Finally shot my first buck this morning...

I was up just after 4 this morning to get ready, drive out to the farm, negotiate the various gates, park in a safe spot, then make my way to my blind in the dark. I had been out the previous day to rake away the leaves on a path that would get me to the blind quietly and that plan worked out great. The sky was overcast so dawn came later than expected and a lot darker too. Just before 8am I spot movement in the field in front of me and take a look with the binoculars. It is a buck in retreat. I look the other way, and here come 3 more bucks all bigger than the first.

Here I made the first mistake. They were moving parallel to my position, so were not coming any closer. I felt rushed to shoot before they no longer presented a broadside shot, so I did not use my rangefinder. I guessed the range, since I had ranged several objects in the general area and felt it was about 200 yards. Well, I must have guessed wrong, because I held too high and I had a clean miss. I was amazed to see none of the bucks do anything but look around. So I rack another round in the chamber (we have shotgun only rules, so I am shooting a Savage 20 ga rifle barreled slug gun, shooting 23/4 Hornady SST's) and wait for another shot and miss again. By now I realize that I am getting something about the ballistics completely wrong and the next time I decide to hold just a couple of inches above the expected point of impact. Meanwhile, all but 1 of the bucks have scattered and the one above is looking straight at me, stomping his foot. I put the cross hairs right at the base of his antlers and touched it off. With the recoil, I lost him in the sights, but I heard a definite "whack" downrange and when I looked over the gun there was nothing to be seen. At first I thought I had missed again.

So I walked over and sure enough, there he was. Hit between the eye and ear and the bullet was under the skin on the back of the head.

I changed the scope on the gun yesterday, because the weaver I originally had on it had too little eye relief and the tube was too short to allow it to be positioned any further back. So I put on one of my trusty Nikons (3-12x42SF) and went to the range to sight it in, but what I didn't consider was that although I had bought 3 boxes of ammo, they only contain 5 rounds each... So I had a heck of a job sighting in the new scope with so few rounds and still leaving some ammo to hunt with. I went to Cabelas afterwards and the entire shelf for slug ammo was empty... Figures for the day before firearm season..

Anyway, I was pretty embarrassed by my poor performance. I have previously shot 4 does on the same property and each case was a 1 shot kill. I am pretty good with my rifles, but they cannot be used on deer. So, the lesson is: ALWAYS range the animal. ALWAYS take a mini ballistics chart for your gun for the way it is sighted and zeroed. The fact that I got this buck is frankly a miracle that I probably didn't deserve, but I am thankful anyway. It just happens to be the first buck that I have ever taken.

I had it in the barn and skinned by about 11am, and by then I had the farmers wife give me a hand to split it and divide it into hams, ribs and forelegs. They are now in the refrigerator and will be processed in a couple of days. My arrangement with the landowner is that I hunt, they help me process the meat and we split the proceeds at the end of the season. Neither the husband nor wife hunt and they mainly have other family members on the property during gun season. No-one is active during bow season and I am their year round predator control guy. I feel very blessed to have met these folks and be able to help out and pursue several of my interests at the same time.

http://keithandseija.com/pictures/Prizebuck1.jpg

Nice buck glad you finally bagged one. You are one lucky person to have found such a nice place to hunt.:thumbsup:

Congrats on the deer and shot.What I read the savage slug guns are top notch.A far cry from the old smooth bores and foster slugs.

A couple of notes regarding the Savage 220 20 ga rifled barreled shotgun:

I have taken a liking to Savage, and this series of "rifles" is sort of mid range in price. More expensive than an Axis, about on par with their "predator" series and slightly cheaper than the precision carbine. I bought the most expensive version in stainless steel, because our Midwest weather presents challenges for blued weapons if you want to keep them pristine, yet don't want to take the action out the stock after every trip to remove condensation.

This specific choice, to go with stainless steel, had a few different impacts on my experience with this rifle. The most important is that where the blued actions and bolt are finished to a nice luster, the stainless versions are initially taken to the same point and then they run the parts through a bead blaster to put a matt finish on them. That matt finish is a pretty coarse grit and has a very significant impact on the smoothness (or lack thereof) of the action. When I initially got it, it was so draggy that I was unable to successfully eject a cartridge (that was after I got Savage to send me the actual ejector pin/tab in the mail, after they forgot to install the one in my rifle...). The partial answer is to knock down the grittiness on the bolt itself with some waterpaper. I have not come up with a way yet to lap the inside of the receiver, because that is equally affected. In combination with using grease, I now have no "functional" issues with my copy, but really these things should leave the factory in a state where they are ready to go.

The other thing is that the stock is a tupperware skeletonized type of unit, that one expects to see on the very cheapest guns. If it were a 223, it will probably work fine as long as the barrel is free floated. However, a slug gun is a relatively hard recoil type of weapon. This means that the action bedding is a lot more critical if point of impact shift is not going to be an issue. I am not yet sure about mine, I think I will upgrade it before next season, unless they pass some new laws allowing cartridges like the 357 magnum, 44 mag and the like for hunting in our "zone 3". That legislation was just about set to pass, then the Governor delayed it at the last minute.

That gets me to my final gripe. The AMMO !! These sabot slugs are over $3 each ??? Thats up there in 50BMG territory. And it is permanently sold out, even online. I think it is a classic manipulation of supply and demand to keep the prices up, way up. How about $50 to get your scope sighted in ? Sheesh...

Congrats on your buck! Nice big bodied animal; should eat real well.

Congrats!!! I got my first deer / buck last week. Have been feeding them eith apple since august, lots of track , saw plenty of does and claves but never saw a buck untill last week. Riffle season is only 7 dsys here. And we got a baby boy on th tuesday, got back home thurday , drop my wide and the baby home and as I had anlot of stuff to do ( i was sincerly rhinking that my deer season was over) i decide to take 20 min and drive the 3/4 mile road on my property to go see whrre I have been ferdin them. Approx 800 feet from the house, there was a buck by a stream approx 250 yard away from the road. So I stop, jump of my dodge caravan ( as I was coming back from the hospial, i didnt borher stratimg the diramx) stood up, oh man I was shaking pretty bad , took me a few deep breath to stabalze my riffle ( tikka T3, 300wsm, stainless, laminated with a bushnell elite hd 2.5x10-40mm) and BANG, let 1 shot go. The deer jumped about 10 feet high and ran in the wood. I then call my wife to ask her to call my mom yo see if she could go pock up our daugthers at the day care. I had to try to find that deer. Didn't see any bloos, i was disapointed. There is some thick forest on my propert, so i strat walking in the bush and found him 75 feet from where i shot it. Shot right in the hearth. Dang i was a happy camper. My first deer. Forst time i was hunting on my land, with my new riffle. I used to hunt moose when i was a kid, but i stopped hjnting about 10 years ago. I have a crazy job on the road. But having to be home for the new baby was kind of a good timing for deer hunting.

It's a 7 points.

And My property is surrounded by potatos and grain ( corn, soy bean, cannola,) so i am excpectong the meat to be pretty good ( the filet migon, the heart ( for what was left of it) and the liver were pretty good. Now the deer is skinned and hanged in the barn, i will butcher it monday for a total of 11 days hang.

Congratulations.

Congrats on your first buck.

Congrats on your first buck. I have been shooting deer for over 40 yrs and you have a couple of 1 ups on me already, good job:thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by westcliffe01

A couple of notes .....
......That gets me to my final gripe. The AMMO !! These sabot slugs are over $3 each ??? Thats up there in 50BMG territory. And it is permanently sold out, even online. I think it is a classic manipulation of supply and demand to keep the prices up, way up. How about $50 to get your scope sighted in ? Sheesh...

---

I can't help you with the price and I don't think you can find the parts to load your own. Just do most of your practising with one of your rifles that has a stock that fits as close as possible to the slug gun and has the same position saftey. Stock up on slugs this winter and use enough of them so you can figure out your guns actual trajectory then sight in for the maximum point blank range for your gun and load to reduce the amount of ranging and guesswork you have to do while a big buck is standing there looking at you. For a rifle in the deer 308 class that means four inches high at 150 yards but for your shotgun the mid range point might be about 80 yards. So sighted you could just quarter an eight inch paper plate and hit on the plate for all ranges between 0 and 150 yards or so and with a top of back hold might get a low hit at 200 on a good broadside shot at a buck. Many balk at setting the mid-range at 4 inches but how many deer have chests that are only five inches high?
Nice buck by the way. Still looking for mine.