Fallow buck action shots

[SPEEDY]

I have been waiting a year to pick up these photos of of a Buck that I got while hunting with a mate in SF, I never seem to carry a camera so I really shouldn't complain about waiting for pic's.

 

The rub that we were watching , there was a Doe and fawn to our left about 60m away, the wind was perfect and it was just reaching the prime time late in the afternoon.

 

 

The Buck that showed up, he came down the game trail and started hitting the rub tree and having a bit of a croak, we only had to wait about an hour and half for him to show up. We watched him for about 5min before I decided to take the shot

 

 

 

This is him landing after he was shot in the front right hand shoulder smashing it with a 375H&H, he went about 2m up and flipped around mid air it was awesome to watch.

 

 

He took off towards the pine's on the other side of the clearing at a gallop.

 

 

He started to stagger suddenly after 60-70m just before the tree line, I was about to put another round in him when my mate made the call that he was about to drop.

 

 

Where he fell, about another 15m into the tree line.

 

[Thumpersniper]

Great buck and pics! I have never been stalking or shot a deer, so excuse my ignorance! but why when the buck looks about 50 or 60 yards away do you go for a chest shot rather than a head shot? i know thats the way most people shoot them so there must be a reason, and i know it is a bigger target but also on this forum people talk about their pin point accuracy at 300 on rabbits and crows which must be a smaller target than a bucks head? Is their brain hard to hit, or do they move their heads around a lot making a chest shot easyer?

 

SP

[hill billy]

your spot on mate head shooting a deer can be done but generally shooting deer in woodland means your restricted in some way shape or form meaning you could fire hit an unseen twig and injure the animal, so heart and lungs make a much larger target and means you injure a lot lot less,

[Thumpersniper]

A right, i see, i know it causes quick death and that it is adrenaline that carries them a bit not so much that its still alvve because i have heart shot a fox and the same thing happened. I just thought a head shot would drop it like a stone, no meat damage and so on and couldnt think why people wouldnt if it was possible. thanks for explaing!

 

SP

[SPEEDY]

Great buck and pics! I have never been stalking or shot a deer, so excuse my ignorance! but why when the buck looks about 50 or 60 yards away do you go for a chest shot rather than a head shot? i know thats the way most people shoot them so there must be a reason, and i know it is a bigger target but also on this forum people talk about their pin point accuracy at 300 on rabbits and crows which must be a smaller target than a bucks head? Is their brain hard to hit, or do they move their heads around a lot making a chest shot easyer?

 

SP

 

Nothing to do with easy, it's just a little pointless getting a buck mounted with his antlers blown off. Most Deer that I have shot well bucks anyway have been running shots so head shooting at any point is a little tricky.

Hunting small game is also very different to hunting big game, there are a lot of different variables not the least is the range, time to shoot and the caliber used, it would be much easier to head shoot a Rabbit at 150m with a 17HMR as opposed to a 375H&H just due to the nature of the recoil etc.

[MerseaDavid]

Great pics mate, nice shot.

[njc110381]

Those are some excellent pictures. Well done for shooting him with the camera as well as the rifle. I wish the police would accept my .375 for Deer in the UK. It is a rather large calibre but I didn't find meat damage that excessive. What makes you hunt Deer with such a big rifle?

[Thumpersniper]

Nothing to do with easy, it's just a little pointless getting a buck mounted with his antlers blown off. Most Deer that I have shot well bucks anyway have been running shots so head shooting at any point is a little tricky.

Hunting small game is also very different to hunting big game, there are a lot of different variables not the least is the range, time to shoot and the caliber used, it would be much easier to head shoot a Rabbit at 150m with a 17HMR as opposed to a 375H&H just due to the nature of the recoil etc.

 

I see, thanks for explaining that. So the larger calibers .357 are bigger to cause more damage/better kill rather than to shoot at longer ranges as i thought they were? Are deer usually shot within 100 yards by stalkers? i always thought they were shot at 300+ in the mountains because they are hard to stalk up to

 

SP

[ash.gun]

good pictures

and good shooting

[moses]

Great to see the pics Speedy.

 

He looks a nice animal, I'd say he was a "sore" buck about 4 years old?

 

He looks nice and thick in the neck for the rut, was he stinking?

 

ATB

Moses

[SPEEDY]

Those are some excellent pictures. Well done for shooting him with the camera as well as the rifle. I wish the police would accept my .375 for Deer in the UK. It is a rather large calibre but I didn't find meat damage that excessive. What makes you hunt Deer with such a big rifle?

 

I bought that gun for Sambar and Buff but due to it's light weight (7lbs) and modest recoil I just started using it as my stalking rifle and I never lost an animal with it as when it hit's they drop.

 

 

I see, thanks for explaining that. So the larger calibers .357 are bigger to cause more damage/better kill rather than to shoot at longer ranges as i thought they were? Are deer usually shot within 100 yards by stalkers? i always thought they were shot at 300+ in the mountains because they are hard to stalk up to

 

SP

 

He was shot in open country, the longest shot that I have taken there was him and I shot 7 does for meat that season. But shots can get longer in the high country which is one reason why I have a 270wby now.

 

 

Great to see the pics Speedy.

 

He looks a nice animal, I'd say he was a "sore" buck about 4 years old?

 

He looks nice and thick in the neck for the rut, was he stinking?

 

The rut didn't start until the next day so he was very early in the season, almost pre rut so he didn't even have any scars from fighting yet which made him a top mount.

[glogin]

Great pictures!

[Blaser]

Nice to see you here too

 

Olsen

[SPEEDY]

Nice to see you here too

 

Olsen

 

Well as my ex used to say "I do get around"

[LeeinVA]

Excellent job

[fallowbuck]

Excellent pics mate, I thought the .375 HH would be for the Sambar, as they are reportedly very tough animals. Do you load down your 375 rounds for deer? Anyway ,you did a good job of it.I use a .243 on bucks normally but up it to .308/270 when they are rutting as they get necks like Mike Tyson then.

[SPEEDY]

I use a 220gn Taipan FP for deer, it was made for the smaller .375cal lever action rifles but I have found it and the 220gn Hornady perfect for medium and some large game out of the H&H.

I 1st loaded it to 2400fps as a practice round for Bunnies and targets but at that velocity I found that the bullets retained a lot of weight and penetrated very well, but I started loading it to 2950fps for a flatter trajectory and found that it really packs a punch on the same game.

 

I don't use a 243win or anything smaller then a 260rem on Deer as there is a lot of hunting pressure at most of the deer areas that I hunt, so standing shots like that one just don't happen and running shots are the norm. So you need a round that will anchor them from any angle rather then waiting for the perfect shot.

 

I find the 308win a great choice along with the 270win but my new Deer rifle is my Blaser R93 using the 270wby barrel so that I can get more range, similar power and less recoil, although for small Deer like Fallow I might use the 308win Barrel.

 

Deer hunting is getting harder where I hunt due to too many people wanting to hunt there so it always booked out (public land)

[fallowbuck]

Hi again,I didn't realise that you had to book for deer shooting.I thought you could just go if the deer season was open , like in the US. How many deer species have you in NSW?

[SPEEDY]

Hi again,I didn't realise that you had to book for deer shooting.I thought you could just go if the deer season was open , like in the US. How many deer species have you in NSW?

 

You can hunt on private land anytime during the season but you have to book a spot to hunt in a state forest as there are different limitations on numbers due to the land size.

 

We have Hog, Fallow, Rusa, Red and Sambar deer that I know about but there might be one or two more and there are also a lot of Red/Wapiti cross Deer around the place too.

 

Hunting pressure changes your hunting style a lot too, I have head shot Fallow does at 30m with a .22 one year while walking around hunting Rabbits but within 1-2 years their jumpy and hard to find due to constant hunting pressure and you need to do more scouting and sit and wait hunting with your fingers crossed.

[fallowbuck]

You certainly are lucky to have so much land and so many species of deer to hunt. I must say, that we may be lucky here because of the fact ,that we have such long seasons compared to you and the Americans say.Any way good pics and good hunting!