Success In The Field

With our buck season drawing to a close on Jan 5th, and only spikes and does allowed after that for two more weeks, I decided that I should concentrate my hunting efforts on a cull buck I had seen earlier in the season. It was one of the first weekends of the season when I saw this deer at the feeder of the "Big Tripod". I had a chance to look him over at that time and decided that he wasn't helping the genetics of the herd and should be removed, but the weather at that time wasn't the most favorable for hanging meat on a pole. As the season ticked by and the holidays came and went with their responsibilities, and throw in taking cattle to market and other chores, I didn't want to deal with processing a deer. With the holidays and most of the ranch chores behind me I could dedicate some time to hunting. On Dec 30th I'm sitting in the "Big Tripod" waiting for the sun to come up and the feeder to go off at 7:10. At 7:12 I have eight deer eating corn, a 10 point and the rest were a doe and fawn mix. The deer ate all the corn and wander off about 7:40 with no sign of the 6 point I am hunting. At 8:00 I see antlers moving through the brush and when the buck breaks cover I pick up my binoculars for a look. Sure enough it's the 6 point I've been waiting for, and he is heading towards the feeder. I am still looking at him through the binoculars when he gets to the feeder and dosn't find any corn, so he turns and heads directly towards me. I'm siting 15 feet in the air with nothing but a camo skirt on the tripod to hide me, and from my shoulders on up are exposed to his vision, so I couldn't move. He works his way to within 15 yards of me moving east to west and I'm stuck holding my binoculars by my face and only seeing him out of the corner of my eye. When I think he has moved far enough to my right I slowly turn his direction and lower my hands to swap the glass for my revolver. Before I could get ahold of my gun and get it up on the rail, he saw my movement and was now staring straight at me. Apparently I didn't look right and he pranced off into the brush. I waited another 30 minutes or so and he never showed himself again. I was determined to get this buck so I went back on Jan 2nd, and like the last time, I had about 8 deer at the feeder but none were bucks. The deer ate all the corn and move off about 7:45 or so, leaving me wondering if history would repeat itself. Sure enough, about 8:00 there is a small spike that wanders over and looks for corn and finds none, but while I'm focusing on the spike, the 6 point slips in from behind me and approaches the feeder with only his rump presenting a shot. He pauses momentarily looking for some corn and then continues away from me into the brush never giving me a shot. I'm very discouraged by now, having two opportunities and not connecting on either. About 10 minutes goes by and I decide that I'm going to climb down and trip the feeder again and sit for another half hour or so. It wasn't 5 minutes after climbing back up that the 6 point had circled around and was coming from the west towards the feeder. This time I had a chance to get my S&W 629-4 PC up on the rail, and when he got to the feeder and turned broadside I held the Burris FF3 dot on his shoulder and touched the trigger. He dropped at the shot but required a finisher to the neck. The first shot dead centered the spine but was too high to damage the lungs and didn't exit. I'm running a 240gr XTP with 12.0 gr Longshot and a Fed 150 primer. The load clocks right at 1200 fps from the 6 1/2 inch barrel and has worked well with behind the shoulder shots where it doesn't have to punch through much bone.