I bought my Delta Elite this past fall. I didn't have much time to get used to it and I didn't find any legal rounds to hunt with when I got it, so I ran half a box of factory loads and reloaded those with Berry's plated 180s. I had a quick workup of the load and went to the woods opening morning with the delta in the holster and .270 over the shoulder.
At my hunting spot, my grandpas farm, I had nothing ready due to a very heavy workload. I was carrying a new hunting blind in with me to set up while out. So opening morning I show up early and head in. No quicker than I get out of the truck an hour and a half before sunrise I start seeing deer. I had a little 6 point yearling in the field and he wasn't running away so I go sit down and wait. I figure if nothing else he can go in the freezer if I don't see any does or bigger bucks, but deer in the field usually draws other deer to the field.
Skip forward until shooting light, my little buddy is still there. We are basically having a staring contest. His friends start coming out every few minutes until I have 6 small bucks in front of me. They are running, jumping, snacking, napping, playing, fighting, etc. Apparently I was in deer daycare. About 8 am things changed. A bigger buck came through and chased everybody out of the field. He came in fast, ran back and forth through the field at full speed a couple times, then disappeared behind me. So here I am...no deer in sight, no stand set up, no blind set up, nothing. I'm contemplating moving on to where I planned to hunt because I'm barely out of my grandpas back yard. I'm 30 ft off of a paved road in the edge of a cedar thicket that runs parallel to the road. While I'm trying to decide what to do I heard tapping on the road surface. Sounded a lot like horses when the Amish come through, then I see a brown blob. One of the little deer coming back to hang out with his buddies? Different deer late to the party? Then antlers...then big antlers are visible through the thicket. The deer lays down 10 yards to my right, and belly crawls through this thicket like he has done it a million times. I put the .270 down and pull the pistol. Cocked, aimed where I think he will come out. As he gets to the edge he sees me snd has and freezes for a second as he starts to panic. The hammer falls with this buck at 7 yards. He lunges forward and crosses in front of me at 5 yards. I get 2 more shots as he crosses. At 35 yards he slows down and staggers, turns towards the road and starts walking. Hunkered, slow, but still standing. I can't cross the road to retrieve the deer, so .270 comes up and the deer offers a quartering away shot. He lunges forward again but goes down in the row of pine trees separating the back yard from the field. I go tell my grandpa I got one and grab the truck to pick the deer up. My parents drive by and stop when they see me in the truck. So I tell a bit of a fib...small buck down, would be nice for a little help to load him. My dad and grandpa ask to hear the story so I explain the whole morning to them. Then we go pick the deer up. 119 inches of bone. Probably 250 pounds on the hoof. Approximately 80 pounds of meat in the freezer.
Now, I am a good shot. I don't brag, but I can shoot well, and I seem to do best under pressure. When I hang the deer to clean him I find 4 bullet holes in the chest. 2 nearly touching that hit heart, one slightly further back that got lungs, then the .270 which decimated everything in the chest.
Congrats!
1
No pictures? Great story though.
Plenty pictures, can't get anything to post without file size error
Use your pc to resize them to smaller JPEG.
good shooting and good hunt!