Veradium Air's Taurus .357 and West Texas White-Tailed Deer

I want to share my experience of being introduced to the Varadium Air's Taurus .357 during last year's hunting season, and all that's transpired since.

Last year I was hunting with friends on a West Texas White-Tailed Deer Hunt and ended up meeting what is now a good friend (Jeremy) who was one of the guides on the hunt. While we were validating our marksmanship at the range, Jeremy pulled out his Tauru, and I was blown away! I have had several airguns over the years including a PCP, but I had no idea how far they've come along. He allowed me to fire a few rounds and I could not believe I was knocking steel plates off the chains at 100 yards!

Fast forward, I end up having Jeremy assigned to be my guide for the evening hunt. He asks me if I'd like to use his Taurus for the hunt .. and I instantly asked if we can really use that airgun to hunt? He promptly said "absolutely"! The next thing I know we were in the blind with his Taurus. My role on the hunt that weekend was to cull hunt a doe and buck. We had a doe that was slated for the cull right at 100 yards and was instructed to take it. I lined up my shot and had the amazing experience to hear the Taurus fire and just a moment later hear the 185gr Mr. Hollowpoint hit the hide of the doe. The doe moved about 3 feet and fell right there. When we were back at the camp and processing the doe it was clear the 185gr slug severed the heart in half.

The next day, Jeremy and I headed out again with the Taurus. This time there was a 7 point buck that was slated for the cull. He was at ~75 yards and was not cooperating for a broadside shot. I had a straight on shot and asked Jeremy if I should try to take him head on. He said yes, just aim for the white on the chest. I took the shot and the buck literally dropped and did not move a foot away. Again, it was amazing to hear the gun and then hear the slug hit the buck. Not being an avid deer hunter, I did not realize that a chest shot with a powder burner is not recommended due to the meat/gut damage. In this case the slug stopped somewhere after it penetrated the lungs.

All in all I was blown away with the entire experience but didn't think much more of it other than it was a great experience. Then this summer it looked like I was going to have the opportunity get back to hunt two weekends of this year's season back at the ranch. To be continued in the next post.

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Picking up where I left off. I knew that with hunting two weekends this season, I should go ahead and invest in a gun of my own. My initial research had me going down the path left handed (as that's how I shoot) bolt action .308 powder burner. I had a powder burner all picked out and something in the back of my mind said I should could call Jeremy first. I am so glad I did. We talked about several options including his Taurus. I knew I really wanted the Taurus but I was concerned about the cost compared to a power burner.

Within a week of talking with Jeremy, I was on AGN and low and behold there was a Veridium Dozer modified Bulldog for sale in the classifieds. I then reached out to Jeremy for his guidance on the gun. At this point I find out that Brian has relocated and is now living near Jeremy. He reached out to Brian and within minutes I was communicating and making the deal with John for his Bulldozer .357. I decided to have it shipped directly to Brian to finish the final tune from the Bulldozer to the Taurus. Within a couple of days I get a picture of my gun on Brian's bench from Jeremy. Then moments later I get a phone call from Brian to talk about next steps. Brian clearly stated what the next steps were and I was amazed how quickly he was able to get working on my mod. He really wanted to make sure we had it dialed in before the upcoming hunts. I think it was a week or so later that I got a call that we are good to go and that he was taking the gun over to Jeremy's. I arranged with Jeremy to get over to his place to get my hands on the Taurus.

So Jeremy had told me about his range, but I guess I couldn't appreciate it until I got to his place. When I got there I was blown away to see his 400 yard range that you shoot off of his covered porch. Once I get there, I meet his "airgun enthusiast" cousin Miles (who also has a Taurus), and Brian. They were in the process of getting 4 shot strings FPS. We were all amazed by the performance of the gun with 185gr Mr. Hollowpoints at 900, 911, 895 and 877 FPS. We had a fun evening shooting and telling stories. I had decided I would come back in a few weeks and spend a good bit of time getting comfortable with the gun.

With the short timing of ordering slugs, I ordered several hundred 171gr Proslugs in .357. Fast forward .. I get back to Jeremy's to get comfortable with the Taurus. It was amazingly accurate as we started dialing in the elevation turret with stickers for every 10 yards. As the morning progressed it seemed I was missing some accuracy. Jeremy was busy with work so it was really just me chasing what I thought was a depleted air tank. I ended up needing to leave for a work meeting. I estimate I shot ~200 rounds that morning.

I left Jeremy's that day with a bit of doubt in my accuracy. I then reached back out to Jeremy asking if he could take a look and see if there was something off on what I was doing. In the end he had similar issues and reached out to Brian. They started to investigate and they found out that I ended up getting .358 instead of .357. Brian ended up spending hours de-leading the barrel. Brian explained that the barrel really needed .357's instead of .358's and furthermore that I should be doing a quick cleaning of the barrel every 50 rounds or so.

This is now just a little over a week before my hunt. Brian went out of his way to not only get my barrel back in action but also reached out to Mr. Hollowpoint to get me enough rounds to resight the gun and have enough to hunt with the following weekend.

Below is a picture of Brian, Jeremy and Miles ..

My next post will be an update on the hunt last weekend.

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Both Brian and Jeremy went out of their way to get everything dialed in for me and when I arrived at the ranch late last week I was able dial in at the range and be ready for the White-Tailed opener Saturday morning. Again, I was on culling duty for does and bucks for the hunt. Unfortunately, Jeremy wasn't able to be on the hunt as he had commitments on his own ranch. Luckily the ranch manager had confidence in how Jeremy and his Taurus have performed in the past in addition to my couple of culls last year.

My first hunt on Saturday morning I had several doe at 65-100 yards or so but none lended to a good shot. I had a doe come heading towards us and ended up only being ~35 yards away. She gave me a good broadside shot and I was too excited and decided to use my mil-dots without a bunch of experience that close. I took the shot and had a hit that instantly dropped the doe in her tracks. Unfortunately my mil-dot calculation was off due to my lack of experience and hit her high of the kill zone. This required an additional shot for a humane kill.

The evening hunt again had several does at 100-120 yards and eventually I had a doe right at 100 yards that gave me a perfect broadside shot. I took my shot and as had happened on all previous does, it amazed me that you can hear the gun and then the slug hit. The shot was spot on and made a good hit. She ran ~30 yards and dropped. I added pictures below of the the slug deformation that was lodged just on the backside and inside of the hide.

One other thing to note .. all shots were with the stock Taurus brake and no suppressor. It is amazing that the sound level compared to a powder burner are night and day. In many cases the other deer in the area get startled for a moment but do not scatter like they do when a powder burner is shot.

A huge thanks to Brian at Veridium Air, Jeremy and Miles to make this first weekend amazing and looking forward to many more!

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Now those were some fantastic experiences you had there!

I've been tempted to take one my Bulldogs up to Michigan and do a deer hunt. I have to look at the regulations again, as both of my Bulldogs are fairly stock, save a stronger hammer spring.

Thanks so much for sharing!
in michigan you just have to use a 35cal or bigger we dont have a power limit
 
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