“He looks real good,” I say to my mate, Joe, as I watch the stag in the binoculars.
“Looks around 28 inches in length,” Joe responds. The stalk begins.
Alone, I manage to get around 120 yards from the feeding stag, and very carefully remove my backpack, but it is not going to be able to steady my shot as I need a slightly higher rest. Instead, I roll up my Lamellar jacket and place it in the large fork of a tree. The scope is steady as on the stag.
He is feeding but regularly lifts his head for a quick look about and at one of these moments the cross of the Bushnell Elite scope, set on 9x, is fixed on the stag’s vitals. A squeeze of the Weatherby’s trigger sends the Sellier & Bellot 150-grain soft point projectile on its way.
It hits the mark emphatically and the stag is sent straight down, now obscured among the vegetation it was feeding in.
The scope stays on the deer and as the seconds pass it is clear he is not getting up, so I wait a little longer then head over to him, lowering the scope’s magnification to 3x just in case a moving shot is needed. But no second shot will be required.
I am in awe of this animal and so vibed with the way it has all panned out. Joe is soon with me.
“Congratulations, mate,” he says. “He will go 28 easy, and he is in fantastic condition.”
We enjoy the moment together very much.
The light is fading fast and with the weight of the stag we decide to get Clint and retrieve the whole stag as soon as possible to butcher and cape it in the morning at Joe’s place.
That’s where the great hunt just gets better. We measure the stag at an even 30 inches each side.
A big thank you to Joe, Penny and Clint for a great few days.
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