Dieselbuilder
Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2011
- Messages
- 24
Today was our 35th anniversary, so I didn't get up and go hunting this morning. We didn't have any special plans and I was just setting here messing on the computer about 2:00 and told the wife that instead of setting here I should get out and try and get a deer. She told me to go ahead, she would have supper waiting when I got home. :biggrin:
I grab my gear and head out to the ranch. I get there about 2:45 get geared up and start up this brushy draw. I get about half way up the draw and this danged rabbit busts out of the thicket right under my feet and I cuss... when I look up again there is a buck standing on the rim of the draw about 30 yards away.
I try and slowly bring up the rifle and he looks at me and moves out smartly. I head up the side of the draw and after climbing about 30 feet get to the level he was on. I look down to the end of the draw and he is standing there down a tunnel of branches. I lean up against an oak tree, take a breath and squeeze one off. When I get the scope back on him, he has looked up and started to walk off, I reload and he walks in a small circle and stops and stands there. Unfortunately he is now at the edge of the tunnel and his body is covered so I take up another sight and try for a neck shot. I squeeze another round off and when I get the scope on him this time all I see is feet kicking.
I call my son to bring his pickup out and help me get him since I am not going to put him in the back of my Mountaineer.
I walk around the end of the draw and move up to him and this is what I find.
Very nice 8 point. Missing about 3" of one tine due to fighting but my first ever deer!
On further examination, I evidently did hit him with the first shot as the only bullet hole was on the left side as he was when I first shot and the bullet recovered under the skin on the right side. Since he had turned and presented me his right side when I took the neck shot, he must have collapsed just as I shot causing me to miss the neck shot.
Not an extreme long range shot, I don't have a rangefinder yet but I took the coords of where I shot and where he was and using Google Earth it came up with 201 yards.
I grab my gear and head out to the ranch. I get there about 2:45 get geared up and start up this brushy draw. I get about half way up the draw and this danged rabbit busts out of the thicket right under my feet and I cuss... when I look up again there is a buck standing on the rim of the draw about 30 yards away.
I try and slowly bring up the rifle and he looks at me and moves out smartly. I head up the side of the draw and after climbing about 30 feet get to the level he was on. I look down to the end of the draw and he is standing there down a tunnel of branches. I lean up against an oak tree, take a breath and squeeze one off. When I get the scope back on him, he has looked up and started to walk off, I reload and he walks in a small circle and stops and stands there. Unfortunately he is now at the edge of the tunnel and his body is covered so I take up another sight and try for a neck shot. I squeeze another round off and when I get the scope on him this time all I see is feet kicking.
I call my son to bring his pickup out and help me get him since I am not going to put him in the back of my Mountaineer.
I walk around the end of the draw and move up to him and this is what I find.
Very nice 8 point. Missing about 3" of one tine due to fighting but my first ever deer!
On further examination, I evidently did hit him with the first shot as the only bullet hole was on the left side as he was when I first shot and the bullet recovered under the skin on the right side. Since he had turned and presented me his right side when I took the neck shot, he must have collapsed just as I shot causing me to miss the neck shot.
Not an extreme long range shot, I don't have a rangefinder yet but I took the coords of where I shot and where he was and using Google Earth it came up with 201 yards.