Tagged a good one

[Guy]

Hunted for six days without seeing a "shooter" buck. This morning I headed into the hills solo and hunted a forested and hilly area. Walked in slowly and quietly for two hours, stopping from time to time to scan about and glass. Eventually parked myself on a big old Ponderosa Pine stump and glassed an old and overgrown clear cut. Suddenly I saw him! A buck! Actually a pair of them... Ranged them at roughly 230 yards and kept losing them as they fed in the thick vegetation. Finally took a shot on the larger buck, and I have to admit I didn't make the best shot of my life, however I dropped him in place.

Then he proceeded to fall and roll down the mountain, landing in one heck of a tough spot.

I shot him at 10:30 in the morning. With tremendous help from my son and a good friend, we got him cut up and back to the truck at 8:00 PM. It was a long, tough day and I'm truly tired. And happy. Pretty good buck, I just shot him too far back in the boonies. Yes, Berger VLD's work fine on mule deer. Lots of damage inside!

Here's a few photos from today:

The area I hunted.




Some bear tracks I found on an abandoned logging road.


And of course the deer.


Regards, Guy

[X-Force]

Man you have to love that country. great buck

[BENCHLEG]

nice buck now go kill that elk, better yet get that bear. J

[archery288]

Congrats man! 

[addicted]

nice buck

[Michelle_Nelson]

Nice Buck!

[Guy]

Thanks all. He's a 26" 4x4, and I feel very fortunate to take him during the general season on public land. Sure was nice to have a strong 22 year old son and a good friend who is a tough guy and a great hunter to come help me get him out of the ravine the buck fell into - I would have had a LOT of trouble getting him out of there on my own.

Regards, Guy

[Broken Arrow]

Great buck...way to go!

[bucklucky]

Great buck man!

[Jackjr]

Nice buck

[HardCorpsHuntr]

Great job and beautiful buck.  With your background..., what was up with the shot?  I'm going to nights, so I'll swing in and do a little harrassn' and get the story from you.

Semper Fi

[Guy]

In retrospect my first shot was actually okay - I just don't like it when I don't get an instant kill.

He was below me and facing away from me at about 230 yards, feeding uphill on a steep slope. All I had for a target was his back. I waited for a broadside shot, but it wasn't happening, and he was getting close to the top of his ridge. I was afraid I'd lose him if I didn't take him, so I aimed for the spine and I got it. Unfortunately he took a step forward as I was shooting and I ended up hitting him pretty far back, towards the hindquarters.

Broke the spine and dropped him like a rock, but he was still very much alive. He'd fallen into a deep ravine, and I had to hike over to him. Put a finishing shot into his chest, killing him quickly.

I just don't like it when they don't drop dead right off, particularly when it has something to do with shot placement.

Regards, Guy

[boneaddict]

Great work guy.  Any buck this year is going to be a good one , and that one is going to be better than alot of them.

[shag]

Great job!  What caliber?  VLD's, what grain?

[Guy]

That's the third mule deer buck in four years for this rifle, a .25-06 Rem 700 CDL. I got it shortly after Remington introduced the CDL, and we've bonded well. Was looking for a load for coyotes, rockchucks and mule deer - the three things I hunt most often. Mule deer being by far the most important! Thought it would be good to have one load, always sighted-in at 300 yards, for deer, coyotes and varmints.

I handloaded the 115 gr Bergers to 3200 fps with 60.5 grains of Retumbo. It's a max or near max load, so be careful if you work up to it. Safe in my rifle and accurate too.

They're incredibly destructive bullets. Small entry wound in the chest, then pretty well perforated the heart & lungs and there was shrapnel in both shoulders, from the inside. Quite a bit of bloodshot meat on one shoulder. One small piece of bullet, the base, was recovered, another chunk of bullet went out through a rib. The bullet that hit the spine wasn't found. I suspect it and the spine pretty well vaporized together.

BTW - the fixed 6x Leupold scope is working out real well too.

Regards, Guy