My dad has had a bit of a rough go with the hunting last year and at the start this year but he told me he wanted to get one more freezer load of meat because he wasn't sure he would be up to it next year. He missed a good South Texas 11 pointer about a week ago now and I could tell it really bothered him. We headed out again this afternoon, a very pleasant afternoon after some rough frontal weather moved through this morning. About an hour before dark a young 10 point came with along. Typically I would have had him pass on this deer as he is a long ways from the potential he will reach in a couple of years, but I don't know if my dad has a couple of years or if he would want to continue hunting this season as he seems tired. I told him it looked like a real nice deer to me and to shoot it if he felt the same. He did.
My dad is using the Marlin Glenfield 30GT chambered in 30-30 Win that I gave him about 8 years ago, shooting the Ranch Dog TLC311-170-RF pushed along by a max load of BL-C(2). The deer was at 80 yards and my dad hit the buck just across the top of the heart, slicing through the aorta and destroying the bottom half of both lungs. The bullet knocked the buck off his feet and he kicked in place twice and that was it.
This is our 50th hunting season together! I'm very lucky!
