Initially, I was going to add in the story of how it all went down and somehow forgot to do it!
This was in Unit 34, Colorado. It's about an hour west of denver. 10,500 ft elevation and the type of rugged terrain I had always thought of when I'd pictured hunting in Colorado. We had scouted this unit this past August, and found a few real nice spots with LOTS of fresh track and scat. We named one spot inparticular the "honey hole". That's where I ended up sneaking into just before dawn on Saturday- opening day for 2nd rifle season. It was so still, I could've heard a mosquito cough from 100 yards away- this being my first hunt in such a long time, I exaggerated the need for silence, which I believe paid off. I was set up on the bottom of a hill which was on the north side of a valley, the open flat area in front of me with a mirroring hill covered in dark timber across the way from me. Out of the silence came the sound of stumbling feet and snapping twigs and I thought "oh no, some goofball hunter is about to come right through here." To my surprise, it was three mulie does- they were just really loud!!
They were far enough off to my right that I couldn't get a shot, and they disappeared beyond my sight very quickly. About 30 seconds later, 2 more does came out of the woods and began to STOT their way out of my sight! I had never seen a mule deer hop on all fours like that, and it COMPLETELY threw me off!!! Not to mention, my heart was beating as if there was a jackhammer inside my chest. There was no way I could've shot.
I decided that I needed to gather my senses and calm down so that when the next thing came through, it'd be in my freezer a few weeks from now. (I had a buck and doe tag) Sure enough, I heard a "brrrrrrrriip. brrrrrip." I thought "that has to be a buck. It was, and he came slowly sniffing his way from my right. I got into position and fired! He was only about 80 yards away. The bullet punched straight through him and dropped him dead in his tracks. (The ammo was handloads with 95 grain Nosler spitzer bullets)
After that, I started the 1,000 yard struggle to my partner's truck (he was too busy fainting because he drank a bit too much whiskey the night prior) That was one heck of a workout! Luckily, after I had struggled to get 'ol spike about 200 yards from the kill spot, my buddy showed up after tracking a doe he had wounded and helped me get him the rest of the way. It was a great experience, and I'll be picking him up from the butcher in about a week and a 1/2.