My first Whitetail (not just first Whitetail Buck but first Whitetail anything) taken yesterday from 250 yards in the Rocky Mountains. He ran about 70 yards before dropping, got him in the lung. The head is already at the taxidermist, going to display this guy in the foyer of my house (and my wife is even ok with that!). He was approximately 255 pounds in the field, weighed in at the butcher last night at 164 pounds gutted, skinned, head and legs off, etc. I'm pretty happy with him for my first Whitetail 
The rifle is a Remington Model 700 Mountain LSS (Laminated Stock Stainless) chambered in 30-06 that I bought off of a fellow board member from Alberta last fall (thanks by the way, it's a tack driver!)
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire_rifles/model_700/model_700_mountain_LSS.asp
It sports a Leupold VX II 3x9 scope that I bought from Wholesale Sports. The bullet used was a Federal Vital-Shock 165 Grain Sierra Gameking Boat Tail Soft Point.
As to the hunt itself, we got in before first light (and yes it is some tough country, part of getting in and getting out is crossing a river in chest waders). I was sitting on a 30 foot high ridge overlooking an open area when this buck walked out of the tree line. It was more interested in watching the cow moose that was directly below me and no more than 50 yards away which I didn't have a tag for so I took that time to lay down in the snow in the prone position. The moose walked straight up the ridge (pretty impressive how easy it made it look) and stopped at the top no more than 30 yards from me; it never even saw me which was pretty cool. After the moose walked off I'm guessing the buck decided there was nothing to worry about as he started to wander further out into the open area broadside to me from right to left. I laid the cross hairs on him and waited for a clean shot on the lungs and pulled the trigger when it looked good. He immediately stumbled so I knew I hit him but he didn't go down, instead he pushed off with the hind legs and started to run straight for the tree line on the left. Just as he got to the tree line he took a 90 degree turn to the right (away from me) and stayed in the clearing, went about 50 more yards and then sat down in full view at about 325+ yards. I could see that his head was still up so I knew he hadn't expired, after about 15 minutes of watching him the head dropped to the snow and that was that.
The shot itself entered low and just forward of the front left leg, hitting the lungs but not enough to drop him on the spot (I was aiming high due to the distance but not quite high enough). I would have preferred a quicker death but in the end I'm just happy it was a clean death blow and waiting him out for 15 minutes was all that was needed to ensure he didn't get a second burst of adrenaline and try to race into the trees. There will be little damage to the meat due to where the bullet hit so that is a plus as well.
Getting him out of that area took two of us two full hours with a lot of sweat, thank god for the snow and antlers because dragging him was made easier. The part we were worried about the most was the river crossing but that turned out to be the easiest. We just tied a line to the antlers, I went across and tied the line to a tree root in the bank while my buddy held him in the water, then he started across with the deer. It floated quite well and with it tied off we knew that if he lost his grip it wasn't going to go anywhere. Getting it up the 5 foot bank on the other side was, well, HARD, but we managed. We were back to the truck just after 11:30 in the morning, and five hours after that we were back in the city at the Taxidermist who took what he needed and he let us skin him while he did his work. From then it was straight to the butcher, we arrived at 5:50 p.m., just in time since they closed at 6:00. He's now hanging in their cooler and I expect to have the meat back in about 10 days.
I'm not sure I could have asked for a better hunt, except maybe to have had a cow moose tag for the moose who came within 30 yards of me
The rifle is a Remington Model 700 Mountain LSS (Laminated Stock Stainless) chambered in 30-06 that I bought off of a fellow board member from Alberta last fall (thanks by the way, it's a tack driver!)
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire_rifles/model_700/model_700_mountain_LSS.asp
It sports a Leupold VX II 3x9 scope that I bought from Wholesale Sports. The bullet used was a Federal Vital-Shock 165 Grain Sierra Gameking Boat Tail Soft Point.
As to the hunt itself, we got in before first light (and yes it is some tough country, part of getting in and getting out is crossing a river in chest waders). I was sitting on a 30 foot high ridge overlooking an open area when this buck walked out of the tree line. It was more interested in watching the cow moose that was directly below me and no more than 50 yards away which I didn't have a tag for so I took that time to lay down in the snow in the prone position. The moose walked straight up the ridge (pretty impressive how easy it made it look) and stopped at the top no more than 30 yards from me; it never even saw me which was pretty cool. After the moose walked off I'm guessing the buck decided there was nothing to worry about as he started to wander further out into the open area broadside to me from right to left. I laid the cross hairs on him and waited for a clean shot on the lungs and pulled the trigger when it looked good. He immediately stumbled so I knew I hit him but he didn't go down, instead he pushed off with the hind legs and started to run straight for the tree line on the left. Just as he got to the tree line he took a 90 degree turn to the right (away from me) and stayed in the clearing, went about 50 more yards and then sat down in full view at about 325+ yards. I could see that his head was still up so I knew he hadn't expired, after about 15 minutes of watching him the head dropped to the snow and that was that.
The shot itself entered low and just forward of the front left leg, hitting the lungs but not enough to drop him on the spot (I was aiming high due to the distance but not quite high enough). I would have preferred a quicker death but in the end I'm just happy it was a clean death blow and waiting him out for 15 minutes was all that was needed to ensure he didn't get a second burst of adrenaline and try to race into the trees. There will be little damage to the meat due to where the bullet hit so that is a plus as well.
Getting him out of that area took two of us two full hours with a lot of sweat, thank god for the snow and antlers because dragging him was made easier. The part we were worried about the most was the river crossing but that turned out to be the easiest. We just tied a line to the antlers, I went across and tied the line to a tree root in the bank while my buddy held him in the water, then he started across with the deer. It floated quite well and with it tied off we knew that if he lost his grip it wasn't going to go anywhere. Getting it up the 5 foot bank on the other side was, well, HARD, but we managed. We were back to the truck just after 11:30 in the morning, and five hours after that we were back in the city at the Taxidermist who took what he needed and he let us skin him while he did his work. From then it was straight to the butcher, we arrived at 5:50 p.m., just in time since they closed at 6:00. He's now hanging in their cooler and I expect to have the meat back in about 10 days.
I'm not sure I could have asked for a better hunt, except maybe to have had a cow moose tag for the moose who came within 30 yards of me
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