So I got out of work early Tuesday and decided that I would go down to my property and see if I could see anything at the end of the day, as every time I go there during the day, it is a dead zone.
I arrived at my site around 3:45pm; the weather network said that I had until 4:32 to sundown. I made my way to my hunt stand and took a seat and promptly started to call a doe bleat. After about 10mins of calling I heard a lot of noise behind my stand and turned just in time to see what looked like a small doe running thru the woods. I was finally relieved to see some wildlife as up to this point I have only seen one rabbit on my property. I had just acquired the property in the spring and was wondering where all the wildlife was hiding.
Now that my spirits were up I decided to call some more to see if I could get the doe to come out into the field in front of me. I called for another 5 or 10mins and didn't get anything. I heard some more noise in the woods thou and turned to see a big fat rabbit eating. I contemplated shooting it, but thought the svt-40 would not leave much of it and didn't want to scare off any deer.
As the darkness started to come in I looked at my cell to find it was getting close to quitting time, 15mins to go. That is when I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye in the field off to the left. It was a doe and a pretty good sized one. My heart was racing. I watched the deer come closer to me as she worked the grass. I then saw more movement in the field there was another two following. Then another two came into view. Five deer were making their way to me.
I kept my eye on the first one as she looked to be the biggest and was also closest to me. She kept coming towards my tree stand and I kept as still as I could. I realized that my rifle was pointed toward the apple pile, which was far to the right of my stand, so I started to correct the aim. I moved and she stopped and stared right at me, I froze. She started back at the grass, so I moved some more, very slowly. I swore that every swallow was making her look at me. I finally got my rifle aimed in the proper direction and slowly lifted it to my shoulder. She showed her side to me and I let a round off. The sound was momentarily deafening. She dropped on her front legs and fell over. I waited and watched the other deer hop off to the far side of the field, then climbed down to check her out. She gave one last gasp; reflex I guess, as I will later find out the shot completely tore apart the heart.
I put the game seal on her and rushed back to my truck. I had to move my truck back to my cabin and get my lawn tractor and trailer ready so that I could go pick her up. The truck was too far from the field and the trails are not wide enough for it. Once I got back to the doe I proceeded to try and pick her up. Ok, I am not that strong. I took the tailgate off the trailer and pulled her aboard. I then headed back to the cabin so that I could gut her under the light of my truck, as it was getting dark now. I decided to call my neighbour to see if he was in to give me a hand, as I wanted to get the gutting done right.
I called him up on my cell. 'Dale, are you busy?’ I said. He replied,’ you just shot a deer didn't you?’ 'Yup’, ' you don't know how to gut it, do you?’ ' Well I know pretty much how, but could use a tutor just to be sure’, ' I'll be over in a minute'.
My neighbour was kind enough to get things going and show me how to do it; I guess he wanted to get back to supper. He gutted it open and had me pull the guts out. I also cut out the windpipe and cleaned out the inside. I thanked him and let him go for supper. I loaded her up and headed to the only butcher I knew of that would take her with the fur on. An hour later and I had her on the deck at the butcher. What a night that turned out to be.
I arrived at my site around 3:45pm; the weather network said that I had until 4:32 to sundown. I made my way to my hunt stand and took a seat and promptly started to call a doe bleat. After about 10mins of calling I heard a lot of noise behind my stand and turned just in time to see what looked like a small doe running thru the woods. I was finally relieved to see some wildlife as up to this point I have only seen one rabbit on my property. I had just acquired the property in the spring and was wondering where all the wildlife was hiding.
Now that my spirits were up I decided to call some more to see if I could get the doe to come out into the field in front of me. I called for another 5 or 10mins and didn't get anything. I heard some more noise in the woods thou and turned to see a big fat rabbit eating. I contemplated shooting it, but thought the svt-40 would not leave much of it and didn't want to scare off any deer.
As the darkness started to come in I looked at my cell to find it was getting close to quitting time, 15mins to go. That is when I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye in the field off to the left. It was a doe and a pretty good sized one. My heart was racing. I watched the deer come closer to me as she worked the grass. I then saw more movement in the field there was another two following. Then another two came into view. Five deer were making their way to me.
I kept my eye on the first one as she looked to be the biggest and was also closest to me. She kept coming towards my tree stand and I kept as still as I could. I realized that my rifle was pointed toward the apple pile, which was far to the right of my stand, so I started to correct the aim. I moved and she stopped and stared right at me, I froze. She started back at the grass, so I moved some more, very slowly. I swore that every swallow was making her look at me. I finally got my rifle aimed in the proper direction and slowly lifted it to my shoulder. She showed her side to me and I let a round off. The sound was momentarily deafening. She dropped on her front legs and fell over. I waited and watched the other deer hop off to the far side of the field, then climbed down to check her out. She gave one last gasp; reflex I guess, as I will later find out the shot completely tore apart the heart.
I put the game seal on her and rushed back to my truck. I had to move my truck back to my cabin and get my lawn tractor and trailer ready so that I could go pick her up. The truck was too far from the field and the trails are not wide enough for it. Once I got back to the doe I proceeded to try and pick her up. Ok, I am not that strong. I took the tailgate off the trailer and pulled her aboard. I then headed back to the cabin so that I could gut her under the light of my truck, as it was getting dark now. I decided to call my neighbour to see if he was in to give me a hand, as I wanted to get the gutting done right.
I called him up on my cell. 'Dale, are you busy?’ I said. He replied,’ you just shot a deer didn't you?’ 'Yup’, ' you don't know how to gut it, do you?’ ' Well I know pretty much how, but could use a tutor just to be sure’, ' I'll be over in a minute'.
My neighbour was kind enough to get things going and show me how to do it; I guess he wanted to get back to supper. He gutted it open and had me pull the guts out. I also cut out the windpipe and cleaned out the inside. I thanked him and let him go for supper. I loaded her up and headed to the only butcher I knew of that would take her with the fur on. An hour later and I had her on the deck at the butcher. What a night that turned out to be.
