On my last evening in western Kentucky I set up along a tree line overlooking a relatively flat alfalfa field. The saplings edging the field didn't provide much cover, but the wind was in my face and the far tree line was 260 yards away, so I figured if I sat fairly still I'd be okay.

I was hunting on Thompson/Center's Game Trails outfit near Sturgis, in the Ohio River Valley, and it was just a fun evening anyway. On opening morning, a few days earlier, I'd taken a nice buck with an Encore chambered to the new .30 TC. Now it was my turn to try the company's new bolt-action Icon. Kentucky has a one-buck limit, but the license has a long string of doe tags, and these folks were trying to reduce their doe population.

The rifle was chambered to .308 Winchester, and I was shooting factory 150-grain loads. At about 4:15 a group of does came out along the far tree line. They were clear across the field, so I slowly dropped into a prone position. My intent was to shoot only mature does, so I sized them up carefully and shot the largest animal just behind the shoulder on a slightly quartering shot. She ran to the left as if nothing had happened, and I lost her behind a little finger of cover.

I had zeroed the rifle with this load and I was sure of the hold, so I assumed she would be down on the edge of the field. Remembering that my mission was to test rifles and reduce deer, I stayed put.

A half-hour later another group fed out into the open, and I did exactly the same thing. Almost the same thing happened, except this was a broadside shoulder shot, and the deer ran straight away into the far woods, where I quickly lost her white flag. I had plenty of shooting light and might have helped their deer problem a bit more, but now I was spooked. Had I missed? Was the rifle off? I figured I'd better go look before I lost the light.

It was a good call. I found blood from the first deer right away, but she had gone more than 100 yards into the darkening woods. By the time I dragged her near the edge the light was failing, and it was a chore to find the other deer. She was also a good 100 yards into the woods, and both deer had identical caliber-size entrance and exit wounds. I had simply punched holes through them, and I was fortunate to find them before it got dark.

No, I will not tell you what bullet I was shooting. Bullet makers are too sensitive, and findings from just a couple of animals are too subjective. Let's just say it was a factory bullet from a major manufacturer, designed to hold together and hold its weight as it penetrates. This in itself is not a bad thing, and it's a very good thing if you're shooting larger game that requires a lot of penetration. But, c'mon, a 150-grain bullet from a .308 is a deer bullet. Deer (and deer-size game) do not require vast amounts of penetration, and they go down faster when bullet expansion does significant damage to their vitals.