By Corey Spoonhour

February 17, 2020

This was NOT the first buck I’ve harvested NOR the biggest, however, there were many firsts in harvesting this buck. This is the FIRST buck that I rattled in, my FIRST hunt with my FIRST Henry lever-action rifle, and the FIRST time I’ve harvested any game animal with Hornady ammunition.

First the gun - I purchased this gun, my first lever action and first Henry rifle in 2018; a Henry Big Boy Lever-Action in .44 Remington Magnum/44 Spec with a Leupold VX Freedom 2-7x33mm scope.

Although I’m own mostly Remington firearms and ammunition, I came across Hornady’s 44 Mag 225 gr FTX® LEVERevolution® ammunition and thought it might be a good fit for the Henry tubular magazine given the FTX tips and great reviews..boy was I wrong!...my Henry LOVES this ammo. I zeroed the Henry at 75 yds and was shooting sub MOA groups in less than 10 shots!

Finally, my first hunt with the Henry and Hornady ammo. I slowly still hunted on a cool quiet day in late morning to the edge of a wooded creek bottom and took a seat on the ground near an old stone fence. I lightly rattled my rattling horns and immediately heard a deer start moving toward me through the thick brush in the creek bottom. The buck stopped in the bottom and I saw the top of a maple sapling start to shake as the buck attacked it with his horns. I gently clicked my rattling horns together a few more times and quickly laid them down. The buck started to flank me and circled to my left while coming up over the edge of the bank. It only took a moment to level the crosshairs behind the buck’s front shoulder and the bullet quickly dispatched the buck resulting in a great FIRST hunt with my FIRST Henry rifle and FIRST use of Hornady ammunition!