Rifle season opened here this Saturday ... Drove to camp right after lunch for an afternoon hunt on Sunday ... got out to my field about 3:15pm where I could overlook two little food plots, and a LOT of large areas of briar thicket. Sat patiently for two hours without seeing a damn thing - not even a squirrel or armadillo.
Legal hunting hours ended at 5:32, so about 5:10 I started really glassing like crazy as it was getting darker by the minute. Back and forth, back and forth for nearly 20 minutes straight ... stopping from time to time to check out certain areas. Then, like a damn ghost, with about three minutes before legal hunting hours ended, out of nowhere (as if they were beamed in a-la Star Trek), I see two very nice 'twin' bucks - both with very big bodies and decent racks. I just about crapped myself out of pure shock of going from nothing to two nice bucks in the blink of an eye!
Almost immediately after spotting them, the one in front disappeared into a large thicket area. The second one started to follow him, but took a bit different route that allowed him to remain visible while passing thru the thicket ... He came out seconds later about 80 yards from me, facing me head on and staring me down. He seemed more surprised to see me in his field than I was to see him and his twin brother moments before.
Well, of course, the rifle instantly came up and the shot was fired. Down he went after running (trying to run I should say) about 20 yards directly to my right, and then face planting dead in the middle of another briar thicket.
The shot impacted the buck (vertically) at shoulder level, and just barely favoring his right side. I was shooting my Ti stocked LVSF 7mm-08, loaded with 120g Vmax bullets (grabbed them by accident instead of my TSX loads) ... But truth be told the bullet performed brilliantly - not much meat damage and the heart/lungs were destroyed.
The whitetail buck weighed 200 pounds gross weight, 8 points (one brow tine is broken), and the rack while not too massive is just a hair under 15" inside clear spread... Not a monster mind you, but not a bad deer at all for this area ...
Here are a few pics ... please try to ignore the stupid grin on my face, as I was trying my best not to laugh my ass off at the guy taking my picture ... I've never seen someone have so much trouble with a simple digital 'snap shot' style camera ...
The Rifle and gear:
Me and the buck back at the skinning shack:
Some pics of the headgear (taken the next day) after caping him out:
Legal hunting hours ended at 5:32, so about 5:10 I started really glassing like crazy as it was getting darker by the minute. Back and forth, back and forth for nearly 20 minutes straight ... stopping from time to time to check out certain areas. Then, like a damn ghost, with about three minutes before legal hunting hours ended, out of nowhere (as if they were beamed in a-la Star Trek), I see two very nice 'twin' bucks - both with very big bodies and decent racks. I just about crapped myself out of pure shock of going from nothing to two nice bucks in the blink of an eye!
Almost immediately after spotting them, the one in front disappeared into a large thicket area. The second one started to follow him, but took a bit different route that allowed him to remain visible while passing thru the thicket ... He came out seconds later about 80 yards from me, facing me head on and staring me down. He seemed more surprised to see me in his field than I was to see him and his twin brother moments before.
Well, of course, the rifle instantly came up and the shot was fired. Down he went after running (trying to run I should say) about 20 yards directly to my right, and then face planting dead in the middle of another briar thicket.
The shot impacted the buck (vertically) at shoulder level, and just barely favoring his right side. I was shooting my Ti stocked LVSF 7mm-08, loaded with 120g Vmax bullets (grabbed them by accident instead of my TSX loads) ... But truth be told the bullet performed brilliantly - not much meat damage and the heart/lungs were destroyed.
The whitetail buck weighed 200 pounds gross weight, 8 points (one brow tine is broken), and the rack while not too massive is just a hair under 15" inside clear spread... Not a monster mind you, but not a bad deer at all for this area ...
Here are a few pics ... please try to ignore the stupid grin on my face, as I was trying my best not to laugh my ass off at the guy taking my picture ... I've never seen someone have so much trouble with a simple digital 'snap shot' style camera ...
The Rifle and gear:
Me and the buck back at the skinning shack:
Some pics of the headgear (taken the next day) after caping him out:
