back in the early 1970s I got invited out to hunt an area in the border of the warner wilderness in northern California.
several times, by a close friend, that had his job transferred from florida to california,
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/modoc/maps-pubs/?cid=FSEPRD533310&width=full
I flew into northern calif. and rented a pick-up truck, I had minimal gear but met friends and we drove out to LIKELY California, then took some back roads into the area we were to hunt, the size of the trees was amazing (RED WOODS/SEQUOIAS), where we were to hunt was steep slopes,mixed open fields and mixed old growth forest, the area we camped in was one of the few authorized camping areas, we walked into mill creek drainage, the area was covered in the open areas with a plant that resembled old dry tobacco, that russled constantly in the breeze, the old growth forest was dimly lit heavy shaded and large trees and lots of blow downs, you could not see over, it takes awhile to get used to trees/logs that are 6-12 feet in diam.
after hunting the area (scouting mostly we set up camp and during the night it snowed HARD, we awoke to about 2 feet of fresh snow, and for a Florida guy that was new and exciting.
we walked into the hunt area and found it massively criss crossed with deer tracks & trails but saw no deer until about 11 am, we were sitting on a steep ledge under some conifer branches when a herd of about 5 deer led by two bucks started running directly up hill from a drainage far down the ridge, at about 500 yards we dropped into a sitting position and watched as they got closer, they constantly were dropping out of site and re-appearing as they went in and out of rolling benches and small ridges but on they came, constantly getting closer on a course strait for our location, at about 120 yards it was very obvious they were good bucks and I told SAL my partner to take which ever buck showed first and Id take the second one (knowing that if he shot to quickly I was unlikely to get a shot at all) as they dropped into the last dip and out of site I didn,t realize we would not see them again until they were about 30 yards out, when they broke out of the shallow gully they were slightly to the left and coming at that half run half pogo bounce , only a mule deer can do,remember this is a steep slope covered with reasonably deep snow, SAL shot and I thought missed I drew cross hairs on my buck and fired, instantly dropping him, with my single shot ruger #1 I had custom re-barreled in 257 wby, the 117 grain slug destroying his heart with a strait chest centered shot.
Sals deer wheeled and ran a few yards, sal slammed the bolt action open and shut, then snapped off a second shot, as he worked the bolt for the third shot the magazine floor-plate, popped open,and dropped all the remaining cartridges on the snow, but it didn,t matter as at about 60 yards SALs buck dropped in mid run, we later found only his first shot connected. but it entered the bucks mouth and exited below the ear, he was bleeding a huge amount but the wound while fatal due to blood loss was not instantly disabling.
opening up my buck showed the 257 bullet had reached the diaphragm, and destroyed the heart and both lungs, we had two decent bucks, mine was a thin wide a 4 point, 32" wide, his was a much more massive 4 point that was 24 " wide, neither was a trophy book buck but we were thrilled