We had fantastic hunting weather this morning so I decided to jump in the stand. It was hovering around 50 degrees and I had a perfect NW wind for the stand I was hunting. I got there about an hour before daylight, got all my gear together and settled into my stand. I could hear the deer moving but wasn't able to see yet. Around 0700 this fella came walking out about 70 yards from my location. I could tell I wanted to take him even before I glassed him. I slowly got my rifle up and steadied it on the shooting rest. He was at 100 or so yards and quartering towards when I took the shot. I could tell he was hit as he ran off. I got up to where he had been standing and could tell it was a good hit. Ronnie Milsap could have followed this blood trail. About 30 yards into the woods I found him piled up in the brush.
I drug him out of the brush and let him lay because my buddy and his wife still had a few hours of hunting left. I climbed back in the stand and within 20 minutes had 3 does feeding on acorns off to my right. One of them was a very large, mature doe and I debated on taking her also. But my buddy and his wife didn't have any luck so I'm going to let them hunt my stand this evening. I made sure I waiting until the does left before exiting the stand again so I wouldn't spook them into not coming back. They didn't seem to bothered by the smell of the dead buck as they walked right up to where he was standing and didn't skip a beat.
Here's the entrance wound on the left shoulder...
And the exit behind the right shoulder...
The T/C Encore Endeavor did it again! I was using my pet-load of 120g BH209, 250g Barnes T-EZ with MMP HPH-12 sabot, and a CCI 209M primer. This load has been sitting in my rifle for two weeks and went off without issue. I hit him exactly where I was aiming.
Nice SC 6-Pointer
