After hunting with my contender in pistol configuration for a few years with no luck, this year in rifle configuration, the contender drew first blood. The Custom Shop 23" 7-30 Waters barrel, along with stock and forend I bought from the classifieds, a Leupold VX 3 2.5-8 x 36, and factory Federal 120 grain soft point boat tails got the job done at about 4:25 yesterday evening.
Five does came into a shooting lane to my left and were feeding. Four of the does were bunched up and I couldn't get a clean shot. The fifth doe, and probably the biggest, moved off to the right, but was facing me. When she got clear of the other deer, she was facing me with her head down feeding. At 80 yards, I placed the crooshairs right between the shoulder blades at the base of her neck and squeezed the trigger.The deer, a 125 pound central NC doe, never flopped. She dropped in her tracks. The bullet never exited.
