Well I went and hunted a new area that my uncle Buck had hunted years ago. We had fun, but man there were so few deer out there it was crazy. We finally smartened up and started hunting closer to some pivots and found a bunch of young deer. I put the stalk on one really big buck, but he got into the private and decided to stay there. On the last morning I hiked back into a draw I had found lots of smaller bucks in, to get my family some meat. I was all set up to smoke this buck at 330yds as soon as he was well into the BLM, but plans changed.
My uncle shot his forky back on the other side of the butte and the 3 bucks in front of me started moving a lot quicker. I had to reposition and let out a loud whistle to stop them. The best buck turned broadside (very light quarter away) and gave me a shot. With all the commotion my heart rate had gone way up, but watching my crosshairs floating in his vitals I decided I was steady enough to start squeezing. BOOM. Bullet traveled 475 yards and buck didn't go 15
I was pretty excited for the clean kill and meat for my family, but of course a 4 point had to wonder by with 20 does while I was breaking my buck down haha. Rifle is a Bergara Ridge in 7 RM. Handloaded 162 ELD-X shot 1/4 (C to C) group week before the hunt. The bullet performed well on the buck, going in the back edge of near shoulder with minimal bloodshot, the front half of the bullet blew up in his rib cage, and part of it went out a small hole after breaking the far shoulder blade. Right before this hunt I had the idea to use a label maker and put wedge cut numbers on my top turret (3, 4,5 etc). It was great in the heat of the moment to not need my drop chart, and it was way cheaper than a custom turret
My uncle shot his forky back on the other side of the butte and the 3 bucks in front of me started moving a lot quicker. I had to reposition and let out a loud whistle to stop them. The best buck turned broadside (very light quarter away) and gave me a shot. With all the commotion my heart rate had gone way up, but watching my crosshairs floating in his vitals I decided I was steady enough to start squeezing. BOOM. Bullet traveled 475 yards and buck didn't go 15
I was pretty excited for the clean kill and meat for my family, but of course a 4 point had to wonder by with 20 does while I was breaking my buck down haha. Rifle is a Bergara Ridge in 7 RM. Handloaded 162 ELD-X shot 1/4 (C to C) group week before the hunt. The bullet performed well on the buck, going in the back edge of near shoulder with minimal bloodshot, the front half of the bullet blew up in his rib cage, and part of it went out a small hole after breaking the far shoulder blade. Right before this hunt I had the idea to use a label maker and put wedge cut numbers on my top turret (3, 4,5 etc). It was great in the heat of the moment to not need my drop chart, and it was way cheaper than a custom turret
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