**oneshot**
12-14-2014, 04:03 PM
I hunt on my buddy's farm homestead. I normally drive to the top of the upper fields and walk down the other side of the property. I couldn't make the first steep hill along the field with the recent snow on top of the mucky field. It took me some time to get turned/slid/spun around and get off the hill. I changed my plan and parked in his old driveway on the far side of the road. Seeing that daylight was coming soon I walked down the hill into the pines that border the pond.
It's a semi bowl shaped area leading to the pond. I picked a spot on the sidehill that would allow me to shoot most of the way to the pond edge and any deer coming from the overgrown pasture land would have to pass through there to get to the thickets. As daylight crept in I could see movement off in the pasture through the snow covered pine boughs. About 8 deer came out of the pasture and walked right along the edge of the pond. Remember I said I could shoot most of the way, well they stayed more than most as they past by. Just under the sagging snow covered pines I saw legs and the occasional belly as they past. I sat there looking around for another spot lower on the sidehill and second guessing moving to one if I found it when more deer started feeding in from the pasture. They followed the same path along the pond. Decision made, move down. I eyeballed a rock next to a tree and slowly stalked my way over and reset myself. More of an alternate spot for Saturday than expecting to see more deer I started mentally marking shooting lanes, distances, etc. I couldn't see into the pasture as well from my new spot so I needed to have everything right at hand if they followed the same path on Saturday.
I caught movement to my right and spotted a deer. I grabbed my rifle and swung the crosshair into my first shooing lane fast enough to see horns. We have a 3 point on one side rule here. I searched through the scope to find brow tines. He hit my second lane and turned his head enough to see brow tine on one side but too quick through the lane to get a clean shot. He stopped moving behind a group of small trees. As I was holding on his exit from the cluster of trees I could see his head was turned looking back from where he came from. I half glanced to my right and saw another deer coming into the first shooting lane and it was a big bodied deer. I swung the rifle over in time to see 3 tines come into the lane, dropped the crosshair down --- He stopped right in my lane with nothing but shoulder and lungs in the clear---- Boom!!!!!!!!!!!! He hunched up and ran, head down, tail down, get out of dodge run. The other buck was running ahead of him and I could hear crashing through the thicket go on and on. I'm thinking I'm in for a long tracking job. I waited about 10 minutes and packed my stuff up. I took a slow stalk down to where I shot to see what kind of hair was there. I kept looking to where he exited and about 50yds into my stalk I spotted him laying there. He ran just around the corner of a knoll where I couldn't see and piled up, About 30yds from where I shot.
I still went to where I shot to track him. There is a deer highway down there. It is right along the scrubbrush that borders the pond and it is thick with young trees. The deer were skirting the more open pines and using this highway instead.
Attached is the photos of my deer. In one pic you can see both the open pines and the thicker stuff they were using to the left. I used my 308win rifle, NOE 165gr GC FN, over 22.5grs 4759, cast from my do-all alloy(3parts COWW 1part pure) and waterdropped. I hit him a little higher than I wanted, hit a rib going in, plowed through the top of the lungs, and exited the "scalpula" part of the far shoulder. The exit looked better than the entrance when I skinned him except for the massive hole that I can stick my finger through easily. A good example of eating them right up to the hole is in one pic.
I call him my lucky buck, since I would have never been there if I hadn't spun out going up the hill. RIght place right time kinda luck.
I am very pleased that my bullet performed as well as I had seen in testing. :bigsmyl2:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welc ... M_sharshar (http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Aas2Thw5ZN3Djw&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar)
It's a semi bowl shaped area leading to the pond. I picked a spot on the sidehill that would allow me to shoot most of the way to the pond edge and any deer coming from the overgrown pasture land would have to pass through there to get to the thickets. As daylight crept in I could see movement off in the pasture through the snow covered pine boughs. About 8 deer came out of the pasture and walked right along the edge of the pond. Remember I said I could shoot most of the way, well they stayed more than most as they past by. Just under the sagging snow covered pines I saw legs and the occasional belly as they past. I sat there looking around for another spot lower on the sidehill and second guessing moving to one if I found it when more deer started feeding in from the pasture. They followed the same path along the pond. Decision made, move down. I eyeballed a rock next to a tree and slowly stalked my way over and reset myself. More of an alternate spot for Saturday than expecting to see more deer I started mentally marking shooting lanes, distances, etc. I couldn't see into the pasture as well from my new spot so I needed to have everything right at hand if they followed the same path on Saturday.
I caught movement to my right and spotted a deer. I grabbed my rifle and swung the crosshair into my first shooing lane fast enough to see horns. We have a 3 point on one side rule here. I searched through the scope to find brow tines. He hit my second lane and turned his head enough to see brow tine on one side but too quick through the lane to get a clean shot. He stopped moving behind a group of small trees. As I was holding on his exit from the cluster of trees I could see his head was turned looking back from where he came from. I half glanced to my right and saw another deer coming into the first shooting lane and it was a big bodied deer. I swung the rifle over in time to see 3 tines come into the lane, dropped the crosshair down --- He stopped right in my lane with nothing but shoulder and lungs in the clear---- Boom!!!!!!!!!!!! He hunched up and ran, head down, tail down, get out of dodge run. The other buck was running ahead of him and I could hear crashing through the thicket go on and on. I'm thinking I'm in for a long tracking job. I waited about 10 minutes and packed my stuff up. I took a slow stalk down to where I shot to see what kind of hair was there. I kept looking to where he exited and about 50yds into my stalk I spotted him laying there. He ran just around the corner of a knoll where I couldn't see and piled up, About 30yds from where I shot.
I still went to where I shot to track him. There is a deer highway down there. It is right along the scrubbrush that borders the pond and it is thick with young trees. The deer were skirting the more open pines and using this highway instead.
Attached is the photos of my deer. In one pic you can see both the open pines and the thicker stuff they were using to the left. I used my 308win rifle, NOE 165gr GC FN, over 22.5grs 4759, cast from my do-all alloy(3parts COWW 1part pure) and waterdropped. I hit him a little higher than I wanted, hit a rib going in, plowed through the top of the lungs, and exited the "scalpula" part of the far shoulder. The exit looked better than the entrance when I skinned him except for the massive hole that I can stick my finger through easily. A good example of eating them right up to the hole is in one pic.
I call him my lucky buck, since I would have never been there if I hadn't spun out going up the hill. RIght place right time kinda luck.
I am very pleased that my bullet performed as well as I had seen in testing. :bigsmyl2:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welc ... M_sharshar (http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Aas2Thw5ZN3Djw&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar)