Hondo64d
Well-Known Member
Not the biggest out there, but my personal best and I'm pretty excited about him. This is a free range Texas Whitetail shot in Fisher County on the 21st of November. Had seen him chasing does early that morning on the far end of an old wheat field, but was too far to range, and would not stand still for a good shot anyway. The does ran back into the mesquites and of course he followed.
My son and I took a break from the deer hunting mid-day and shot three pigs. I shot the black one at about ten yards with my .257 Weatherby and an 80gr TTSX launched at about 3700. A long range rifle on a ten yard shot... Go figure... My son shot the other three with his Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. That rifle is absolute death on close range pigs, but that's another story.
Got back to deer hunting later that afternoon. Had thought about sitting overwatching the same field we had seen the buck in, but then saw some does moving, we figured toward a tank for water, so decided to ease down the fence row to have a look at the tank. The fence row had a little brush along it, so provided a little concealment in places.
Deer always have a way of showing up when and where I don't expect them, so nowadays, I expect them anywhere at any time. I wasn't moving more than a few yards at a time before stopping and looking to my sides and rear. As I stopped and looked to my right with five minutes of legal shooting light left, I see this guy standing in the same field as before facing me dead on at about 100 yards. I can tell even without the scope that he's pretty decent. When I put my scope on him, I can see that he's is looking right at me trying to decide if I am a threat. Thought for about 1/2 second about trying to get to a fence post for a rest. It was only about 4 feet away, but while looking at him knew he would not let me. Decided to go off-hand with it, steadied up the crosshairs low in the center of his chest and squeezed her off. The 80gr TTSX hit him square in the chest and he went maybe 30 yards at the most and then was down hard. If you look hard, you can see the entrance wound.
To me, he's got pretty good mass for an eight, especially considering he's a free-range buck with no supplemental feeding. His G2s are right at 12". Needless to say, I was pretty much like a kid at Christmas!
John
My son and I took a break from the deer hunting mid-day and shot three pigs. I shot the black one at about ten yards with my .257 Weatherby and an 80gr TTSX launched at about 3700. A long range rifle on a ten yard shot... Go figure... My son shot the other three with his Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. That rifle is absolute death on close range pigs, but that's another story.
Got back to deer hunting later that afternoon. Had thought about sitting overwatching the same field we had seen the buck in, but then saw some does moving, we figured toward a tank for water, so decided to ease down the fence row to have a look at the tank. The fence row had a little brush along it, so provided a little concealment in places.
Deer always have a way of showing up when and where I don't expect them, so nowadays, I expect them anywhere at any time. I wasn't moving more than a few yards at a time before stopping and looking to my sides and rear. As I stopped and looked to my right with five minutes of legal shooting light left, I see this guy standing in the same field as before facing me dead on at about 100 yards. I can tell even without the scope that he's pretty decent. When I put my scope on him, I can see that he's is looking right at me trying to decide if I am a threat. Thought for about 1/2 second about trying to get to a fence post for a rest. It was only about 4 feet away, but while looking at him knew he would not let me. Decided to go off-hand with it, steadied up the crosshairs low in the center of his chest and squeezed her off. The 80gr TTSX hit him square in the chest and he went maybe 30 yards at the most and then was down hard. If you look hard, you can see the entrance wound.
To me, he's got pretty good mass for an eight, especially considering he's a free-range buck with no supplemental feeding. His G2s are right at 12". Needless to say, I was pretty much like a kid at Christmas!
John
