Had a great week hunting with an old friend on the plains. Mornings were spent watching for mule deer and evenings were for whitetail sits. He had been to Colorado 3 times and this time he would finally fill his tag. I had him setup on a good trail and very nice 8 point whitetail came in to 25 yards. He took a 58 caliber round ball and quickly expired.
My hunt was a bit more tedious. I had spotted a couple of mature mule deer in an agriculture field and made a stalk in windy conditions on Tuesday. That resulted in getting to within 15 yards of them but before I spotted them they spotted me and the resulting running shot was a miss. Wed, Thurs and Fri passed with no more sightings. My son came out Fri night and he and I teamed up on the spotters picking apart a 400 acre field. They were quite good at hiding but finally at 8:30 am I spotted antlers moving. We blew a stalk at 10 am and they remained in the field. We blew another stalk at 2 pm but again, they remained in the field.
After a quick consultation, I went downwind and circled about 1 mile around the field. At 5 pm they stood up and began feeding north. I was southwest of them so this posed a problem. My son decided to stand up so they became aware of him and started moving towards them from 400 yards away. He actually got to 160 yards on them when they had enough and turned southwest.
I couldn't see the deer due to a small rise in front of me. Suddenly at 100 yards I had 3 wide mule deer racks bobbing towards me. On they came, quickly cutting the distance. This was going to be close and fast. The buck I wanted was in the lead and when his head came into view at 20 yards, I aimed at the middle of his neck and dropped him in his tracks. Approx 100 grains of Swiss ffg and a .570 roundball is hard on deer at close range. This has been my 3rd buck in 3 years with this load and it works great. Few pics of the deer and the recovered roundball.
My hunt was a bit more tedious. I had spotted a couple of mature mule deer in an agriculture field and made a stalk in windy conditions on Tuesday. That resulted in getting to within 15 yards of them but before I spotted them they spotted me and the resulting running shot was a miss. Wed, Thurs and Fri passed with no more sightings. My son came out Fri night and he and I teamed up on the spotters picking apart a 400 acre field. They were quite good at hiding but finally at 8:30 am I spotted antlers moving. We blew a stalk at 10 am and they remained in the field. We blew another stalk at 2 pm but again, they remained in the field.
After a quick consultation, I went downwind and circled about 1 mile around the field. At 5 pm they stood up and began feeding north. I was southwest of them so this posed a problem. My son decided to stand up so they became aware of him and started moving towards them from 400 yards away. He actually got to 160 yards on them when they had enough and turned southwest.
I couldn't see the deer due to a small rise in front of me. Suddenly at 100 yards I had 3 wide mule deer racks bobbing towards me. On they came, quickly cutting the distance. This was going to be close and fast. The buck I wanted was in the lead and when his head came into view at 20 yards, I aimed at the middle of his neck and dropped him in his tracks. Approx 100 grains of Swiss ffg and a .570 roundball is hard on deer at close range. This has been my 3rd buck in 3 years with this load and it works great. Few pics of the deer and the recovered roundball.
