What unit?

I got mine!  Just got home.  Unit was 36A.  Bagged a nice three point whitetail yesterday afternoon.  It was the middle of the day, so my buddy and I were just driving around doing a little exploring with the occasional stop and glass.  We pulled over at a stock tank to take a little break and I decided to set up my binocs and tripod.  As soon as I looked through them I saw the characteristic deer head silhouette under an oak tree near the top of a ridge to our East.  I had my buddy set up his 15x Zeiss to see if he could confirm what I was seeing and help me determine if it was a buck.  After awhile the buck moved his head a few times and we were able to see his rack.  At that point, I lased him with my 10x45 Zeiss Victory RF binoculars and he was at about 950 yards line of sight.  

I began my stalk right at noon.  I reached my first potential firing point and ranged him at 479 yards.  I decided not to shoot from this point because all I could see was his head and neck and I had grass and small branches in my line of fire that I was worried about deflecting my bullet.  I looked around and spotted another potential firing point I could get to while staying outside of his line of sight.  The second potential firing point was 420 yards to the target.  I had a clear line of sight, but it was all rocks where I was sitting so I couldn't get my shooting sticks to dig in and give me a stable position.  I decided to hold off for a better opportunity.  To my 2 o'clock was a nice rock outcropping that I knew I could put my pack on and get a nice stable shot from.  The only problem was, I would be exposed to his line of sight during the entire movement.  He was bedded down so I figured from past experience that it would be unlikely for him to get up and run unless I was right on top of him.  

I made it into my third and final firing point and got set for the shot.  I lased him at 345 yards with a small incline and consulted Strelok for a firing solution.  Strelok advised 1.9 Mils, which jived with the dope I had gotten two days prior.  He was laying behind a rock so I could still only see his head and neck.  Naturally, I didn't want to shoot him in the head so his neck was my target.  That's a pretty small target at that range, plus he was partially obscured by the shadow of the tree he was laying under.  Fortunately, there was no wind.  I waited for my heart rate to decrease and once everything felt right, I squeezed the trigger.  Bang, my scope goes up and then settles back on target.  He's still laying there, not even a flick of his ears!  I panic and hastily fire again, thinking he is going to get up and unass the AO ricky tick.  My scope settles back down and still he is laying there.  I'm a bit perplexed at this point.  I thought I must have hit him, otherwise the bullet impact should have scared him away.  He's still laying down, clearly not interested in leaving so I call up my buddy who is still down below watching through his binoculars.  He can't see my impacts, nor did he see any indication of a hit.  We both figure I must be high, otherwise the bullets would have hit the rock he was laying behind.  I dialed down 0.1 Mils and held right at the base of his neck.  Breath in, hold, take-up the first stage, and squeeze.  Bang!  My scope goes up and in lower third I see him tumble over.  I come back down on target and see him keeled over and not moving.  I check my watch.  The time is 1:45 pm.  

The view from my final firing point.


Looking back at our trucks from the kill site.  Note the elevation of the nearby ridges in relation to where I took the picture from.


My buddy met me at the kill site to help me cut him up and pack him out.  The terrain was way too rough to try field dressing him and carry him out in tact so we boned him out.  It was almost dark by the time we finished.  My buddy leaves for the trucks before I do and we end up taking separate routes.  I figure I can follow the canyon down and it would spit me out near where we were parked.  I figured wrong.  I'm about a third of the way down by the time it is pitch black.  I stayed in the canyon, and because I couldn't see my surroundings I didn't know it was leading me Northwest when I needed to be going due West.  Long story short, after many signal shots, honking and driving around with his lights on, my buddy picks me up about a half mile north of where we parked.  That was at 9:00 pm.  

I've been deer hunting before, but this is the first time I've been successful.  Last year, I hunted whitetail in an adjacent unit and never even saw a buck.  I still feel as high as I was out on that ridge and can't wait to go again next year.  If you really want to challenge yourself as a hunter, try hunting whitetail in southern AZ.  I've got nothing against guys that hunt from blinds and tree stands, and I understand in some areas of the country that stand hunting is necessary, but I don't think that it can even remotely compare to the sense of pride and satisfaction I felt yesterday.

I used my 16" LaRue Tactical 7.62 PredatOBR w/ Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP.  My load was a 165 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip atop 44.5 gr. of TAC and a CCI 200 primer in Lapua brass.  The bullet entered the base of his neck on the right side and exited about 3" or 4" down from his ear on the left.