204Ruger

Hunted hard on opening weekend. Saw a total of TWO does that were on land that we had permission. Everything else was on the other side of the fence, so, no go. Had my buddies 11 year old son with me, on his first deer hunt. Touched on every hunting subject that you can think of - tree rubs, track size, etc.

Went back out early Wednesday morning. Another friend shot a nice 5x5 whitetail about 10:00 am. At 1:00 pm, I spotted a fair 4x4 whitetail bedded down with one doe. They were just over 1000 yards and had spotted us as we had entered the field. I got out of the truck and started to fold the bipod down to take a shot with my Savage 7mm Rem Mag that I built a month ago. When I had the second leg of the bipod folded, they jumped up and ran over the hill.

Because of the terrain and the wind direction, we could drive within 400 yards of the crest of the hill and put somewhat of a stalk on. The other side of the hill was a huge meadown that is several miles long. I surmised they either beat feet and ran a mile or just settled down on the other side of the hill.

I stayed on our side of the hillcrest and crept over. I spotted the buck directly in front of me at 30 feet. He was standing in a washout with his back to me. He turned his head slightly and spotted me. As soon as this happened, he bolted to my left towards the fence 35 yards away. I waited until he was at the fence just prior to jumping over. When I raised my rifle up, all that I could see was fur, as my scope was still set on 20x. I figured I would still be ok, fired, and missed!

He jumped the fence, I dialed the scope down to 8x, deer was running 3/4 speed quartering away from me, I held on his neck, and bingo.....he cartwheeled 2 full revolutions.

As you can see by the pic, the deer is now a 2 x 1.5. When he did the tumble routine, his horns planted in the dirt and broke off. We found the horns 8 feet behind his hindquarters, still in the ground.

So you built a super long range rifle and end up taking your buck under 100 yards. Why didn't you let him run for 15 or 20 minutes then shoot him.

I bought a 204 with Shilen stainless target barrel, 24X scope, super front and rear benchrest bags, and worked on loads with berger bullets so I could better compete in this forum's postal shoot. Daggone "Wise" Cracker comes up with the coyote shooting sticks thing and ruined my whole year.

Years ago when I lived in Malta, Mt. I used to spot a record book antelope in the area of a prairie dog town that I frequently shot at. The rascal always stayed 600+ yards away. So I built a 6mm-06 and figured out 500, 600, 700, and 800 yard holds with my Burris bal mil dot.
Leaving out a lot of details, I shot a fairly nice buck at about 60 yards with my 220 Swift as I waited for help in my stuck-in-the-mud truck on the only day I could hunt that year. Never went antelope hunting again with that rifle, but it sure raised heck with long prairie dogs and coyotes that thought they were out of rifle range.
You'll put that 1000 yard rifle to good use some day I'll bet.
Congrats on the buck!

acloco............Way to go!! When the deer do a head plant like that, you wounder if it was bullet energy or shot placement?
Yep I got a couple rifle set up for 600 to 1000 yards shot, if I ever get a chance at shot like that...............maybe some day. I think you have a better chance in area.
Thanks for share and good luck for the rest of season.
Later
Ray P

Pretty funny isn't it? I've been all set and ready for the challenge of a long-range shot, and ended up taking a mule deer buck at 30 yards... Sheeesh...

I really thought we were gonna be lookin at another long range shot with you sitting on a benchrest shooting across a canyon .
Good hunt just the same.

acloco....."the best laid plans".......

Congrats, nice buck. You can't eat the horns, so no loss, right? I can relate too. Here's a quickie story with a reverse twist:

A few years ago I was hunting a deep, steep and thick canyon that had a large sage flat on both sides of the top of the canyon surrounded by 20' high rimrock. I hunted hard all morning up that canyon and could hear deer moving up in front of me that I couldn't see. After a couple hours I emerged at the top tired and hungry without firing a shot. I decided to have lunch under some junipers where I could watch the top entry to the canyon in case anything came out on top.

Sitting under the junipers, my .270W next to me, I got through my first half sandwich, when two shots rang out deep below me in the same canyon. Mid bite into the second half of the sandwich, four nice mulie bucks burst out of the canyon onto the sage flat, running right at me. I dropped the food, raised my rifle and braced it in the sling in the sitting position just as the deer saw the movement. They changed direction quartering away from me, and my first shot was right at about 175 yards, but shot behind the largest buck, a nice 4x4. They were really haulin' the freight, believe me.

I cranked another round, held 12' in front of the big guys nose, fired, and he did about six summersalts and landed in a cloud of dust. When I paced it off to his body, it was 276 paces across the sage flat, and I couldn't find any hole in his hide at all. Then I noticed his head laying very flat on the ground.....I had shot off his right/near antler 2" above the base and killed him instantly. I found the antler 30 yards behind him, cleanly shot off by the Sierra .277" 130gr boatail at 3,160 fps. No meat damage at all....perfect.



Here I was all set to pop a buck in the canyon at 30 yards, and made one of the longest running shots I've ever made. Go figure.

Here I'm packing him out....lopsided rack and all.



Hunting: You never know what may happen.

AWESOME!

In Christ,

Song Dog

Rick, great hunting story! You're right - never know what the heck is going to happen on a hunting trip. I think that's one of the things I like most about hunting.

Guy