Unaccustomed to shooting at bucks with a rifle, Jeff Ralls was almost certain he’d shot over the deer he saw as Kansas’ 2009 firearms season came to a close. There was no sign whatsoever – neither in the animal’s reaction, nor on the ground -- to indicate that bullet had met flesh.
Before going home, he stopped at the local locker to compare notes with friends and to see what was hanging. He also measured the side of a buck carcass – distance from top of its back to the vital area – to help him picture where, if anywhere, the bullet might’ve struck.
Jeff set up a target at 113 yards the next morning. That was how far the buck had been from where he was crouching in the grass. After squeezing off a couple of rounds, he checked, and the holes were less than an inch apart at the top of the bull’s-eye, even though he’d sighted-in his “doe gun” at 400 yards.
That cinched how and where he’d spend the rest of Monday, Dec. 14.
The only reason Jeff dus...