After getting Joe back under control, following his photograpy of The Great Cap-Flap Incident of '07, this was a [to me] more pleasing result! And you can see that BIG MIKE was not excessively pleased with Joe's antics either! ;)
We "stumbled" onto this nice mule deer while antelope hunting - actually, I was "drawn" to the location from which I discovered this buck . . . the thought of my cumpulsion is STILL eerie. On only the second day of season, Joe had shot his nice muley - so, we decided to spend a few days glassing "goats" , and let the deer settle back into a routine.
The third day proved to be another overcast, windy affair, nicely cooled by the 25+ MPH N/NW flow. During both of the previous two seasons, we had found some pretty decent (15") goats in the extreme North and North West areas of THE RANCH: we decided to look there first.
The day progressed as a "normal" goat hunt - lots of driving about on the trails and glassing - except, there weren't many goats - not out on the prairie anyway! We were finding most of the speedsters sulking in the coulees, where they could enjoy some respite from the incessant wind. At the far North, is a set of "ruffs", known to harbor the occasional "KEEPER" deer: the draws demanded a "walk-about"; even Joe couldn't argue with THAT! ;) A perusal of the draws showed that there were a few deer living in the vicinity - we saw eight muleys - does, fawns, and dink bucks. When Joe and I joined back up (he had "bird-dogged" one large coulee and ran a spike buck out past my location), I told him that we were, "going over to The Timber Creek draw . . . I've got a feeling . . ." Although, on a carbon copy of this day's conditions, the previous fall , we had jumped a pair of "shooter" mule deer bucks from that draw (yep, while looking for goats), Joe pointed out the unlikelihood of finding bucks in exactly the same spot, a year later: "they've got THOUSANDS of choice hiding places"! I couldn't argure . . . but I was compelled to hope!
When we hobbled the four-wheelers 1/2 hour later, well back of the Timber Creek rim, I was regretting having brought only the "soft" core version of the .257 Idiot Mag ammo, loaded with the new 110 Gr. bullets; I was not confident that, on a large bodied deer, the soft cored bullets would provide adequate penetration . . . "what if I DO find a nice buck (mule deer)?" Almost immediately, we glassed several antelope . . . and WAY over on the South face, I glassed a muley! We couldn't make out any antlers: a closer inspection was called for. Besides, in order to size them up, we needed to get closer to the goats . . . we just needed to skirt over the ridge to our West, and follow it down to the point; we'd be out of sight the whole time - and, we'd halve the distance!
But as I eased, one step & glass, another step and glass, through a saddle, visually slicing the far slope into strata, before fully exposing myself, a pair of ANTLERS forced me to "hit the deck"! Joe had lagged about 100 yards behind, glassing the goats , and wondering why I was proceeding so slowly through the trough - when he saw me "down" he knew the drill: he was down and safely shieled from the muley's view too!
I eased back up, trusting that the deer couldn't have seen me - from my perspective, only his antlers had been visable. This proved correct. Now, "what to do"? One more cautious step allowed me to view the bucks entirety - he looked very nice, but only a 3x3: good width, very good mass and height - a REAL dilemma - it's only the third day . . . When I lowered the 10x40 Swarovski binocular, to judge the distance and check out potential approaches, I found myself staring HIM right in the eyes - BIG MIKE (my alter ego), dressed for the hunt! I was more worried that this buck could have a BIGGER pal, lying below him, and out of sight - I needed to get closer, to make sure. So, Ignoring BIG MIKE's demand to, "Juzt shoot 'im!", I raised the Swaro and looked again - "pretty good" I thought . . and what's THAT!?!? Laying about 10 feet to the bucks right, was a coyote - "HOY, I'll shoot it!"
"Not az ya wount - yaz waz gunna cee ifn' thruz unuther BUCK lion abootz - wazant yaz?" I couldn't argue with THAT - before doing anything rash, I HAD to make certain that this old boy wasn't sharing the hide-out with more (BUCK) pals! BIG MIKE suggested, "krauwlun' klosur" . . . again, not a bad idea - and, to execute anything but an off-hand shot, a necessity dictated by the lay of the land. WE reduced the void by a good 80 yards. I was now confident that the range, to the muley and his coyote nest-mate was, "no more than 250 yards - maybe 225" - later, even this estimate would prove overly LONG! Now, I could see pretty much any place a decent buck was likely to settle: both the coyote and the 3x3 remained unprovoked; I could see the buck regurgitating/chewing his cud . . . " Soz SHOOT 'im!" , BIG MIKE was gettting anxious!
My thoughts raced back to, "it's only the third day" , and other rationalizations, while BIG MIKE aired his laundry list regarding my, according to HIM, "faulty, prissy, BIG headed ways" . . . I decided to opt out on this buck and shoot the coyote. But, I hesitated - HE was correct in [at least] one regard: I did want to see how the new 257 Idiot Mag would perform an a deer - and, this was a good opportunity . . . About then, HE grabbed the rifle and surprisingly, making certain that a bullet would exit the muzzle clear of the sage brush, settled the dot low on the chest, just at the lead edge of the on-side shoulder and squeezed off the shot! BOOOOM - whump! "Ya ceez hoz itz dunn!?" (Note: the buck lay with his body strongly quartered toward us and testing had proved the "drop chart" very close to correct: 1.9" high at 100; + 2.8" at 200; ZERO 300 Yd.)
Impossibly, at the shot, the buck jumped from his bed and was instantly out of sight! The coyote scampered up the slope and stood, broad-side, on the rock ledge above his latest resing place! BIG MIKE had the 257 reloaded and was about to dispatch the coyote, when "reason" prevailed: WE'd best make certain that OUR buck isn't headed down the draw! BIG MIKE didn't argue- WE hurried up to the near-side rim and looked down the coulee - nothing . ., then, as far as WE could see, up the coulee - empty. Then, just below the "sand-blow", screened by a little sage, lay the 3x3! :) BIG MIKE had done well . . . and, once again, I had learned, "wadt huntin'z awul 'boutz!!" ;) Following a few pics and congratulations from Joe, the work was attended to . . . and the rest of the HUNT was a REAL vacation! ;) RG
P.S. Once the work was over, Joe went back to the location from which BIG MIKE fired the shot: his Lica said, 168 yards! The soft cored (1% antimony) 110 Gr. BIB proved overly destructive, though somewhat effective - following being hit, the unaware buck had sponged -up 3000+ foot pounds of energy (there was no exit) and bounded thirty yards - inconceivable. The bullet entered at the point of the on-side shoulder, where a baseball sized entry hole resulted in three broken ribs, completely dysfunctional lungs and a badly ruptured liver - a LOT of internal damage, with the most excessive "blood-shotting" I've witnessed - even the "off-side" shoulder and entire rib-cage was heavily bruised. :( The soft cores may be suitable for lower velocity cartridges: 250 Sav. .250 Ackley, 257 Roberts and Imp. versions and the 25/06. Though not a serious "test" the "hard" cored version (3% antimong+1% tin), with which I shot my goat, appears to be a better bullet for deer-sized game, producing a quick, clean kill, with plenty of internal damage, but little "blood-shotting" and a golfball sized exit hole - that on an extreme quarting (away) angle. Tom Gollob was down yesterday - he and Steve plan on shooting a fair number of antlerless white-tails during the late antlerless deer season (hopefully 25+) - they'll be using a variety of 25 caliber cartridges. At the end of Jan., 08, we should have better data.