Hey guys … took this cool blacktail a week ago and wanted to share. If you follow me on IG, you would've seen it already. He is full of character so i'm posting quite a few pics of him. Not writing much of a story here though. Got up early and worked a quiet area slowly.Pouring rain. Full rain gear. Caught him cruisin an old skidder road looking for love. Nose to the ground and by the time he noticed me it was too late. The rifle was already up.
Shot him with my 243Win and 100gr Nosler Partition. I recovered the bullet and it had retained 65% of its weight. It was a long packout back to my ATV, but not an overly technical one, so I decided to pack him out whole. It was HEAVY. Rain soaking everything did not help things. Definitely felt some soreness in my upper glutes and hip flexors the next day
It was a pretty chilly ride on the ATV back to the truck with my lower half completely soaked, including underwear. The 15 year old Arc'teryx jacket up top stayed dry all day, but the Sitka rain pants leaked. First at the knees and thighs. Then later being bent over working all the water off the jacket went straight down my butt crack. Should have bought bib pants or just wore my waders that day!
Set him up at home in front of a fan at full blast for half the night before I hung him in my beer fridge. I decided to have him mounted considering all the character on him. He was full of old scars, and fresh wounds too! his molars were showing some decent wear so i sent a pic of the teeth to some folks who are better at aging animals than I am and the responses were 6-8 years old, so he was a nice, mature BT to take.
he is being turned into jerky, stew, and a whole lot of ground for tacos
This was also the first heart i kept and ate. I have to say, it tasted pretty good! The creek was nice to have nearby for cleanup and to rinse the heart out well. Was going to keep the heart from my mule deer last year, but turns out the bullet clipped the top of it and it was all blood shot and gross, so i left it. But this year i was definitely looking forward to it. Too bad i left so many in the field over the years.
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