globemaster3
New member
In another post, I was preparing to head out on quite a drive (11 hours) to a Texas ranch for an end-of-season hunt. The goal was to put my 12yo daughter on her first deer. Due to USAF obligations and a move, I lost the entire season save this one trip.
We arrived at my friend's ranch and set up shop in their hunting cabin. We got there early enough to check zero on my daughter's Wthby Vanguard Youth .243 and my DPMS LR308B. Once completed, we went on a quick drive around the property and saw a generous amount of deer. We quickly chose a spot to set up a ground blind the next morning and went back to the cabin for some sleep.
The morning hunt went good. We saw a lot of animals, but we were looking for mature does only to help with the management program and the only two fitting our category to come by offered poor shots. Had quite a nice little stag party with some 1-2 yo bucks wearing small headgear that played around in front of us.
The evening hunt was the ticket. Two does came out within 30 mins of getting in the blind, but a little barren tree kept us from getting a clean shot. Both bedded down under the tree. Unfortunately, my daughter inadvertantly hit her gun barrel on a metal fence post in front of us and both does were soon history. After laughing that one off (I was laughing, she was angry
), we settled down and were soon rewarded with a large doe coming from the right and two small ones coming from the left. After looking with my binoculars, we chose the bigger one on the right. We let her walk to 75 yards on the rangefinder and got a perfect broadside shot. My girl was getting anxious. I talked her through the shot and was covering the deer's vitals with my own crosshairs should she muff it. At the shot, the deer dropped like someone hit it with a sledgehammer! I quickly shot her a glance and asked where she aimed, not expecting the deer to drop like that. After verifying her shot placement ("behind the shoulder Daddy, 1/2 way up"), we got out of the blind and walked up to her doe.
She beat me there by 20 yards and the first thing I heard was "Oh no!" This got my attention and was quickly followed by "It's a buck!" Huh?
What I missed when I glassed that deer at ~150 yards was two tiny bits of ivory, about 1" long apiece, sticking above the hair. Oh well, we did have buck tags and spikes were on the menu. After calming her down that it was OK, we called my friend to let him know and brought out her doe, er, I mean buck...
Oh, and the shot? High in the chest which would later reveal tops of both lungs and the spine damaged by a pass through shot. That was using the 95gr Winchester Ballistic Silvertips. That spine damage is what dropped it.
Next day I connected with my LR308B. I wish I could say I took some fabulously long shot and got that doe right in the eye
, but it was only 30 feet and it went 20 yards before discovering it was dead. We had other opportunites for shots for my girl that next evening, but she either got busted moving or the animals presented poor shots. That's alright, I think she is still walking on air. And considering I had given the season up for lost when I received orders for a mid-season move, I'm just plain happy to have some meat in the freezer!
And for Art who I think was the one who mentioned reading in the stand a couple months ago, that worked like a champ!
We arrived at my friend's ranch and set up shop in their hunting cabin. We got there early enough to check zero on my daughter's Wthby Vanguard Youth .243 and my DPMS LR308B. Once completed, we went on a quick drive around the property and saw a generous amount of deer. We quickly chose a spot to set up a ground blind the next morning and went back to the cabin for some sleep.
The morning hunt went good. We saw a lot of animals, but we were looking for mature does only to help with the management program and the only two fitting our category to come by offered poor shots. Had quite a nice little stag party with some 1-2 yo bucks wearing small headgear that played around in front of us.
The evening hunt was the ticket. Two does came out within 30 mins of getting in the blind, but a little barren tree kept us from getting a clean shot. Both bedded down under the tree. Unfortunately, my daughter inadvertantly hit her gun barrel on a metal fence post in front of us and both does were soon history. After laughing that one off (I was laughing, she was angry
), we settled down and were soon rewarded with a large doe coming from the right and two small ones coming from the left. After looking with my binoculars, we chose the bigger one on the right. We let her walk to 75 yards on the rangefinder and got a perfect broadside shot. My girl was getting anxious. I talked her through the shot and was covering the deer's vitals with my own crosshairs should she muff it. At the shot, the deer dropped like someone hit it with a sledgehammer! I quickly shot her a glance and asked where she aimed, not expecting the deer to drop like that. After verifying her shot placement ("behind the shoulder Daddy, 1/2 way up"), we got out of the blind and walked up to her doe. She beat me there by 20 yards and the first thing I heard was "Oh no!" This got my attention and was quickly followed by "It's a buck!" Huh?
What I missed when I glassed that deer at ~150 yards was two tiny bits of ivory, about 1" long apiece, sticking above the hair. Oh well, we did have buck tags and spikes were on the menu. After calming her down that it was OK, we called my friend to let him know and brought out her doe, er, I mean buck...
Oh, and the shot? High in the chest which would later reveal tops of both lungs and the spine damaged by a pass through shot. That was using the 95gr Winchester Ballistic Silvertips. That spine damage is what dropped it.
Next day I connected with my LR308B. I wish I could say I took some fabulously long shot and got that doe right in the eye
, but it was only 30 feet and it went 20 yards before discovering it was dead. We had other opportunites for shots for my girl that next evening, but she either got busted moving or the animals presented poor shots. That's alright, I think she is still walking on air. And considering I had given the season up for lost when I received orders for a mid-season move, I'm just plain happy to have some meat in the freezer!And for Art who I think was the one who mentioned reading in the stand a couple months ago, that worked like a champ!
