Finally managed to find and get a shot on a high country mule deer during the WA state high buck wilderness hunt. This was an opportunity I've been hard after, so finally being able to punch a tag was nothing less than an epic experience. I knew the high country basin style hunts where the deer aren't on their feet for long during daylight would provide limited windows of opportunity, and possibly some longer distance shot opportunities. So for the last few years I've been really concentrated on loading and shooting consistent.
I took my Kampfeld Custom 280ai that's shooting 162 ELD-M's at 2800fps, and it's first shot at an animal didn't let me down. We spotted 5 bucks, 4 of which were legal (3 point), and I honed in on what I assumed was the most mature buck in the drainage that morning. WA doesn't provide for the greatest trophy potential, and with a 4%-ish success rate on this hunt I wasn't about to try and measure success in inches. I scrambled down the hill before the sun crested the ridge and attempted to close as much distance as possible. At about 600 yards I realized that was as close as I was going to get without going backwards and either wasting too much time or risk blowing them out of the drainage. I set up on a rock and locked onto my buck, ranged the opening he was now feeding toward at 527 yards, zipped my turret and checked wind, got level and solid, and as soon as he walked out and paused between steps while feeding I squeezed one off. A little bit of muzzle jump because of the awkward bipod on rock situation didn't allow me to spot my shot, but I watched 4 of the 5 deer scatter out of the bottom and had a confident feeling that was a solid shot. I found him less than 20 yards from where I dropped a pin on OnX. The entry was a little further back than intended but still in front of rear quarter with no meat loss, but the exit was dead center with lots of lung blood expelled. I process using the gutless method, so after breaking down one side and rolling him over pure devastation flowed out of the entry and gave me absolute confidence in the ELD-M. I wish I would have taken more pictures to document but it was getting fairly warm with a clear blue sky, and we still had to break down and pack camp on top of meat and pack the rest of the way out.
I'm extremely satisfied with the rifle and load performance, and glad to finally punch a tag on a high country ghost.
I took my Kampfeld Custom 280ai that's shooting 162 ELD-M's at 2800fps, and it's first shot at an animal didn't let me down. We spotted 5 bucks, 4 of which were legal (3 point), and I honed in on what I assumed was the most mature buck in the drainage that morning. WA doesn't provide for the greatest trophy potential, and with a 4%-ish success rate on this hunt I wasn't about to try and measure success in inches. I scrambled down the hill before the sun crested the ridge and attempted to close as much distance as possible. At about 600 yards I realized that was as close as I was going to get without going backwards and either wasting too much time or risk blowing them out of the drainage. I set up on a rock and locked onto my buck, ranged the opening he was now feeding toward at 527 yards, zipped my turret and checked wind, got level and solid, and as soon as he walked out and paused between steps while feeding I squeezed one off. A little bit of muzzle jump because of the awkward bipod on rock situation didn't allow me to spot my shot, but I watched 4 of the 5 deer scatter out of the bottom and had a confident feeling that was a solid shot. I found him less than 20 yards from where I dropped a pin on OnX. The entry was a little further back than intended but still in front of rear quarter with no meat loss, but the exit was dead center with lots of lung blood expelled. I process using the gutless method, so after breaking down one side and rolling him over pure devastation flowed out of the entry and gave me absolute confidence in the ELD-M. I wish I would have taken more pictures to document but it was getting fairly warm with a clear blue sky, and we still had to break down and pack camp on top of meat and pack the rest of the way out.
I'm extremely satisfied with the rifle and load performance, and glad to finally punch a tag on a high country ghost.
