Buck - Left Handed

[Picher]

It was cold and windy this morning, so I decided to go way down back of my son's 140 acre property in what we call the "scrub field", around which there's a good mix of hard and softwoods and some open areas near one of our tree stands. We'd seen plenty of sign there, but the tree stand is quite exposed to the field, and I'd never seen a deer there. From my tree stand, I called in this 130 lb spikehorn buck with my grunt call. It passed almost under me, went off about 35 yards (about 3:00 from my sitting direction), smelled my deer lure, stopped and looked back.

I brought the rifle up left-handed and tried to shoot him as he looked toward me, but the sling covered the trigger guard and I couldn't shoot. As I wiped the sling away with my left hand, the deer saw me and took off running directly away, down the woods road. I found it in the scope and shot it in the back, just behind the shoulder at about 50 yards. It went down instantly, but needed another one to finish it off. Time was 7:30. This is the first time I've ever shot a high-powered rifle left-handed, but practiced bringing the rifle up several times while in/on other stands and it felt fairly comfortable.

The Hornady all-gilding metal GMX 130 grain bullet did it's job very well. It's the first non-lead bullet I've used to kill a deer and it performed perfectly. The gilding metal bullets don't leave copper fouling in the bore like the previous all-copper bullets I'd been testing.

As you can see in the picture, shooting a deer on my son's land has it's advantages. We didn't have to drag it, just roll it into the loader bucket and clean it out while standing up. Son Mike brought arm-length plastic gloves and surgical gloves placed over them, so I didn't get much on me. He then drove it up to my truck at the house and dumped it in the body. Then, it was off to the tagging station/meat cutter and on to breakfast at Greg's Place in South China, ME..our favorite hunting breakfast place. Quite the morning!!!

Of all the deer I've shot, this was about my most exciting experience. I had to wait a few minutes to let the adrenalin effect stop (and wipe the grin off my face) before climbing down from the tree stand. Falling out of the stand and/or dropping my rifle were not going to happen.

[shortwave]

Congrats on your trophy.

Sounds as though you had a great morning all the way around.

[ZeroJunk]

I've shot a couple left handed over the years. Of course they weren't over 30 yards away or I could have gotten in to position without being noticed. Sometimes it is all you have.

[Kreyzhorse]

Great story and nice deer, congrats.

Can't say I'm all that impressed with your left handed shot though. In fact, I've shot all of my deer left handed and haven't felt the need to brag about it. Well, then again, I am left handed so I guess that makes a difference.

In all seriousness, that's a nice feat, while I can shoot a bow right handed, I can't pull off a right handed rifle shot if my life depended on it.

Congrats again.

[mapsjanhere]

Congratulations, and definitely a skill to work on.

[mete]

Good work !
If you're on the stand get rid of the strap and anything elsethat might get in the way or make movement or noise.
If a deer comes up on your right side you have the choice of turning with much movement and noise or shooting left handed .To me the best choice is to shoot left handed. If the deer is far off you should be able to turn without too much trouble. Practice a bit and you'll get used to it.

[Picher]

This was the first time I haven't removed the sling when on stand, but was a little down about my chances for a deer today. It was very bright and windy, so didn't really have a good feeling about the situation and was very surprised when the deer came to challenge the call. You can bet it won't happen again.

JP

[stu925]

Nice work, we should probably all practice those weak handed shots. I've never attempted it but I probably should. I occasionally practice weak hand shooting with my handguns but not rifle. Just made a note for my next range session. Enjoy the venison.

Stu

[Sea Buck]

Nice shot. Got to try that lefty shot. Makes a lot of sense to me. Enjoy that tasty venison. Sure wish I had a 'loader to get my deer out. He was off the road about 500 yds in the boonies and had to bushwack him out with an ATV.Made for an interesting afternoon!

[Picher]

If folks are considering left-handed shots, it occurred to me that the other stock I have, which has a Monte-Carlo cheekpiece, doesn't align left-handed as well as the relatively ambidextrous Sendero stock. A thumbhole stock, or one with a lot of right-handed cast-off would probably be even worse.

JP

[Kreyzhorse]

A thumbhole stock, or one with a lot of right-handed cast-off would probably be even worse.

As a lefty, you are right Picher. It can make a hell of a difference.