Oh my . . .

I feel kind of like I’m in the waiting room of the maternity ward. Kind of.

Just catching up on this. I’m pulling for the little man.

Yep

Did you sight the rifle in with the reduced recoil ammo? Most likely, the point of impact was changed when changing ammo.
Adios,
Gary

Great shot on the hog! Pins and needles!

Dang. Not a good sign to not hear back. Still hopeful.

Success! The buck came in around 645am this morning. We took a few minutes to calm nerves, and then he setup for what would be a perfect shoulder shot. His buck managed to run about 50 yards before crashing hard in the tall grass. My son was a little worried that he couldn’t see him down, but I had no doubt this time around. We gave it 20 minutes before making a quick recovery. Couldn’t ask for a better first buck and the drama last weekend just made it that much sweeter. I couldn’t find any sign of last week’s shot, so I guess it had to be a clean low miss. It must have been REAL close for that buck to damn near do a complete backflip. I guess we’ll never know. It’s probably worth mentioning that he inherited his 243 from my wife’s mother, whom he never had the privilege to meet. I like to think she’d be very pleased.

Sorry for the delay getting pics out, but we had a busy morning. His buck now resides with Tommy at Brush Country Taxidermy. Tommy tooth aged him at 6.5, which is a year older than I thought he was on the hoof.

Great day.

Yeah I was surprised just how much we had to adjust with the new ammo. We shot quite a few rounds before the Saturday evening hunt.

Thanks for all the feedback and helpful suggestions everyone.

Redemption can be awesome!

Awesome!

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!! Congratulations, young man!

Great buck! Congrats to your boy for sealing the deal.

Well done. Looks like y’all had a heck of a day. Congrats to both father and son!

Glad it ended up this way! Congrats to him and you!

Congratulations young man and kudos to you Dad! I shot a big buck opening morning with a Federal .308 165gr Sierra Game King boat-tail SP. I was worried about the shot because I grabbed the wrong rifle when I packed up (it was in a gun case just like my .270.) I loan the rifle out sometimes.
On opening day at 6.55 AM I had a buck convention and there were two large mature bucks moving among the other 4 and I picked out a nice symmetrical 8 pt, squeezed the trigger and he dropped like a rock with nary a twitch. While waiting the mandatory 30 minutes my son in law shot a 12 pt at 7:21AM and two minutes later my brother dropped an 8 pt. Sorry to take so long to get to the point. When I looked at my deer I had hit him in the shoulder, breaking it and there was no exit wound. There was not one drop of blood on him nor on the ground where he was laying. I had to look hard to find the entry wound. The bullet demolished his lungs, heart and part of his trachea and esophagus and his chest cavity was filled with blood, but none came out until we loaded him in the truck and even then it was just a little. It was the biggest deer I have ever taken. I estimate field dressed was 160lb minimum and for our lease in the Hill Country with a 2000 acre day lease next door, he's a good one. I've tracked bloodless deer kills for my hunting partners and have mostly been successful, but I didn't find one until 5 days later.

Heck yeah, congrats to you both!

Did yall end up using the reduced recoil ammo again on the buck?

Great pics! Love the smile!! Congrats

We switched to 100 grain soft points (Federal Nontypical is all I could find and worked just fine), but to be honest we still didn't get a pass through or any blood. The shot took out the left shoulder and about 1/3rd of the heart and the buck still made it about 50 yards. We did recover the bullet, which makes for a fun souvenir. Like many have said on this thread, shot placement is of course the most critical factor. But it would be nice to have some blood...

Awesome outcome! Great work by you both!