Last day of the season

[yamoon]

Growing up in the 50s, in a small Missouri town most kids, myself included had a .22. Open sights were the norm, only rich kids had a scope on their rifle. After cataract surgery with astigmatism correction a year ago I wanted to try open sights again. I have a nice little 6.5 lb 8x57 DST Mauser sporter not drilled for a scope. I hunted with it several days this season looking for a buck, no luck. This was the last day so I decided to take a doe if one appeared. I woke up to 25 degrees & a snow storm. About an hour into the hunt I saw 3 does, I took an off hand shot, missed or so I thought as they all bounded away. About 5 minutes later a doe came back, the way she was acting told me I had not missed. I put a 2nd shot into the chest, she went down. The hunt was over for this year. It was very gratifying to harvest a deer with a hundred plus year old rifle and open sights. The rifle is a .318 bore, so it is a hand loading proposition. I worked up a load about 2 years ago that is dead on at 100 yards. 175 gr .318 bullet, 44.5 gr IMR 4320, Remington large rifle primers. This photo was taken about 10 minutes after the final shot, you can see how much snow is on her already.
Mike deer4.jpg

[mike ford]

Mike,
Waidmannsheil! In Alabama you would have until 10 Feb. to find that buck.
Mike

[sharps4590]

You grew up in Missouri? Where are you now? Nice doe, BTW

I expect the 28th of this month I'll be in the woods with my Jaeger, 54 cal.

[yamoon]

East central Kansas, Junction City, grew up in Maryville 17 miles south of the Iowa line.
Mike

[sharps4590]

Ahhh. You were WAY north of me. Had a friend from Maryville, many years ago. I grew up down in the Ozarks where the hoot owls bred the chickens. Fled Missouri 3 times and swore I'd never return. Here I am, retired and back in the Ozarks.

[R. Marshall]

congrats yamoon! We have a 3 day gun season coming up after Christmas and I'm hoping to take a doe with one of my German rifles.

sharps4590, my famlies hunting ground is 4 miles south of the big city of Myrtle, mo.

[stumpstalker]

Yamoon:

Congratulations and kudos for being out there in the snow storm for one of those late-in-the game, eleventh hour, when it alll comes together success stories.

Now all we need to see is a close-up "studio shot" of your rifle.

[yamoon]

schill3a.jpg schill4a.jpg This is the deer slayer schil1.jpg schill2.jpg

[yamoon]

The rifle is marked
J. Schilling Bad Wildungen