405 yds

[weekender]

Usually this time of year, the gun season is in an I am back to bow hunting after having a week break with the muzzle loader. This year for several different reasons including a broke leg, a severe poaching problem and wanting a shot at a coyote which I have never killed, I broke out my .243. I have owned a .243 since I was 17 and love shooting the gun. In my early years, I was a gunsmith among other things and have shot hundreds of rounds through this gun. Many a groundhog met his maker because of this rifle. A few years ago, I drug it out on a mid December day and put a 8 pt. in the freezer from 368 yards. Yesterday morning I was on stand before light and after watching a string of does, I saw what I think was this same buck pop out at 425 yards and slowly walk across the pasture. He teased me and stopped broadside. I put the scope on him and was steady enough for a shot, but not absolutely sure of the drop at that distance. I followed him in the scope for 100 yds and watched him stop and make a scrape at the edge of the pines. Most people plant food plots to attract deer. We had a slightly different approach and planted a patch of pines hoping the deer would bed there. We have extreme hunting pressure on three sides of our property. Our plan has worked very well, better than expected really. I let the buck enter the pines undisturbed. Around noon when things calmed down, I ask my wife to help and we set up a target at 425 yrds and I took two practice shots. I had guessed there would be a drop of 20" with a 100 yd zero. There was 22". The two practice shots were close to where I aimed, REAL close. The deer had been lucky cause I think I could have made the shot. I rarely see what I call big deer twice, usually it's one and done, most often because I'm bowhunting the deer wins, that's just the way it goes. For the evening hunt, I was to take another stand where I had seen some bucks with the muzzle loader but the wind was dead wrong. I went back to the same stand I had for the morning hunt. At 4:40 the does started showing, 2 then 3 more by a little after 5:00 I could see 8 does. About 5:25 I saw a big deer very near and headed to the scrape. He had come out of our bedding area was walking straight away from me. I got him in the scope and he stopped and turned broadside at 405 yards. I steadied the cross hairs just over his shoulder enough to allow for the drop. I took a breath and let half of it out. I held the gun as light as possible to prevent shaking and slowly squeezed the hair trigger. It only takes 1 1/2 lbs to set this one off. I could hear the bullet make contact, but where the deer was, the bullet would have struck dirt right behind the deer even with a miss so I wasn't sure. The deer lunged forward entering the pines and I decided since I wasn't sure of the hit and with a plenty cold overnight temp forecasted, I would leave him till morning. It's not very safe for me to be plowing around in the thick woods and stump holes with crutches anyway. It's tough enough in the daylight. I replayed the shot a 1000 times last night but the result was the same. I felt good about the shot. Kay went with me to search this morning and it didn't take long. The deer was less than 10' from where I shot him, a double lung shot had allowed him only one last jump. I don't promote shooting at a distance past your skills and equipment, that varies widely depending. I felt confident and made a shot I'm proud of.

[Gusman]

Heck of a shot man... Very nice deer!

[Bird Dog]

Hell of a deer. Congrats and nice shot.

[JMS-ILM]

great buck and even greater story to go along with it! Team Weekender Rocks!

on the left antler, base of the G-3......what is that?

[DoveHunt]

Thats Sweet. What bullet are you using?

[WhiteLakeBuc]

DAYUM!!!!!!!!!!! Nice shot.... Nice Buck Weekender!!!!!!!

[Ace1st]

cONGRATS!! nICE SHOT

[Anders]

thats great, its takes a true hunter not to shoot past his abilities when he sees a big deer like that, i think it shows a great respect for the hunt and not taking a chance on wounding the deer. Congrats!

[Robja]

Great story

[Dave Sikorski]

Great story and a GREAT buck.

Congrats Greg and great shooting.

-D