ORIGINAL: frontier gander
Theres no f-in way i would take that shot, my sight covered the entire deer. 143 yards was the closest i could get when she spotted me.
Yes I know the deer would be very, very, hard to sight at 143 yards with the fiber optics of your X150. The bead would approach the 1/2 to 3/4 of the MOA of the deer's torso (chest to back). Depending on how you sight the bead in the rear sight, alot of the deer would be covered up by the rear sights.
The farthest shot i ever made and hit dead on was 148 yards.
We always miss. Just can't get around that. Misses of the POA (point of aim) are OK, provided, the miss is in an acceptable range. This is called a grouping. The grouping that you get in relation to the size of vital zone tells you how far you can ethically hunt with your rifle. Groupings also include the "mistakes" shots and fliers. Your grouping, IMHO, should be less than 75% the vital zone. At the limits of your range, one should be very careful about taking a shot as it is often hard to duplicate range results in the field.
But that 143 yard shot, i looked around for a long stick to help steady myself and i had zero.
Don't you pack water in a little knapsackor back pack? Something you can shed the outer layers of clothing into? Shoot prone and use thattobrace the gun. Its what I did this year. BTW. The deer spotted me as I was stalking him, there were two of them, Buck and Doe. They saw me stalking them, but I kept a low profile, and I moved slowly. Typically a mountain lion, (the only predator, other than man, a healthyadult deer has to worry about) has to get within 40 yards to kill a deer. Keep a low profile and you would be surprised just how close you can get to a mule deer which is watching you.
I hunt in the unit 49 complex. I spotted the deer I shot about 20 minutes into the hunt on opening day, I arrived an hour after official sunrise. After taking the buck, I would drag him 30 to 60yards. Then leap frog him with the pack and gun (was nearly a mile from where I parked) I took my time. In the1 1/2 hours it tookme to get back to where I parked, I saw 5 more deer, two of which were bucks.Had two other people been withme with tags,we'd have bagged two bucks dragging my deer back.
Iwas literally less than 150 yards from where I parked and had just leap frogged the deer with my rifle and pack when I saw two doe bound out about 240 yards away.Iwas standing all blazed out in orange and they ran right towards me and only turned when they got about 35 yards fromme. I actually think they were investigating me.They were followed by a buck which I stopped at 35yard by saying "huh" perfect shot for "offhand" where I reliably shoot a 2 1/2" miss(5 " grouping). Then thebuck hopped the fencestoppingabout 40 yards, looking at me. Ten yards from him and between us, in plain view,lay the steaming carcass of my kill. I hollered at him, "Go on get, get along now!"And he just watched me.
We don't get to hunt doe in these units cause we don't have a surplus of deer here. Your unit sounds like it needs thinning.
And to be honest, it wasnt a perfect shot at all, i was aiming behind her shoulder and when i walked up on her, i hit her in the neck area in front of her collar bone.
So what would you say your "miss" was? Twelve, maybe 15 inches? Surely you don't think 24" to 30" is an acceptable grouping to hunt deer with. Maybe buffalo, certainly not deer. The shot you took was not wise and totally irresponsible. Whether it put meat on the table is of no importance. Having a license gives one the right to hunt and take a deer under the laws and regulations and in an ethical, responsible manner. It doesn't give one the "license" to do what you did.
Happy Hunting, Phil