Well, I spent the last 2 days hunting.
Day 1 I left after a cattle farmer was ticked I was hunting in a field 2 fields away and in the direction away from the cattle. I decided I didn’t want to make a headache for the land owner, so I packed up and left.
Today, went to another location with access to 6600 acres. 7:45am was happy I had the rifle and not the 3 whitetail does that snuck up behind me… I tried to get a shot on them but as soon as I moved, they were gone like smoke in the wind…
During the day there was a few more opportunities, but none that was a shot I was willing to take. The deer were in thick brush, running, never a side profile, etc.
Stopped for lunch at like 2 and a bit of a break. Had some coffee and snacks with the locals, got some tips of where to look for more deer.
Went back out late, like 4:40pm, and checked some more coulees. Last legal light was 5:26pm, and I spotted 3 deer, unfortunately they saw me too. Grabbed my rifle out of the back seat, and immediately went prone at the top of the ridge. Threw one round into my weatherby and put the bolt home. The deer started to run away and I started to berate myself for taki ng too long. They went from 150 yards and increasing the distance.
I took a deep breath. Realized I was completely calm. I didn’t have the adrenaline rush everyone talks about. I was prone on my stomach, my crosshairs were dead steady, I was breathing normally. The deer stopped at what I guessed was 300 yards. The biggest one stopped with an almost perfect broadside presentation. I figured I was 60-70 feet higher than the deer, I knew my rifle was sighted in for 200 yards… I aimed for what I thought was about the midpoint of the shoulder blade thinking bullet drop won’t be as bad as I am shooting downhill.
I let out half a breath and squeezed the trigger.
The deer dropped. It didn’t run, it didn’t make any noise. My head popped up in time to see the other 2 deer run off and the head of the one I shot at disappear into the grass. I immediately turned to the 2 guys with me, dead calm, and said “I dropped her.” I look at my watch, 5:11pm, exactly 15 mins before legal light for the day ends. One of the guys was the land owner and he says to me “if you dropped that deer you are a ####ing sniper!” He didn’t believe me that I got it.
I jumped back into the truck and we zipped back out to the road and into another gate that gave us access to the bottom of the coulee. Sure enough, the deer is exactly where I shot it. The land owner starts going berserk about making that shot especially shooting downhill like that. He was just incredulous, and my ego liked it lol.
A quick field dressing and it was in the back of the truck, and is now skinned and hanging in my garage!
On the drive home I decided to map out the shot to see just how far it was, and Google maps says it was a 300 meter (330 yards) shot! I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t feel confident in my abilities to shoot 100 yards never mind 330! But I like that when the time came, I was able to maintain my calm, control my body, and in the moment I was 100% confident that I COULD make this shot, and so I took it, and I am super happy I did.
