My brothers doe hunt

[rufous]

Well I think I have made a believer out of my brother regarding some of my hunting and shooting tactics. He tends to be a tightwad financially so he has not invested in a laser rangefinder or a bipod. This has limited him in the past to shorter range shots. Today we were out after a whitetail doe (we both had permits but I was really just trying to get him one). He was packing his 30-'06 and I had my 300 Win Mag. We were driving along a road this afternoon after having hunted other areas all day and saw some deer way down in the bottom of a field. It was raining pretty hard but what the heck, we decided to try to close the gap. We walked down into the field quite a ways but ran out of cover with still nearly 500 yards between us. Clearly too far for his '06 since he would have to aim high and had no bipod. I offered to let him use my rifle. I have a Kramer Snipepod and a Stoney Point Target Knob and knew that at 480 yards I needed to dial in 23 clicks on the scope. I told him to aim where he wanted to hit but with the first shot he aimed high anyway and missed. I told him again to put the crosshairs right where he wanted to hit and he fired again and dropped the doe right where she stood. He was quite impressed with my setup and happy to be able to bring home a tasty doe.

Rufous

 

[Derek M.]

Your brother sounds like mine about 3 years ago. Congrats to both of you. Maybe you can cajole your brother into an investment now on a long range rig. How do you like the Stoney Point dial? I had a riflesmith tell me that when you dial in your zero, to always end with a clockwise turn due to the springs. (ie., if you need 10 clicks counterclockwise, go 12, then clockwise 2). Every hear of this?

 

[rufous]

Derek, The Stoney Point dial works great. With the Leupold VariX-III scopes that I use I have not found it necessary to dial in extra clicks and then back off. They track true in my experience. The last shot fired with my 300 Win Mag (Barnes 180 TSX handloads) before this hunt was at 400 yards a couple months ago. It had been zeroed at 250 yards and I dialed in 13 clicks of elevation and fired one shot from the bench at 400 yards. The bullet hit 0.25" to the right of point of aim. Rufous.