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Well, I'll toss this out, but first let me say since I'm a moderator on the forum I'll excuse myself from eligibility for the prize.
I went mule deer hunting in Colorado with my father-in-law in 1995. He took me to a ranch where he had killed many deer in the 50's, 60's, and 70's but the hunting had gotten bad as it has in many parts of CO. I had never killed a deer of any kind so it didn't matter to me. I forget if the closest town was Meeker or Rifle, whichever is further north was the one closest to the ranch.
Since I was flying in, it was less of a hassle to just shoot one of his rifles rather than my .30-06. So I ended up with a .280 Rem, I'm pretty sure it was a Ruger 77. No chance to sight it in but one afternoon I did shoot a porcupine at 75 or 80 yards so figured it was pretty close as far as zero.
Anyway, for 3 or 4 days we hunted pretty hard and saw very little of anything. There were more elk than deer but we didn't have elk tags. Finally one afternoon he found me and described a group of deer, and said one of them had horns. Since we came in from out of state we just had buck tags. I hustled over to the area he told me to watch (ridge over a field) and sat down and waited. Soon, I could see 3 or 4 does in a bunch as they wandered into view, and one smaller deer following them. He described the deer following them as a buck.
However, I couldn't see any horns, even through a 10x scope. The deer drifted away from me, and I kept looking at them. Finally, I thought I saw a glint of sunlight off the head of the trailing deer. Fortunately, the area was pretty open so I could track them as they walked away.
I sat down, braced my elbows on my knees, and tightened up the sling. The deer would walk a little, then stop, and about hte time I got the rifle settled back down, they'd start walking away again.
Finally, as the deer quartered away to my left, I got the dot (it was a Leupold scope with a dot recticle) to settle down on the shoulder of the deer. With the angle of the deer, I figured there was no way I could hit the deer without causing a fatal wound - assuming it was properly sighted in.
Range... I have no idea, to this day. A LONG way, I can assure you. As the scope settled down, I started to squeeze the trigger. The shot broke, and there was quite a pause between the echo of the shot and the 'thwock!' of a bullet hitting. Deer dropped, flopped once or twice, and was still.
Found it with no trouble as it was lying out in the open - but as I walked up on it, didn't see a bit of horn!!! Oh #@$%!, I shot a doe and don't have a tag.... and when I pushed the ear back with my boot and saw an inch of horn on one side, well, you have never seen anyone happier about shooting a spike!
Shot placement.... well, here's the part about luck (bad luck for the deer). I held on the middle of the shoulder, and hit that deer perfectly in the middle of the neck! Centered from top to bottom and left to right, you could not have hit closer to the middle if you put the muzzle against the deer's hide. So the bullet hit high and left by a considerable amount. I can only guess that it was because I tightened up the sling (that gun has a pressure point in the forend of the stock).
Well, anyway, that's been by far my longest kill on anything. Frankly with the benefit of a little hunting experience, I don't think that I would even try the shot today. But it all worked out.
I went mule deer hunting in Colorado with my father-in-law in 1995. He took me to a ranch where he had killed many deer in the 50's, 60's, and 70's but the hunting had gotten bad as it has in many parts of CO. I had never killed a deer of any kind so it didn't matter to me. I forget if the closest town was Meeker or Rifle, whichever is further north was the one closest to the ranch.
Since I was flying in, it was less of a hassle to just shoot one of his rifles rather than my .30-06. So I ended up with a .280 Rem, I'm pretty sure it was a Ruger 77. No chance to sight it in but one afternoon I did shoot a porcupine at 75 or 80 yards so figured it was pretty close as far as zero.
Anyway, for 3 or 4 days we hunted pretty hard and saw very little of anything. There were more elk than deer but we didn't have elk tags. Finally one afternoon he found me and described a group of deer, and said one of them had horns. Since we came in from out of state we just had buck tags. I hustled over to the area he told me to watch (ridge over a field) and sat down and waited. Soon, I could see 3 or 4 does in a bunch as they wandered into view, and one smaller deer following them. He described the deer following them as a buck.
However, I couldn't see any horns, even through a 10x scope. The deer drifted away from me, and I kept looking at them. Finally, I thought I saw a glint of sunlight off the head of the trailing deer. Fortunately, the area was pretty open so I could track them as they walked away.
I sat down, braced my elbows on my knees, and tightened up the sling. The deer would walk a little, then stop, and about hte time I got the rifle settled back down, they'd start walking away again.
Finally, as the deer quartered away to my left, I got the dot (it was a Leupold scope with a dot recticle) to settle down on the shoulder of the deer. With the angle of the deer, I figured there was no way I could hit the deer without causing a fatal wound - assuming it was properly sighted in.
Range... I have no idea, to this day. A LONG way, I can assure you. As the scope settled down, I started to squeeze the trigger. The shot broke, and there was quite a pause between the echo of the shot and the 'thwock!' of a bullet hitting. Deer dropped, flopped once or twice, and was still.
Found it with no trouble as it was lying out in the open - but as I walked up on it, didn't see a bit of horn!!! Oh #@$%!, I shot a doe and don't have a tag.... and when I pushed the ear back with my boot and saw an inch of horn on one side, well, you have never seen anyone happier about shooting a spike!
Shot placement.... well, here's the part about luck (bad luck for the deer). I held on the middle of the shoulder, and hit that deer perfectly in the middle of the neck! Centered from top to bottom and left to right, you could not have hit closer to the middle if you put the muzzle against the deer's hide. So the bullet hit high and left by a considerable amount. I can only guess that it was because I tightened up the sling (that gun has a pressure point in the forend of the stock).
Well, anyway, that's been by far my longest kill on anything. Frankly with the benefit of a little hunting experience, I don't think that I would even try the shot today. But it all worked out.
The fond memories.
