Ga6570
Well-Known Member
2nd day of the MT youth deer hunt, my 3 boys and I had access to a small private parcel with sagebrush, alfalfa pivots and creek bottoms. After working through the irrigated fields and traversing the black angus enjoying the fields we got up to the sage hills as we followed several deer over a ridge. We slowly made it to the ridge crest and found the buck and doe below us, along with a good handful of other deer. All whitetail in this group. (There were a lot of mule deer does in the east pivot but our tag doesn't allow for those on this unit) My 13 year old son made a 227 yard shot on one of the bucks but had the jitters and jerked the shot, clean miss. He was kicking himself as the deer made it further away to the west out of his comfort zone. We kept glassing and literally just minutes later as I turned south to look, I saw a what appeared to be a large bodied deer standing alone by the creek. Further inspection revealed it was a nice buck. My son did a 90° pivot from the same vantage point and acquired the target in the early morning light. The large white rock further out in the field kept making it hard for him to find the buck. Once he located it I ranged it at 332 yards, while he kept the sight picture I reached over and rotated his turret a bit to adjust for the distance. He aimed as normal and finally the buck who kept moving slowly away turned broadside enough and crack! The buck dropped with the shot. He quickly chambered another round and stayed on him but the buck was done.
Proud Dad moment to fist bump my son as his two younger brothers watched him harvest this big ole bodied whitetail.
I then turned to my 11 year old who had opted to not shoot at the first bunch of deer. I had just located 4 more does and 2 more young bucks just across the creek another 70 yards from the expired buck. He got them in his scope just as they moved behind some brush/willows. We decided to move down the ridge to cut the distance as much as possible and got 100-150 yards closer. Good thing we did because those deer kept moving away. They eventually crossed out of the property before he had a shot he was comfortable with. Granted it would have been a 350-400 yard shot… so not a simple one for him. He was excited for his brother on his harvest and wasn't bummed he didn't shoot. We made it down to the buck and took a few photos and the work started!!
He is shooting a Tikka T3 lite with a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel. Bullets Barnes 127gr LRX. Both boys are carrying tikka 6.5 Creedmoors, mine is a browning HCLR in 6.5 PRC, brought along for coyotes on this trip… saw one but didn't get a shot opportunity as it was running through the cattle in the pivot field at first light.
Proud Dad moment to fist bump my son as his two younger brothers watched him harvest this big ole bodied whitetail.
I then turned to my 11 year old who had opted to not shoot at the first bunch of deer. I had just located 4 more does and 2 more young bucks just across the creek another 70 yards from the expired buck. He got them in his scope just as they moved behind some brush/willows. We decided to move down the ridge to cut the distance as much as possible and got 100-150 yards closer. Good thing we did because those deer kept moving away. They eventually crossed out of the property before he had a shot he was comfortable with. Granted it would have been a 350-400 yard shot… so not a simple one for him. He was excited for his brother on his harvest and wasn't bummed he didn't shoot. We made it down to the buck and took a few photos and the work started!!
He is shooting a Tikka T3 lite with a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel. Bullets Barnes 127gr LRX. Both boys are carrying tikka 6.5 Creedmoors, mine is a browning HCLR in 6.5 PRC, brought along for coyotes on this trip… saw one but didn't get a shot opportunity as it was running through the cattle in the pivot field at first light.
