king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

34
I had laid my pack on the ground
in front of me, loaded my gun, and
begun thinking that lady luck was
now again on my side. The tree row
that the buck was sneaking through
ended at a fence followed by a big,
open, dried-up slough on the other
side of it. The doe had now crossed
the fence, and the buck wasn’t far
behind. Once he crossed the fence,
the buck was about 400 yards and
quartering away. It was now or
never. He was only at a walk, so I
didn’t lead him much. It wasn’t long
after the report that I knew I had
missed. Amazingly enough, lady
luck gave me one more chance when
the buck stopped, turned to face me,
and stared right in my direction. I
cranked another shell in, held in the
center of the base of his antlers, and
squeezed the trigger on my trusty
.300 Weatherby again. This time I
heard the unmistakable thump of the
180-grain Partition hitting home.
The buck immediately turned and
started running, not in the direction
he had just came from, but at a 90degree
angle. I decided I needed
to grab my pack and get moving
in his direction quickly before he
disappeared from sight behind the
sloped hill. The buck went about
HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
The author took
another great drop tine
buck three years ago.
This one being a 197
B&C mule deer
75 yards or so, tripping and stumbling
the whole time, while I covered about
25 yards. At about 450 yards, the buck
stopped at a clump of trees and turned
broadside to look in my direction again.
My pack was down, the rifl e rested over
it, and about two inches of daylight
showing between the crosshairs of my
Zeiss and his back all in a matter of
about two seconds. One last pull on the
trigger, and the “thump” of the Partition
told me that it had done its job. The
buck quickly disappeared from sight,
but I knew it was a solid hit. I jumped
up, reloaded the Weatherby again just
in case, and started making my way to
where I had last seen the deer.
It didn’t take me long to get
there, but of course it seemed to take
forever. I was about 25 yards from the
buck when I fi rst spotted him. It looked
like his head was propped up with a
stick due to the width of his rack. After
a quick check to make sure that the buck
had expired, and probably a couple of
woo-hoo’s, I fi gured I better go fi nd
my hunting partners. Darren was the
fi rst one I ran into and, I think because
of my being so fussy, along with the
smile I had on my face, he knew I had a
good one on the ground. We, of course,
had to go back and have a look at the
buck before heading back for the truck.
of the
5NORTH BORDER5
Needless to say, Darren was also
quite impressed with the width the
deer was carrying – the four droptines
probably helped as well. After
getting the buck back to the farm,
it was a quick job of skinning (and
having a couple of celebratory beers)
before we stretched out the tape. The
buck’s 4x4 main frame, coupled with
the four drops and an inside spread
of 30-inches, grossed just over 180inches.
Upon closer inspection of
the skinned out buck, I noticed that
both bullet entry points were fairly
low in the chest, confi rming the long
distance the shots were taken at.
Looking back on things,
I am sure glad I’ve always carried
a pack with me. Not only is it
convenient for carrying a spotting
scope, lunch, etc., but I don’t think
I could have made those long shots
without it being used for a steady
rest. I’m also thankful for quality
optics such as Zeiss and Swarovski
that make hunting an easier job
in low light conditions as well as
long distance. Top if off with my
favorite .300 Weatherby and a clip
full of Nosler Partitions, and I had
the perfect combination to make
the 2007 hunting season another
memorable one.