Well guy.........here's the short version! Yesterday was opening day for us down south and I hunted the heated shooting house the first morning and only saw 4 does. The afternoon hunt I decided the fartherest stand on our property (about a mile and half walk) so I headed out kinda early. I reached the tripod at around 2:30pm and saw the first of about 30 deer at 3:15pm. Lots of yerlings out early feeding and it was about 4:15 before I saw the fist grown deer (a spike). On the way in I noticed several fresh scrapes and rubs on the road I was using to get to the stand. Really early for this must sign in our neck of the woods? Guest the recent cold spell had them fired up! At around 4:45 a nice buck (the one in the picture) steped out in the road at about 200 yards and headed straight away from me. No matter how much I grunted, he would not turn for a shot. I grabed the Swarovskis to get a better look at him as he continued to walk up the road away from me and noticed another buck (about a 14" 6 pt.) had stepped into the road at about 325 yards and they were both walking towards each other. I watched the bucks touch antlers a few times and then feed together with 6 or 7 does until dark.
After watching this and thinking about where the buck had walked out into the road......I knew there was a thick bedding area about 150 yards in from the point he had entered. Well believe it or not......the little wheels began turning and I knew that I had another tripod stand set up on the other side of the bedding area and figured if the wind was right, I'd be in it the next morning in hopes of catching the 2 bucks coming back in to bed.
Well.......you guessed it! The wind was perfect this morning, so I set out early for the mile and half walk in. I carried all my outer insulated camo as to not get too hot and work up a sweat. BOY......what a walk! Seemed I would never get there
. After getting set up in the tripod, I settled in and waited for the first hints of day break. Two hours later and no deer sighted? I wondered what was wrong? Very rarely do I sit for 2 hours on this property without seeing deer. Then at about 8:15am I saw the first buck coming through the WRP headed to the bedding area. I grabed the binos and imediatly realized it was the bigger of the 2 bucks that had walked straight away from me the evening before. While watching him, I notice movement in the WRP behind him. It was the 6 pt. I readied the new XP .260 on the shooting rail and touched of the shot at about 100 yards. I imediatly heard the tell-tale sound of a solid hit and the buck buckeled and ran back in the direction he had came. I quickly cycled in another round and readied for a second shot. The buck ran about 40 yards and stopped. I centered the cross hairs and noticed the deer was wobbling, so I held off on the follow up shot. He leaned left then right and fell over.
Not the longer shot that I had put the XP together for, but first shot at a animal with it and it held it's own! The 129grn Hornady SST went in about 6 inches behind the left shoulder and left quite a bit of terminal damage in the process.
My local processer weighed him in at 285 pounds! Another " big un" from our property. Anyway...........as I said "not a long shot" but still a good one for the first XP deer..................................
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