Gear:
Shooting stix - hand made
Bushnell 8x42 field glasses with Crooked Ridge harness
K98 sporterized Mauser in 25-06
Sightron SII 3-9x40 scope
Hornady Interlock 100gr sp over 42gr Varget
Setup:
We spotted two bucks out near some utility poles from a good ways off. We closed the distance by half or so and observed one buck heading back towards the highway and safety. We lost sight of the other buck and so made the decision to go at the one we were watching. He was hung up on a fence line and from past experience expected he would reverse direction if pushed and head back for the BLM.
Execution:
I got out of the truck behind a rise that obscured my movement, found cover in low ditch with some large sagebrush in it, and deployed my shooting stix. My partner eased the truck around the corner and toward the buck as I kept watch for him to move. Finally I spotted him much further away than I expected and moving away from my position. I lined up a shot on his neck and squeezed one off, but missed (later discovered a nick in his hide below his chin). The shot turned him though and back toward me he came. He was not spooked though and I racked another round in. I knew I had time, so I looked for my empty case, then back at the buck, and back and forth a couple times til I figured I better forget about the casing and put a round through the now broad side buck. I put one behind his shoulder and watched him put on a nice forty yard burst before piling up in a cloud of dust. I think the range was inside 125yds. He fell within 3-400 yds from where my buck from last year fell.
The other buck was sheer luck! We failed to turn on a two track that would have run to the east. We traveled west instead looking for a turn around, then started back to the road we were wanting. Coming down the hill, Tysin spotted a buck heading for the road to our left. I told him to kill it and as he got the truck stopped and out the door, I was shoving the gun to him. He leveled up and shot dropping the buck with a neck shot, just on the edge of the road 30yds ahead of us. An hour had elapsed since we loaded my buck up. I have had worse days fishin....