The Lord blessed me opening morning with this buck in the deep snow.
After my son and I split up for the morning hunt I worked my way down to the edge of the tree line. Knowing the area well, I knew where the travel and bedding areas were. As I worked my way down I crossed a very fresh set of buck tracks. I decided to follow them into the beds next to a steep ravine. They led right to a recently vacated bed. As I was looking at the bare ground bed I either heard or caught glimpse of movement about 20 yds away. I looked up just in time to see a nice buck stand up out of another bed and jump into the ravine. He disappeared through some brush and I knew if I hurried I might catch him going up the other side before he escaped. Arriving to the edge I immediately saw him standing broadside in stark contrast against the snowy background. I could tell he was a mature buck with at least a nice rack and made the quick decision to fire upon him. He was only about 60 yds or so away so I just raised up, held behind the shoulder and squeezed one off. I was breathing fairly heavily after the steep side hill scamper in the deep snow and the last thing I saw through the scope as the gun barked was my crosshairs about 6" over his back!
I quickly re-chambered and as he started to split I made the kill shot. He dropped instantly sliding down the hill. We've killed several deer in this exact area and all of them roll about 400 yds down the hill in the wrong direction. Praise the Living God this one got hung up around a tree!
Here's also a couple short videos I made right after the kill. My son made one when he showed up and if I can get it from him I'll post that one as well.
t=5s
t=7s
