Eric Christensen writes, "I had gotten permission from a neighboring rancher to hunt for deer on his CRP field. My wife, Melody, still had a buck tag to fill, so I'd been scouting it two days ago, and saw several deer. We made our plans to hunt it this morning. As we crested a hill almost a mile away, I pulled over to the side of the road so I could scope it again, and give Melody a chance to see how it looked.

We actually watched two other hunters who had gotten there just a couple minutes before us, drive out onto this field with their pickup, and shot a doe from the herd. As they loaded it into their pickup, the rest of the herd ran up a draw toward us, then down another draw moving away slightly, and jumped over a fence. That actually put the deer back on the field where we had permission to hunt. Six of the deer were does, but they were followed by a big buck who sauntered like he was "King of the Hill".

After those hunters left, we drove down the road and got to where we could see the does, and the wind was in our favor, so I guided Melody down to the fenceline and toward the herd, where we snuck to within 100 yards of them. The does finally heard our footsteps in the snow, and became alert, but we moved a few feet closer and could finally see the buck right up near the fence. Melody sighted her scope on it, and it finally turned broadside and moved where she could see it's chest. She shot, and it flinched back, then ran away about 40 yards, and stopped near the ridgeline, totally broadside and in the open.

I had Melody move forward and rest her rifle on top of a fencepost, and take another shot. This time, it hunched up and lunged a few feet, then spun and started to run over the ridge. We hurried up and got over there, and I started looking for tracks and blood. Melody kept moving forward, and within 50 feet, she said "There it is!" The buck was already dead, and the only visible wound was where the first bullet had just grazed it's brisket, opening a slice in the skin about 4" long.

Once I got it opened up, I found the 2nd bullet had entered perfectly just behind the right shoulder, broke one rib, cut through the lungs and all the blood vessels on top of the heart, and went into the left shoulder.

It was on the ground by 9:15am, thanks to her trusty .25-06 and a straight 4x scope at 140 yards."