Mudranger1
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2010
- Messages
- 2,857
I decided to give it a go last minute. Yesterday I made my way up to an area I've turkey hunted in previously and had a few spots I wanted to check out. With the new shorten day light I only had about an hour before dark so I just decided to put all my eggs in 1 basket and headed in to an area I had never actually set foot in. I walked maybe 1/2 mile and spooked a doe and yearling. I pressed on further in to try and find a spot to sit the rest of the evening. I found a spot overlooking a bottom and set up. The wind was terrible. With about 15 minutesof shooting light left I couldn't stand that thought anymore and got up and moved. At about the 10 minute mark I made the decision I was in a good enough looking draw. I set up and waited. With 3 minutes of light left I see a buck right on the treeline looking straight up at me (now he could be just looking or he could have xray vision and somehow picked me out and not known what I was) I get him in the scope but just can't get steady( i probably could have made it work but wasn't happy with it) so I lowered my bipod down 1 notch and perfect. He is still straight on at about 120 yards and as there is now 1 minute left of legal shooting light. I get lined up on his chest and squeeze it off. In slow motion vision he looks hit but I only see him for a second before he goes behind a hill. I hear no crashing or anything. After about 10 minutes I go to where I think he was and something crashes down the hill. Not like running off but at this point I'm not sure whats going on. It is super thick where I heard the crashing. I look for blood, scuff marks and any other sign of a deer and can't find anything. I search for about 30 minutes on the hillside and finally make the decision to back out. In my head I'm positive I saw a wounded deer but damn I would have thought 300 grains to the chest would have done short work. My gut says I missed so I'm torn. I get up about 530 and make my way to where I shot from and replay everything as best I could until the sun is good and up. I start searching the hill side again and can't find anything. I go lower down in to the thick stuff and can't find anything that stands out. I do some grid search lines back and forth close to the field edge and come up empty. I then take it a little bit further away and into a clearing past all the thickness and find him dead in the grass. He had traveled just over 100 yards from the hill he was on.. He was frozen pretty solid but unfortunately I do believe the back half is spoiled from sitting in gut juices overnight. The bullet entered high just inside the shoulder and came to rest at the opposite back hip joint. This is a first for me but I have left very few over night. I just had no sign to go on. So a good trip and a spoiled result.
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