Her First Deer - 707 Yards

Buffalobob · 02-16-2009, 12:10

We left Wyoming with 8 antelope killed and I still had a doe tag left but had no desire to kill anymore antelope being as we would be unable to give it away and we already had one and a half in the cooler for eating. We arrived in Idaho and set up camp the first day. Deer season opened up but the bucks were not moving around during the day and we did not see any for a couple of days. The first buck we saw was a spike standing in the middle of the while we were driving to a place to hunt. I asked Cynthia if she wanted to shoot it but she said she didn’t care to shoot one in the road but I could if I wanted to. So, with neither of us inclined to shoot the deer, she got out with her cameral and took a lot of pictures of it.

So deer season dragged along and we mostly hunted elk or holed up at camp and waited out bad weather. Cynthia had decided in her mind that she wanted to kill her first deer and that she did not care so much about an elk but she wanted a deer.

So we decide to leave the elk alone and hunt deer. We climbed up high along a ridgeline for about 2 hours into a basin that nobody hunted and began glassing for a buck. After about 3 hours Cynthia spotted a solitary deer browsing along that had antlers. She grabbed the 7mm Allen Magnum and found her a spot to shoot from and got the rifle laid in. Phil ranged the deer out at 707 yards and worked out the drops for her. I got on the spotting scope and kept track of the buck while they got the rifle ready.
The buck was a small forkhorn and it was just out in the early afternoon eating. After the rifle was set up and ready it took about 10 minutes before the deer turned to give Cynthia an angle that she liked. She is very patient about waiting for a shot she likes, but when she sees what she likes she is very fast and sure on the trigger. Phil kept ranging the buck to make sure that it didn’t browse far enough away that the drops would need to be changed. So when the buck got broadside and still Cynthia eased into the Jewell and the 200 grain Wildcat HP RBBT was off and traveling across the canyon. On impact the buck jumped straight up into the air about four feet, landed, swapped ends and ran 20 yards and stopped. I told Cynthia to reload for a second shot but then through the Kowa, I could see the bucks legs starting to wobble and before she could get a second cartridge chambered it fell and rolled about 50 yards down the hill and lodged against a pine tree. The bullet hit a rib going in about four inches behind the shoulder, expanded a little and passed through both lungs and then exited the far side of the chest in between rib bones. I sent her and Phil to get the buck and drag is as far down the valley as possible before dark and I took the rifle and gear back to camp and drove the truck around to pick them up. The next day we hiked back in to where they had left the deer and boned it out and packed the meat out to the truck.

In one of the photos you can see a little patch of blood around the entrance wound. I was very pleased with her performance being as killing a deer at that range is not a matter of luck it is a matter of practice and skill.