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On Thursday, October 28, 2021, I slept in until 6AM. With no hurry I got the IvyX and applied it liberally all over. About 6:40 I was on the freeway headed to my favorite hunting spot. After some casserole breakfast at the Chevron station near my hunting area I arrived at the parking spot by 7:30.
As soon as I was up the steep place leaving the freeway I loaded the Weatherby Mark V Ultralight six lug 8mm Coyle. The barrel is a Pac-Nor 6.5mm 24" bored out. Before I even got to the fence at the bottom of The Main Gorge I saw a deer up to the left. It was less than 100 yards away near the bottom of the draw. I threw up the rifle and could see it was a legal fork buck through the Bushnell Elite 6500 4 ½-30X50 set on 4 1/2X. Alas, there was no shot. Between us, the hunter and the quarry, was a huge poison oak bush. It is at least ten to twelve feet wide and maybe six or seven feet high. Realizing the deer was already looking at me I figured I'd make a move on it despite not working with a doe on an earlier hunt. I moved up to the right to get above the bush. The deer didn't move. I again put the scope on it to see if I could pull off an offhand shot. I excitedly thought, "This is doable
! My old man quivers are under control this morning
!" As usual the reticle started slightly left of the target. Why? I don't know. As the reticle hit the left shoulder on the quartering to me buck, the rifle seemed to fire of its own volition. In the scope I saw the buck drop and disappear by sliding into the draw. Muzzle brakes are great
! The Hammer Hunter 8mm 198 grain bullet starting at 3,054 feet per second from the seven pound rifle did its job. I checked my watch: 7:40AM. I thanked the Lord for the deer and the success. Then I checked the distance to where I thought it was when I fired: seventy-one yards. My hands were really shaking a lot as I put the Sig Kilo 200 rangefinder away
! That distance used to be a chip shot. Now that I'm old it is quite an accomplishment. Seventy-seven is old, isn't it?
When I saw the buck up close I was surprised at the odd antlers. I didn't notice that in the scope. I measured the buck back to belly: 14". The butcher told me it was a typical size and very normal blacktail buck: sixty-seven pounds.
I couldn't find the entrance wound. During skinning I was pleased to see the entrance was where I aimed. The entrance was low where the front of the left shoulder joins the chest. The exit wound was about the middle of the right shoulder. Forty-five minutes later I was dragging the gutted deer to the pickup. Again I thanked the Lord for the deer and my opportunity to work out at the gym. I was able to easily keep it under control on the steep bank so it did not slide into the drainage ditch coming out of The Main Gorge. Several years ago I installed a small winch in the back of the pickup to drag deer up a plywood sheet I kept for that purpose. Since working out in the gym the plywood and winch are gone. Now I pick them up and put them into it.