Had 4 real close incounters opening day. Real close to a real nice 3 X 3 with eye guards just couldn't quite get him in the open. But this guy had pretty much no idea that we were there or what even happened till it was to late. Came over this ridge about 10:30 in the morning not really looking very hard, to be honest i was more interested in getting back to camp for some lunch, and my boys says right there dad. I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked in the general direction he was pointing and all be dang, there he was bedded down 56 yards away. He was uphill a little bid but not bad and was very slightly quartered to me. There was absolutly nothing between myself and the deer, so there was no chance of getting any closer. So I told my boy to get on him with the binos, I was going to take a shot from here. Set my sight for 55 yards and put that pin right on his elbow joint and letter go. Just absolutely smoked him. Hit perfect, maybe 2 inches higher than I was aiming but perfect. The only thing that kept the arrow from a complete pass thru was the rock behind him. He jumped up with that, "what the heck" was that motion and off to the races. He had no clue what just happened, and in fact ran right at us, and by us by about 15 yards. Crashed and did about 3 summersalts and died within 30 yards of us. I was shooting a Rage 3-Blade for the first time and have had some bad results with exspandables before, so I was still on the fence with these. WOW!! I am very very impressed with the results. huge hole on both sides and he bled like no other animal I have shot before. He died where we could see and was out "swim'in with the fishes" with in 20 seconds of impact. No kidding. But the blood trail that he left, a blind man could have followed that one. It was pretty cool cause everyone that we were hunting with saw the whole thing. The two others were on the ridge behind me and my boy (maybe 300 yards), and got to watch in there binos. You know it was a good hit when right after impact you can hear those two yelling nice shot from that far away. Spent the rest of the day trying to get my hunting partner a buck, but no luck. Oh well we be back up again, soon enough. Just happy the season is here and one tag down and one to go (elk). Leave on the 10th. Can't wait.
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss329/c...er/DSCI0047.jpghttp://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss329/c...er/DSCI0051.jpgEntrance Hole
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss329/c...er/DSCI0053.jpg(Now I'm very comfortable with shooting out to 65 and 70 yards, I even have a mark for 88 yards (thats all the further I can move it or it would be 90). I practice alot!!! And for all of you who are getting ready to say that is unethical to shoot that far away, I probably shoot upwards of 500 shots almost every day and have been for the last 4 months. I would be willing to bet I can shoot a better group at 70 yards than most every one can at 40 yards, so don't judge me.)
...CONGRATS....Travis