The phone rings about 7:30 this morning and on the other end is the unmistakable voice of a local outfitter I’ve gotten to know over the last couple of years. It sounds like you’re talking to Sam Elliot on the other end of the line……the long gray haired guy from Roadhouse that does all the truck commercials and stuff….deep voice. He asks me if I can come track one this morning for them. I didn’t even ask any details other than whether it was shot this morning or last night. When he said last night I told him I was on my way.

The hunter shot this deer yesterday afternoon with some kind of bazooka. I may have this wrong but I think he said it was a .417 or something of that nature. They said it was used for bear defense when they went to Alaska. It was shooting a 400 grain bullet I believe they said. I’m not a real gun guru so it was a first for me. He was trying to shoot hogs with it and saw a shooter buck instead.

He shot the deer at around 100 yards slightly quartering to him. The bullet entered fairly low on the body in the guts and exited out the deer’s hindquarter. It only ran about 250 yards but they didn’t have much of a blood trail to follow so they backed out and called for Otis. This one was a pretty easy find. Otis made a couple loops at the hit site and then went on a straight line right to it. Its kind of a cliché thing to say but the pic really doesn’t do the deer justice. It had some really nice mass on it. An old gray faced buck.