Rod Carpenter

Once upon a time (actually, just a couple weeks ago), in a land pretty darn near here, there lived a princess.

A few years ago she went on a deer hunt with her queen mum and the court jester and loved it. Ever since, the court jester had been scheming to get the princess her very own deer.

Sadly, the political events of the kingdom and life in general had conspired against him. However, he was persistent and was determined to make it happen this year.

With just a little luck, the golden ticket appeared in the post and planning began.

The jester wanted the princess to use the same model 98 7×57 Mauser that he, his father, and his sons had all used to take their first deer. To that end, he loaded some reduced-recoil bullets using TrailBoss for her to practice with. The range sessions went well, and some 140 grain Nosler Partitions were created for hunting.

The week before season, a picture of a deer was posted on the stable wall and the princess did some dry fire practice every day after school.

Finally the big day arrived. After making sure they had rifle, bullets, hunter orange and a knife, they were off.

The plan was to catch the deer as they came out to feed. When they snuck up on the field, no deer were to be seen, so they settled down in the tall grass to wait. The princess was very patient (mostly), and didn’t fidget (too much) as they waited.

After two lifetimes (or was it 45 minutes?), the jester saw a deer appear at the far edge of the field. He quickly determined that it was a good buck. Unfortunately, they had no shot from their perch.

They slowly belly crawled to a better position without being spotted, and the princess got set up on her bipod. In an amazing display of calm, the jester told her to take her time and only shoot if she was comfortable.

The jester was sure he was going to have a stroke and a heart attack before the buck finally turned broadside and she pulled the trigger. The princess made a beautiful 150-yard shot and the buck dropped in his tracks.

The jester and princess were overjoyed and congratulated each other on their success.

When they looked up, there stood a buck! The jester was beyond puzzled. Surely that couldn’t be their buck. Should he have her shoot again? No, he had heard the bullet strike and saw the buck fall.

They watched the buck leave and went to look for her deer. Panic set in when no buck was found in the initial search. There was much rejoicing when further searching found a beautiful 4×3 buck lying in the tall grass.

The Partition had taken him through both front shoulders and kept on going. The princess may need to work on different shot placement to decrease meat damage.

The jester was overjoyed, and the princess announced that it had been a wonderful experience. The jester is already scheming on an elk hunt.

Have a great hunting story? Drop us a line at shootingthebreezebme@gmail.com. Rod Carpenter is a husband, father and huntin’ fool.