Hunter 257W
Well-Known Member
I've been on the farm without TNdeer access for the past week but have had some success and failures deer hunting. 1st I shot a one antler spike Thursday Dec 5 thinking it was a doe. Wasn't too upset about it being a buck though. It did give me another chance to use the 35 Remington with my cast bullets. Shot was about 80 or 90 yards and it dropped in it's tracks with a spine shot, took another quick follow up to the shoulder to finish it.
Fast forward to Wednesday Dec 11 and i was in my shooting house watching an 8 acre bunch of new trees across a field that was full of does with bucks chasing them around like dogs running quail. About 9:00am a good big 6 or 7 point came out of the young trees to check a small 1/2 acre clump of brush for does. When he satisfied himself that no does were in that spot he turned back toward the larger bunch of trees and stopped staring into them. He was quartering away from me and luckily I had left the cast bullet guns at the house and had my 257 Weatherby because the range was 350 yards. I aimed to put the bullet through the center of his offside shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I lost him in the scope with the recoil and then he was gone. I walked over to where he had been and found a bit of blood. It was about like somebody had cut them self shaving so I was thinking I must have done something wrong and shot either high or low and barely nicked him. Then after about 100 feet I found more blood. Then a couple of places where it looked like he had fallen and there was quite a bit of blood there. Then the trail led into a solid thicket of wild Bradford pears. You can't even crawl on your knees into that mess. There was snow on the ground and i could see under the limbs but no deer in sight. Tried looking around the edges o the thicket but couldn't get to it all the way around. I don't know what happened but I never found him. Have watched the area since for buzzards but never saw any. Started doubting the zero fo my rifle so went and set up a target at another spot on the farm measured off at the same 350 yards and it put the shots about 3 inches low at that distance about 2 inches apart so the rifle was on. This has made me reluctant to hunt too close to that impenetrable thicket in the future because it's hard to prevent a deer from running 50 to 75 yards after the shot and that distance in a Bradford pear thicket might as well be a mile if you aren't armor plated. On a side note, this morning while hunting in the snow was the most deer movement I have ever seen in my life. I lost count of the doe sightings. I only saw two bucks including the one I shot but every time I looked up I could see does being chased through those woods. The snow on the ground made it so easy to see into the woods and the brown/grey deer bodies showed up perfectly against that white background in spite of the closest part of the woods being 300 yards from my shooting house.
Ok, fast forward to the next day - Thursday Dec 12. Back in the shooting house, 257 Weatherby in hand again because this time of year is when the rut really peaks in my area and I didn't want to limit my range. It's a good thing I decided on that too. About 6:45 I saw a "doe" run out into the big field on the other side of the fence row from the 8 acres of young trees I had been focusing on the previous day. Then a tiny "Fawn" comes running along behind the "doe" and stops about 50 yards short and they both stand looking at each other. I look at them through the scope and see that the "doe" is a large buck and the "fawn" is a mature doe - they just appear so small because they are about 400 yards out. I turned the scope up to 12X and see that it sure looks like the 9 point buck I had a bunch of pictures of from the Summer and the main buck I wanted to shoot if I had the chance - and which practically never happens to me! At 1st i was thinking that the range was too much and that I was going to just watch him but then started thinking that it's only 50 yards farther out than what I had been shooting the day before. Bullet drop couldn't be more than another 4 or so inches. So I put the crosshair about 4 inches below the top of his back and held behind his shoulder a bit. I didn't even lose sight of him through the scope at the shot so I saw him drop his head and make a mad dash running crouched down the way the often do when hit hard. At about 60 or 70 yards his head dropped and he did a complete end over end flip and went down. I racked the bolt to chamber another round remembering the one I lost just the day before but fortunately it wasn't needed. This buck is significant to me for several reasons. He's the biggest I've ever shot and the 1st to ever weigh over 200 lbs - he tipped the scales at 205. Largest rack too with 9 points and he has fairly symmetrical brow tines, a relatively rare thing around my area. Plus the longest shot at 400 yards. The corner of the woods he was headed to is a bit over 450 yards from my shooting house and he was about 50 yards short of there. Thank goodness I didn't decide to take my 35 Remington that day.
I started out this season with a goal of taking a deer with my 460 Weatherby but after carrying that beast a few times that ides sounded less and less attractive. When you have a slim and trim Marlin 35 Remington or a 12 lb Weatherby elephant gun to chose from to carry for a long walk, the Marlin gets selected a lot more times! Someday the old Weatherby will draw blood again though.
Fast forward to Wednesday Dec 11 and i was in my shooting house watching an 8 acre bunch of new trees across a field that was full of does with bucks chasing them around like dogs running quail. About 9:00am a good big 6 or 7 point came out of the young trees to check a small 1/2 acre clump of brush for does. When he satisfied himself that no does were in that spot he turned back toward the larger bunch of trees and stopped staring into them. He was quartering away from me and luckily I had left the cast bullet guns at the house and had my 257 Weatherby because the range was 350 yards. I aimed to put the bullet through the center of his offside shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I lost him in the scope with the recoil and then he was gone. I walked over to where he had been and found a bit of blood. It was about like somebody had cut them self shaving so I was thinking I must have done something wrong and shot either high or low and barely nicked him. Then after about 100 feet I found more blood. Then a couple of places where it looked like he had fallen and there was quite a bit of blood there. Then the trail led into a solid thicket of wild Bradford pears. You can't even crawl on your knees into that mess. There was snow on the ground and i could see under the limbs but no deer in sight. Tried looking around the edges o the thicket but couldn't get to it all the way around. I don't know what happened but I never found him. Have watched the area since for buzzards but never saw any. Started doubting the zero fo my rifle so went and set up a target at another spot on the farm measured off at the same 350 yards and it put the shots about 3 inches low at that distance about 2 inches apart so the rifle was on. This has made me reluctant to hunt too close to that impenetrable thicket in the future because it's hard to prevent a deer from running 50 to 75 yards after the shot and that distance in a Bradford pear thicket might as well be a mile if you aren't armor plated. On a side note, this morning while hunting in the snow was the most deer movement I have ever seen in my life. I lost count of the doe sightings. I only saw two bucks including the one I shot but every time I looked up I could see does being chased through those woods. The snow on the ground made it so easy to see into the woods and the brown/grey deer bodies showed up perfectly against that white background in spite of the closest part of the woods being 300 yards from my shooting house.
Ok, fast forward to the next day - Thursday Dec 12. Back in the shooting house, 257 Weatherby in hand again because this time of year is when the rut really peaks in my area and I didn't want to limit my range. It's a good thing I decided on that too. About 6:45 I saw a "doe" run out into the big field on the other side of the fence row from the 8 acres of young trees I had been focusing on the previous day. Then a tiny "Fawn" comes running along behind the "doe" and stops about 50 yards short and they both stand looking at each other. I look at them through the scope and see that the "doe" is a large buck and the "fawn" is a mature doe - they just appear so small because they are about 400 yards out. I turned the scope up to 12X and see that it sure looks like the 9 point buck I had a bunch of pictures of from the Summer and the main buck I wanted to shoot if I had the chance - and which practically never happens to me! At 1st i was thinking that the range was too much and that I was going to just watch him but then started thinking that it's only 50 yards farther out than what I had been shooting the day before. Bullet drop couldn't be more than another 4 or so inches. So I put the crosshair about 4 inches below the top of his back and held behind his shoulder a bit. I didn't even lose sight of him through the scope at the shot so I saw him drop his head and make a mad dash running crouched down the way the often do when hit hard. At about 60 or 70 yards his head dropped and he did a complete end over end flip and went down. I racked the bolt to chamber another round remembering the one I lost just the day before but fortunately it wasn't needed. This buck is significant to me for several reasons. He's the biggest I've ever shot and the 1st to ever weigh over 200 lbs - he tipped the scales at 205. Largest rack too with 9 points and he has fairly symmetrical brow tines, a relatively rare thing around my area. Plus the longest shot at 400 yards. The corner of the woods he was headed to is a bit over 450 yards from my shooting house and he was about 50 yards short of there. Thank goodness I didn't decide to take my 35 Remington that day.
I started out this season with a goal of taking a deer with my 460 Weatherby but after carrying that beast a few times that ides sounded less and less attractive. When you have a slim and trim Marlin 35 Remington or a 12 lb Weatherby elephant gun to chose from to carry for a long walk, the Marlin gets selected a lot more times! Someday the old Weatherby will draw blood again though.
