Luke's First Buck

It started out early with my alarm going off immediately sending me upright in my bed. Many hunters can sympathize with the excitement and adrenaline that is pumping through ones body the day of the hunt. It was a brief ride over to my friends ranch in Sedalia where Nathan and I decided to start my hunt on a ridge overlooking a large swath of the property. To our surprise after 15 minutes of hiking we ran right into two bucks and at least four doe’s on an opposing lower ridge. The bigger buck was partially obscured by scrub oak and facing down hill away from us. after waiting about 5 minutes the larger buck turned broad side still entirely unaware of our presence. I took the shot off of a pair of shooting sticks at 125 yards. My trophy disappeared behind the low ridge immediately. At that time i was unsure whether of to be disappointed or elated. Nathan was confident i had hit my target but i wasn't because of the recoil of the 30-06 and the immediate retreat over the ridge. we waited an excruciating 15 min to allow the buck to bleed out if i had hit him to avoid chasing him all over the ranch. Finding the buck proved some what tricky through the thick scrub oak. eventually we found him lying 15 feet from the spot of impact. the shot was about an inch and a half forward from the heart. It was a lung shot that passed through the back of the shoulder and exited out the front of the other. I used a 180 grain bullet which i believe contributed to the quick kill despite the less than perfect shot as all but one of the lobes of the lungs where reduced to a pulp. The next 2 days where spend cleaning, butchering, and tanning the buck in house. More to come on the buck skin wallets being made from this kill.