Well the 7mm08 strikes again. I downed one of the top 2 bucks we had on trail cam this year. It was Sunday morning at 9:00, and a doe crossed a crp field I was sitting by. She was a big mature doe, and the rut is hottt in our area right now. I kept waiting for a buck to follow her out into the field, but she crossed and dissappeared into the woods. 10 min later I see a white fence moving up and down in the edge of the woods 150yrds away where the doe came out.
Then he steps out, and he is on her trail, nose to the ground. I couldn't steady myself enough to shoot because there was no good rest in that direction in the tree. So I'm starting to really get nervous and shake and am sooo afraid he is going to turn and leave at any moment. Meanwhile my crosshairs are dancing all around him as I try to hold steady and he is walking across the field..... Finally he gets to the middle of the field and I am able to lean over and rest the gun on a tree branch, and FINALLY the crosshairs go rock solid steady. At this point he turns and looks in my direction....he must have seen movement on the skyline as I moved to settle in, and as I get the crosshairs on him he is looking right at me broadside, and the Encore ROARS!!!
I recovered from the recoil only to see him take 3 walking steps forward... WTF!! Did I miss???? He didn't react at all to the shot. Now I am trying to reload as quickly as possible, and he wobbles once...twice...and goes down!! 3 steps is all the farther he got.
Now I'm shaking soo bad...and I turn on the video to record the story, and I call my dad who is hunting about 1/3 mile away and calm myself down.
Ranged the shot at 134yrds. T/C Encore 7mm08 15inch barrel Simmons Pro Hunter 2x6 140grn speer soft point. Took out the top of the heart, and the bottom of both lungs. Perfect bullet performance. Nice exit hole, and jelly in his chest cavity.
What a morning. Had the rest of the day to enjoy it. Hunting with my dad and little brother. It was a magical day......
A quick field scoring came up with a 160gross score. Main frame 10 with a 1 1/8 inch sticker point off his left base. He is 22 1/8 wide inside, over 24inches wide outside, and has 27 inch main beams.
My little brother took lots of AWESOME photos and video that I will post when I get them. For now, here are my cell phone pics.
Here is the field.
Happy Hunters
