Seeing as we're not meeting in person at my workplace again this week, this morning dawned with me in the hay bale blind overlooking the killing field. Opening weekend was a bit of a bust, with Saturday being marked by high temperatures and gusty winds, while Sunday was gray and rainy. As I got settled in the hay bales, I wondered whether I'd made a huge mistake. A thick fog had settled on the farm, limiting my sight severely. It was almost impossible to see a group of does at barely 200 yards, and as the morning wore on, the wind blew in even more fog. Soon, I could barely see the next hilltop only 100 yards away.
Then, as usually happens when I check my phone, I looked up from my email and was jolted by the sight of a buck silhouetted atop the hill, slowly marching directly towards me. I ducked down to silently pull on my protective earmuffs, then raised up slowly and set my MGM barreled 460 S&W chambered Encore upright on the bale. It was only when I began looking for the buck in the scope that I realized there was also a doe between me and him. She trotted away to his right, and he turned to begin the chase. I could clearly see 8 points, but wasn't quite sure if I wanted him yet. With my free hand, I grabbed my grunt tube and blew some confrontational sounds. He stopped, looking directly at me and showing that his antlers spread past his ears. My crosshairs moved from his antlers to his chest. Between the proximity to the property line and the dense fog, I didn't want to track him, so I put the crosshairs on his high shoulder and clicked the hammer into place
At 84 yards, the factory loaded, Hornady Handgun Hunter-driven 200 grain Monoflex slammed into his shoulder and crumpled him. I crossed the small valley between the hills very briskly, shouldering the massive Encore and drawing my Super Redhawk. As I approached, the buck thrashed around a bit. The hit from the 460 was certainly fatal, but I decided to give him a coup de gr?ce with the 44.
He's not the biggest buck I've ever killed, but I'm still very happy with him. Not only did I get to test a brand new line of ammo marketed explicitly for us handgun hunters, I also broke in one of my dream Encore builds. And speaking of the ammo:
I recovered the Monoflex from just under the hide on his opposite shoulder. From an initial velocity of around 2,500 fps, it was still going around 2,075 fps on impact. It expanded almost flawlessly to about .69" in diameter and weighed 192.7 grains.
With both my buck tags filled, I'm done hunting them for the year. That said, gun season has only just begun, and I may still try to get a doe for the freezer.