“I blew it! The biggest buck of my life and I blew it!”…
Sound like something you might have heard said before in hunting camp, or, where several hunters were gathered? I have! Actually I have made that same statement myself. One of those times I was hunting desert mule deer in the central part of New Mexico. I was slowly walking on the edge of rimrock, peeking over the edge, then if not seeing a deer, backing up walking a few steps and again walking to the edge and peering the broken ground thirty-feet below, looking for a bedded or feeding mule deer buck.
Earlier that morning using a spotting scope to scan the brushy and grassy ground immediately below the rimrock I was not on, I spotted several deer including two really nice double-forked bucks. I watched them bed. From below there was no way to approach without being seen and spooking those bucks and several does. Thus, I did a long circuitous walk to the south end of the ridge, then started my walk, stalk and peering over the edge in hopes of again seeing either of the two mature bucks. I approached from the south to take advantage of the northerly breeze, and had waited until mid-day when the sun was almost directly overhead, so if a buck was bedded just below the rimrock, heard something and looked up the sun would shine into his eyes.
I had walked and peeked my way about half way through the ridge’s rimrock, when I peered over the edge and immediately spotted the buck, as he did me. The buck immediately was up and running down into the canyon ducking and dodging behind pines and junipers. No chance at a decent shot. Rather than running up or down the brushy creekbottom, the buck turned and ran up the opposite slope, only about a hundred and fifty yards away. He stopped and peered back at me. My rifle was already up. I knew how far away he was, but in my excitement I held the horizontal crosshair of my scope about a foot above his back, the pulled the trigger. The buck did not more. I bolted in another Hornady .257 Roberts round, again held the horizontal crosshair about a foot over the deer’s back. Missed a second time. Then horror or horrors I did the same thing a third time. My rifle was sighted in dead-on at 100-yards. I knew to hold on hair, but in my excitement my mind convinced me the deer was well over 300-yards away, were in actuality it only half that. After the third shot the buck walked a few steps to his right and disappeared. After he was gone I mentally kicked myself numerous times. Even though I knew the distance was not that great, my “buck agued mind” convinced me he was much farther. Had I simply “held on hair” meaning keeping my horizontal crosshair on the body of the deer I would have put my “tag” on him. I had screwed up royally. Had I taken a little time to think, this before the days of range-finders, held my crosshairs on hair that extremely tall and massive desert mule deer would have graced my wall and filled my freezer.
Hunting while physical certainly can be and often is a mental game. Why had I held above the deer’s back? My mind simply short-circuited at the sight of that magnificent rack.
Before the days of range-finders, range-finding scopes, dial up scope turrets, and stadia (wires) on the scope reticle quite often, and it still happens these days a hunter is told to holder over say 10 to 12-inches. Too very often that shooter raises the horizontal crosshair, 10 to 12-inches above the animal, not 10 to 12-inches above where he our she wants their bullet to strike. Something to think about, and a mistake I have seen numerous make in the past, as well as earlier this year…
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