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Ended up getting this nice fat 3 point at 410 yds. I used my Savage 110 6.5-284. I was about to shoot a forked horn at 700 yds. and just before I pulled the trigger I see this guy walk out from around a hill and he was much bigger(27"). So I lowered the boom on him.
Very nice...
nice buck! Hope your having a good dinner tonight
Congrats on an awesome deer. I hope to make it out west at some point to hunt a monster.
congrats nice buck
Good job!
I've never shot a deer with so much fat on him. When we were skinning him out he kinda looked like a bear I killed a couple years ago. Anyway he is excellent eating!Quote:
Originally Posted by charb52
thats awesome!Quote:
Originally Posted by chukarmandoo
Thanks guys for the comments. A little more on the story. We try to go every year to Montana to hunt upland birds as that is my passion. Anyway we usually go earlier in the season but this year we had to go later so I got a deer tag as we would be there for the first week of the season. We always see deer when bird hunting and the year before we jump 5 bucks the last day we were there. One would have been a shooter! Anyway as we left to go home the next day, opening day of deer season, we hadn't gone to far and we see a small herd of does off in a field a ways from the road. Then we look over to the other side of the highway and see this really nice whitetail buck. He was wanting to get with the does! So I thought it would be fun to hunt deer there at sometime and this year we made it happen.
We had a really good time bird hunting and killed a lot of birds this year. My girl friend seen a big buck the first day we were there but season wasn't open yet and she couldn't give me much of the details but told me, I think it was the next day, oh by the way I seen a big buck yesterday. Well that was all I could get out of her. She was there to bird hunt! So all week I looked for deer as we shot sharptails, pheasants and huns.
We got permission from some people to hunt their property for deer opening morning but aside from seeing 6 whitetail does we only encountered lots of birds. Go figure! So it was back to bird hunting for the next few days. Two days before we were to leave I tell the rest of the group that I'm going to look for deer that evening and they all went hunting more birds. My girl friend started to get the hang of killing birds and she really had a great time!
That afternoon I drove around scouting and just about an hour before sunset I see a herd of deer about a mile and a half away. I park the truck in a draw out of sight and sneak up to the top of a knoll and glass them. Looks like there is a nice buck in with them so I sneak back down to the truck to get closer. I drive about a half mile to the next and the last draw between me and the deer. I get my rifle and all my gear an sneak up once again on a knoll that separates me from a clear shot to the buck. I crawl to the top and I've got the shot! 1160 yards! The wind is about a quarter value at 2 mph. Perfect! I get my dope, start to dial, but this guy is BIG! I start to question the shot. I have practiced this shot for most of the days we've been there. About every other evening taking a cold bore shot off the porch out to a ranged spot 1260 yards away and been very successful but still I doubt my shot. I look for a closer shot.The sun is setting, I grab, almost all, my gear and slide back down the hill. The sun is on my back and wind is in my face as I sneak along a fence line that will get me closer to the prize. I cut the distance by about 300 yards and set up to take the shot. I reach for my range finder and CRAP! I don't have it! Its now starting to get dark and I need to find it. All thats left to do now is backtrack and hope I find it. At last light I find it ( I had left it on the hill). Now I get set up to make the shot BUT the buck is gone!
I have a 111 in 6.5 284--what kinda bullet did you use and how did it perform (other than the obvious kill)?? PS--I admire you're second thoughts on taking that long shot.
So with the fall of darkness I returned to the house. I kicked myself for not taking the shot, as conditions were perfect, but I was more upset with my inability to keep focused under pressure and gather all my gear as I moved to my next hide.
The next morning I was up way before light. Got my gear together and then waited for first light. Today I would have to walk the 2 1/2 miles to the spot that I had last seen them the evening before. As I headed out I couldn't help but think how much things had changed in just a few hours. The sun would be coming up in my eyes in just a few minutes, the wind, though very lite, was now on my back, and worst of all was the fact that in a mile I would be visible to the deer for the rest of the stalk (1 1/2 miles to go in open country! Today I knew that if the deer were back where I had last seen them, I would have to take the long shot, or there would be no shot at all. No chance to cut the distance. It was not looking good.
As I got to the hilltop that marked the first mile I approached it with great caution but still new I needed to cover a lot of ground. I walked slow now studying the land that lay before me, the best I could. The sun was now coming up and I could not see the edge of the field where the deer were last seen. It was directly in my eyes. I had no choice but to stop and wait for the sun to get higher in the sky. The wind was picking up and blowing almost straight towards the deer! If they were even there?
Now reality was setting in.
The deer in this country don't make it by sneaking around. At the first sign of danger they are gone! This can mean a vehicle stopping a mile or more away or the sent of something they don't like carried by the wind across these great open spaces! For this reason I had opted to use my 6.5-284 Norma. The 26" barrel pushes the Berger 140 gr VLD bullets to 3000 fps and their high BC and devastating impact on game at distance, all added up for me in this situation.
I now had to make the decision. Push forward and cover ground or play the "wait and see" game. About this time the sun was a little higher but some clouds were starting to move in and cover the blinding rays from the sun that I was witnessing just a few minutes ago. Now I could see the whole area before me and there were no deer in sight. I now new it was time to travel. If I had any chance of getting a shot I would have to cover the next 1 1/2 miles of open ground without being detected. The race was on!
I walked the next mile and 1/2 in about a hour. The field and the spot where I saw the deer now lays just to the south of me about 500 yds and just to the east of that is where I think the deer are. Its a hilly section of land with sage and grass. I don't know if the deer are there but I do know that I have to continue east because of the wind. I walk a few hundred yards and then turn south around the side of the hill. I walk slowly around the hill watching for deer and hoping I don't bump any of the does. I only have moved a little ways around the hill and way off in the distance I can see a deer. I pull out my rangefinder and can see its a buck and its 700 yards away. I lay down and pick it up in my scope and at 16 power I see its a forked horn. We will be headed home in the morning so I decide to take the shot. I check the wind and the meter says full value 7 mph. I dial and get set up behind the rifle. One more look before I send it. Out of the corner of my eye I see the three point and he's closer and bigger! The rest is history. While I must add the fact that I wanted to and thought I would get a shot at long range, it just didn't work out. But the 410 yard shot was clean and thats a very good thing.
Good story, nice buck, Chukar. I've dreamed of such a hunt since I was a kid. Congrats.