Trying to diagnose a series of missed shots on a buck. The situation was a 510 yard shot at about a 25 degree angle across a basin in steep terrain.
I had lots of preparation time for this shot as the buck was not my target, but after my target buck got dropped across the basin, this smaller 4 point became a lot more intriguing. He was bedded down for about 20 minutes so I was able to get well setup for the shot. At least as well setup as one can get on such a steep slope.
The deer was ranged with the “hcd” setting on a vortex rangefinder at 509 yards. Which was really fortunate actually because my last practice session prior to the hunt was for 513 yards and had good success. I do practice further.
Buck was in young aspens with leaves. There wasn’t much leaf movement and at my location there was a light breeze coming almost straight on. He stood up and was broadside when I shot. Shot felt great very little reticle movement with a clean break and he hopped at the shot. I thought I had a hit but he proceeded to act normally and mill around with his does. So I shot again, again it felt great. And again. My friend couldn’t see my shots and neither could I. At this point I stopped shooting because it felt like no bullets were coming out and had no called reason for misses.
The buck moved up the mountain before settling down and feeding before bedding with his does. We made a move but didn’t get another shot as another hunter came over to investigate and bumped them.
It was probably 30 minutes before we went up after the deer post shot. When we crossed through a saddle the wind was absolutely whipping. 30-40 mph. But looking down at the zone where the buck was there still wasn’t a lot of motion.
Fast forward to the last evening of the hunt we had a couple yearling bucks come out at 380. I decided to take one and dialed my dope and this time my friend saw the shot. Well high. Again a steep downhill angle but the “hcd” setting was on so I dialed based on that. With the shot spotted I was able to adjust and harvest the buck.
In the old days my dad used to have me hold below body for steep downhill shots. It generally worked too. But with the modern tools of advanced rangefinders it seems unnecessary. I shot up to 650 in the field after the first miss for practice and my dope was good. Unfortunately though the only good rock opportunities happened to be at fairly flat angles. I’ve harvested bucks in the 400-500 range a fair number of times but for some reason I had a real hard time with these situations this season and haven’t been able to get a smoking gun reason why.
One variable from prior seasons was that I was using a much slower projectile than I am used to. I wasn’t able to find a satisfactory hand load in time, I had been waiting for my rokstok, to begin load development. It never came so I ended up using factory loads. Albeit factory loads that shot very well but very slow.
I had lots of preparation time for this shot as the buck was not my target, but after my target buck got dropped across the basin, this smaller 4 point became a lot more intriguing. He was bedded down for about 20 minutes so I was able to get well setup for the shot. At least as well setup as one can get on such a steep slope.
The deer was ranged with the “hcd” setting on a vortex rangefinder at 509 yards. Which was really fortunate actually because my last practice session prior to the hunt was for 513 yards and had good success. I do practice further.
Buck was in young aspens with leaves. There wasn’t much leaf movement and at my location there was a light breeze coming almost straight on. He stood up and was broadside when I shot. Shot felt great very little reticle movement with a clean break and he hopped at the shot. I thought I had a hit but he proceeded to act normally and mill around with his does. So I shot again, again it felt great. And again. My friend couldn’t see my shots and neither could I. At this point I stopped shooting because it felt like no bullets were coming out and had no called reason for misses.
The buck moved up the mountain before settling down and feeding before bedding with his does. We made a move but didn’t get another shot as another hunter came over to investigate and bumped them.
It was probably 30 minutes before we went up after the deer post shot. When we crossed through a saddle the wind was absolutely whipping. 30-40 mph. But looking down at the zone where the buck was there still wasn’t a lot of motion.
Fast forward to the last evening of the hunt we had a couple yearling bucks come out at 380. I decided to take one and dialed my dope and this time my friend saw the shot. Well high. Again a steep downhill angle but the “hcd” setting was on so I dialed based on that. With the shot spotted I was able to adjust and harvest the buck.
In the old days my dad used to have me hold below body for steep downhill shots. It generally worked too. But with the modern tools of advanced rangefinders it seems unnecessary. I shot up to 650 in the field after the first miss for practice and my dope was good. Unfortunately though the only good rock opportunities happened to be at fairly flat angles. I’ve harvested bucks in the 400-500 range a fair number of times but for some reason I had a real hard time with these situations this season and haven’t been able to get a smoking gun reason why.
One variable from prior seasons was that I was using a much slower projectile than I am used to. I wasn’t able to find a satisfactory hand load in time, I had been waiting for my rokstok, to begin load development. It never came so I ended up using factory loads. Albeit factory loads that shot very well but very slow.