Shawn Carlock
Sponsor
Tyler's 2014 Whitetail
My dad Tyler and I went out on the 8th for a day of 3 generations of Carlock guys hunting. I took "the guys" (both act like kids most of the time) to one of my favorite whitetail spots. It is an epic long range hunting location good shooting platform, good vision and not a full on ball breaker to get to.
I figured it would be fogged in during the morning so we left home at the crack of 10:00 and drove to our destination. We unloaded dad's RZR side by side and my 4 wheeler, Tyler seemed to like riding in the heated side by better. We drove / hiked to our spot and set up the mountain of gear we had. If you have ever tried to film a hunt with higher end video equipment you know what I'm talking about. Dad and I didn't even take rifles today was Tyler's day.
Tyler was to be running a 7 WSM Canyon Rifle with a 5.5-22 NXS on it and a NPR1 reticule. So with the video equipment set up, Tyler laid out the rifle, Red Tac rear bag, a small ammo wallet with 10 rounds, the G7 BR2 range finder and some ear plugs. I setup the Swarovski spotter and broke out the binoculars. We glassed for about an hour before the first does of the day were spotted. I had Tyler setup to practice on them (this is a good idea for new and experienced shooters alike). Tyler has a lot of experience with long range shooting he has taken one of our long range shooting classes and won several long range shooting competitions all at the age of 12 years old, so I had no doubts about his abilities but practice, practice, practice. Tyler unloaded the rifle and prepared to dry fire on the does. I called an elevation correction and he dialed it up. I called a windage correction and he put that in also. Tyler settled in on the deer flipped the safety off and said I'm on it. I said "hold for a better shot angle". When the doe was broadside Tyler confirmed he was on it and I said, "Send It". I watched Tyler take make perfect trigger press, I heard the snap and say absolutely not movement of Tyler or the rifle. We took several more practice shots like this and went back to glassing for deer.
We spotted several more does as the evening pressed on but no bucks. Tyler was starting to get concerned like most new hunter and was making noise about actually shooting a doe. I told him that he had almost a month of deer season left, the rut is not yet on and this time of year you probably won't see any bucks especially worth shooting until last light. We glassed until we ran out of filming light and had about 5-10 minutes of shooting light left. With only a few minutes of good long range shooting light left I spotted 2 bucks lightly sparring at the end of a grassy clearing. I got Tyler on them and as he settled into the rifle, set the PA, corrected the rifle cant and firmed up the rear bag, I ranged the bucks with the BR2. "1186 yards, come up 30.50 moa" I said. I looked at the wind slight tail wind 2 mph or so, no way to see if the wind took and speed or direction changes between us and the target. I corrected for spin drift and Coriolis effect, I knew this would cause a drift to the right of about 9-10 inches so I said, "Dial .75 right". Now if your paying attention you see the problem already. I asked if he was on it and he said, "On it". I looked through spotter, while both bucks were broadside shooting while they were pushing each other given the time of flight would be stupid.
So we waited until they disengaged and I said, "send it".
I heard the shot go off and focused all around the deer, light was fading fast and it was difficult to see really good detail so I was looking for an impact. About a second later the deer shudders and humps up in the middle, but doesn't move.
I called out, "Hit, load another round."
Tyler loaded and said, "On it".
I said, "Send it."
Again I heard the shot waited for the time of flight and saw the deer shudder again but not move.
I said, "Dial 1.0 moa left and load another".
Tyler repeated back to me, "1 MOA, left I'm on it".
I said, "Send it".
I watched for the third time waiting for the flight time to expire and was rewarded with the buck collapsing on the ground from a high shoulder hit.
I said, "Hit he is down".
After the high fives and congratulations we packed up all of our gear and were able to drive within ½ a mile or so of the deer. Tyler and I head lamped our way into it. In the timber it was darker than the inside of a cow. Once we were in the open the ¾ moon light made boning it out pretty easy. It was a smaller buck a main frame 4x5 + a small drop point on one side. We loaded up and packed back to the ATV's. After a brisk ride back to the truck we loaded up and headed home.
On the ride home we had to of course relive the many details of the hunt. While it was dark inside the truck and Tyler was sitting behind me I could tell he was beaming about the whole experience. I said," You know Ty your shooting was impressive, 3 shots, 3 hits 1186 yards, but that was the most impressive prat of it. The thing that impressed me the most was how cool and collected you were when the buck didn't go down right after the first shot. You stayed calm, followed the prompts from your spotter, never got rattled and stayed on task and that was what was impressive.
I can't even begin to tell you how much more important it is to me to pass on what I know and to see kids succeed in almost anything. It was truly a day for the books.
