It was a nice cool and overcast afternoon yesterday, so I headed over to my friends to take another management doe. Setting up in a box blind on another location of the ranch, I had my 12" MGM barreled Encore in .358 Win for the longer shots and my 5" barreled Ruger .454 Casull for the close-up opportunities.
Turned out to be a much slower evening than I would have expected with the weather as it was. Nothing much got to moving until around 4 o'clock when two bucks, a yearling, and a trio of axis showed up at the feeder.
Te axis only hung around a short while and wandered off. Leaving the bucks and the yearling.
Then, down the sendaro to the south............behind the Chilean Deer...........came this monster!
Yeah..........wow. He hung around the rest of the evening. Chasing does in and out of the brush, making scrapes along the sendaro, and bedding down right in the middle so he could watch up and down the lane. Anytime a doe would cross the sendaro, he would get up and run over to her. Checking to see if she was in season or not.
Eventually, two mature does came out by the feeder along with several yearlings. The meandered and fed over by the feeder. Well within range of the Encore Pistol, but I wanted to wait and see if something would be enticed by the corn we'd put out closer to the blind and within range of the Casull. I'd use the .358 Win if it looked like nothing would be coming closer before they left. Keeping an eye on the two does as they moved around, one eventually came to the 75 yard mark and fed. But, she just never gave me a comfortable angle with the 2x scope on the Casull and I decided to be patient.
Eventually, the closer (and larger) doe wandered off into the brush. Leaving the lighter colored doe behind. I began to question myself as to whether I'd screwed up passing on the larger doe with either of the guns. But, I still had hope and the lighter doe was still around and within range of the Encore. I waited some more.
After eating all the corn under the feeder, the band of deer began following the "crumb trail" of corn towards the blind. The lighter doe among them. She eventually worked her way to about 40 yards and I was ready to shoot, when I saw the darker doe come back out of the brush and make her way over to the others. Holding fire again, I waited.
Through all the second guessing........the patience finally paid off.........and at 49 yards........I put a 250gr Hornady XTP through her on side shoulder and dropped her on the spot.
Video:
http://vid26.photobucket.com/albums/c106/lovinmycaitlynn/Hunting/DSCN4195_zps7m8zfqdn.mp4The blast of that Casull inside the blind was like a NFDD going off in a broom closet! Dust, fabric, and sundry particles blew out the open windows like an M80 in a mailbox!
"Good Lord", my friend said. "What IS that thing?!?"
Hehehehehe...........
It's a definitive Beast.
You can see the white belly of the doe where she fell in the left side of the open window.
We gathered our things and made our way over to the doe. Another successful outing.
After loading the doe, we took a drive around the ranch in the light of the setting sun. Watching deer and generally having a good time.
Another good day in God's creation.
