This month was my first time ever hunting... Ever.

[StumpGrinder]

I grew up in the Los Angeles area and never had a hunting upbringing. I'm 41 now and for the first time ever, went hunting. I went all by myself.

I'm very interested in emergency and survival preparedness, hence my interest now. I wanted to try hunting, at least once for the learning experience it would be.

Got a doe tag for Pronghorn in East-Central Colorado. I had to do the hunter safety course 100% online because the state stopped allowing in-person training and they allowed purely online training. I have a lot of coworkers who hunt and I gleaned a bunch of info off of them, including borrowing a DVD set about how to debone in the field (which was very helpful).

I won a NRA sweepstakes a year and a bit ago, so I sold most of the guns and built a 300 PRC rifle. I wanted a hybrid hunting and long range rifle. I knew this was far more power than was needed for Pronghorn, but I figured I'd have to shoot them from 400 yrds plus, so I figured it'd do. I don't have a lot of money with four little boys and wife wholly depending on my pay check.

I bought a pack from Bass Pro. I also splurged and got the Sig 3000 rangefinding binoculars and an accompanying Garmin Foretrex Applied Ballistics version. After practice and zeroing, I was ready to shoot long range. (This site was invaluable for building that rifle.)

On the first day of my late rifle hunt (1 Dec) I went out on a cold very windy day. I packed too heavy and struggled hiking the 7 or so miles. Never saw a Pronghorn. The worst part was my eyes were shredded by the constant blowing dust.

A few day later, I tried a different spot and immediately spotted a herd. I knew they had good eyesight but I figured I'd be able to get within 400 yards of them. Boy was I wrong! They wanted to maintain 1000 to 1100 yards at all times. I wasn't stupid enough to just keep pushing them (I knew being by myself that would never work) so I tried other strategies. One of my tries I circled about a mile around them down in a ravine they couldn't see. I emerged and had to keep very low to get to a ridge to see them. I hunched-walked without my pack 75 yards and literally crawled another 175 yards (it took forever!)... with my rifle draped across my forearms in a low crawl at times. When I emerged over the ridge, I saw all of the herd was bedded down except one doe which was a bit over 600 yards away. I was taking my time however, and very shortly that doe bed down and was out of sight from the low grass there. I could still see a lot of the other herd's heads popped up on alert, though they weren't standing, and farther at 700+ yards. I figured I'd try to shoot one of their heads. But it was a long shot, I didn't know where their brain cavity was, and I was having a hard time with the shadows telling if I was looking at a doe or buck. I was just unexperienced. About 20 minutes into this they all stood up! I looked for a good doe, but I didn't realize I would only have a few seconds to shoot. They all started running off before I was ready.... Lesson learned: when they stand like that I may only have seconds to shoot! Turns out they hadn't seen me, but rather saw another hunter hundreds of yards behind me walking by. That hunter probably had no idea they were even there. So that was discouraging. I hiked and crawled exactly 11 miles that day, according to my GPS. While hiking back to the truck I had passed by a Pronghorn skull and so I inspected it and learned the brain was a bit behind and at the bottom of the eye socket. This knowledge would prove valuable the next time I went out.

Days later I went out again, arriving to the parking spot with an hour before sunrise (with hopes I could hike the 2.5 miles or so to get into position where I figured later hunters would push the animals toward me.) The sun had come up about 10 minutes before and I wasn't really on alert while walking to my spot when I suddenly saw heads popped up right in front of me at a VERY close distance...close enough where I knew I didn't need to bother with ranging and dialing in my scope. I smoothly got down and loaded a cartridge. They were now all standing and starting into a quick walk (like they hadn't yet decided they wanted to run). I had read somewhere that often the matriarch leader of a herd will be large and take the lead when there was danger. I set my scope on a lead doe and because of what I read, the fact that she looked very large, and since I figured I only had seconds left to fire, I didn't bother looking at any other animals. She was walking right-to-left and I led my scope and waited for her to walk into it. (It was here that I could see she had a tracking collar on and it crossed my mind that I wasn't 100% sure I could kill a collared animal; I had a dozen arguments go through my head in a second and all seemed to say it would be okay.) I wasn't nervous, just methodically hurrying to shoot.

I shot and immediately looked up from above my rifle. While all others started in a run, my doe had its rump on the ground and was perched up with its front legs. I knew I had hit it, but not in the heart-lung area that I intended. My immediate thought was I needed to shoot it again to stop its suffering. I quickly loaded another round, and this time took five seconds to range its head... 165 yards. The correction is instantly displayed in my binos (it communicates with the Garmin via bloothtooth) and so I made the 0.1mil correction on the scope. I aimed for the brain cavity and about 30 seconds after I had shot the first round, I pulled the trigger again. I looked up and the animal was out of sight; I knew it had fallen. I was pleased I remembered to put my rifle on safe before moving again (Something I figured would be easy to forget and so I really wanted to ensure I got that little detail down.)

Upon inspection, and while cleaning and deboning, I learned that for whatever reason, my first round had hit and destroyed the spine about 2/3 of the way back. It also ripped open a large, 1 foot tear in the hide. It had bled a large pool down its side. Unfortunately, this made a good portion of the backstrap and tenderloins unrecoverable. The second shot was perfectly placed and I felt contented that I was able to swiftly end its life. But the scene was grisly! It still had its snout, but there was no "face" to the animal left. The 300 PRC blew away all brain, eyes and skull. It was just a cavity. Because of this, I'm not sure if I should post pictures or not; it was my best to be humane, but like I said, it is very grisly.

So that was my first time hunting. I learned a lot and reverently harvested the meat...not even a month ago. I don't know if cleaning and beboning it immediately helped, but I was pleased there was no prominent taste to the meat... All very mild. The first thing I did when I got home was to read about collared animals. I learned it is fine to shoot them but Colorado Parks & Wildlife prefers you remove the collar and bring it to them. I didn't have a socket wrench or pliers and didn't know this anyway, so I had left it, marking the exact spot with my GPS. I called them up and fortunately, they were fine with me just telling them the location.

After grinding and processing the meat, I ended up with 29 lbs.

I doubt this post will be of much interest to anyone else, but I just felt I should record my experience... If nothing else, for myself. Currently I am leaning towards hunting again next year.

As many have already said the head shot at that distance is a tiff target. Congratulations on a good result. The first shot was probably a slight flinch in your excitement or she moved that much in the time the bullet traveled to her. The 30 calibers are great although a little much for animals the size of pronghorn. You didn't say what size and type of bullet you used and that can be an important factor especially when hunting for meat. Meat hunting is all I do and I usually aim straight up the front leg when standing broadside about 1/3 up on the body. On whitetail I usually wait for the animal to stop but I have never hunted pronghorn. Anyway congratulations and welcome to the hunting world.

 

[5gauss]

I try not to risk head shots. I have found deer post season suffering horribly with their jaws shot off, noses shot off. Just to small of a target. Besides, it is very messy.
Good on you for learning about hunting and going after it, even butchering. That is quite an accomplishment!
It will get easier, but no less exciting.

Just behind the shoulder = dead animal with any good bullet

 

[tooth doc]

I grew up in the Los Angeles area and never had a hunting upbringing. I'm 41 now and for the first time ever, went hunting. I went all by myself.

I'm very interested in emergency and survival preparedness, hence my interest now. I wanted to try hunting, at least once for the learning experience it would be.

Got a doe tag for Pronghorn in East-Central Colorado. I had to do the hunter safety course 100% online because the state stopped allowing in-person training and they allowed purely online training. I have a lot of coworkers who hunt and I gleaned a bunch of info off of them, including borrowing a DVD set about how to debone in the field (which was very helpful).

I won a NRA sweepstakes a year and a bit ago, so I sold most of the guns and built a 300 PRC rifle. I wanted a hybrid hunting and long range rifle. I knew this was far more power than was needed for Pronghorn, but I figured I'd have to shoot them from 400 yrds plus, so I figured it'd do. I don't have a lot of money with four little boys and wife wholly depending on my pay check.

I bought a pack from Bass Pro. I also splurged and got the Sig 3000 rangefinding binoculars and an accompanying Garmin Foretrex Applied Ballistics version. After practice and zeroing, I was ready to shoot long range. (This site was invaluable for building that rifle.)

On the first day of my late rifle hunt (1 Dec) I went out on a cold very windy day. I packed too heavy and struggled hiking the 7 or so miles. Never saw a Pronghorn. The worst part was my eyes were shredded by the constant blowing dust.

A few day later, I tried a different spot and immediately spotted a herd. I knew they had good eyesight but I figured I'd be able to get within 400 yards of them. Boy was I wrong! They wanted to maintain 1000 to 1100 yards at all times. I wasn't stupid enough to just keep pushing them (I knew being by myself that would never work) so I tried other strategies. One of my tries I circled about a mile around them down in a ravine they couldn't see. I emerged and had to keep very low to get to a ridge to see them. I hunched-walked without my pack 75 yards and literally crawled another 175 yards (it took forever!)... with my rifle draped across my forearms in a low crawl at times. When I emerged over the ridge, I saw all of the herd was bedded down except one doe which was a bit over 600 yards away. I was taking my time however, and very shortly that doe bed down and was out of sight from the low grass there. I could still see a lot of the other herd's heads popped up on alert, though they weren't standing, and farther at 700+ yards. I figured I'd try to shoot one of their heads. But it was a long shot, I didn't know where their brain cavity was, and I was having a hard time with the shadows telling if I was looking at a doe or buck. I was just unexperienced. About 20 minutes into this they all stood up! I looked for a good doe, but I didn't realize I would only have a few seconds to shoot. They all started running off before I was ready.... Lesson learned: when they stand like that I may only have seconds to shoot! Turns out they hadn't seen me, but rather saw another hunter hundreds of yards behind me walking by. That hunter probably had no idea they were even there. So that was discouraging. I hiked and crawled exactly 11 miles that day, according to my GPS. While hiking back to the truck I had passed by a Pronghorn skull and so I inspected it and learned the brain was a bit behind and at the bottom of the eye socket. This knowledge would prove valuable the next time I went out.

Days later I went out again, arriving to the parking spot with an hour before sunrise (with hopes I could hike the 2.5 miles or so to get into position where I figured later hunters would push the animals toward me.) The sun had come up about 10 minutes before and I wasn't really on alert while walking to my spot when I suddenly saw heads popped up right in front of me at a VERY close distance...close enough where I knew I didn't need to bother with ranging and dialing in my scope. I smoothly got down and loaded a cartridge. They were now all standing and starting into a quick walk (like they hadn't yet decided they wanted to run). I had read somewhere that often the matriarch leader of a herd will be large and take the lead when there was danger. I set my scope on a lead doe and because of what I read, the fact that she looked very large, and since I figured I only had seconds left to fire, I didn't bother looking at any other animals. She was walking right-to-left and I led my scope and waited for her to walk into it. (It was here that I could see she had a tracking collar on and it crossed my mind that I wasn't 100% sure I could kill a collared animal; I had a dozen arguments go through my head in a second and all seemed to say it would be okay.) I wasn't nervous, just methodically hurrying to shoot.

I shot and immediately looked up from above my rifle. While all others started in a run, my doe had its rump on the ground and was perched up with its front legs. I knew I had hit it, but not in the heart-lung area that I intended. My immediate thought was I needed to shoot it again to stop its suffering. I quickly loaded another round, and this time took five seconds to range its head... 165 yards. The correction is instantly displayed in my binos (it communicates with the Garmin via bloothtooth) and so I made the 0.1mil correction on the scope. I aimed for the brain cavity and about 30 seconds after I had shot the first round, I pulled the trigger again. I looked up and the animal was out of sight; I knew it had fallen. I was pleased I remembered to put my rifle on safe before moving again (Something I figured would be easy to forget and so I really wanted to ensure I got that little detail down.)

Upon inspection, and while cleaning and deboning, I learned that for whatever reason, my first round had hit and destroyed the spine about 2/3 of the way back. It also ripped open a large, 1 foot tear in the hide. It had bled a large pool down its side. Unfortunately, this made a good portion of the backstrap and tenderloins unrecoverable. The second shot was perfectly placed and I felt contented that I was able to swiftly end its life. But the scene was grisly! It still had its snout, but there was no "face" to the animal left. The 300 PRC blew away all brain, eyes and skull. It was just a cavity. Because of this, I'm not sure if I should post pictures or not; it was my best to be humane, but like I said, it is very grisly.

So that was my first time hunting. I learned a lot and reverently harvested the meat...not even a month ago. I don't know if cleaning and beboning it immediately helped, but I was pleased there was no prominent taste to the meat... All very mild. The first thing I did when I got home was to read about collared animals. I learned it is fine to shoot them but Colorado Parks & Wildlife prefers you remove the collar and bring it to them. I didn't have a socket wrench or pliers and didn't know this anyway, so I had left it, marking the exact spot with my GPS. I called them up and fortunately, they were fine with me just telling them the location.

After grinding and processing the meat, I ended up with 29 lbs.

I doubt this post will be of much interest to anyone else, but I just felt I should record my experience... If nothing else, for myself. Currently I am leaning towards hunting again next year.

Congrats, you are well on your way! I admire your research and prep. All good choices. I almost never try a head shot, the behind the shoulder heart lung shot destroys almost zero meat and is a much surer shot, esp. on a trophy animal. Hope you enjoy the fruits of your labor, and the sense of satisfaction that comes with procuring the meat for your table!

 

[StumpGrinder]

My goodness, you all are very kind; thank you for your encouraging and kind words. As well as your tips for the future.

I should say that my coworkers are actually really close friends and they would definitely hunt with me, but I wasn't begging them and it was a very busy time of year. One who wanted to go with me had to take his boys and a friend out first. I didn't think I needed to wait, so I told him I'd give it a try and if he was available when I still hadn't gotten an animal, I'd be up for his help. They were all very helpful and excited for me to try hunting for the first time.

Thanks for the tips on doing a head shot. I'll look more into possibly shooting the neck next time (if necessary)...as well as being cautious next time if I want to ever take a head shot. I'm glad I didn't attempt the 700+ yard shot after reading your comments. I don't feel bad that I took the shot I did though because I couldn't see the body of the animal, just the head and top of its legs, and I didn't want it to suffer any longer than I could help.

I'm a little baffled at my first shot (on the spine). It was likely moving faster than I thought, or perhaps I was slow on the trigger. Perhaps I jerked it (probably, which would explain not only the horizontal displacement, but the vertical). I have to admit, I was pretty relieved I hadn't hit it in the gut though! All its organs were perfect and beautiful. I didn't consider keeping the heart and I don't know why. I should have. Maybe the liver too. I also regret I didn't try a little more at recovering the tenderloins. Again, I just didn't know how close to a round is considered tainted. But I could have gotten it and looked it up later. And another mistake I made--well, maybe I couldn't have avoided it...I don't know--was I had rolled the animal on its back to start gutting it. That got all kinds of dirt on the backstrap/tenderloin area because, like I said, there was no more hide there to protect it. Anyway, I've learned some things about cleaning the animal too.

I was interested to observe I wasn't more flustered or having shakes before shooting. I knew I needed to be aware of this. I did notice however that after I had started cleaning the animal and had made the first incisions, it was then that I noticed I must have had a bit of adrenaline that was wearing off because at that point my hand was a little shaky. This was somewhere around 6-10 minutes later (I tried to get to cleaning it almost immediately; I had never made an incision like that in anything before, except cleaning some fish, so I also wanted to not think about it and quickly do it. Turned out I was fine...again those DVDs put me into the right mental state to cut up an animal.)

Okay, I reviewed my pictures and there's one that's not too graphic (the head area). I'll include it here. By the way, I know YOU all won't mind it... It's that I don't want it to get in the hands of anti-hunting people; there are some sick people out there and a picture like the ones I took have a way of making their rounds on the Internet. I'm just trying to be cautious of that.

Thanks again everyone!

Again bullet selection for a "meat hunter" is critical. With the all copper bullets you can practically eat right up to the bullet hole. Not so with lead, you don't want to invest that. Also as a general rule all blood shot meat is lost. The broad side "magic triangle" shot saves the most meat because there is very little meat on them, and yes the heart and liver are great.

 

[alcesgigas]

You will never forget this; I doubt you'd want to, but be sure to share with family and friends as you have here. Very well written. I haven't read any of the responses as I didn't want to be influenced from other than you, the writer. You surely have my respect and admiration. Thank You

 

[StumpGrinder]

My goodness, you all are very kind; thank you for your encouraging and kind words. As well as your tips for the future.

I should say that my coworkers are actually really close friends and they would definitely hunt with me, but I wasn't begging them and it was a very busy time of year. One who wanted to go with me had to take his boys and a friend out first. I didn't think I needed to wait, so I told him I'd give it a try and if he was available when I still hadn't gotten an animal, I'd be up for his help. They were all very helpful and excited for me to try hunting for the first time.

Thanks for the tips on doing a head shot. I'll look more into possibly shooting the neck next time (if necessary)...as well as being cautious next time if I want to ever take a head shot. I'm glad I didn't attempt the 700+ yard shot after reading your comments. I don't feel bad that I took the shot I did though because I couldn't see the body of the animal, just the head and top of its legs, and I didn't want it to suffer any longer than I could help.

I'm a little baffled at my first shot (on the spine). It was likely moving faster than I thought, or perhaps I was slow on the trigger. Perhaps I jerked it (probably, which would explain not only the horizontal displacement, but the vertical). I have to admit, I was pretty relieved I hadn't hit it in the gut though! All its organs were perfect and beautiful. I didn't consider keeping the heart and I don't know why. I should have. Maybe the liver too. I also regret I didn't try a little more at recovering the tenderloins. Again, I just didn't know how close to a round is considered tainted. But I could have gotten it and looked it up later. And another mistake I made--well, maybe I couldn't have avoided it...I don't know--was I had rolled the animal on its back to start gutting it. That got all kinds of dirt on the backstrap/tenderloin area because, like I said, there was no more hide there to protect it. Anyway, I've learned some things about cleaning the animal too.

I was interested to observe I wasn't more flustered or having shakes before shooting. I knew I needed to be aware of this. I did notice however that after I had started cleaning the animal and had made the first incisions, it was then that I noticed I must have had a bit of adrenaline that was wearing off because at that point my hand was a little shaky. This was somewhere around 6-10 minutes later (I tried to get to cleaning it almost immediately; I had never made an incision like that in anything before, except cleaning some fish, so I also wanted to not think about it and quickly do it. Turned out I was fine...again those DVDs put me into the right mental state to cut up an animal.)

Okay, I reviewed my pictures and there's one that's not too graphic (the head area). I'll include it here. By the way, I know YOU all won't mind it... It's that I don't want it to get in the hands of anti-hunting people; there are some sick people out there and a picture like the ones I took have a way of making their rounds on the Internet. I'm just trying to be cautious of that.

Thanks again everyone!

By that hole I would guess you were using a hollow point or polymer tipped bullet. Very explosive especially at close distances where velocity is high.

 

[dciron]

I grew up in the Los Angeles area and never had a hunting upbringing. I'm 41 now and for the first time ever, went hunting. I went all by myself.

I'm very interested in emergency and survival preparedness, hence my interest now. I wanted to try hunting, at least once for the learning experience it would be.

Got a doe tag for Pronghorn in East-Central Colorado. I had to do the hunter safety course 100% online because the state stopped allowing in-person training and they allowed purely online training. I have a lot of coworkers who hunt and I gleaned a bunch of info off of them, including borrowing a DVD set about how to debone in the field (which was very helpful).

I won a NRA sweepstakes a year and a bit ago, so I sold most of the guns and built a 300 PRC rifle. I wanted a hybrid hunting and long range rifle. I knew this was far more power than was needed for Pronghorn, but I figured I'd have to shoot them from 400 yrds plus, so I figured it'd do. I don't have a lot of money with four little boys and wife wholly depending on my pay check.

I bought a pack from Bass Pro. I also splurged and got the Sig 3000 rangefinding binoculars and an accompanying Garmin Foretrex Applied Ballistics version. After practice and zeroing, I was ready to shoot long range. (This site was invaluable for building that rifle.)

On the first day of my late rifle hunt (1 Dec) I went out on a cold very windy day. I packed too heavy and struggled hiking the 7 or so miles. Never saw a Pronghorn. The worst part was my eyes were shredded by the constant blowing dust.

A few day later, I tried a different spot and immediately spotted a herd. I knew they had good eyesight but I figured I'd be able to get within 400 yards of them. Boy was I wrong! They wanted to maintain 1000 to 1100 yards at all times. I wasn't stupid enough to just keep pushing them (I knew being by myself that would never work) so I tried other strategies. One of my tries I circled about a mile around them down in a ravine they couldn't see. I emerged and had to keep very low to get to a ridge to see them. I hunched-walked without my pack 75 yards and literally crawled another 175 yards (it took forever!)... with my rifle draped across my forearms in a low crawl at times. When I emerged over the ridge, I saw all of the herd was bedded down except one doe which was a bit over 600 yards away. I was taking my time however, and very shortly that doe bed down and was out of sight from the low grass there. I could still see a lot of the other herd's heads popped up on alert, though they weren't standing, and farther at 700+ yards. I figured I'd try to shoot one of their heads. But it was a long shot, I didn't know where their brain cavity was, and I was having a hard time with the shadows telling if I was looking at a doe or buck. I was just unexperienced. About 20 minutes into this they all stood up! I looked for a good doe, but I didn't realize I would only have a few seconds to shoot. They all started running off before I was ready.... Lesson learned: when they stand like that I may only have seconds to shoot! Turns out they hadn't seen me, but rather saw another hunter hundreds of yards behind me walking by. That hunter probably had no idea they were even there. So that was discouraging. I hiked and crawled exactly 11 miles that day, according to my GPS. While hiking back to the truck I had passed by a Pronghorn skull and so I inspected it and learned the brain was a bit behind and at the bottom of the eye socket. This knowledge would prove valuable the next time I went out.

Days later I went out again, arriving to the parking spot with an hour before sunrise (with hopes I could hike the 2.5 miles or so to get into position where I figured later hunters would push the animals toward me.) The sun had come up about 10 minutes before and I wasn't really on alert while walking to my spot when I suddenly saw heads popped up right in front of me at a VERY close distance...close enough where I knew I didn't need to bother with ranging and dialing in my scope. I smoothly got down and loaded a cartridge. They were now all standing and starting into a quick walk (like they hadn't yet decided they wanted to run). I had read somewhere that often the matriarch leader of a herd will be large and take the lead when there was danger. I set my scope on a lead doe and because of what I read, the fact that she looked very large, and since I figured I only had seconds left to fire, I didn't bother looking at any other animals. She was walking right-to-left and I led my scope and waited for her to walk into it. (It was here that I could see she had a tracking collar on and it crossed my mind that I wasn't 100% sure I could kill a collared animal; I had a dozen arguments go through my head in a second and all seemed to say it would be okay.) I wasn't nervous, just methodically hurrying to shoot.

I shot and immediately looked up from above my rifle. While all others started in a run, my doe had its rump on the ground and was perched up with its front legs. I knew I had hit it, but not in the heart-lung area that I intended. My immediate thought was I needed to shoot it again to stop its suffering. I quickly loaded another round, and this time took five seconds to range its head... 165 yards. The correction is instantly displayed in my binos (it communicates with the Garmin via bloothtooth) and so I made the 0.1mil correction on the scope. I aimed for the brain cavity and about 30 seconds after I had shot the first round, I pulled the trigger again. I looked up and the animal was out of sight; I knew it had fallen. I was pleased I remembered to put my rifle on safe before moving again (Something I figured would be easy to forget and so I really wanted to ensure I got that little detail down.)

Upon inspection, and while cleaning and deboning, I learned that for whatever reason, my first round had hit and destroyed the spine about 2/3 of the way back. It also ripped open a large, 1 foot tear in the hide. It had bled a large pool down its side. Unfortunately, this made a good portion of the backstrap and tenderloins unrecoverable. The second shot was perfectly placed and I felt contented that I was able to swiftly end its life. But the scene was grisly! It still had its snout, but there was no "face" to the animal left. The 300 PRC blew away all brain, eyes and skull. It was just a cavity. Because of this, I'm not sure if I should post pictures or not; it was my best to be humane, but like I said, it is very grisly.

So that was my first time hunting. I learned a lot and reverently harvested the meat...not even a month ago. I don't know if cleaning and beboning it immediately helped, but I was pleased there was no prominent taste to the meat... All very mild. The first thing I did when I got home was to read about collared animals. I learned it is fine to shoot them but Colorado Parks & Wildlife prefers you remove the collar and bring it to them. I didn't have a socket wrench or pliers and didn't know this anyway, so I had left it, marking the exact spot with my GPS. I called them up and fortunately, they were fine with me just telling them the location.

After grinding and processing the meat, I ended up with 29 lbs.

I doubt this post will be of much interest to anyone else, but I just felt I should record my experience... If nothing else, for myself. Currently I am leaning towards hunting again next year.

Congratulations. Thanks for posting I read every word.

 

[StumpGrinder]

Great story.

Great story.
I know the head shot scene, many years ago 'caped' a white tail at the top of the eye socket once. Was very surprise how long she kicked when I got there and saw a completely empty brain cavity, and the top of the skull gone.

Strange scene very Humane shot, but with years of shooting behind me, have learned the best humane shot is the lung and heart. Small miss with head shot can ad a lot of suffering.

Also they can jerk their head just as you are pulling the trigger. On the prairie the wind is always blowing, wind drift could have accounted for some of the first shot being off. A 30 cal bullet drifts 2 inches at 100 yds in a 10 mph cross wind. Also in you said you waited for the doe to walk into the crosshair, therefore the rifle wasn't tracking with the animal. So with the rifle stopped and the animal moveing, in the time your brain said "Shoot"and your finger reacted and the bullet traveled, the animal could have taken another step which could easily have been 18 to 24 inches.

 

[SteelBanger]

Great write up and great job on your first hunt! Impressive to do all that on your own and come home successful on your first hunt, something you'll remember and talk about for the rest of your life!

 

[wv270wsm]

Try not to over think the first shot being off . Too much . There's is a pile of variables that contributed to it . The antelope was on the move , when you seen it walk into the scope of the rifle wasn't being swung to the same Cadence as the goat was moving. And I'd bet my bottom dollar that even though it was a doe that there was still some shaking going on . Even if you didn't notice it. And it's all good . You successfully tagged an animal and harvested all usable meat to the best of your knowledge. . You done fine
As far as the interest that us readers have shown, I personally like to read others experiences while in the field so I can learn from something that someone else has done . As I'd say several others do the same

 

[StumpGrinder]

Hey @Yeager ,

Here's why I shared my story here (and it will show more of my ignorance coming through). I didn't share it because I wanted more feedback (though I'm very grateful to have received so much). As you can see, I didn't share my story for over three weeks as it is, and I wasn't planning on posting it until yesterday. I guess the reason I did it was (don't laugh) it felt like posting about one's hunting experience is sort of an expectation. I read posts on here of other's experiences, and so I honestly just felt like I should post it even if nobody wanted to read it. I truly didn't think many would.

I'll add that the responses from everyone have been so interesting to me! Scores of you have said that my story was interesting and some of you added that perhaps this was because it was from the perspective of a new hunter that was so entertaining. But I honestly have no idea what I said that was interesting! I wish I did. I honestly couldn't identify what elements were interesting to all you experienced hunters. And to me...I thought my story was written in a pretty flat, factual and uninteresting way. If I was trying to make it entertaining, I would have told more of my thought processes, like how pleased I was to discover that if I crept up on some antelope while I was in-line with a fence post, I seemed to be canceled out by their brain's processing of their prereferral vision (and if that's not correct, it seemed to help as I got within another 600 yards; if it wasn't for those their buddies alerting them, I would have had another chance at a shot). Those were some of the interesting things to me I discovered.

About my shot...I agree that it was way too far off for that kind of distance. I'll tell you my theories (as I've thought a lot about it). I definitely welcome anyone's ideas.

First, I haven't gotten into reloading, so I was wholly dependent upon Hornady's ELD-X 212 grain 300 PRC. I don't believe there is any other factory ammo for 300 PRC, and the 212 gr is the only hunting round. While zeroing this round, I wasn't completely satisfied with the standard deviation of FPS. But even with the largest spread I was able to record, this would only mean the shot would really only go lower by just a tiny bit...and it certainly would not hit higher and not to the right. (Yes, it could hit a little higher, but the amount would be negligible).

My scope is quality and the rings are the best I could find (M10 rings from ARC). However, again while zeroing, I wasn't really pleased with how my PROOF carbon fiber barrel was performing. It was still at about MOA, but I expected better. Besides that, it was clearly walking. This was from a true 100 yard indoor range (so wind wasn't an issue). The oddest thing is that when I would clean it, I could only ever get three of the five lands to produce blue copper streaks. This was and is still odd to me. To PROOF's credit, they asked to have me send in my rifle--all shipping paid for on their dime--and they have it now and are inspecting it. But again, even with my largest fliers, it can't account for how off my shot was.

I do believe that the doe was in a trot and was moving faster than I thought. Let's just say it was... moving at 15mph. According to a ballistics calculator, my bullet would have a time of flight of 0.18 seconds to reach 165 yards. That means that at 15 mph, the animal would still have moved 3.96 feet before impact! (I didn't realize it would be so great until calculating it right now). Well, I didn't lead the shot at all so I was certain to miss the heart lung area. In fact, I may be considered lucky to have even hit it!

But again, this does not account for the vertical displacement. why did I hit high? My two theories are that the antelope was either moving down on terrain (probably wouldn't account for all of the rise), or I badly pulled the shot. What else could account for that great a rise? Maybe my cheek weld was off too...

Anyway, it's inconclusive in my mind, but I'm honestly not too worried. Yes, I know I need to practice hitting moving targets more and shooting from something other than prone, but I feel I'm actually a pretty good shot, and I even feel I remembered to do a lot of the little things, such as breath control before firing. (Forgive the personal testimonial: for example, my icon picture is a tribute to the time I shot that metal target off the top of the 2x4 it had flipped onto. The shot was 609 yards and the target is only 3/8" thick. I hit it on my second try (and you can see the scar of the bullet that grazed the top. I probably got lucky on that too, but my point is I'm not that bad.)

Sorry this was so long.

Yes, moving targets take practice.

Hey @Yeager ,

Here's why I shared my story here (and it will show more of my ignorance coming through). I didn't share it because I wanted more feedback (though I'm very grateful to have received so much). As you can see, I didn't share my story for over three weeks as it is, and I wasn't planning on posting it until yesterday. I guess the reason I did it was (don't laugh) it felt like posting about one's hunting experience is sort of an expectation. I read posts on here of other's experiences, and so I honestly just felt like I should post it even if nobody wanted to read it. I truly didn't think many would.

I'll add that the responses from everyone have been so interesting to me! Scores of you have said that my story was interesting and some of you added that perhaps this was because it was from the perspective of a new hunter that was so entertaining. But I honestly have no idea what I said that was interesting! I wish I did. I honestly couldn't identify what elements were interesting to all you experienced hunters. And to me...I thought my story was written in a pretty flat, factual and uninteresting way. If I was trying to make it entertaining, I would have told more of my thought processes, like how pleased I was to discover that if I crept up on some antelope while I was in-line with a fence post, I seemed to be canceled out by their brain's processing of their prereferral vision (and if that's not correct, it seemed to help as I got within another 600 yards; if it wasn't for those their buddies alerting them, I would have had another chance at a shot). Those were some of the interesting things to me I discovered.

About my shot...I agree that it was way too far off for that kind of distance. I'll tell you my theories (as I've thought a lot about it). I definitely welcome anyone's ideas.

First, I haven't gotten into reloading, so I was wholly dependent upon Hornady's ELD-X 212 grain 300 PRC. I don't believe there is any other factory ammo for 300 PRC, and the 212 gr is the only hunting round. While zeroing this round, I wasn't completely satisfied with the standard deviation of FPS. But even with the largest spread I was able to record, this would only mean the shot would really only go lower by just a tiny bit...and it certainly would not hit higher and not to the right. (Yes, it could hit a little higher, but the amount would be negligible).

My scope is quality and the rings are the best I could find (M10 rings from ARC). However, again while zeroing, I wasn't really pleased with how my PROOF carbon fiber barrel was performing. It was still at about MOA, but I expected better. Besides that, it was clearly walking. This was from a true 100 yard indoor range (so wind wasn't an issue). The oddest thing is that when I would clean it, I could only ever get three of the five lands to produce blue copper streaks. This was and is still odd to me. To PROOF's credit, they asked to have me send in my rifle--all shipping paid for on their dime--and they have it now and are inspecting it. But again, even with my largest fliers, it can't account for how off my shot was.

I do believe that the doe was in a trot and was moving faster than I thought. Let's just say it was... moving at 15mph. According to a ballistics calculator, my bullet would have a time of flight of 0.18 seconds to reach 165 yards. That means that at 15 mph, the animal would still have moved 3.96 feet before impact! (I didn't realize it would be so great until calculating it right now). Well, I didn't lead the shot at all so I was certain to miss the heart lung area. In fact, I may be considered lucky to have even hit it!

But again, this does not account for the vertical displacement. why did I hit high? My two theories are that the antelope was either moving down on terrain (probably wouldn't account for all of the rise), or I badly pulled the shot. What else could account for that great a rise? Maybe my cheek weld was off too...

Anyway, it's inconclusive in my mind, but I'm honestly not too worried. Yes, I know I need to practice hitting moving targets more and shooting from something other than prone, but I feel I'm actually a pretty good shot, and I even feel I remembered to do a lot of the little things, such as breath control before firing. (Forgive the personal testimonial: for example, my icon picture is a tribute to the time I shot that metal target off the top of the 2x4 it had flipped onto. The shot was 609 yards and the target is only 3/8" thick. I hit it on my second try (and you can see the scar of the bullet that grazed the top. I probably got lucky on that too, but my point is I'm not that bad.)

Sorry this was so long.

Yes, moving targets are difficult. I grew up wing shooting quail and pheasant. You have to swing the shotgun through the bird as you pull the trigger.

 

[Ol' Red]

I just read all the comments, and nothing I can add to what has been said. I will just say welcome to hunting, and great story. I hope you stay with it and enjoy more hunting in the future.

 

[6.5x300 WBY]

Doozy what makes it interesting (your story) is that it brings back a lot of memories from when many of us started out. Atleast it did for me. Congrats again.

 

[Slibey]

Good job, now the sddiction