The story begins opening weekend November 3rd on our lease in Del Rio Texas. I was in my blind Saturday afternoon about 3:30. I had been watching a few deer coming and going. There were a pair of culls, a wide 4 point and a narrow 5. These deer have been seen on our camera, along with a nice tall 10 point with split ears. This is the guy I was targeting first.
My boy came out about 4:45 and was milling about outside the goat fence then he hopped in to munch on some corn. I knew the feeder went off at 5:00 so I did not want to shoot just yet. I was looking for a clear shot and I wanted this boy to be calm and steady. The feeder went off on schedule and as expected he spooked hopped out and stood behind the feeder and fence with his buck buddies.
After a few minutes he came back around the front and hopped back inside the fence. He presented himself for the perfect shot. I steadied myself, took careful aim through the grid and waiting for him to stand still. I squeezed the trigger...bang! The boy casually hopped out of the fence. I fucking missed? I looked through the scope and I could see I hit the grid high and right of where I was aiming.
See pic below.
I brought my son's rifle, which is sighted for him. 7mm08 Savage, Accurate rifle 1 1/2" with factory ammo x12 BSA scope. A nice beginners rifle. I was using hand loaded ammunition that when my son does his part will shoot sub MOA.
I got down and decided so see my sadness up close. I found one single drop of blood, I figured shrapnel from the bullet and no body. He was gone.
Fast forward to Friday November 16th afternoon, I came back to the same blind looking for the same deer. This time I poured some corn outside of the fence and climbed up the blind to wait. A new buck came to the feeder a very narrow 8 point, narrow as in the antlers nearly formed a basket from tip to tip. I marked him a cull but not today. He milled around and munched on corn, along came a narrow 5 point cull. About 4:30 a tall big buck trots in. The other bucks bow to his greatness and allow him to feed upon the corn. I put up the binoculars and I can see he has two split ears, a tall 10 point rack and an interesting dark spot the size of a bullet on his right flank in the middle of his gut. I knew this was my boy from the last hunt.
See pic below.
He stops over at the pile of corn left him specifically, I returned with my target .308 sighted for me to be point of aim. I waited for him to present a broad shot, he presented his left flank to me. I put the crosshair on the spot just behind the elbow of his front leg and squeezed the trigger...bang! He reared up like Lone Ranger upon Silver and charged off into the brush. I saw him hit, I saw him stumble, I knew he was mine. I waited the customary 5 minutes to allow him time to die, more like 5-10 seconds, because I was that arrogant that he was down.
I climbed down and walked over to the spot where he was hit. No blood? WTF? Did I miss again? I followed his tracks and could see on the dirt he zigged and zagged and stumbled a little. I figured he tried to circle back and low and behold I found him down propped up, giving me a link and sticking his tongue out at me in his last act of defiance.
See pic below.
I examined his exit wound, just under his left leg. Then I saw what happened to him opening weekend. I did not miss him, the bullet was deformed from impact on the grid his this guy and made an entry under his skin and exited out. Avoided deep penetration. The wound had already begun to heal. It had a scab and was clean.
See pic below.
The big wound is the exit of the fatal shot, the top is older wound from opening weekend.
More pics below of the buck.
Opening weekend was sad for my uncle as well. He saw what he described as a buck of a lifetime. He had the perfect shot missed his buck as well. We searched and searched but not body.
Fast forward to Friday and he took himself a nice 11 point, we are not sure if this was his boy from the previous hunt but he was heavy and wide. Good buck!
See pic below.
Not as heavy antlers as mine but much heavier body.
We found the exit shot imbedded in the tree behind the buck.
See pic below.
My uncle and his buck.
My uncle also decided to shoot one of the 30 plus hens that came near his blind. He did not bring a real turkey gun so he shot it with a Glock23 at 17 yards.
See pic below.
On Sunday I took a 3 point cull.
See pic below.
Good weekend! I'm heading back December 7th for turkeys, possibly a doe and an Axis buck.
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