Opening morning-wife gets her first buck

wtnhunt · November 22, 2004

Saturday was our 11 year anniversary and also our rifle opener here. I stayed home with the kids to let the wife go out and I watched out the back window and listened for shots. I bought her a savage model 10 243 a few years back for an anniversary gift and she had never shot at a deer with it. Killed her first deer, a doe last year with my muzzleloader.

Anyway, she says right at light she did a little grunting and a little rattling and called with the can call some not necessarily in that order and about 7:15 she saw this buck coming out towards her and the grower plot and she had been hearing several shots around her. She did not wait long to decide to take him and shot him with her 243 at about 75 yards out as soon as he offered a great broadside shot. It was a perfectly placed shot tight behind the shoulder right after the buck raised his head to look down the hill from him. Best as I could tell it hit a chunk of rib and took out the lungs and the heart, the deer went less than 20 yards and piled up. I was pretty impressed with how well the 243 did the job.

Unfortunately after she shot she saw what she thought was her deer running around the corner down the hill, turned out to be a different deer she saw antlers. It was just down the hill that she did not know it was there, her deer was piled up just out of line of site from the hill between the deer and the blind, her deer never made it to where she saw this other deer. Think it was probably a bigger buck just down the hill and it took off after she shot. I think she had a little bit of regret about not holding out to see what else might come out. We called him a 5 point, and guessing he weighed around 130 lbs.

HuntingInMaine · November 22, 2004