I had been seeing several bucks this season ranging from some small 4, 6, 7, and 8 pointers to a big 10 and a wide, dark racked 8. The bucks were traveling through frequently and several of the small bucks were chasing does. No shot opportunities on the bigger bucks as they were either out of range, or moving too fast to get a shot off.
Thursday was overcast with a light rain and the deer were moving well. After a quick lunch, I was back on stand by 1:30. A small 8 came in and stood broadside at 100 yards just begging to be shot. This was the same buck I had been messing with Thursday morning using a Primos can call. He came running when I used the call that morning looking for the doe. A little after 4:00pm a big bodied deer came off the ridge and was standing behind a small grove of trees. I watched him through the binoculars and quickly determined that he was a shooter. After a minute or so he turned and walked away from me toward the woods. I hit the Primos can call twice and he turned and walked in my direction. He stopped broadside just past the small grove of trees at about 100-110 yards and was looking for the source of the sound. I took a shot at his right shoulder. He jumped and walked about 20 yards, stopping facing directly away from me. I was expecting him to fall over, but he wasn't showing any sign of a hit. I chambered another round and took a "Texas heart shot". He ran about 10 yards to the left and stopped broadside again. I took another shot at his left shoulder and he disappeared into the woods. Gerald walked over to where I was and it had been about 25 minutes, so we went looking for him. Gerald found him a little over half-way down the deep hollow. He was nose down and had died in mid-stride.
It took us quite a while to get him out,(thanks Gerald for the 4-wheeler), so I don't have any better pictures as all we had was a cell phone. Savage Striker chambered in .260 Remington using a 120 grain Sierra Pro-Hunter.
The next morning I found shot #1 had hit the right shoulder, went through the front of the lungs, and stopped at the left shoulder. Shot #2 hit a little left and went in his left hip breaking the femur bone and exiting through the right side of the stomach. Shot #3 hit low in the left shoulder and exited in front of, and below shot #1 entry hole.
I recover the bullet from shot #1 and it retained 76 of the original 120 grains.
This is the largest deer I have taken scoring 132 1/8 after a quick measurement. We guessed his age somewhere between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 years old. His coat was grey and he had a lot of grey on his face. We had not seen this deer on the farm this year. He field dressed around 140-150 lbs., although Gerald and I thought he weighed closer to 500 after dragging him across the creek!
