Last year, we had a young man, Marcos, come along for the ride on our two junior hunts, John's and William's, this young man's family have never done any hunting. This year, Marcos comes along again but this time he brings his dad with him and a Jr. deer tag as well as a Savage Model 12BVSS – with AccuTrigger and a Nikon Buckmaster 4.5x14. We found out that using Federal Power Shock 180 grains, not only it did not kick much at all but it would shoot sub-Moa at 100 yards. So we had him shooting off and on with us at longer ranges like 300, 350, 400, 500, 600+ yards from the bipod.
John, my hunting buddy's 15 years old son was shooting his old 257 Roberts Remington Model 722 with 22" barrel that we both united efforts to pillar bed and glass bed, this rifle was loaded with 115 grains Berger bullets at around 2900 f/s.
William, my 15 y/o son, was shooting my new 300 RUM with muzzle brake and Berger 210 gr. Bullets.
Marcos would dialing his scope as well as William who was using the Grand Slam 6x20x40; John would be using the mil dots from his Simmons 6x20 Scope. All three young men had a drop chart that I had created for their particular loads. We would just supply the range to them and they would use the drop charts to do their thing.
Season opened on October 7th, on a Saturday; by Elko Nevada, but we left Carson City on Sunday 8th after church, rented two rooms in Elko that Sunday and on Monday 9th the hunt was on! We saw lot's of deer on the first three days, William passed a large bodied mule deer with very wide and tall forked horns. Marcos could not get himself together to shoot at 180 yards on a 2 by 2 because his excitement was too much and latter he told he kept hearing my words when I told him we did not want wounded deer running off to die in agony. We were all a little disappointed since he aimed at this deer for close to 5 minutes and he could not find himself to pull the trigger. He calls me "uncle", and he said later on:" uncle, I'm sorry I let you down", I placed my arm around him and said: "Don't worry, we came here to have a good time and that's what we are going to have!" At this point we started talking to him about how to overcome buck fever.
On Wednesday 11th, 10 minutes before sunset, Marcos was laying on the ground using his back pack aiming at a 2 by 2 buck. I told him it was at 380 yards, he said: "That's the distance right?" I said: "Yup!"… "Uncle, I can't hold it steady on him" … "Yes you can…" William said: "breathe deep" some one else said "relax" I said, "I know you can do it, don't give me that garbage"… The buck was butt end to us, he started turning a little at a time, Marco seemed to be more relaxed, the deer was still in a sharp angle quartering away. I said line the vertical cross hair with the opposite front leg, the one on the other side, which means you will be shooting farther away from the shoulders. He said "ok", "be ready" … "wait"… "NOW" 3 SECONDS PASS BANG… all deer running, all the sudden the 2x2 buck stops, wobbles a bit and DOWN he goes… We are all jumping and trying to congratulate Marcos, my buddy and me have our hands extended to shake his hand but Marcos is so in trance he's just holding to his rifle and looking forward towards where the buck had fallen.
He had just killed his first deer at the age of 14 y/o with his own rifle at 380 yards away. Longe Range? YOU BET!!! He had to dial up 7 MOA's to get him. The shot was just perfect!
The next day, we went to a place where Steve, John's father, thought deer would be coming down for water, we were not sure which side they would be coming from so we just sat where we though would be our best bet. It was cold and I just went to sleep. William wakes me up and says: "Dad, you can't go to sleep your snoring!" I opened one eye and said "you wake me up again I'll shoot you"… He didn't… later on some one said … Steve on your side…. Bunch of deer coming down, a couple of forked horns, no shots were taken. We moved up to see if we could see them again and we did not. John said: "Dad look that way" a bunch of them were coming down and some good deer amongst them. John and William went prone, I said: "360 yards"; no one was shooting, the does started moving into the tall sage brush, I said: "somebody better shoot!"… BANG… a nice 4x4 went down, John had just gotten his deer. All the deer started running in different directions all confused, I said: "William, the biggest one on your right" by now it was between 375 and 380 yards… William had dialed in for 360… he fired the deer ran and stopped, turned 180 and started walking the other way, I new the shot was too far back. William fired again, the deer ran 20 yards and dropped this time the bullet went through the heart and because there was an extra 4" drop I figured he was closer to 380 based on the drop table. All this kind of happened very fast…. Bang… 10 seconds Bang… 4 seconds…. Bang… and we all were praising the Lord.
Down below is John with his nice 4x4.
Down below is William with his heavy antlered 3x4, the body was huge.
Here is a phototo of John and William.
Sorry for making such a long story... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I almost forgot, remember the heart?
