Not the biggest deer I have ever shot but very satisfying none-the-less.
I went out yesterday with my day-pack on my back, my rifle in my left hand, and my right arm in a sling. As some here are aware I had some pretty major surgery on my right shoulder 6 weeks ago but have been determined to get out hunting this fall.
After hiking for a bit more than an hour I found a place to sit overlooking a timbered funnel deer have been using to work down to an alfalfa field a half-kilometer or so away. Right at sunset the deer started moving down off the mountain with the first group being a couple of does with 4 fawns at heel. Shortly afterwards another doe went by with a young fawn and followed by a pair of yearlings - a doe and buck. The little buck didn't get closer to me than 100 yards or so which was twice as far as I was willing to try shooting off my weak side. Even though I normally shoot right-handed this fall I am being forced to shoot left thanks to my still healing shoulder and as such I had imposed a 50 yard maximum range on myself.
About 15 minutes after sunset a bachelor group of 5 or 6 mule deer came down the mountain. The bunch was an assortment of smaller bucks. Before I left the house in the morning I told myself I was going to shoot the first legal buck that presented a shot within 50 yards. As the deer worked out straight in front of me I squeaked out a fawn bleat on my mouth call and a fat little forkhorn stopped broadside to me at about 100 feet. The little 250-3000 Ruger RSI cracked and a 110 grain Accubond dropped the deer in his tracks.
Now I was presented with the problem of how to field-dress a deer with only one functioning arm. Lets just say the job got done but it took about three times as long as the normal 5 minutes it usually takes me to clean a deer.
It was a relatively easy one-armed drag down the mountain a couple hundred yards to a trail. I hiked back, got the pickup and returned to the deer in about a half-hour. Loading the deer was relatively easy as I had learned the high-sided poly sled I bought a few years ago - and now keep in the pickup during hunting season - work great for loading deer in the truck. I simply roll the deer into the sled and then have a rigid object to deal with rather than a "floppy" still warm deer. I lift one end of the sled up and rest it on the tailgate and then go to the rear of the sled and lift and slide the sled into the pickup bed. An added bonus is that all the blood from the deer carcass is contained within the sled which is easier to clean than the back of the pickup. (No blood dripping down the bumper to freak out other people. )
I went out yesterday with my day-pack on my back, my rifle in my left hand, and my right arm in a sling. As some here are aware I had some pretty major surgery on my right shoulder 6 weeks ago but have been determined to get out hunting this fall.
After hiking for a bit more than an hour I found a place to sit overlooking a timbered funnel deer have been using to work down to an alfalfa field a half-kilometer or so away. Right at sunset the deer started moving down off the mountain with the first group being a couple of does with 4 fawns at heel. Shortly afterwards another doe went by with a young fawn and followed by a pair of yearlings - a doe and buck. The little buck didn't get closer to me than 100 yards or so which was twice as far as I was willing to try shooting off my weak side. Even though I normally shoot right-handed this fall I am being forced to shoot left thanks to my still healing shoulder and as such I had imposed a 50 yard maximum range on myself.
About 15 minutes after sunset a bachelor group of 5 or 6 mule deer came down the mountain. The bunch was an assortment of smaller bucks. Before I left the house in the morning I told myself I was going to shoot the first legal buck that presented a shot within 50 yards. As the deer worked out straight in front of me I squeaked out a fawn bleat on my mouth call and a fat little forkhorn stopped broadside to me at about 100 feet. The little 250-3000 Ruger RSI cracked and a 110 grain Accubond dropped the deer in his tracks.
Now I was presented with the problem of how to field-dress a deer with only one functioning arm. Lets just say the job got done but it took about three times as long as the normal 5 minutes it usually takes me to clean a deer.
It was a relatively easy one-armed drag down the mountain a couple hundred yards to a trail. I hiked back, got the pickup and returned to the deer in about a half-hour. Loading the deer was relatively easy as I had learned the high-sided poly sled I bought a few years ago - and now keep in the pickup during hunting season - work great for loading deer in the truck. I simply roll the deer into the sled and then have a rigid object to deal with rather than a "floppy" still warm deer. I lift one end of the sled up and rest it on the tailgate and then go to the rear of the sled and lift and slide the sled into the pickup bed. An added bonus is that all the blood from the deer carcass is contained within the sled which is easier to clean than the back of the pickup. (No blood dripping down the bumper to freak out other people. )
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