Only had one day to hunt the opening day in New Mexico, east of Raton. Was looking for some fresh meat more than anything. Hiked about 4 miles across this ranch and found a spot I have seen lots of pronghorn cross when I hinted there a previous season.
God set up on the side of a hill where I had a great view of the valley below and across from me. Even had some cover in the rocks around where I was sitting. Was a bit more than nervous as it was pretty warm early and I had a feeling some snakes may be in the rocks trying to warm up this morning.
I did my range mapping and distance measuring and settled in to watch what was going on. Saw several pronghorn bucks a long way off, but not headed my direction. Then a coyote appears in front of me at about 550 yards and across the shallow valley before me. Coyotes are free game on this ranch, so I watched as he kept getting closer. He stopped about 375 yards in front of me and I was set up on my shooting sticks with a completely relaxed shooting position so what the heck. The Creedmoor barked and he ran about 50 yards before falling over. A little more wind that was a direct 90 degree cross wind across the valley than I had figured, but dead is dead.
About 20 minutes later 7 does came down the valley in an exact line where the coyote had been when I shot. A couple minuted a big buck came meandering after the does. He was also on the perfect line of where the coyote had been. Couldn't get any better. I had gone to school on the coyote and had the buck dialed in. What I failed to notice in my excitement was that direct crosswind had switched to a wind directly at my back. Well, the rest is easy to figure the shot elevation was perfect, but the wind pushed the shot right in front of the bucks chest.
So much for not getting buck fever after so many years of hunting pronghorn.....
I was sitting there beating myself up a bit when about 30 minutes later, I had to stand and stretch my legs. When doing so, I turned around and looked up the hill. There was a buck standing there looking at me about 175 yards out just below the crest of the hill (I'll never shoot at a sky lined animal). So I ducked down and got my rifle mounted while kneeling off hand at the buck. One shot bang flop right where he stood. I couldn't see him on the ground, but had to be there as hard as he fell.
I gathered up my gear and started walking up to the buck. Then about 75 yards into the walk, I saw a buck just standing there looking at me. I scoped him over and didn't see any sign he had been hit in any way so it just couldn't be the buck I had shot?? I continued to walk up the hill and that buck just slowly walked away from me. Just not what you'd expect from a buck that was not wounded. So I got on my shooting sticks and again scoped him over again. He just looked at me and again walked slowly away. Now I'm really thinking this may have been the buck I shot, but he had fallen so hard and I didn't see any indication this buck was wounded in any way. And had a great look at him through my Nightforce ATACR 4-16x42 scope from less than 100 yards.
I didn't shoot at him and continued up the hill to look for my buck, or was I?
About 5 minutes, I found my buck lying in some sage brush and about 10 feet from the 2 track I had walked in on. He wasn't a big guy, but he's already eating very well on my table!
I was very relieved I hadn't shot the other buck that must have been walking with him. I can only attribute the other buck's behavior to it being the first day of the season and this ranch is rather remote so he probably hadn't seen or encountered may people.
Dry ice from town in the cooler with his meat and I was on the road a day earlier than planned. It was a good hunt, just too rushed and too short. Next time, I won't have any plans that make me rush through the hunt.
