As I said, my Dad was hoping to come out hunting. He WY right after work about 1415 mt, and arrived here at 0500 ct. He slept for a few hours while I washed his stuff in Scent-a-way. We were going to wait until 3 to head out to the stand, but about 1300 or so we were bored and just kind of sitting around waiting to go, so decided to walk out. Walking out we kicked up 3 does (I think, couldn't tell what they were while running). Watched them a minute and it didn't look like they were going to stop in this county and probably not the next, so walked the rest of the way to the stand.
As soon as we got up in the stand and before I had even got sat down, I looked up and there was a doe going around the outside edge of the woods at about 120 yards. I got her in the sights but wasn't happy with any of the shots presented between the trees and she walked. Looking at the time it was 1400. We both got situated and started looking around.
A little later Dad spotted a deer just stepping out of some trees. I turned around and got sighted on it and waited for it to step out. Dad says "I think it's a buck." Looked to be around 100 yards, maybe a little more. He stepped out of the trees and walked to the fence line, I pulled the trigger, and he didn't move. I watched him for a second, it was a clean miss so I hurried and started to reload. (It turns out another advantage to the stand we built is that I can crouch down in it to reload and be mostly concealed.) Dad watched the buck while I was reloading. Instead of running off, he turned and began to walk up the fenceline towards us. By the time I was done reloading, he was about 40 yards from us and slowly walking up the fence line. Due to the angle he was at, it was either too severe of a quartering angle or else there were trees in the way. He finally stepped into a small opening broadside at about 20 yards and I let the Encore go to work.
The bullet entered behind the front shoulder, destroyed the heart and lungs, then exited behind the off side shoulder. I was shooting a 300 gr. SST in a Harvester smooth black sabot on top of 65 gr. Re7. While I was cleaning him I found I must have initially hit the point of his elbow, as that was gone. It started the bullet expanding and the entry and exit wounds were both about 3"!!! While cleaning it, we literally poured the chest cavity out! He turned out to be a little fork horn. Time after the shot was 1443.
Initially I was a little upset the first part of the hunt was over so quick, but I'm glad it worked out the way it did. It was the first deer I've killed since 2009, the first time I had hunted with my Dad since 2007, and the last deer we saw while hunting.
We spent Friday in the stand, then Saturday morning at a friends house while he showed me how to process my own deer, then Saturday afternoon Dad had to leave. It was a great weekend and made me realize how much I miss hunting with my Dad. I was going to call it a season and be done, but I think now that one morning this week I probably should take my 5 year old son out for his first hunt and hopefully someday hunting together can mean as much to him.
I have a couple pictures of the buck and I'll get those up a little later. They're still on my wife's camera and I don't dare touch that thing. I'm smarter than that.

Good report SuperKirby. It's great that you got to spend some time and share a hunt with your dad.

Congrats on your hunt! Did your dad have a shot at him?
(BP)

Congrats Kirby!

Glad you and your dad had a good time. I loves me some Re7 too. 63gr and a 325gr FTX is my favorite load in the Savage 50. N120 is excellent too if you can find it.

Dad didn't buy a tag. A nonresident tag here is $140 and probably not really worth it.
I really had my heart set on using the 325 FTX with this barrel, but I would have to literally hammer them down the barrel to use them. I did find out that I think I can use the box of FTX's I have left as sabotless in my .45 Contender muzzleloader barrel, so all is not lost. I think next I'm going to try some 4759 and maybe drop down to 250 gr. bullets. Not sure though. I'm going to try to scope the rifle and take out a few coyotes this winter so we'll see what happens.

Congrats, looking forward to the pics.

And DEFINITELY take your son out, its never too early to start. I did at age 3 with my kids. You just can't plan on a long hunt - usually a couple hours is all the little ones can last. Good luck!

Congratulations on the buck and the hunting with your father. That makes memories that are far more valuable then a venison.

My Douglas 50cal barrel is tight with a 325gr FTX and the MMP Orange. Its way too tight with the Harvester Black Crushrib. A $20 Lee .454 sizing die resolves that problem if you have a reloading or arbor press.

4759 or N110 should work good with 225gr-250gr bullets. The 225gr FTX is a awesome fun bullet and recoil is minimal.

Congrats to you and your dad Kirby. You will never forget that day.

Sounds like a pretty good weekend to me. Congratulations