Freedivr2
Member
- Messages
- 29
Wow. I am so friggin stoked about this hunt; EVERYTHING clicked the right way for a change. I took this beautiful buck on a friends private property in Eastern Nebraska Nov. 14th, my first opening day buck in the past 34 years too!!! I was still hunting the edge of a wooded creek when I spotted the tips of his antlers just over a ridge about 500 yds away just as the sun popped up. All I saw were the tips of his antlers and wasn't sure if it was a buck or corn stubble at first, but then he turned his head and bingo! Decent buck. Unfortunately, the corn was cut, the 1,000 acre field wasn't disked under yet. His head and eyes were below the ridge line, the wind was perfectly in my favor, so I started walking toward as fast and as quietly as I could in this wide open corn field to try and close the gap. I got to 400 yards from the ridge and his antlers disappear. Dang!!!! I kept going, got to about 350 yards, and he pops over the top casually walking toward me. I hit the dirt in a sitting position as slowly as I could. He walks down the slope about 30 yards, not skylined now, then stops and looks right at me. Squeezed the trigger on my trusty Win M70 30/06 and sent a 165 grain partition hand load right aimed about midway up from his front leg. He stumbled, then ran about 30 yards, I threw another bullet his way (missed) and then he just lays down, antlers horizontal. A VERY LONG 10 seconds go by, and the antlers then slowly go horizontal. I take it slow getting up to him, no movement. At 50 yards, no chest movement. Approach from his back, click safety off, poke his eye with the barrel, AND HE'S MINE!! As I always try to do, I said a thank you prayer to both him and God for this wonderful experience & delicious fare. I've Hunted Muleys for the past 3 decades, but have been taking home a corn fed whitetail the past 4-5 years and they are incredibly tender & tasty. They normally don't have a lot of mature bucks in this particular area, in fact the farmer said he hadn't seen even 1 buck all year. I realize he's no Booner, and his tines aren't long, but man, to me, he had some respectable mass to his polished antlers. OH....and the bullet performance; it broke thru his right front leg bone, into his heart, SPLIT the heart in half (I've had heart shots but never saw that one before), and the exit wound out the other side was only the size of a half dollar. Nosler partitions, love em!!!!!!!!!
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