What seems to be a chip shot at a Hawaiian Axis buck presents. But hidden challenges lurk behind the scene. Will you take the shot?
A strong sea breeze fans my right cheek before it blows across my son Ivan, who lies just to my left, prone behind his rifle and aiming steeply uphill at a feeding buck. To my right the sea reaches out, grasping steadily at the edge of nothingness. To my left is the island; powerful in its beauty, its sunshine, and its fragrance. And up the mountain is a bunch of Axis deer, busily filling their bellies in the late morning light. We’ve worked hard for this opportunity, hiking away from the sea and up the steep, ancient volcanic flow, stalking the distant herd as they moved up the mountain. We crawled the last few yards to our position, rested my pack across a couple of rocks, and now Ivan stares steadily through the scope. He’s waiting for a buck to clear the bush it’s feeding behind.
It’s my first time hunting Axis deer, and Ivan’s too. They are reportedly wonderful to eat, and we’re excited to harvest some meat, especially since we are housesitting for friends in Hawaii for two weeks, where food is over-the-top expensive. A loaf of bread costs ten bucks. Yup, that’s right; ten whole smackeroos for one loaf. So we’re keen to put some venison on the table.
RIFLE, AMMO, & OPTIC
Ivan is hunting with a family rifle that has an impressive list of mule deer, elk, and Coues deer to its credit. It’s one of the most accurate rifles I’ve ever used, and with it I shot my personal best-ever 200-yard group, a minuscule .10-moa cloverleaf on a target that’s pinned on my safe to this day. Made by Fierce Firearms and chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, the rifle is their “Edge” model, sporting a 24-inch fluted stainless barrel and a hand-laid fiberglass and carbon-fiber stock. The trigger breaks at a beautifully crisp 2.5 pounds.
Clamped securely in Vortex Rings is a Vortex 4-16X44 SHV scope. It’s an older model, and not super expensive nor does it offer superb optical clarity. What it does offer is reliability and consistent dial-ability. A simple moa-turret sits atop the scope, complete with a rudimentary zero-stop. Many big game animals have toppled under its crosshairs. As I said; the rifle has an impressive resume. Completing the scope setup is a clamp-on Vortex anti-cant indicator level.
The rifle’s favorite ammunition is Hornady Precision Hunter loaded with their 143-grain ELD-X bullet. This bullet sports a G1 ballistic coefficient (BC) of 0.625 and possesses a reputation for superb accuracy. The rifle has what riflemen call a “fast” barrel, sending the ELD-X bullets downrange at 2775 feet per second at the muzzle; 75 fps faster than Hornady’s factory-advertised velocity. The rifle is zeroed dead on at 200 yards.
TAKE THE SHOT?
Place yourself in Ivan’s shoes. You’ve traveled across the Pacific to hunt these deer, climbed a mountain, and crawled through the rocks. You now lie on your belly on those rocks, your rifle pointed steeply uphill at the deer. There are two bucks, neither of which is big but that’s okay; you’re not trophy hunting. Fresh meat is the goal for today’s hunt.
The distance is not significant, at 234 yards. You could hit a cue ball at this range; a deer should be no problem. There is a significant uphill angle but that should not affect your impact; horizontal distance (which dictates the amount of drop your projectile will experience) will be roughly equivalent to 200 yards – right on your zero. So no need to dial, you’ll use a dead-on hold. You have a 3 o’clock wind of about 5-8 miles per hour, not significant at 234 yards. You are prone and using a backpack as a dead rest. Every element is in place to create a chipshot opportunity.
A steep and deep ravine runs straight up the mountainside, disappearing into the clouds. You and the deer are both on the left side. Your position is high along the rim edge of the ravine. The buck is also high on the wall, feeding up towards several other deer. Below him is a small section of near-vertical meadow, then a jungle-like tangle of semi-tropical vegetation. He’s partially obscured by a bush, so you must wait for him to feed into the open and present a clean shot. Your hunting buddy is prone at your shoulder, watching through an 8X32 binocular.
Finally, the deer takes a couple of steps and stops broadside, feeding. The time is now. Will you take the shot?
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED (TRUE STORY)
I watched through my binoculars as Ivan pressed the trigger. The deer instantly disappeared and we heard the distinct sound of a bullet hitting a game animal. I told Ivan “He’s down, he dropped in his tracks”, slapping him on the shoulder and congratulating him. He wore a broad smile as we shouldered our packs and headed up the mountain to recover his first Axis buck.
This is where the story takes an abrupt turn. I was morally certain that I’d seen the buck drop, so we found where he’d been standing and looked down the hill, which was far steeper than it had looked from a distance. Five of us slid, scrambled, fell, and crawled around that hill for an hour without finding a single spot of blood, tuft of hair, or skid mark. We wedged our way through the dog-hair jungle below the hillside and peered over the sheer drop-off into the bottom of the deep ravine. Nothing. I hiked back down the ridge to the shooting position and verified that we were indeed searching in the right area. I began to doubt that I saw the buck hit, doubt that we heard the bullet strike, doubt that we’d ever see that buck again. Finally, I sat down and pondered all the evidence we had.
I knew Ivan was a good shot, and that he was shooting a superbly accurate rifle. His position was solid. Considering those elements and that we’d heard the bullet impact, my confidence that he hit the deer returned. But I still couldn’t understand the total absence of sign. Finally, it occurred to me that maybe the deer hadn’t dropped at the shot at all. Heading back up the mountain toward the scene I told the boys to work the area as though the deer had not dropped at all, but ran off instead. Three minutes later they found it in an unbelievably thick tangle. It had made an out-of-sight horizontal 30-yard death run and was right there, dead as a stone.
CONCLUSION
We have a moral and ethical responsibility to recover and utilize every big game animal we shoot at. Because of that, we as hunters should never kill an animal we are not confident we can recover. This experience served as a cautionary reminder to me; things are not always as they appear. I should have observed the potential for a very difficult recovery before Ivan took the shot.
The mistake I made was in assuming that the deer would be downhill from the impact site. I was sure it had dropped, but the fact is I was looking through low-power binos and really should have recognized that it had just disappeared. Even so, as steep as that hill was you’d think a mortally hit deer would end up at the bottom. But it didn’t. We learned several good lessons that day; never assume anything while hunting unfamiliar territory, and do not give up easily. I’d been on the verge of calling the search off, with a perfectly hit dead deer only 30 yards away in the brush. Thank goodness we were stubborn enough to keep searching.
Ivan’s shot had been spot-on, impacting just fore of the crease and exiting in the far side crease. The deer had not dropped at all, just instantly disappeared when it made its death run into the thicket. We never did find a blood trail, or cut hair, or any other sign. Just a dead buck, wedged in an unexpected location deep in a thicket. His horns were hooked hard on a small tree trunk, which proved a blessing in disguise. That hill was brutally steep, and we slipped and slid as we quartered him into our backpacks. Had those antlers not been hooked we all would have been a runaway bobsled team into the bottom of the canyon.
Would I take that shot again? Absolutely. However, I would press that trigger with the expectation of a challenging recovery. What about you – would you take the shot? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section below.
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