I posted this hunt as an addendum to a 7-08 thread I put together in the Hunting Rifle Forum. I’ll copy it here to the Big Game Forum.
We’ll, it’s only been two years since we put this rifle together, but who’s counting? 😝
My better half drew a deer tag on a “used to be good but going downhill” unit. We’ve had a busy fall with kids moving out, others moving back and one moved to Alaska. So our time afield has been a bit limited.
We had just two afternoons to try to get Jill on a deer. The first day lived up to our low expectations, with about 50 elk and exactly zero deer seen. We almost tapped out for day two, but I purposely left our Wolverine on the property so we had to at least go back and try again.
Again, lots of elk but no deer at all. We were just about back to the truck with 15 minutes of shooting time left, when we decided to glass two draws closest to the main gate. Draw 1 was deerless. As we drove around a bend bringing draw 2 into view, I brought the glass up for the last chance of the hunt.
I picked out a deer immediately. Then he turned his head revealing his rack. In my most trying not to seem too excited Terminator voice, I simply said, “Get out.”
In the fading light he looked 500 yards out, but the laser said 290. I got Jill set up on the sticks and pointed in the right direction. Our buck was with a 2 point and some does off to the right. “Can you see him?” “I can see 2 bucks.” “Well only look at the big one then!”
Once I was sure she was looking at Mr. Big, I dialed the little Leupold to 7X. “How’s that look?” “I’m shaky,” she replied. “OK, now you’re going to put the first dot under the crosshairs right on his shoulder.” “What dot?” Oops, with only 2 years to get ready for this moment, we’d not verified Jill could actually see through the scope. 🙈
“Put your readers on!” That brought the reticle into sharp view for her. The buck had walked away a bit and changed ends, now at 304 yards. “Now get that first dot on his shoulder and don’t jerk that trigger!” She couldn’t get steady and asked me to lean into her. I pressed my chest against her shooting arm and that seemed to help. I was just about to prod her again when, “Whop!”
It sure sounded good. The little buck headed out left and I saw the does still off to the right. Where was our buck? Suddenly, he appeared with them and started walking away up the hill. I was just about to tell her to shoot again (we hadn’t even reloaded yet), when I saw him bed down. The other deer were milling around, so I knew he was either sick or the smartest buck on earth.
All we could see above the sage was his rack and nose when he’d put it in the air; and then eventually just one side of his rack, and then nothing. With light fading fast, we made our way up the draw. We hiked up to where he was standing at the shot and had blood right away. I knew the little quakie that he had bedded by, and walked straight to it while Jill followed the blood trail. “I’ve got good blood down here!” “Well, I’ve got a good buck up here.”
To say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.
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She hit him low with not an inch to spare. The 120 NBT did the trick and he was a dead deer walking. This is the exit.
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I think my Campenshteen rifle might have a new owner.🤣
![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/wBXnkK6t/7-AF9553-D-18-A8-44-F5-AA86-E8-B8-D864-CBFA.jpg)
