My first large game was little knot head whitetail buck. 3 points to a side with one brow tine broken off. The scene was a wooded creek bottom. I was armed with my coyote killer, a Ruger M77V bull barrel 25/06 shooting WW 120 grain PEP loads.

In my youthful ignorance I was using bobcat trapping scent as a cover. I soaked a couple rags in it and hung them in bushes close to my ambush location at the base of a big cottonwood. It must have smelled like there were about 50 bobcats in that little creek bottom.

Along comes this buck and about the time he gets close enough to identify he starts running up and down the creek bottom. I guess he was either curious about all the scent or in full panic at the thought of being surrounded by 50 bobcats.

Anyway, on about his third pass by my location at a range of 40 yards or so I got into action and took a running shot. The shot went high and got his spine. The second shot finished him as he was trying to crawl away, dragging his hind quarters.

I got that little buck mounted by a really bad taxidermist and I still have it. It should be featured in all taxidermy textbooks as an example of what not to do.

That was about 1975 as I recall. I sold the rifle a few years later to get a 270. Wish I had kept it.