The guide spotted the deer while I was looking at a couple of other stag bucks that were still in velvet. I got over and looked at him. Being a 3x3 it was not really want I wanted to shoot. After looking at it for a few minutes and waking it up from its nap (doe in distress call)so we could see how wide it was I knew it would be a great trophy.

I was using my 280 Ackley, a rifle that I am fairly comfortable with. Dialing up the power on the 12x scope the deers body filled up the scope. Proper grip on the rifle, tip of the finger on the trigger, squeeeeeeze....boom. Deer jumps up and runs up hill 10 yards. Im reloading my single shot encore, and was just told that I missed. I turn the scope back down to 4 power to find the deer, then turn it back up to 12x. I could see a red spot where the 140 gr barns BT bullet exited. I cocked the hammer back and squeezed off another round. Buck jumps, runs another 10 yards and crashes in the sage brush. Both shots were a few inches apart and both went through both sides of the lungs.

We had to cut the deer in half to get it back out of the valley to the truck.

Thanks guys