This year was another great hunt at the Reeder Handgun Hunter Challenge. Good weather and great fellowship made for an awesome hunt. This year I was hoping for a mature chocolate or white Fallow, mature Sika, or mature Blackbuck.

Day one I spent scouting (as I normally do) to see what might strike my interest. It was pretty warm and the deer weren?t up and moving very well. Seen a few Blackbuck, but not any that was mature enough for my liking. Seen several nice Sika bucks, but again, not any mature enough for my liking. This got me focused more on Fallow. I was really wanting a solid chocolate color phase or a solid white color phase. Although I seen several solid chocolate, non were mature enough to shoot. I only seen a few solid white fallow and they were all immature.

Day two the weather was much cooler and the fallow were up and about better. Seen several mature Fallow with great antlers, but still not in the color phases I was interested in (I?d killed a spotted fallow last year and wasn?t interested in another spotted).


Day three brought more cool weather and the fallow were showing a little rut activity. They were doing a little roaring and chasing that morning - things were looking promising. Seen a few new bucks that morning and all were shooters, but still not the color phase I was hoping for. Just when I?d about talked myself into shoot a really good light colored spotted, a chocolate/spotted showed up and had some nice head gear. Although not quite as big as the light spotted one, he was still a great looking deer and had a beautiful coat! Those appeared from behind me and with me trying to video the hunt, I just wasn?t able to get turned around for a shot. Lucky a couple hours later, that same group of bucks showed up again and I was able to make it happen, although the choice was very hard to make. I ended up deciding on the beautiful chocolate/spotted buck and was able to take the shot at 64 yards.



I was using a Talo edition Smith and Wesson 686 with 7? barrel. It was topped with a 2-6x Bushnell scope and shooting 158gr Speer Deep Curl. The buck stumbled and rolled about 20 yards down the mountain and was done.

Click here for video: Video.

VERY, VERY NICE, AND REALLY GOOD VENISON TOO, CONGRATS.

Wow. Great great deer. Great shooting as always!

Great looking fallow!

Kim, what's your analysis of the Speer? I know it worked, but how do you think it compares to others in that same weight (gr)

Way to go Kim, two very nice Fallow & a great shot on that dark one with the 357 & the deep curl. I figured when that left leg came forward he was going to get pounded, nice job!

Dick

Good video and a good looking Fallow!
Sounds like it was a good time with friends.

David, I?ve only taken two critters with the Speer deep curls so far. One whitetail doe at 72 yards with a 210gr 41 mag and the fallow at 64 yards with the 158gr 357 mag. Both performed stellar and I?ve not recovered a bullet. Both shots were quartering away. So far, I?m digg?n ?em.

AWESOME! I thought that they would do great.

What a nice fallow deer....

Beautiful deer!....and great shooting with that .357!

Well done.

You know Kim if you add a few minutes about the load and gun you used and a few commercial brakes your video would would come to a half hour that I would enjoy on the Outdoor channel.... bring that camera if you ever make it to Africa...your a natural for the lens

For a second time in as many years, you have taken a beautiful Fallow buck at the HHC. As usual , your shooting and filming are impressive. I enjoyed watching both.

The .357 was also impressive.

Awesome! Fallow deer with a handgun is one of my dream hunts.

Stunning trophy! I love that you did it with the lowly .357. It's been working great for almost a century!

Super nice buck!

Thanks for all the kudos, gents. I?m not a pro videographer or Hunter, I just enjoy the extra challenge of videoing my hunts. It?s an addition way to share hunts as well. I?m learning a little each time I edit a video (which is extremely time consuming). On this hunt, I had an hour and forty minutes worth of video I had the cut down to the fifteen minutes seen. It?s a tough chore to cut that much footage and still tell the story.

Great job all around, filming, shooting, and story. Awesome buck.

That is a great deer. Glad to be able to share the experience.