Tagged this guy yesterday

blacksmithden

blacksmithden

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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I live among the creatures of the night (Edmonton)
Well, I finally did it. I nailed my first deer. I've seen them over the years. Even got a shot off at one, but never a kill. Being colour blind, they blend in pretty well, and I have to make 110% damned sure what I'm shooting at. This has resulted in a lot of missed opportunities, but oh well. Nobody's ever had a close call with me either. At any rate.......patience and persistence pays off :D

We were all in a line and one of the guys spotted some does up on a ridge. I couldn't for the life of me see them. One of the guys calls "Ready?" I gave a yes because I didn't want them to be held up by my colour blind eyes not being able to pick out the deer.

I couldn't for the life of me see them. To make matters worse, it was only about 10 minutes into legal light with heavy cloud and a light snow falling.

I even looked over to see the elevation of their guns to get a bearing when the shooting started. No flipping way. I put my gun down to waist level and looked with the naked eye to see if I could pick out the movement. Nope...nothing. After all was said and done, the does were about 500 yards off and nobody hit a thing.

Just as the last shot was fired, this guy came running at full tilt out from behind some scrub. Jeebus H Christmas, was he moving. He was at 90 degrees to our path and about 175 yards out. Everybody was looking up the ridge to see if they had nailed any of the does and nobody saw him but me. He was running to get behind a small rise, and was already disappearing behind it when I fired. He actually wound up behind it and completely out of site. I had a grand total of maybe 2 seconds to get the gun up, get the hairs on him and fire. I wasn't even sure I'd hit him until we walked over. I can't believe I made that shot !!!! I guess all that time at the range pays off. :) Actually.....let's be honest here. There was a certain amount of luck involved here as well.

That's my son Mike in the one pic with my BTW. His mother objects to hunting of any kind and really wasn't too fussy on him coming along. THAT'S JUST TOO FLIPPING BAD NOW ISN'T IT !!!!! LOL!!!!!



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joe-nwt said:
Nice deer Dennis!

Was the lucky part hitting him in the head while running at 175yrds?;)
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I've drawn a bead on running deer before, but by the time I identify it, get the shot lined up to a point where I'm happy with it, start to put pressure on the trigger.......it's usually gone and I don't bother shooting. I've never actually pulled the trigger on a running deer. The only other time I got a shot off was about 15 years ago (I haven't hunted every year).

It was a small doe. I had loaned out my 30-30 lever to a friend so I borrowed my grandfathers 32 win spl.....which he guaranteed me that the sights were lined up on. The deer was standing still, I had all the time in the world to shoot it. I even took the time to pull the trigger back so cocking the hammer wouldn't make a sound. I lined up, took my time, pulled the trigger and the deer took off like a bat out of hell. I started pounding off shots until the magazine was empty and it just kept running. No blood...nothing. I only had 3 more shells with me. I set up a target at about 30 yards and couldn't get it on paper. I was needless to say a little pi##ed. I've never loaned out my primary or backup gun since.

This time, by some miracle, I brought the gun up and got it in the scope almost instantly. I lead him a bit, aimed a little high to compensate for the bullet drop and was hoping to nail him in the shoulder.

The bullet didn't drop as much as I was compensating for...I was definately too high. I lead him too much....AND BLEW A PIECE OF HIS HEAD OFF!!! lol :D

I'll be perfectly honest. Luck was DEFINATELY on my side. After all the shooting at the does.....the guys probably fired 10 shots.....that guy was scared as hell....running/bouncing like there was no tomorrow. Oh well. If it's in the bed of the truck and not still running around the countryside....you did something right :)
 
I was hunting with 8 other guys. I was under the impression that they were going to put me on top of a high hill and let me do what I do best...snipe. It didn't turn out that way and we wound up going to one place. Hunting for a bit, then moved to another place...hunted for a bit....moved to another........

I now know where the best hill in the whole area is. Next time, I'm just going to get them to drop me off there and come back for me later. One of the 3 deer we got yesterday was shot from the top of that hill, and it's grand central deer station with all the tracks I saw. I'm pretty sure if we had a guy on top of that hill all day sitting quietly, we'd have had another one.
 
blacksmithden said:
Nope. No range finders, trail cams, quads, gps', or any other powered/electroic stuff. Pickup trucks and guns buddy. You don't need any of that fancy stuff.
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10 shots at 500 (guessed yards). Sorry, but yes you (plural) do need a rangefinder.

You can skip everything else, but if you are going to make "ethical" shots on game animals at distances past a couple hundred yards, you owe it to the animals to make every effort to make a clean shot.

Otherwise stick to reasonable ranges.

Not trying to come across as 'holier than thou', but a group of guys "opening up" on a herd of deer is something I see every year, and the results are not usually so cut and dry. I have already spent half a day trying to get a shot at a wounded doe from just such a situation earlier this year.

Like you said, it would be better if you just sat on top of that hill and made shots at known (somewhat) distances.

My 2 cents.

Glad you managed to take that buck cleanly, nice shot.

ETA: I appreciate your honesty of the situation, and believe that you are very careful what you point your rifle at. I just respectfully disagree with the Spray and Pray exhibited on the does.
 
I'm sure that was a good looking deer before the shot! :eek: Just kidding :p
Congrats on your first deer. Good shot even if luck played a role. No need to track that one very far. I saw a doe that had been shot to the head with a 243wsm this year....her head was still intact but the whole thing was like jello.
 
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