SOUTHTEXASBOY
Well-Known Member
Well I have to say I'm one of the happiest guys alive right now. My dad called me earlier this year to see if I would go on a mule deer hunt with him in New Mexico. I have never hunted mule deer but have heard plenty of story's of him and his brothers hunting all over the country back in the 70's and 80's. This would be our first out of state father and son hunt together. I have always wanted to build a long range gun to shoot coyotes and hogs and I didn't have a large caliber rifle that I felt comfortable shooting a mule deer with so I decided to buy a Remington 700 chambered in 7mm rem mag. After a couple of months of waiting on gun parts to arrive my gun was finally ready to be transformed. I threw the old stock off and replaced it with a B&C stock,Harris bipod, Timney trigger, EGW base and rings and to top it off with a Vortex PST 6-24. Now to find some bullets and see how it would shoot. I had never reloaded bullets before but always wanted learn how to. My neighbor was kind enough to show me how, after about a month of load development I had a load that would shoot. I got 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards using Norma brass, 168gn Berger hunting bullet, 69gn of H1000, shooting right at 2900fps, I was happy and ready for the hunt. The area we were hunting was some rough country with hardly any roads, so hiking and walking out ravines was the only way to get around. The first 3 days of the hunt were very slow, we only saw a few does and some small young bucks. On the 4 day we went to a new area to hunt where the only way in and out was to walk or by horse. I worked my way up the side of a huge hill where I could glass over a big area of ravines and hillsides. As I was glassing the side of a hill, 3 ravines over I saw a deer with its head in a tree. I sat there and watched for about 15 minutes before I saw horns. He was 768 yards away, with the 25mph wind blowing into my face I knew I could get to a better position for a shot. I worked down and over the 2 ravines that were between us and came up the other side to see him still standing in the same spot rubbing his horns on the small evergreen tree. He finally got turned to make a shot. As my heart was about to pound its way out of my chest I got down, deployed my Harris bipod ranged him at 192 yards. got steady and made the shot, hit I'm right on my mark, he rolled down the hill about 20 yards and he was down for the count. I did it, everything had come together as planned and my deer was down. I called my dad on the radio to tell him I had got one. As he worked his way towards the ravine I was standing in I couldn't help but think how grateful I was to be able to spend this special moment in my life with my dad.
