I hunt deer almost every year in the east and the west and things never work out the way you plan...
My last mule deer buck had to be killed hard crossing on the run at about 80 yards with little time to do it,after he had been jumped off a buck brush flat.
Then I got home, and after poking around in thickets all day took a stand on a power line and killed an 8 point that lopped across a power line at a bit over 300 yards,chasing a doe in heat.
The western deer was killed at eastern ranges,and the eastern deer at western ranges.....but both were killed neatly with rifles zeroed 3" high at 100 yards;the 270 with 130 Partition down 3" at 300, and the 7 Mashburn with 160 Partition hitting POA at that distance,which made the 300+ yard shot easier considering that the buck was across that power line very quickly, with not a lot of time to kill him.
Up in Northern Maine I heard a volley of shots up ahead on an abandoned logging road that went straight up the ridge through a big cut...I got up ahead and found a somewhat shaken young guy from PA with a scoped 30-30.He said this pretty big buck had snuck behind him in thick stuff(too thick to shoot at about 30 yards),and the buck paralled the road,staying iin cover,and then popped onto the road at about 250 yards.
He had "heard" that all shots in Maine were close in thick stuff so brought his 30-30 (instead of his 30/06),zeroed POA at 100 yards.He stood almost no chance to sort all this out and the shots I heard were him hitting under the buck which naturally got away...wrong cartridge,but even more wrong on the zero,and what could have saved waives of dissapointment because the success rates in Maine on any deer run about 10%,never mind a 200# plus mature buck.
My biggest Maine buck was shot at 300 yards;2 of the biggest mule deer I have seen in the last 10 years or so,were at 30 feet,and maybe 60 yards.
I've forgotten having pre-conceived notions of how and when an animal is going to show up,because you just never know.
