TheCoachZed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Got my first deer today! Shot a 3-pointer (really just a spike with an extra point sticking out) inside the city limits of Saint John!
It took a bit of scouting to find a place that was still open for hunting deep in the city, but it paid off. Anyway, I was sitting on a hill in a clearcut watching a valley where I knew three deer trails converged. About 9:45, I saw the buck sneaking up the gulch in front of me. I had a chance at a peach of a shot when I first saw him, but his rack was so small that I wasn't sure I could shoot him (thought it could be a doe at first, because I couldn't see antlers). But after he started climbing the hill across from me I saw he had headgear. He heard me move, but he just gave a glance in my direction and didn't really pay attention.
So, I took a shot. He kinda jumped, but instead of bolting into the woods in front of him, he walked along the edge of the ridge and looked in my direction. I had the sun at my back, so I don't know if that blinded him or not. I pumped my rifle for a second shot, but the cartridge lifter (using a Savage 170B .30-30) jammed, and shot the shell straight out of the loading port. So I managed to get another shell chambered and shot at him again. This time he was perfectly broadside to me. I thought he'd fall over cuz I didn't see how I could miss. It was about 120 yards, tops, and while my legs had buck fever and were shaking, the rest of me was fine and I knew I had taken a good shot. But he kept walking along, then turned to head into the woods.
So I used my last shot on him (4-round magazine), and he just disappeared. I went over and checked the places I shot him the first two times to see if there was blood. There wasn't. I sat for a while and waited outside the woods he had disappeared into, hoping I'd hear him if he was moving off. Sure enough, I could hear what sure sounded like a deer moving around in there, and the squirrel population started kicking up a racket. So after a few minutes I walked into the woods and started looking for blood.
I couldn't find any, which I couldn't understand. I had taken three good shots at him, and I couldn't understand how I hadn't hit him at least once. So, I started down the deer trail leading downhill from where I shot him, and followed it through the woods. Still no blood, but I did see some tracks.
I poked around the woods for about an hour and a half, checking the different deer paths that ran downhill from where I shot, reasoning that if I'd wounded him, he probably would take the easiest way out. I still couldn't find any blood. Feeling kind of discouraged and irritated at myself for missing, I walked back to where he'd been standing when I shot at him the last time. I still couldn't see any blood, so I decided to leave. But then, I started thinking . . . I might as well take one last beat through the bushes right around this area, on the chance that I had hit him, though it didn't look like it. I'd feel pretty miserable if I stumbled over the dead deer next week while hunting.
After poking through the area for about five minutes, I still couldn't see any blood, but I turned around a tree, and there he was, lying dead.
Turned out I'd misjudged his position after my last shot (started looking too far downhill). I'd hit him twice, once through each side of his ribcage, from behind, so at least one shot hit his lungs, and I think I plugged a main artery, and that's what knocked him over. But, neither bullet hole was bleeding, which is why I couldn't find any blood spatter, and since he'd died uphill of where I started searching, and I looked downhill of that spot in each direction but hadn't looked uphill, I had missed him. I'm very very glad I decided to check that area out! I'm also glad my shooting was a lot better than I thought at first!
The other deer I had been hearing and tracking must have been just about to pop out before all the shooting started.
It was a lot of work getting him out (despite his small rack, he had a lot of fat and meat on his bones from that easy city living), but the worst part was when I got to the registration station and realized I'd lost the tag out of his ear on the trail! I hightailed it back, found it 30 seconds down the trail, ripped back to the registration station, and drove home with the deer in the back of my 2-door GMC Tracker!
Anyway, I've got all the guts out and the hide partially peeled, but I had to work tonight, so it's in on a deck in my backyard under a tarp, with the chest/abdomen filled with ice. I plan to butcher it tomorrow. I've never cleaned a deer (getting the guts out wasn't pretty), but I cut my bear up this spring and I think I can figure it out as I go along.
It took a bit of scouting to find a place that was still open for hunting deep in the city, but it paid off. Anyway, I was sitting on a hill in a clearcut watching a valley where I knew three deer trails converged. About 9:45, I saw the buck sneaking up the gulch in front of me. I had a chance at a peach of a shot when I first saw him, but his rack was so small that I wasn't sure I could shoot him (thought it could be a doe at first, because I couldn't see antlers). But after he started climbing the hill across from me I saw he had headgear. He heard me move, but he just gave a glance in my direction and didn't really pay attention.
So, I took a shot. He kinda jumped, but instead of bolting into the woods in front of him, he walked along the edge of the ridge and looked in my direction. I had the sun at my back, so I don't know if that blinded him or not. I pumped my rifle for a second shot, but the cartridge lifter (using a Savage 170B .30-30) jammed, and shot the shell straight out of the loading port. So I managed to get another shell chambered and shot at him again. This time he was perfectly broadside to me. I thought he'd fall over cuz I didn't see how I could miss. It was about 120 yards, tops, and while my legs had buck fever and were shaking, the rest of me was fine and I knew I had taken a good shot. But he kept walking along, then turned to head into the woods.
So I used my last shot on him (4-round magazine), and he just disappeared. I went over and checked the places I shot him the first two times to see if there was blood. There wasn't. I sat for a while and waited outside the woods he had disappeared into, hoping I'd hear him if he was moving off. Sure enough, I could hear what sure sounded like a deer moving around in there, and the squirrel population started kicking up a racket. So after a few minutes I walked into the woods and started looking for blood.
I couldn't find any, which I couldn't understand. I had taken three good shots at him, and I couldn't understand how I hadn't hit him at least once. So, I started down the deer trail leading downhill from where I shot him, and followed it through the woods. Still no blood, but I did see some tracks.
I poked around the woods for about an hour and a half, checking the different deer paths that ran downhill from where I shot, reasoning that if I'd wounded him, he probably would take the easiest way out. I still couldn't find any blood. Feeling kind of discouraged and irritated at myself for missing, I walked back to where he'd been standing when I shot at him the last time. I still couldn't see any blood, so I decided to leave. But then, I started thinking . . . I might as well take one last beat through the bushes right around this area, on the chance that I had hit him, though it didn't look like it. I'd feel pretty miserable if I stumbled over the dead deer next week while hunting.
After poking through the area for about five minutes, I still couldn't see any blood, but I turned around a tree, and there he was, lying dead.
Turned out I'd misjudged his position after my last shot (started looking too far downhill). I'd hit him twice, once through each side of his ribcage, from behind, so at least one shot hit his lungs, and I think I plugged a main artery, and that's what knocked him over. But, neither bullet hole was bleeding, which is why I couldn't find any blood spatter, and since he'd died uphill of where I started searching, and I looked downhill of that spot in each direction but hadn't looked uphill, I had missed him. I'm very very glad I decided to check that area out! I'm also glad my shooting was a lot better than I thought at first!
The other deer I had been hearing and tracking must have been just about to pop out before all the shooting started.
It was a lot of work getting him out (despite his small rack, he had a lot of fat and meat on his bones from that easy city living), but the worst part was when I got to the registration station and realized I'd lost the tag out of his ear on the trail! I hightailed it back, found it 30 seconds down the trail, ripped back to the registration station, and drove home with the deer in the back of my 2-door GMC Tracker!
Anyway, I've got all the guts out and the hide partially peeled, but I had to work tonight, so it's in on a deck in my backyard under a tarp, with the chest/abdomen filled with ice. I plan to butcher it tomorrow. I've never cleaned a deer (getting the guts out wasn't pretty), but I cut my bear up this spring and I think I can figure it out as I go along.
