The author has a fast opportunity at an awesome buck. The problem is, the drop-tine buck is running full tilt through heavy timber. Will he take the shot?
I’d been sitting high in a swaying treestand for several hours, buffeted by heavy wind and frozen nearly crisp by temps in the mid-teens. It was opening day of gun season in Ohio, and the weather was purely awful. Snow crystals swirled along the forest floor and pelted my stiff cheeks. Suddenly, a big, drop-tine buck crested the flat-top ridge I stood watch over, following a doe and acting schizophrenic from some previous encounter with a hunter. They broke into a run as I raised my rifle…
Gun, Optics, and Ammo
Like several other Midwestern and eastern states, Ohio has special restrictions on deer hunting firearms. In an effort to prevent stray bullets from running amok across their populated and often flat terrain, a hunter may only use a shotgun shooting slugs, a muzzleloader, or a rifle chambered in a straight-wall caliber.
Gun and Optic
My rifle was a simple Winchester XPR sporting a 22-inch barrel and a stock trigger set at about four pounds. A 2.5-10X44 Vortex Viper scope completed the setup, secure in lightweight one-piece Talley mounts. It’s a simple and inexpensive setup that works well for Midwestern hunting. I can consistently shoot one-moa groups with the rifle, and was very confident out to 250 yards.
Ammo
My favorite cartridge for hunting these states is the new 400 Legend developed by Winchester. This is partly because I’ve experienced great performance and even greater luck while hunting with the cartridge, but also because the cartridge just checks a lot of boxes. To my way of thinking, it’s the perfect round for hunting in cartridge-restricted states.
My ammo was Winchester’s 215-grain Power Point, sporting a muzzle velocity of 2250 feet per second (fps). I zeroed the rifle at 150 yards, which put my bullet a couple of inches high at 100 and about five inches low at 200. Using hash marks on the scope reticle, I could hold over for shots out to 300 yards – the maximum distance the 400 Legend should be shot at game.
To round out my optical setup, I carried my old faithful Zeiss Victory RF rangefinding 10X42 binocular, nestled securely in a Badlands chest pouch.
The Midwest Whitetail Buck Hunt
Ohio hunting licenses and deer tags are available over the counter, but it can be very difficult to find a place to hunt. Public land is in short supply and overhunted. Good private land property is either leased up or jealously guarded by locals with long-standing permission. I was fortunate enough to have a good friend with access to good property with some great bucks in the area.
I left my home in balmy Arizona and flew eastward, encountering frigid, windy, awful conditions when I arrived in Ohio. Nonetheless, I climbed a tree and settled into one of my friend Jeff’s best stands, hoping for an encounter with a nice buck. It’s a good thing I don’t suffer from motion sickness, because the stand was high and the wind fierce. My tree was swaying like the mast on a sailing ship. Not a deer was sighted until just after nine am, when the big nervous buck crested the ridge and stood beside his doe for a moment. I had just enough time to snick off the safety when they took off, running fast and broadside toward my right.
Running Fast For the Drop-Tine Buck
The deer were close, and I knew that in five or six seconds, my opportunity would be gone. I don’t often shoot at running game, but it was now or never. I swung the crosshairs with the running buck as he flashed through the trees, waiting for a gap in the timber. My crosshairs showed perfectly on the front of his shoulder, there was the gap, and my finger tightened on the trigger.
Take the Shot?
Put yourself in my frozen boots, high in a windy treestand on a hardwood ridge in Ohio, watching a big, drop-tine whitetail buck through your riflescope as he runs through the trees. You’ve traveled across the nation for this moment, prepared well with your rifle, and the buck is close. Still, he’s running hard, and your shot lane is narrow. Moving targets are not your forte. But the moment is now, and your crosshairs are perfectly on the buck’s shoulder.
Will you take the shot?
Drop-Tine Buck: TRUE STORY
Like I said, I’m not an expert at shooting moving targets. But the buck was big and close, and the shot felt right. I broke the trigger, my sight picture looked perfect as the rifle fired, and then the deer were both gone. They ran out of sight in a dip. Then the doe alone ran out the far side and into a thicket. That seemed to be a good sign, though the buck could have turned and run out of the bottom of the dip without ever being visible to me.
I stood a moment, thinking about what had just happened. The shot felt perfect, but I hadn’t heard the bullet hit, nor had the buck flinched or bucked or kicked or given any sign of being hit. Still, I was confident that my crosshairs had been perfect when the shot broke. I was cautiously optimistic that I’d killed the buck. Lowering my rifle and pack to the ground, I climbed the long way down from the stand. Jeff had come to join me, and we made our way toward the dip where the buck had vanished.
There he lay, cleanly killed with a perfect shot. The bullet had passed through, leaving an exit hole and a massive blood trail. The buck had run 48 yards before crashing, and was an incredible old deer with a huge, curving, forked drop tine on his right antler.
READ MORE HERE: TAKE THE SHOT: Monster Mule Deer
Ohio Hunt Conclusion
In retrospect, this was perhaps the finest hunting shot I’ve ever made. The distance (I measured it later) was 58 yards. Was it ethical to attempt this shot? For me, at that moment, it was.
That said, I had many elements to consider when taking this shot. Skill, timing, and luck all had to fall simultaneously into place. I believe that to make this shot, a person needs to be well-versed with their rifle and have steady nerves and plenty of experience. Could you make the shot? That’s a personal decision only you are qualified to make.
Would I take this shot again? Yes, but only if it again felt perfect. I’m sure there are times that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off, as illustrated by the fact that recently I missed an opportunity while sitting in that same stand. It was a different year, and a different big buck ran by, chasing a hot doe as fast as he could run. He passed four feet from my tree, and still I couldn’t get a shot off. Maybe I’ll write that story in an upcoming edition of Take The Shot. Stay tuned…
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