Big Sky
SPONSOR
Just for fun I thought I'd post some pic's and share a short story. Right up front I'll say neither shot was long range, but I figured a couple hunting photos never hurt anyone. The hunt took place around mid-October this year. We hunted in very tough weather conditions. It snowed, rained, the wind howled, it rained, it was very muddy, it rained. The snow melted into patches about the size of antelope butts making it very difficult to spot the animals as everything looked like antelope. Did I mention it rained a lot? Anyway, long story short we spent most of the morning hiking around trying to get my partner on a buck. We were finally able to close the distance to within 200 yards and my pard missed his first shot, hit it on his second. However, it did not go down for the count. He missed his third shot and connected on the fourth putting the animal down for good. Here is his speed goat. Not real heavy, but very tall.
We spent the rest of the day trying to find a buck for me. I made a long stock on one buck I really wanted. I crawled out into a muddy stubble field and was out there for nearly two hours in the rain, hoping the buck would stand up so I could see him for a shot. The contour of the land made it so I could only see his horns above the grass. I thought I had him but a different (smaller) buck came over the hill from behind me and blew everything out of the area. I returned to the pick up quite dejected. We had one or two more places to try out and then it would be too dark to hunt. Neither place panned out with anything I wanted to shoot. So we decided to call it a day and try again the next day. There was still about 10 minutes of legal shooting light left as we were headed out of the property. We came around a hill on the way out, and out in the field was a pretty darn decent buck. We threw up our glass, decided he was a shooter. I swapped bino's for my rifle scope and took aim. He was facing me with his head down eating. He was slightly uphill at about 175 yards. The only shot I had was between his horns. I took a good steady rest and threaded the bullet right between his horns and him dead center of his neck killing him instantly. He died so fast that he actually land on his belly like he was sleeping. I've never seen a dead animal die that way before. Usually they roll to one side or another. I thought it was kind'a neat though. Chalk one more up for the 30.06 and Hornady 165gr. IB's.
Here he is.
We spent the rest of the day trying to find a buck for me. I made a long stock on one buck I really wanted. I crawled out into a muddy stubble field and was out there for nearly two hours in the rain, hoping the buck would stand up so I could see him for a shot. The contour of the land made it so I could only see his horns above the grass. I thought I had him but a different (smaller) buck came over the hill from behind me and blew everything out of the area. I returned to the pick up quite dejected. We had one or two more places to try out and then it would be too dark to hunt. Neither place panned out with anything I wanted to shoot. So we decided to call it a day and try again the next day. There was still about 10 minutes of legal shooting light left as we were headed out of the property. We came around a hill on the way out, and out in the field was a pretty darn decent buck. We threw up our glass, decided he was a shooter. I swapped bino's for my rifle scope and took aim. He was facing me with his head down eating. He was slightly uphill at about 175 yards. The only shot I had was between his horns. I took a good steady rest and threaded the bullet right between his horns and him dead center of his neck killing him instantly. He died so fast that he actually land on his belly like he was sleeping. I've never seen a dead animal die that way before. Usually they roll to one side or another. I thought it was kind'a neat though. Chalk one more up for the 30.06 and Hornady 165gr. IB's.
Here he is.
