Sorry, no pics.  We all forgot our cameras.

However, cliffy109, gotm4, a friend of cliffy's and I went out hunting today and did several pushes and drives.

We left with 4 deer for the freezer.

1 buck.
1 button buck.
2 does.

Weather was perfect!!!!

Man, what a good day.  

Nice, where was this at?

A lend of your Bench-LULA for May Blackwater and I'll tell you.  

Hell of a day.  If we had brought a couple of shotguns and my friend Mehran would stop flinching, we would have ended up with 7 or 8.  I got a couple of good long shots and the others leanred what CQB with a scoped rifle is like.

sounds like a lot of fun.  

wish i could have made it, stayed up late watching Texas whoop ass and had to work the next day so it wasnt possible.

congrats gentlemen guys

Quoted: A lend of your Bench-LULA for May Blackwater and I'll tell you.

We can work something out...like some pistol instruction from you!

Here's a few highlights of the day:

Foggy morning

I set up on the edge of some woods for the morning.  The fog was starting to settle in, but wasn't too bad yet.  I was facing up into some thin woods and a thicket.  Behind me was a large field with a narrow strip of trees along the edge.  

First legal shooting light was at 7:00 AM.  At 7:10, I glassed through the fog to the open field.  There was a deer!  I put the binos down and picked up the rifle and turned to max magnification (1.5-5X Leupold).  I couldn't find him.  Back to the binos and he wasn't there any more.  

I moved about 10 yards down to get a better view.  There he was again.  I saw him quartering away at a slow walk.  I tracked him in the scope and "BOOM".  I seem to have pressed too soon.  I looked again through the scope and saw him there looking around.  He was roughly 200 yards away in a bit of a valley in fog.  He didn't know where the danger was and continued to stand there.  I fired again and this time, lost him for a moment.  Another couple seconds later and I saw him trotting away.  I fired a third time.  This time, I lost him but saw him again trotting towards me, but his back legs were obviously damaged.  He dropped from sight.  

First shot was a total miss.  Second shot killed him.  It was farther back than I liked, but took out the back of his lungs and blew a nice hole in his liver.  The last shot tore up a bunch of meat in his back legs.

1st "push"

We set up for a push in the "bottleneck woods".  Mehran did the honors and the rest of us positioned outselves in the escape lanes.  A buck and a doe ran by Ed but never stopped long enough to present a shot.  They ran towards the road and any shot would have risked hitting houses so he wisely held his fire.

All hell breaks loose and the gansta' style shot

The next push was in a section of woods that is a nightmare for the guy who is walking.  Its a short section of woods growing on the side of a cliff.  At the bottom is a river and at the top is a house.  I hadn't even entered the woods when I saw a small doe run across a field towards the woods.  I shot once on the run (100 yards and I missed).  It stopped in the woods and I fired twice more and strangely it didn't flinch and just wandered off.  I examined the area and discovered why.  What looked like a clean shot was actually through a bunch of branches, twigs and briars.  I'm sure the bullet defelcted.

Well, my shots seem to have moved a heard of deer in the woods on the other end, near the guys.  I heard 7 shots.  From the account I was told, 11 deer moved toward the guys.  somehow, Gotm4 was not quite in the position I thought he would be and didn't really have a shot.  The all ran to Shivan.  His first shot was on a running deer at 10 feet.  He missed (can't see a deer in a scope at that range).  He short stroked his bolt gun as 4 more ran by.  

His next shot was wild.  He turned his gun on its side so he was looking down the side of the barrel.  he swung on the next deer and pressed the trigger.  He hit it in the neck and it dropped in its tracks.  That's a pretty brilliant move on his part and I'm not sure I would have thought to do that.  

Deer kept coming.  I'm not sure the exact order at this point but my friend Mehran shot at one which we thought he hit.  It jumped, walked a few feet, laid down and got right back up and ran off with the rest.  We never found blood.

One straggler finally headed up toward Shivan.  It bounced by him like a bunny rabbit.  He said it was like shooting the ground targets at a sporting clays course.  He timed its bounces past him and took it on the third bounce past him.  Again, it dropped in its tracks.  The upper end of the lungs were jelly and the spine was grazed and several damaged.  

Oops... I shot another one

Next, we were setting up for another push.  This was designed to get a deer to Mehran who would be standing at the top of a hill.  His route to the crest took him next to the same thin stretch of trees where I had taken mine in the morning.  I thought it would be a good idea for me to swing wide and if there was anything in there, it would bounce to Mehran.  

Well, it almost worked.  The only problem was, a deer was coming out of the woods, towards me before we really even started.  It was trotting directly towards me at a range later determined to be 161 yards.  I dropped to one knee as he stopped in his tracks and stared at me.  He was facing perhaps 3 degrees to his right, but almost directly straight at me.  I touched the trigger and he jumped into the woods where I heard him crash.  The impact was about an inch to the left of the center of his sternum.  the bullet wiped out the bottom of his heart and lungs and his liver looked like a bomb was set off in it.  The bullet was not recovered, but stopped somewhere past his stomach.  

The push didn't go off as planned due to a miscommunication.  Two deer were seen, but couldn't be shot due to the ranges and the fact that they were moving like possessed demons.

one more try

We tried one more area.  Its an area I always save for last becuase its normally the most productive.  It also required me to hike huge distances.  There wasn't a single deer in it.  No glory here.

Quoted: All hell breaks loose and the gansta' style shot <snip> They all ran to Shivan.  His first shot was on a running deer at 10 feet.  He missed (can't see a deer in a scope at that range).  He short stroked his bolt gun as 4 more ran by.   His next shot was wild.  He turned his gun on its side so he was looking down the side of the barrel.  he swung on the next deer and pressed the trigger.  He hit it in the neck and it dropped in its tracks.  That's a pretty brilliant move on his part and I'm not sure I would have thought to do that.

Quite honestly, I didn't really "think" about it.  Deer running 5-10 feet away, 3.5x scope missed the first time on a wild try -- I just flipped the rifle to it's side and looked down the barrel.  The whole thing really was just like shooting fast moving clays.

Deer kept coming.  I'm not sure the exact order at this point but my friend Mehran shot at one which we thought he hit.  It jumped, walked a few feet, laid down and got right back up and ran off with the rest.  We never found blood. One straggler finally headed up toward Shivan.  It bounced by him like a bunny rabbit.  He said it was like shooting the ground targets at a sporting clays course.  He timed its bounces past him and took it on the third bounce past him.  Again, it dropped in its tracks.  The upper end of the lungs were jelly and the spine was grazed and severelly damaged.

I was quite happy with that last shot...

Unlike the first doe, I had time and space to make a proper shot.  Dropped to a kneeling position and just watched her go.  As soon as her feet started to leave the ground on the third leap behind the cedars.  I popped it.

It was sureal to have more than 10 deer running dead at you full bore, come within 10 feet of you and having a bolt gun.

I HONESTLY considered drawing the .45, but thought better of it.

Quoted: It was sureal to have more than 10 deer running dead at you full bore, come within 10 feet of you and having a bolt gun. I HONESTLY considered drawing the .45, but thought better of it.

[blackwater]THREAT![/blackwater]

well, shit. I guess my invite got lost in the mail....

you can bet there would be pics if I was there

Quoted: Quoted: A lend of your Bench-LULA for May Blackwater and I'll tell you.   We can work something out...like some pistol instruction from you!

Anytime, just let me know when.

Quoted: well, shit. I guess my invite got lost in the mail.... you can bet there would be pics if I was there

DOH!     I didn't know you hunted.

Quoted: Quoted: well, shit. I guess my invite got lost in the mail.... you can bet there would be pics if I was there DOH!     I didn't know you hunted.

eh, I don't anymore...I used to hunt a lot.