Finally got a buck this year!

Hunter 257W

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Oct 4, 2012
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Franklin County
It was cold this morning but past experience has shown mid to late December to be the best odds of getting older bucks around my place so I headed out to my shooting house with a Thermos full of hot soup in hand. :) Saw a younger buck around 6:45 then a doe around 7:30. This buck came out at 8:05 and stood like a statue staring across the field at around 325 yards. I've seen this buck all Summer on my cameras but this was my 1st time to spot him in person. Earlier in the Fall he had a large skinny fork on the side that is broken off now but honestly the antlers mean nothing to me. What matters is his size and the fact that this is the 1st buck I've ever killed that I had a history with on trail cameras. As luck always seems to go with older bucks, he stopped right in the one spot where I could only see through a softball size hole in some pencil sized limbs for the shot. The wind was kicking up some too and I hit him farther back than intended. Fortunately the field is large and he followed the does he was with towards the center rather than running back into the fencerow. This gave me another shot which hit both lungs about 3 inches behind the shoulder. To my surprise he didn't fall at the 2nd shot but merely trotted about 50 or 75 yards and stopped again. I could clearly see blood running down his side in the scope but I racked in a 3rd shot and walloped him again. I'm a firm believer in "Shoot till they drop"! :) All the shots were around 325 yards since he was moving perpendicular to my location. Rifle was a Remington 700 CDL Stainless in 257 Weatherby with Leupold VX-II 4-12x40. Load 100 grain Barnes TTSX, 72.0 grains IMR 7828, Federal 215M primer velocity 3,590 ft/sec

I hate that I didn't get to kill him using my 35 Remington and cast bullets as that was my main goal this year, but this field is so large that using such a rifle can lead to a lot of frustration. This time of year when older bucks are on the move chasing does you never know where they will pop out of the fencerow nor how far out it will be.
 

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rem270

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#sfmafia
Congrats. And I agree with you "shoot til it drops or goes where you can't see". So many deer have been lost because they just knew "he was fixing to fall over".
 

Hunter 257W

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Oct 4, 2012
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10,548
Location
Franklin County
Here's a couple of trail camera pictures of him before he broke his rack off. And before anybody asks, NO, I've not seen his buddy standing on the right. It may sound unbelievable but I honestly hoped I would not see that buck because I would shoot him and with such a nice symmetrical rack would have to get it mounted. I don't want to pay for that so the buck with the oddball rack was my preferred target buck from the get go this year. I wanted him because he was a 3 year old buck without all the hoopla of a big pretty rack and I got the exact buck I was after. That's never happened before so this is a great season for me with the cast bullet doe I got earlier also. I'll hunt more but have zero intentions of shooting another deer even if the big 8 point walks by and begs me. I'm just observing deer with a rifle in my lap for the rest of the season. Hopefully I'll get to bust a coyote or two as icing on the cake.
 

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