Well everything worked out perfectly until the buck didn't go down after the shot... 380yds, she smacked him in the shoulder but the buck held his footing with his three good legs and while I looked down to help her dial back the scope for a follow up shot he made his final move out of sight. Within 10 minutes of the shot a coyote comes right to the spot the buck had been. As I'm about to squeeze one off at him he suddenly bolts towards the timber the buck had gone to. Cuts down hill then back into the timber. We sat and watched and listened but nothing.
Next morning we go out to look for her buck but only find 8 small drops of blood and no dead buck anywhere. Tracks were hard to distinguish in the loose rocky ground and after putting in ten miles between us we called it a loss.
We were able to recover the large chocolate phase bear I'd crippled at 500yds the weekend before. Needless to say there was no useable meat there. Took the skull (pushing 20") and because I did so I had to fill out my tag and follow validation and tooth removal procedure.
Both of us are bummed and won't be taking anymore long shots with these federal trophy copper 130gr. Will work up a better heavier load for new lr rifle build in the off season.
In the meantime I'm goin back in midweek to hopefully see the buck in three wheel motion or worst case, dead and we can recover his rack.
Wish I could blame the copper but not knowing exact point of impact on the buck has me second guessing things. Can however curse that damned coyote. Buck probably bedded after the shot and was going to die there but coyote pushed him who knows how far and ruined any chance we had of finding him.
