Ok. So here's my story on my harvest on opening weekend.
Saturday morning 11/17/12 I get into my stand at the edge of a cut soybean field at about 5:45am. It's cold and no wind. As the horizon lightens up a few doe start moving about but way to far away - 250+ yards. Not comfortable with a shot so I sit and wait. About 1 hour after legal shooting light two small doe come out of the woods behind me to my left. They mull about eating about 75 yards out in the cut soybean field. They never present a broadside shot. So I watch them mull about. They walk in front of my stand but directly in front there is a tree with branches going every which way so I wait patiently. I decide to take one of them once they present a shot. After about 20 minutes, one of them turns broadside at about 100 yds and I squeeze the trigger. She runs off toward the tree line in the same area I shot my 5 pointer in 2010 and I'm think that crap, another hour to look for her. About 20 minutes later i get down and start tracking her. I get to the spot and just like 2 years ago see no blood. I start walking further away from my stand toward the direction of where I found my 5 pointer and lo and behold she's lying in the tall grass, not even 20 yards from where she was hit. That was an easy track. Here she is lying at my feet. The wound is the exit wound from my 30-06.
Now Sunday morning (11/18/12) I get into my same stand about 6:00am. Again it's cold, no wind and frost on the ground. About 30 minutes later several shots ring out - before legal shooting light. I sit and see nothing other than some doe over 400 yards away. At about 7:00am out of the corner of my eye to my right I see a buck walking toward my direction along the edge of the soyfield at about 70 yards. I glass him to check his antlers and I count only 4. I continue to watch him as he gets closer and I see 5 antlers, then 6. I decide at that moment if he presents a shot I will take it. He continues to walk across in front of my stand and he gets behind the same tree with the branches in front of me blocking any shot. He stops there and feeds for several minutes. It's about 7:15 now and my legs start shaking. I have my rifle scope on him following him and he stares right at me. I'm thinking - Crap! He made me. He stares at me for several minutes and then looks down and continues walking. I find an opening to my left and I wait for him to get to that spot. He slowly walks forward and gets into the opening. He starts to quarter away from me. I put the cross hairs on his left shoulder and squeeze the trigger. He stumbles to the ground and goes 7 yards and drops right in the soyfield. I could not believe it. I surely thought he was going to bolt. I wait a few minutes and then I hear crunching behind me. I look and see a small spike coming right under my stand to my left and gets into the open field. He sees the one I just dropped and slowly makes his way over to him. He snorts, stomps, and circles him. After 10 minutes he finally walks away grazing.
I tie my rifle to the tow rope (or at least I thought I secured it) and start to lower my rifle when suddenly I see the rope unravel and watch my rifle fall to the ground 15 feet and hit the ground with force snapping the rear stock completely off. I start cursing myself. I get down and look at my rifle - scope and barrel was intact but the rear stock broken off. My emotions went from elation to depression. I slowly made my way over to the buck I shot. I look at his rack and notice he's actually had a small seventh point about 1" long but I don't care and I chalk him up in my mind as my first 7 pointer. I go back from depression to elation. Now it gets better. I see the exit hole but no entrance hole. The exit hole was right in the middle of his chest. I then see what appeared to be a flesh wound on his right rear leg that seemed fresh. I'm looking at that and thinking - No way I did that! I flip this brute over and look for the entrance hole and after looking for several seconds I finally find it right above his left front shoulder exactly where I put the cross hairs on him. I was relieved. I'm wondering if that earlier shot I heard caused the flesh wound or was it from fighting?? I don't know and I don't care. He's mine and he's in the freezer next to his girlfriend.
Just made some headway - I called Remington directly and I was told that the 770 stock is identical to the 710 - $120 for black includes shipping and tax and its in stock. I took several deer with this rifle and it is . . . er . . . was dead on accurate until it fell. Despite the complaints I've read on other forums I think I'm going to order it. I don't want to spend $400 on a new rifle and $450 for the shoulder mount as well. I think the $120 will sit a lot better with the wife. Maybe I'll call it my Xmas present.