Ok, now for the story. We start hiking in about 45 minutes before legal light. We work our way up a large hill. At the top is ag land. Still kind of dark. I peak over the crest and I think I see a deer. We crouch down and I grab my binos. BTW, good binos are worth their weight in gold in low light. Yup, it's a deer. About 150 yards. WInd is perfect. Problem is I can't tell if it's a buck or a doe. We sit there for fifteen minutes. I tell Cathy that I think it is a big doe. We will have to spook it so we can get to the ravine I was targeting. So I stand up so it can see me. It lifts its head just enough to skyline itself. It's a buck. Shit, I screwed up. Should have waited. Thing bounds off across the field and down a ravine. After a few minutes of feeling sorry for myself we start to make the trek across the field. About 800 yards away we spot about five deer. Probably all does, but we need to check it out. We get to the perimeter of the field, with a ravine along side it. This is actually the first area I wanted to sit and just scan with binos. But we decide to close the gap on the deer, keeping an eye for anything on the other side of the ravine. After a few hundreds yards of walking I spot a white butt on the upslope of the ravine. Put my binos on it and notice it is the buck we bumped. He was heading up to the next ag field. We watch him crest the top, walk a little and start feeding. We have about 700 or so yards between us. It's go time. I tell Cathy we are going to drop in and climb up the other side, safely downwind of him. Hopefully he is there when we pop over. Well the wind and hunting gods favored us. We crest, and I take a peak. There he is 180 yards away. We have a slight knoll and tall grass to deal with, so no sitting shot here. Going to have to stand. I get my tripod off my pack and extend the legs so Cathy can shoot standing. I set the rifle in the mount and she peers through the scope. I take a look as well. Ya, don't like all the grass between us and his vitals. I give her the gun back, I grab the tripod and we creep forward so we have a better perspective and less things to get in the way. We set up. He still has no idea we are there. 150 yards. He is quartering away hard. I tell her to aim about 6 inches behind the shoulder. She looks at me ands asks, "are you sure?" I tell her, "yup". She squeezes the trigger and knocks him right over. I tell her to reload just in case. He stumbles but actually gets up. "Hit em again!" Bang. Deer down. What a day. Easiest hunt of life. Only a mile back to the car, relatively flat.
