Hello all. Opening day of rifle antlered deer season started on November 25 in Pennsylvania this year. I had decided earlier to take my 1893 George Gibbs Steyr project rifle out into the woods.
On Sunday afternoon, our group did a drive and I was one of 2 posted hunters. Shortly after the hunt began, I noticed a deer walking about 120 yards at me along a logging trail. I could see that the antlers had a nice spread but it was difficult to determine the number of points. The buck made a right face at 100 yards and started walking up the mountain. He paused for a moment and I decided to take a front shoulder shot. The deer dropped and rolled down the mountain. In the process, his right antler stuck in the dirt and broke off at the base. I approached the buck and as I neared him I could see that his head was upright and that it made a slight movement. A coup de grace shot in the neck finished him off. closer inspection showed that he was a 7 pointer of nice body size.
It was a perfect ending to this project! The 6.5x53R cartridge did its job nicely. A 100-yard shot with an aperture sight was icing on the cake.