Post by ChrisChampion on Nov 24, 2007 19:44:11 GMT -5
Been away from the computer for over a week so I'm playing catch up reading all the new posts. Congrats to all those who have scored with their Savages in the last week. I went the first 5 days of Indiana's deer season with only seeing 4 deer within shooting range 
It was too warm and too wet and the deer were just not moving. I could have shot a nice doe the second evening of the season but she was 185 yds out and it was getting really dark. I had a good rest and felt confident that I could make the shot and my Bushnell Elite 4200 3x9x40 lighted things up great but my gut just said no so I held off. Three warm and wet days went by without seeing any deer... 
I finally shot a decent doe on Thanksgiving evening. It was a 165 yd bang flop but not the kind of bang flop I'm very proud of. My dad and I were hunting together out of his Double Bull turkey blind at the edge of a picked corn field where we usually see deer in the evening if the wind is right. The wind was wrong for the stands we have at the edge of this field so we took a chance and set up his blind in an area where the wind would not blow our sent over the near by bedding area. About 5:00pm the deer starting coming out. Since it was my last evening to hunt my dad gave me the first shot and wouldn't you know it the first nice doe that presented a shot came out on the wrong side of the blind. After we spent what seems like an eterninty switching sides I got sat back down and adusted my shooting mon-pod. I had a great rest. I was sitting low enough in a chair where I could rest my left elbow on my knee, left fist & thumb cradled the forarm about 5 inches in front of the trigger guard and the forarm rested on the mono-pod right under the front sight hole...Just like I had practiced. Well by the time I got situated and got the crosshairs centered on her the doe had been giving the blind the evil eye and was getting ansy. She was 165 yds out quarting away at about 45 degrees. Just as my mind said "OK now, sqeeeeeeeze...she started to walk forward. When the gun went off I thought....Oh #&#^. Well she dropped like a ton of bricks so I thought I got lucky and broke her back. When I saw her crawling off into the brush I knew I had hit her in the hind quarters. My dad walked up to check things out while I walked back to get the truck. I saw him walk up and finish her off with a shot to the head. The Barnes Original had hit very far back in the left hind quarter and came out about midway back on the off side hind quarter. The exit hole was about 1" in diameter. It was the worst shot I had ever made on a deer that I recovered. The gun and load performed flawlessly. Not the way I hoped to break the new Savage in but there's a nice doe hanging in the freezer waiting to be cut up this weekend. I've got two weeks off where I can't hunt due to work and other commitments but then I'll give it another shot the opening weekend of the IN muzzleloading season.
It was too warm and too wet and the deer were just not moving. I could have shot a nice doe the second evening of the season but she was 185 yds out and it was getting really dark. I had a good rest and felt confident that I could make the shot and my Bushnell Elite 4200 3x9x40 lighted things up great but my gut just said no so I held off. Three warm and wet days went by without seeing any deer... 
I finally shot a decent doe on Thanksgiving evening. It was a 165 yd bang flop but not the kind of bang flop I'm very proud of. My dad and I were hunting together out of his Double Bull turkey blind at the edge of a picked corn field where we usually see deer in the evening if the wind is right. The wind was wrong for the stands we have at the edge of this field so we took a chance and set up his blind in an area where the wind would not blow our sent over the near by bedding area. About 5:00pm the deer starting coming out. Since it was my last evening to hunt my dad gave me the first shot and wouldn't you know it the first nice doe that presented a shot came out on the wrong side of the blind. After we spent what seems like an eterninty switching sides I got sat back down and adusted my shooting mon-pod. I had a great rest. I was sitting low enough in a chair where I could rest my left elbow on my knee, left fist & thumb cradled the forarm about 5 inches in front of the trigger guard and the forarm rested on the mono-pod right under the front sight hole...Just like I had practiced. Well by the time I got situated and got the crosshairs centered on her the doe had been giving the blind the evil eye and was getting ansy. She was 165 yds out quarting away at about 45 degrees. Just as my mind said "OK now, sqeeeeeeeze...she started to walk forward. When the gun went off I thought....Oh #&#^. Well she dropped like a ton of bricks so I thought I got lucky and broke her back. When I saw her crawling off into the brush I knew I had hit her in the hind quarters. My dad walked up to check things out while I walked back to get the truck. I saw him walk up and finish her off with a shot to the head. The Barnes Original had hit very far back in the left hind quarter and came out about midway back on the off side hind quarter. The exit hole was about 1" in diameter. It was the worst shot I had ever made on a deer that I recovered. The gun and load performed flawlessly. Not the way I hoped to break the new Savage in but there's a nice doe hanging in the freezer waiting to be cut up this weekend. I've got two weeks off where I can't hunt due to work and other commitments but then I'll give it another shot the opening weekend of the IN muzzleloading season.
