California Shortrange Blacktail

BrandonA · #1 09-23-2007, 11:18 PM

Starters... The deer is OLD I'm pretty sure his top teeth are completly worn down and bottom are barely there. So I think he's past his prime(looking for more opinions). Buck has a lot of character and they don't get too much bigger in this area. I was thinking he was almost a hybrid since he has a lot of grey on him and was about ~250 lbs so a TOAD in this area. I'm stoked but I know it's no monster Mullie like you guys get!

Background: This is a private area hunt with housing around. Landowner think the deer are pests while most of his neighbors think they are pets. So we generally try to only archery hunt. Today though it was pouring rain and took the rifles out. A buddy and I went out and we only had our .300 RUM's. I would have prefered having the .22-250 for this area but it was a spur of the moment thing. Pull up about 9:30 and spot a nice tall 3x3 with solid mass on top of a hill. Knowing the area we know there are houses up top so we pass him up not wanthing to chance anything because SAFETY is more important then the deer. We watch him for another 30 minutes knowing he is a good buck and he's just walking around in circles (literally) eating. So my buddy drove me to the top of the ridge about 700 yards down and he drove back down to the vantage point to watch it unfold. I stalked down the ridge knowing I'd be closer than I wanted but I stalked up over a hill and to my suprise he was only 20 yards away. He started to walk off not afraid when I found this old guy right behind him. ~ 20 yard shot on him (with a 200 yard zero) I held base of his body and nailed him right through the shoulder. And to my amazement he took off running although he only lasted 20 yards. 180 grain TSX with 96 grains of retumbo I will post entrance/exit wounds later if people want to show close range ability of them..

justgoharder · #2 09-24-2007, 10:39 PM

lets see the pics - I am interested in seeing what happens when those 180gr bullets do at 3100+ ft/sec

lovdasnow · #3 09-28-2007, 11:34 AM

nice job, that is a huge blacktail rack!

jwp475 · #4 09-28-2007, 11:51 AM

Very nice Deer................I bet the insides were jelloed and that the entrance and exit doe not do justice to the damage inside..........

BrandonA · #5 09-28-2007, 08:08 PM

Thanks ya.. the damage was bad inside with the jello'd meat lol...
Here is the exit, and yes you'll notice something still left hanging around inside the cavity because the guys head who is in the way actually wanted to keep them for himself so I told him he got to take them off then!

180g TSX behind some Retumbo out of the 300 RUM... like 20-30 yards distance

royinidaho · #6 09-29-2007, 09:52 AM

Brandon,

Very good ma man! That's a very nice buck. Top of its class. Good story and follow up with boolet performance pics. Thumbs us to ya!

I get a kick out of your hunting area. Just about like mine, behind the house. Every deer that I've shot back there I've and to work so that there wasn't a house in the pic. Same w/yotes. It makes creating an opportunity for an shot way more fun, as in your case. Here you and only shoot south safetly.

Again, good going. It's neat that you got a trophy.