On opening morning of rifle season for whitetail, I sat in the dark in my blind, waiting. I had prepped the new gun that Springfield sent me – the new Springfield Model 2020 Waypoint, chambered in .308 WIN. In fact, I had sighted it in on this very field, and knew what it could do out to 400 yards. I also knew it would do the job at hand, if the woods nearby would send me a whitetail.
Sponsored by Springfield Armory
For more than 28 years, we have been hunting, as a family, in these old hills and hollers that we call home in the Missouri Ozarks. Some of us can never get lost on this property of several hundred acres because we know it oh-so-well, and some of us revel in getting lost and not hearing anything but a plane overhead occasionally. (Besides, even if we’re lost we know that if we find a fence line, we can follow it home.)
Within two hours of taking my place in the front row seat of my blind, a delivery appeared – in the form of a young buck following does. The group moved in a single line quickly across the field, without wanting to stop. That buck wasn’t interested in grazing, either. He made his last step at 85 yards when I pulled the trigger and down he went.
Why did I take a young buck? We watch the game cameras that we have stationed around our property with intent to understand the herd. We noticed a lot of young bachelor bucks, and we know how competitive they are. Although we prefer to eat doe meat, a young buck will make a tasty grind, too.
The young buck versus the old buck theory still wafts around, especially with the grip-and-grin crowd on the Internet. In Missouri, right now, our Department of Conservation has added new seasons, and in some counties, added more doe tags. Just for the record, our family and friends this year have tagged seven does and two bucks on our property, so we are working with the conservation model of culling does. Also, there’s no shame in taking younger bucks and frankly, realistically, they can’t all grow into mature bucks. Imagine the fights and the car accidents if that happened.
Granted, some counties have point restrictions on bucks. Brody Henderson, from “MeatEater,” writes, “Simply put, if regulations don’t include minimum point restrictions, then there is absolutely nothing unsporting or ethically wrong with shooting young bucks, no matter what any hunter tells another.” Brody calls them “meat bucks.”
Back to the hunt and this particular rifle … The Model 2020 Waypoint is first and foremost a formidable-looking machine, built to get a hunting job done. You may check out all its features here, at Springfield’s website.
Here are the features that mattered most to me:
And now, the little things that mean a lot to me:
I shot the .308 WIN version, with Federal Fusion ammo. All the pieces went together perfectly to make a clean, ethical shot and put more meat in the freezer.
This model has the potential to become your family’s legacy gun.
MSRP: $2,599
Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird
