. Now I personally have not cared much for scopes on a sixgun but since this was a fivegun I did give it a workout, especially on long distance rocks.

Somehow I ended up with it or one like it for Deer Season later in the year. I don't remember how it all worked out. I may have borrowed it and kept it for 4 months or so. I know I tried a lot of different handloads in it and settled on LBT's 325 gr. WFN bullet for hunting. With the lighter bullet and the weight of the scope the gun did not recoil as fast as with the heavier bullets. Plus the 325 gr. bullet was really accurate in that gun!

Deer Season found me with my hunting partner Mike on a nice large wooded section of land in Missouri. Mike was using a Rossi .357 Magnum levergun with 140 gr. JHP ammo and I was carrying the FA .475 with the 325 gr. ammo.

We worked our way slowly through the woods, keeping about 50 yards apart. At one point I was lower than Mike, working down a small draw that led into a little creek running through the small valley. I saw Mike raise up his rifle and at the same time I heard deer running ahead of us. They broke out of cover running across the small valley and started up the hill on the far side. I heard Mike's gunshot and saw one of the deer kick and then run for cover. I moved on down into the valley and started up toward the hill the deer had gone up when 3 does stopped on top of the hill about 40 or 50 yards in front of me. I put the crosshairs on the nearest one and fired. As the pistol recoiled I saw the deer make a huge leap forward .. then it was out of sight.

I worked my way up the hill and saw on my left a nice buck laying in the leaves. It was the deer Mike had shot. Continuing on up the hill I came to the top where the deer had been standing and looked around. About 15 feet from where I was standing the doe lay, half buried in the deep leaves.

The shot was uphill and had broken the left front leg, angled up through the chest cavity and exited the point of her right shoulder. The exit wound was massive.

Here she is in the truck after I drug her out of the woods.

After skinning her.

You could lay a golf ball in the exit wound! Internal damage was massive.

I don't know where the photo of Mike's buck is anymore. The 140 gr. JHP from the rifle did an excellent job.

Some time later I sent the .475 back to Freedom Arms. I know I wrote a few articles on it ... at least one for the old Gun Week publication I wrote for .. and I think for JD's Sixgunner. It was a beautiful gun and very accurate .. like Freedom produces. The thing that stuck in my head was the massive wound that flat bullet produced.