Hunting & Fishing Decent Oklahoma Buck Down

[diggler1833]

Caught this guy chasing a doe at 1445 behind one of my hay barns. Managed to go get all of my stuff on and sneak out while he was still there.

Of course...my wife didn't like where I had my hunting stuff stashed in the laundry room, so I had to go out without my LRF and bipod since she moved them to an undisclosed location. So I had to resort to a couple hundred yards of duck walking behind rows of hay bales and equipment. Otherwise I would have taken the ~325yard shot from my side porch. At least my gun and vest were still where I left them.

Got within about 150 yards to where I was comfortable with shooting an unknown range and popped him off of a hay bale. He took a double lung and made it about 40 yards before piling it up.

Rifle is a first gen FN SPR with old Leupold Mk4, M3 turrets. It was a police turn-in that I got a good deal on a few years back. Bullet was a 165gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, that shoots lights out over 43.0gr Varget. That load tracks with the 168gr FGMM turret dial perfectly to 400.

Had to go back to the house to get the Ranger and 4-wheeler to make the recovery, but at least my wife came out to take my picture.

He isn't one of the two bruisers that stalk the ranch at 0300 in the morning but he'll make a decent mount, and it's more backstraps, sausage, and jerky.

 

[Megahoser]

?

 

[Alabusa]

Good one!

 

[OlDirtyDeadEyeDan]

Pretty buck! Congrats!

 

[Drahthaar Dan]

Great buck. Congrats!

 

[blackblue]

Nice, what part of Oklahoma?

 

[jaywhite97]

nice deer. congrats on a safe and productive hunt.

 

[USSRangerSM]

Congrats!

 

[FatBoy]

Nice deer, and I appreciate the back story

No exit would? Did you recover the bullet?

One of my hunting rigs is an old M70 Stealth in 308win with 165 NBTs over 45gr Varget. It's a wonderful load for hunting and the NBTs are generally a much more robust bullet than people think.

 

[Tucker301]

There's nothing wrong with a side porch shot.

 

[diggler1833]

Nice deer, and I appreciate the back story

No exit would? Did you recover the bullet?

One of my hunting rigs is an old M70 Stealth in 308win with 165 NBTs over 45gr Varget. It's a wonderful load for hunting and the NBTs are generally a much more robust bullet than people think.

Had a small exit, but not a whole lot of blood. By my guess, the bullet probably lost in the neighborhood of 50 percent of its mass. There were a ton of small pieces in the lungs.

The shot wasn't quite quartering, but wasn't a full on broadside either (eighthing...my new term ?). There was definitely enough room for the bullet to dump almost all its energy with just the cup and core exiting, leaving essentially a .30 caliber hole.

Pushed one through the shoulders of a doe too at full broadside...virtually same story. Good bullet, but does ruin a bit more meat.

 

[diggler1833]

There's nothing wrong with a side porch shot.

The thought initially crossed my mind...but my loving wife recently relocated my rangefinder (still haven't found it as of 2 Jan). With it being somewhere between a 250 and 340 yard shot from the house I didn't want to risk a poor hit based on a poor range estimation.

Next year however....mwahahaha.

 

[diggler1833]

Nice, what part of Oklahoma?

Southeast...I'm surrounded by the Honobia and Three Rivers WMAs.

 

[Moose]

Nice buck well done.Time for some back-straps.

 

[FatBoy]

The thought initially crossed my mind...but my loving wife recently relocated my rangefinder (still haven't found it as of 2 Jan). With it being somewhere between a 250 and 340 yard shot from the house I didn't want to risk a poor hit based on a poor range estimation.

Next year however....mwahahaha.

Sounds like it's time to build a couple range cards with good TRPs and keep 'em close to the doors/windows

 

[diggler1833]

Sounds like it's time to build a couple range cards with good TRPs and keep 'em close to the doors/windows

Had previously thought about that, but there is a slight hill with a crest to it...not enough to provide complete dead space, but enough to keep one from really accurately guessing distance.

I wouldn't worry about it if I still had a job where I was in a turret, but the last thing I want to do is track a poorly shot animal through an additional couple hundred yards of greenbriars and blackberry bushes.