Heat waves danced, making the Oketoeo cactus shimmy beneath the crosswire in my scope.

I dialed the luopold all the way up to 18X to try and pick an opening through the cactus to wear the biggest coosdear buck I'd ever laid eyes on fed,

lazy in the mid-morning sunlight.

Guide Clay Steele and I had hoped he emerged from behind that

oquetteeo thicket to provide an easier shot, but it had become apparent that he

wouldn't. A triangular opening allowed me to see the buck's

vitals. The distance was about 370 yards and I was shooting a super accurate

custom rifle and 7 MM

WSM stoked with hand-loaded Barnes 145 grain LRX bullets

exhaling a deep breath.

I glued the crosshairs to the crease behind the shoulder and squeezed.

We would later learn that the buck was quartering toward us more than we thought, and the bullet single-lunged him. What we saw that instant was a racing buck going further across the hillside than he should, if well hit. And I had made a critical mistake. I'd left the scope

dialed up to 18 power and couldn't find the buck again for a follow-up shot, even when he slowed down briefly before walking over the

ridge line. It was almost 24 hours before we found that buck and that was one of

those heart-rending experiences that causes you to analyze

over and over what you did wrong. And it leaves a lasting impression that creates entirely

different methods in your shooting process in

order to attempt to prevent such a thing from ever occurring again.

There are several different techniques that help make fast follow-up shots in the field.

Some are quite fundamental. Others are advanced. We're going to cover both today.

But first, we're trying to get back to our classic formats.

So we're going to take a moment to read and address a listener's question.

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