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Well that didn’t go how I planned it!

MTGEEZER said:
Well, Tidus56, you beat me to the punch. I have lately been thinking of starting a very similar thread due to last falls folly!
I have the good fortune of hunting a ranch about 40 miles from my house and there are always whitetail there somewhere. I had just turned 70 a few months before the season and decided to run down there just to see if the old man could still get it done by myself. I usually hunt with someone else due to a heart attack or 2 and several followup procedures but I always hunt better when I am by myself.
So, anyway, I grab my rifle, pack and a few other "what ifs"and head out shortly after noon. As soon as I get there, I start to glass the area and see 1 deer about a mile away and I get that feeling that it's a buck even though I can't make out antlers at that range with just binos. I check the wind, plan my approach and off I go. I run across a small herd on my way but only a small forky and some does. I keep on going to a place where a couple small hills may hide my stalk. It works and I am now close enough to determine it is indeed a buck but a small, goofy looking 4x4 but now has a few does with him. Ok, let's see what else may be around. As luck would have it, a nice, respectful, wider and heavier 4x4 joins the group and I want him! I spend the next 2 hours on my belly, crawling through some scraggly sagebrush ( kinda snakey lookin stuff BTW!). When I finally get to the top of the last small hill, I also run out of sage brush. One last small bush and it's game time.I pick out the bigger buck and range him 3 times at 260. I usually shoot kneeling or sitting behind a tripod ( and prone off my pack won't work due to the high prairie grass ) so I ease the tripod up knowing that when I
come up with my 6.5 Prc, I will be fully exposed to the herd.
I ease up slowly, get on the buck who is slightly quartering away, pick my shot and send it. He mule-kicks, takes 3 or 4 lunges and disappears. The rest of the herd takes off as I gather my stuff.
I am feeling good about the shot but as I approach him, he doesn't look quite right. YEP, you guessed it, as I was setting up the tripod and getting my body arranged, the 2 bucks had switched positions and I had sent a 124 Hammer through the wrong bucks heart! Well, I still happily tagged and field dressed him and headed the mile back to my truck, kinda laughing at my buck fever (hope that never goes away!!!) but still feeling good about the hunt and making the shot right where I intended it to go.
After getting back to my pickup, I had to leave the ranch, swing around on another road that swung around again back to the boarder of the ranch as close as I could get to buck. After game-carting him about 400 yards to the road and my truck, it was dark and I spent another 2 hours and nearly killed myself (well, I felt like it at the time!) getting the little turd in the bed of the truck. I had forgotten the inch thick, 3'x 6 and a half foot solid maple countertop I had been using JUST FOR WINCHING CRITTERS INTO MY TRUCK! Ya, I forgot my little electric winch, too.
Yep, I sure do love hunting, and, yes, I can still get it done even when everything doesn't go according to the plan!!!
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Nice set up , I have a block and tackle hooked to the very top middle ,of my high camper shell and a couple 2x8 's for a ramp , it's not super easy ,but one guy can load a elk .
I can relate to your story !
 
WYO300RUM said:
That's a whitetail homey 😉
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My biggest to date 161 7/8! I have been on roll on my son's lease. Killed a 145 in 2019 and now this guy in 2021. I sit under a high voltage tower at top of field in wide open. No cover except inside the square base of tower. Deer seem to just ignore me when there. I read once the electrical field does something to their senses. Saw recently a camo clothing line with something like that. Who knows!? I have had deer walk by 10 yards down wind and nothing!

Hope he lets me hunt this year!😂
 
This happened to me just a few minutes ago, actually. I looked out my front window and could see a large 'red-bodied' coyote messing around @ 230 yards (ranged afterwards) away. I ran to the safe, grabbed my .243, a couple hand loads and my squeeze-bag and sneaked outside for a shot. I saw him go down a small hill which gave me time to quickly set up. I had just closed the bolt when I saw him reappear and I let out a 'bark' and stopped him. I held high on his neck/shoulder junction (to account for my 'zero') and touched the 2oz trigger….shot felt good…and I watched the coyote quickly trot away and I'm pretty sure I heard him laughing at me every step of his egress out of the area. I was puzzled….until I looked at my scope and saw that I had neglected to take the scope back to it's 'zero' from a previous outing. I shot over him and was never even in the ballgame!!!🤣😂
FD52ABA9-734D-41EA-8054-17954BFA6955.gif
 
Last edited:
Deputy819 said:
This happened to me just a few minutes ago, actually. I looked out my front window and could see a large 'red-bodied' coyote messing around @ 230 yards (ranged afterwards) away. I ran to the safe, grabbed my .243, a couple hand loads and my squeeze-bag and sneaked outside for a shot. I saw him go down a small hill which gave me time to quickly set up. I had just closed the bolt when I saw him reappear and I let out a 'bark' and stopped him. I held high on his neck/shoulder junction (to account for my 'zero' and touched the 2oz trigger….shot felt good…and I watched the coyote quickly trot away and I'm pretty sure I heard him laughing at me every step of his egress out of the area. I was puzzled….until I looked at my scope and saw that I had neglected to take the scope back to it's 'zero' from a previous outing. I shot over him and was never even in the ballgame!!!🤣😂
View attachment 347628
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Done that at a match. 200-600 yard match. Didn't reset the turret after my son shot his last 600 yard target. My first shot was 200 yard target. Took 2 shots to figure it out. Needless to say, it was over after the first.
 
Oh, you mean the part about me setting off the alarm in my truck at 0 dark thirty, or taking the wrong turn more than once, or.....HaHa Still had a great time, Don!


I did too ! No, about my shooting skills... Shhhh...
I should of had my dog (Whiskey) sleep with you "inside" your truck. Lol ! He loves you. 🦮
 
Here is the infamous buck that I killed following year from same stand that the Encore fell from preceding year. I killed him with a 500S&W in Encore that gotta say is not real pleasant to shoot in a 7.5 lb rifle. But it was great for close work in a swamp like this. Heck on ground you need a bayonet! Even in tree the shots were so limited that I don't think I had a shot past 25-30 yards! I actually did pretty much same approach. In stand hour + before first light and I shot him about an hour after daybreak. Cruising for love back there in swamp. I heard his rack hitting alders as he was walking so I knew it was him! It was a very nasty pull through that stuff too! Yes, I shot him deliberately through shoulder to prevent him from going anywhere! Its public land so you want them DRT.
Encore.Buck.JPG
 

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