I'll get the picture out of the way for anyone who wants to just look and move on.
Now for the story.
I decided that I was going to go full handgun this year for deer. Both my primary and secondary weapons had to be a handgun (although calling some of my guns handguns is a bit of a stretch sometimes!). Today's combo was a 10" Contender in 30 Herret for the short range stuff and the 284 Striker carried in the backpack for the long range opportunities. I missed an easy shot at a bobcat with the 30 Herret last year so this year I had to redeem myself. I spent a lot of extra time over the summer shooting the Herret trying to rebuild my confidence in the gun and I figured that the only way to really get over it would be to actually get something with it this year.
I headed out to Vail, but had a change of heart right as I hit the gate. There's a walk in only area right across from the Sorenson Road gate to Vail that I've spent a lot of time in over the years. I figured today would be a great day to hit the walk in area and avoid some of the crowds. I parked in my usual spot and headed in about 6:45. The deer in this area always move a little latter in the morning, so I walked it in nice and slow. I have a pretty regular route that I follow out there which gives me about a 4 mile total loop. The route runs me through some clear cuts, timber, reprods, and a swamp. It's got a little bit of everything. I was at about mile number 3 when I came out onto an old road.
As I was walking down I looked up on the hill straight ahead facing me and spotted some movement in the brush. I checked it with the binos and spotted a doe. I sat down in the road to watch her for a minute, and then I spotted the buck. He wasn't a big guy by any means, but he'd make a decent score with a pistol! They're just feeding away and not paying attention as I pull out "Ye Olde Terrapin" (that's what we named my rangefinder.
) So here I am with my rangefinder capable of ranging targets out past 4000 yards, and I get a reading of 78 yards. I could have used an old golfer's rangefinder for that reading!
Oh well.
Now I'm watching as the buck and the doe move around together within about 5 feet of each other. Through the binos they're crystal clear, but the optics in most handgun scopes are mediocre at best. As I look through the pistol scope at 3x it's hard to be 100% certain that I'm looking at the buck. So I go back and forth between the binos and the scope trying to be absolutely certain that I'm looking at the right deer. Once the two deer split apart I can finally make a 100% positive ID on the buck. So I sit down, grab my shooting sticks, put my hearing protection on, and get steady for the shot.
The brush is pretty deep where the deer are at and I'm working with a caliber that's on the pretty mild side. My options are high shoulder, or neck. I don't doubt that the 130 TTSX would have broke one shoulder, but I don't think it would have made it through both. I went with a high neck shot. Aim, squeeze, BOOM! He's out of sight and the doe books it over the hill. I leave my pack and go to find the deer. He's down and out right where he was standing. The bullet performance was picture perfect!
Here he is as I walked up on him.
I drug him down to the trail, cleaned him, and then headed back to get my truck about 1.5 miles away. From where I shot him it was closer to come in from the gate on the other side. So I headed home (8 minutes away
) and grabbed my son, who didn't want to get up to come with me this morning, and a wheel barrow. We got back to him and I got a picture of my boy with the buck and he snapped a few of me. He was pretty excited.
He's not a big deer, but I'm pretty happy with it. I wouldn't have shot him with a rifle, but he makes a great handgun buck. Now I have time to get the 338 pistol ready for elk season!
Andrew
