TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,523
- 2,024
I hunted this week at my lease and the weather was nasty the last two days with cold, light rain and howling winds. Bucks ranging from spikes, 4 pointers up to 8 pointers were seen, about 10 bucks total. Normally the bigger bucks comes out during the rut from 2nd week of December till end of the deer season. Smaller bucks tend to hang around until the bigger ones comes and gets chased off.
Entered my blind at 6 am today after corning senderos, was very cloudy and 37 degrees. Upon sitting down, I got an alert on my phone from a store that a shipment of Federal Gold Medal Match 210M primers came in along with some Alliant Power Pro MR-2000. The Gold Medal primers sells like hot cakes, and there were 16,000 primers of 1,000/ box left and I cannot stand the thought of waiting till I got home to order a batch in case it sells out then waiting another few months before it gets another shipment, so I pulled out my light, credit card and started making the transaction and checking the roads every so often but were able to see silhouettes of a couple big bodied deer and several does on the roads. I have tinted windows on the blind and its a PITA early at the crack of dawn to see through, but once sliding the windows open I will be able to see better but 37 degrees plus wind, I rather keep them closed for a while, lol. After the transaction with the purchase of 3,000 Federal Gold Medal 210M primers and powder, I put everything away and squinted through the window where I saw those big bodied deer I noticed some antlers on its head, so got the Vortex 15x binos and opened the window a crack to get a better view then my heart jumped, it was a thick horned buck. I moved in a better position in the 4x6 blind and brought up my 7 Mag with 168 Berger Hunt VLD and settled the 8-32 NXS on its head to count the points and its width. I must have counted the points about 6 times in the dim light to make sure :mrgreen: and it looked like an inch / inch and a half outside the ears on both ends. I wanted an even number of antlers on both sides, but this one was a 9 pointer and thick horned at the base and the beams. It had some visible scrapes on his horns from tree rubbing and there was a thick horned 6 pointer behind him feeding also with several does. I paused for a few minutes to make a decision to take him down for some table fare and gave in to take the shot. The buck was spooked a few times, not sure why, but he kept facing my direction and feeding for about 5 minutes, so I decided to take him now before he gets spooked again, so I settled the illuminated reticle midway up the neck while he was in feeding position and let er' fly at 90 yards and he went down like a truck hit him. I brought my head down and thanked the Lord for answering my prayers earlier in the week. The other buck and does remained standing and kept feeding. I left the buck there in case a hog came around the next hour or so but no hogs came around. After a couple of hours I had the buck hanging up skinned and gutted. Upon removing some neck meat for ground, I saw a mess of tangled vertebrae and the VLD shattered about 10 inches of vertebrae and made a channel along its esophagus and entered the chest cavity in the center but no bullet was recovered. It most likely fragmented into small pieces after moving 3,025 fps out of the muzzle.
The first pic is when I was in the blind and took the picture through the eyepiece of the binoculars, it works. The 2nd pic is when I retrieved it. This is my first buck of the season, I still have one more trophy buck and a spike to end the season with some hogs soon. The rut that is coming soon will bring some bigger bucks for sure. The last pic is when a 6 pointer confronted a coyote that walked up to the does and he got a good charge and got flipped on its back when the buck came running / charging. That made me laugh when I saw him run off with its tail between its legs with the buck at its heels. I should have used the video instead of taking a pic. :lol:
Entered my blind at 6 am today after corning senderos, was very cloudy and 37 degrees. Upon sitting down, I got an alert on my phone from a store that a shipment of Federal Gold Medal Match 210M primers came in along with some Alliant Power Pro MR-2000. The Gold Medal primers sells like hot cakes, and there were 16,000 primers of 1,000/ box left and I cannot stand the thought of waiting till I got home to order a batch in case it sells out then waiting another few months before it gets another shipment, so I pulled out my light, credit card and started making the transaction and checking the roads every so often but were able to see silhouettes of a couple big bodied deer and several does on the roads. I have tinted windows on the blind and its a PITA early at the crack of dawn to see through, but once sliding the windows open I will be able to see better but 37 degrees plus wind, I rather keep them closed for a while, lol. After the transaction with the purchase of 3,000 Federal Gold Medal 210M primers and powder, I put everything away and squinted through the window where I saw those big bodied deer I noticed some antlers on its head, so got the Vortex 15x binos and opened the window a crack to get a better view then my heart jumped, it was a thick horned buck. I moved in a better position in the 4x6 blind and brought up my 7 Mag with 168 Berger Hunt VLD and settled the 8-32 NXS on its head to count the points and its width. I must have counted the points about 6 times in the dim light to make sure :mrgreen: and it looked like an inch / inch and a half outside the ears on both ends. I wanted an even number of antlers on both sides, but this one was a 9 pointer and thick horned at the base and the beams. It had some visible scrapes on his horns from tree rubbing and there was a thick horned 6 pointer behind him feeding also with several does. I paused for a few minutes to make a decision to take him down for some table fare and gave in to take the shot. The buck was spooked a few times, not sure why, but he kept facing my direction and feeding for about 5 minutes, so I decided to take him now before he gets spooked again, so I settled the illuminated reticle midway up the neck while he was in feeding position and let er' fly at 90 yards and he went down like a truck hit him. I brought my head down and thanked the Lord for answering my prayers earlier in the week. The other buck and does remained standing and kept feeding. I left the buck there in case a hog came around the next hour or so but no hogs came around. After a couple of hours I had the buck hanging up skinned and gutted. Upon removing some neck meat for ground, I saw a mess of tangled vertebrae and the VLD shattered about 10 inches of vertebrae and made a channel along its esophagus and entered the chest cavity in the center but no bullet was recovered. It most likely fragmented into small pieces after moving 3,025 fps out of the muzzle.
The first pic is when I was in the blind and took the picture through the eyepiece of the binoculars, it works. The 2nd pic is when I retrieved it. This is my first buck of the season, I still have one more trophy buck and a spike to end the season with some hogs soon. The rut that is coming soon will bring some bigger bucks for sure. The last pic is when a 6 pointer confronted a coyote that walked up to the does and he got a good charge and got flipped on its back when the buck came running / charging. That made me laugh when I saw him run off with its tail between its legs with the buck at its heels. I should have used the video instead of taking a pic. :lol:
