South Texas whitetail hunt at the Callahan Ranch. Spotted a nice deer feeding in a sendero that I wanted to shoot approximately 1,000 yards away about an hour and a half before sunset. My guide agreed he was a shooter but said "he's too far away". Well, he didn't know anything about my shooting experience, but I agreed, knowing darn well it was indeed too far away.
Sooo, I hopped out of the truck and using my Army stalking skills began low-crawling towards the buck. The guide was freaking out, saying "what the hell are you doing? Get back in the truck, etc." I told him "I'm going to go get that deer!"
So, I low-crawled on my belly for 1 hour and 15 minutes, slowly getting closer and closer to the deer. When the deer would put his head down to feed, I would crawl...when he raised his head, I would stop.
It was getting almost too dark to see him very well at distance and he was easing on over to the edge of the sendero, so I decided it was time to take my shot. I'm an excellent judge of distance and I estimated that I was approximately 300 yards of him, so I knew I was good to go at that distance. The buck turned and faced me dead-on and put his head down to feed once more and I pulled the trigger. Boom - flash of fire out the end of my rifle's barrel in the now almost darkness and I couldn't see sh-it anymore.
The guide came barreling down the sendero in his truck and hopped out pitching a fit for wounding the deer at such a long distance. Well, I wounded him alright - a deadly wound right there where he stood and dropped. Then the guide thought I was some sort of special fellow as he loaded my deer up and hauled a$$ back to the ranch house to show off the deer and tell all the other guides and hunters the story.
"Ain't never seen such a thing...dude low-crawled a half mile...shot him in the neck...dropped right there!, etc"
I grinned, my brother grinned. Then my brother said to my guide "He didn't mention anything to you about Army sniper school, did he?" and laughed his ass off.
I did misjudge the distance by 15 yards, though - it was 285, not 300.
Oh yeah, I had never been to south Texas before and didn't know anything about all those prickly things out there. I didn’t have the proper clothes for it and was wearing a brown fleece pullover on my stalk - I picked thorns out of my belly, wrists, forearms, and legs for a month afterwards. 😄
Last edited by Triggernosis; 12/11/23.
