This deer season for opening morning i was hunting with a friend on his uncles farm about an hour drive away, we both had the first two days off to devote to it.
We've hunted this farm off and on together for the past 15 years but we still manage to get fooled by the deer more often than not. Seeing tons of does when we don't have a doe tag or seeing deer in distant fields but nothing in the one where we are sitting.
This year i had a doe tag so i was looking for something to fill up the freezer and wasn't going to be super picky. My friend didn't get drawn this year so he was looking for a buck only.
I have been sick so i slept through my alarm and was running a bit late so i didn't get to the farm until just after legal shooting light. I parked in the big field, grabbed my stuff and started slowly walking down to my spot. It's a little grassy spot beside a brook that lets you watch the bottom end of two smaller fields that come together at the bottom of the hill next to the brook. The sound of the water and the cold water thermal helps cover any noise you make and wash your scent down stream. I don't normally use a blind or anything, just tuck in between two spruce trees and sit.
As i got closer to where i could see the first field i slowed down even more and tried to spot any deer that were already out, i've been busted as i came around the corner more than once here and the wind was marginal in that direction but this morning there wasn't anything to worry about so i keep going and get to my spot and set my chair down. Just as i sit down and start doing a more thorough look around i hear a deer blowing in the field to my left. The alders have grown up around the bottom edge and there were a few deer in there i didn't notice right away.
So knowing i've been spotted i try and stay as still as i can while watching for one of the does to come out to a more open spot that i might be able to get a shot off. after watching for a few minutes they don't get into any open spots for me but they stop blowing and go back to semi alert feeding. Just as i am thinking about trying to sneak around the alders i see a single deer walking across the right hand field by itself. I didn't see any antlers when i first looked but as i got it in my scope i could see small antlers. It's not a huge buck, but still a little bigger than most of the does, perfect for filling the freezer and he doesn't seem to be aware i am there at all or even really paying attention to my side of the brook.
I was expecting him to stop and browse a bit at some point but just keeps slowly walking from right to left so i let off a shot just before he would go behind the alders on the left side of the field. I assume he heard the doe making noise earlier and was coming to investigate, i've had a similar thing happen a few years before when a small buck came charging out to see what all the ruckus was when other deer got spooked and made a bunch of noise.
If i don't see a deer go down myself i try and wait half an hour before i go look for blood so as i am waiting i hear a shot from the other field my friend is in less than 5 minutes after. He's got one down too and it dropped on the spot so we go get his tagged, gutted and into the truck and go looking for my deer.
I go to roughly where he was when i took the shot and start looking for blood and can't find anything. The grass is in the shade and still frosty so it should be pretty easy to find and i start getting worried as i do bigger and bigger circles around and find nothing. As i walk closer to the trees at the field edge i just happen to look in to the trees and there it is, maybe 5 feet into the trees with one big splotch of blood just on the field edge.
I was using a 7mm-08 with hornady american whitetail ammo. After trying a bunch of different bullets over the years i'm pretty well sold on the hornady for deer. Any time i've hit one with it i've never had a deer go more than 30-40 yards and typically excellent blood trails and at the range i get smaller groups than even more expensive ammo with pretty much any rifle i've tried it in.
By this time the sun is up, there's turkeys walking around and making noise (a very new thing for this area, i had never seen turkeys on that farm before this year) and we were on our way home to do some skinning and then off to the butcher to get some sausages made.
So today i get to sleep in and relax, get a few things done around the house and come up with a plan for tomorrow to try and fill a nuisance tag i was able to get for another farm in the area.
We've hunted this farm off and on together for the past 15 years but we still manage to get fooled by the deer more often than not. Seeing tons of does when we don't have a doe tag or seeing deer in distant fields but nothing in the one where we are sitting.
This year i had a doe tag so i was looking for something to fill up the freezer and wasn't going to be super picky. My friend didn't get drawn this year so he was looking for a buck only.
I have been sick so i slept through my alarm and was running a bit late so i didn't get to the farm until just after legal shooting light. I parked in the big field, grabbed my stuff and started slowly walking down to my spot. It's a little grassy spot beside a brook that lets you watch the bottom end of two smaller fields that come together at the bottom of the hill next to the brook. The sound of the water and the cold water thermal helps cover any noise you make and wash your scent down stream. I don't normally use a blind or anything, just tuck in between two spruce trees and sit.
As i got closer to where i could see the first field i slowed down even more and tried to spot any deer that were already out, i've been busted as i came around the corner more than once here and the wind was marginal in that direction but this morning there wasn't anything to worry about so i keep going and get to my spot and set my chair down. Just as i sit down and start doing a more thorough look around i hear a deer blowing in the field to my left. The alders have grown up around the bottom edge and there were a few deer in there i didn't notice right away.
So knowing i've been spotted i try and stay as still as i can while watching for one of the does to come out to a more open spot that i might be able to get a shot off. after watching for a few minutes they don't get into any open spots for me but they stop blowing and go back to semi alert feeding. Just as i am thinking about trying to sneak around the alders i see a single deer walking across the right hand field by itself. I didn't see any antlers when i first looked but as i got it in my scope i could see small antlers. It's not a huge buck, but still a little bigger than most of the does, perfect for filling the freezer and he doesn't seem to be aware i am there at all or even really paying attention to my side of the brook.
I was expecting him to stop and browse a bit at some point but just keeps slowly walking from right to left so i let off a shot just before he would go behind the alders on the left side of the field. I assume he heard the doe making noise earlier and was coming to investigate, i've had a similar thing happen a few years before when a small buck came charging out to see what all the ruckus was when other deer got spooked and made a bunch of noise.
If i don't see a deer go down myself i try and wait half an hour before i go look for blood so as i am waiting i hear a shot from the other field my friend is in less than 5 minutes after. He's got one down too and it dropped on the spot so we go get his tagged, gutted and into the truck and go looking for my deer.
I go to roughly where he was when i took the shot and start looking for blood and can't find anything. The grass is in the shade and still frosty so it should be pretty easy to find and i start getting worried as i do bigger and bigger circles around and find nothing. As i walk closer to the trees at the field edge i just happen to look in to the trees and there it is, maybe 5 feet into the trees with one big splotch of blood just on the field edge.
I was using a 7mm-08 with hornady american whitetail ammo. After trying a bunch of different bullets over the years i'm pretty well sold on the hornady for deer. Any time i've hit one with it i've never had a deer go more than 30-40 yards and typically excellent blood trails and at the range i get smaller groups than even more expensive ammo with pretty much any rifle i've tried it in.
By this time the sun is up, there's turkeys walking around and making noise (a very new thing for this area, i had never seen turkeys on that farm before this year) and we were on our way home to do some skinning and then off to the butcher to get some sausages made.
So today i get to sleep in and relax, get a few things done around the house and come up with a plan for tomorrow to try and fill a nuisance tag i was able to get for another farm in the area.
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