Thank you all for the congrats. We are beyond stoked on our harvest. I am sworn to secrecy on the location, but I will say that all three of these were taken within a mile of each other in SoCal.
Story time:
Fork-zilla was taken pretty much in text book fashion. We glassed him up in the morning in a group of several does and a small 3x2. The group was spotted at ~400yds in heavy winds. We made a play to get closer and were able to close the distance to 278yds undetected. Very difficult to maintain line of sight as the deer were much lower than us. Fortunately, Fork-zilla decided to get up from his bed and feed a little. This gave my buddy the opportunity to set up on an old burned out tree. I watched as he sent a 7mm copper straight through the chest cavity. Knocked the buck flat down; it tried to get back up, but expired after a short struggle right were it lay.
I was the last to kill on the following day so there was a bit of pressure lol. Honestly, I was ready to take out one of the several small forkies and small 3x2's we had been passing up on the first few days of the trip. I'm normally not very picky about choosing a buck to kill, but our other friend with the 5x4 was the first to kill and kind of severely skewed our expectations ha.
That morning, we were at the same glassing spot from the previous morning, but did not see anything; the wind was even worse. We go back to base camp and come up with a new strategy for the evening. We head out in the late afternoon for a different glassing spot more favorable for the wind conditions. I was sneaking in and almost got to the spot when I noticed my buck stand up and start slowly walking away at ~80yds. Did not need binos or more than one second to know that this guy was a shooter since I could clearly see his antlers go well outside his ears. Raise my rifle up and confirm at least one fork and send one. Admittedly, it was a rushed standing shot and injured the buck missing the vitals. Send two more shots over, but by now I am shaking with adrenaline and make clean misses. Take a few steps down on the steep hillside and plop down for a steadier shot. Take a couple breaths to calm down and sent the last shot through his aorta from about 130yds.
Dive home the next day happy with full coolers. Spent the next few days processing/packing meat ourselves.
