Thread: The ‘controversial.222’

Excerpt of a hunting report posted up a few years back. The story takes up after my buddy had shot a Fallow with his 222

When he fired his shot I was watching what I thought were 2 does and a yearling about 250 m away and was trying to figure out how I could stalk in closer to take the yearling. At his shot, the 3 animals moved around the side of a steep pine covered hillside and it wasnt till the last animal stopped on the brow of the hill that I could see it was a buck. After they had disappeared I moved briskly around the bottom of the hill to try and get into a position to ambush them.

Just as I entered the bottom of the next gully I could see them near the head acting a bit uneasy........no doubt due to the scent left from us when we had walked around the top of the same gully. They then reversed their direction and headed back the way they had come.......about 150 metres away and quite some distance above me. As I watched between the pines I saw the doe cross through a gap, then a second animal walked through quickly without slowing enough for me to see if he had 'sticks'. It then stopped with its head and shoulders obscured by a pine tree slightly facing with his left side towards me. Looking through the scope I couldnt tell if he was the buck .......and I didnt want to shoot unless I had positive ID on his sex.
I held on his front leg for about 20 seconds...........then he moved slightly and I could see his pistle hanging down under his body. Bingo, he was the buck!!!

I slowly took up the slack and the Sako 'barked'. I knew it was a good hit.......but saw the animal start running around in circles. After 3 or 4 small circles I lost sight of him..........then about 15 metres below where he was standing at the shot, I saw a ginger body tumbling down the hill towards me. I lost sight of it a couple of times but was confident he was down for good. After making my way up the hill, (talk about steep!) and climbing up a 30 foot sheer bank I finally found him.........dead.

Ranged the shot at 144metres up about a 45degree slope. Projectile was a Sierra 50gr Spitzer pushed by Varget.

Entry point was just behind his front leg, low on his body. The bullet passed through the buck and exited high on the offside about halfway down his body.

When I gutted him I found that the bullet had passed through the front lower left lung, entered his heart, exited into his right lung at the top rear and then passed just under his spine before passing out the off side.



Will find a pic of him when i get back from todays charter.....