Finaly, one beyond 500

[Ridge Runner]

well the last day of antlerless season I finaly found one over 500 to try my luck on.
We were in an after the hunt celebration/weigh in on an 11 yo's first black bear, nice 200 pounder. All at once the landowner said look at that deer, a buddy said you got your gun with ya, well the 7mm AM was in the truck so I unpacked it and set up, after several attempts the doe finaly walked out behind the treetop to range it. the leica said 587,584 so I set the scope on 5 MOA up and started to settle in, had a slight left to right breeze blowing so I gave it 3/4 left windage, settled the crosshairs and started tightening down on the trigger with 15-20 people behind me, the landowner said "she's just as safe as in the arms of jesus" just then the trigger broke and I saw the impact immediately followed by the doe's running gears go out from under her, you could have bought the landowner for a dime.
when we retrieved her up on the hill the slight breeze was about 9 mph, POI was about 7" right of point of aim, about 3" in front of the hams, not enough grass in the field to see the difference in the wind, but I did learn to make more effort to check the wind at the target.
JS

[Mountainsheep]

Congratulations on your doe. I'm happy you got to let the AM stretch out, good shooting, great way to end the season.
Dave

[Fiftydriver]

Congrats on your fine shot!!! Always sweeter to make a shot with a doubter behind you, also adds to the pressure though!!

Kirby Allen(50)

[lovdasnow]

great story, love the landowner part.

[Buffalobob]

Congratulations on finding and making a shot.

Welcome to the "Fooled by the Wind Club". I think once you start shooting at animals beyond 500 yards you become a member of this club fairly quickly.

I wound up voluntarily skunked for the seaason. I could never find a shot much past 300 yards nor anything with more than a spike for a rack. I had does within 20 yards of me and three spike bucks at three hundred but nothing was worth the trouble. One thing I found out is that the 56mm Nigthforce doesn't know how to tell time. My old Redfield would call it a day when the sun went down and the Nightforce is still hunting way past legal shooting hours. There were three does and a spike buck in a field about 200 yards from my truck last night but it was way past shooting time and the Game Warden had checked my license right there a few weeks ago so I didn't bother to shoot.

[bsb]

Nice job! enjoy the burger/summersausage/italian sausage/roast/steaks/jerky/stew ETC [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]