I went to the range yesterday. I was pleased with the performance of the XTP's and will be entering the deer season with confidence.

100 yds, open sights
Cabela Hawken
300 .430 XTP
90 RS

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The clean barrel shot is lower left, 2" from POA. The next 4 on the fouled barrel are a 1.5" group 3" from POA.

The "problem" developed when I arrived home. I pulled up to my shop to unload my stuff. The wind was blowing. When I put the truck in park, I thought I saw movement in thick cover 50 yards away. Bone. I turned off the ignition and stared at the spot. Yes, it was an antler. I dug binoculars from my range box and when they came into focus, there stood a giant. The kind of rack that lodges in your brain and can stay for a lifetime. I figure he was bedded there, heard my V8 and stood to find the source. With the engine now silent and the wind blowing, he hadn't pegged me. For fifteen minutes I studied him through the binos. 9 points on a massive chocolate frame with G's-2 and 3 over 12 inches. He would gross in the high 150's.

He raked his antlers on brush but I had no look at his body. Just that giant head. Suddenly, he was gone. I thought he may have bedded down. I waited. 15 minutes turned into 30, then 45. I made a couple of phone calls to guys who would care about my perdicament. I couldn't decide whether to start the engine and back out or get out and go about my business. I didn't want to spook him but I had chores to do. I opted for the latter.

I kept an eye in that direction as I unloaded my gear. Then I took my cell phone, activated the camera, and headed toward the house on a trail which would take me within 30 feet of him. I didn't see him and I didn't stop.

After lunch, I avoided going down the trail circling west 100 yards and walking out to my goose blind to see what I would need to repair the roof and brush the blind. When I headed to the shop and climbed the steps to go in, I could have sworn I saw the face of a deer from within the thicket. I grabbed the binculars and peered around the corner and there he was, those big ears locked on me. He had let me walk within 20 feet of him. I loaded up my tools and spent an hour or so brushing the blind. When I returned, he was gone.

A man can spend a season waiting on a deer like this and allow some bucks to pass which would be the buck of a lifetime for someone else. I've done it too many times before, and only once was I rewarded with the deer I waited for. It is a problem and a good one, but I won't be waiting for a "ghost" and the look of intensity in his face told me that's exactly what he is.