So after 2yrs of tag soup (not that I didn't have opportunities, just couldn't shake the buck fever) I finally downed a smallish buck this morning.
I went to the same spot, where yesterday, I whiffed on a 2 point (thanks again to buck fever....damn I hate that stuff...LOL).
This will be slightly long winded
Scroll down to skip the story and see the pics if you wish.
Yesterday's story:
Went for a walk to a small cut block I could see from branch road I was on, I saw not so much as a single set of tracks all through trees or in the cut block so I decided I would head back towards the truck and sit on the larger cut and glass it for awhile. After a phone call from one of my shooting buddies (Call went like this: Him- What are you up to? Me: Sitting on a stump watching over a cut block. Him: Oh....well I was calling to see if you wanted to go sit on a stump and watch a cut block. Good Luck)
Not 30 seconds after hanging up and grabbing my bino's out of my pocket, lo and behold I watch a deer walk into the cut block and behind a slash pile, back out from the slash, and back behind it, I am pretty sure it's a doe but hard to tell from the distance I am at. I pan right to see another one enter from the same place. I am almost sure this one is a buck (had a much more golden rear end) but cannot make out whether it has antlers or not.
I watch these 2 for about a 1/2 hr and I can tell where they are headed to so I decide to walk around 1 cut, up a large cut hill and across to the treed area between the hill cuts to see if I can cut them off. As I am coming down the far cut on the other side of the trees I see some fairly fresh tracks (had snowed overnight) heading down into the lower cut where I saw the previous 2.
Sure enough as I look up from the tracks I am staring down a 2 point at about 150yds. I unshoulder my rifle, take off the safety, put the cross hairs on him, try and get my heartrate down to somewhat human paced rate and pull the trigger. He runs about 50yds away from me and stops in a gulley then proceeds up the ridge on the other side of the cut from me.
He hadn't jumped or made any indication that he had been hit so I went to where he had been standing and no sign of a hit. Chased him over the ridge into a lower block where I went to take another shot at him and I had apparently short stroked the bolt leaving an empty chamber and nothing but a "CLICK" and the realization that the reason I probably missed him was because I flinched in a way I have never flinched before (you learn this when you think there is a round in the chamber and there is not one, you see every movement of the rifle as it would have been if there was a round in there), the scoped ended up looking about 2 feet under the deers belly as I had "pushed the rifle" with my shoulder.
Today's story:
Fast forward to today where I had my alarm set for an early rise (5:45) to get out for first light. Well, when the alarm went off I was so tired that I made a decision, at that moment, to just stay in bed and snuggle with the wife.
About an hour later she can't sleep and gets up, in turn waking me up. (around 7:00) so I decided What the Hell, I may as well get ready and go out anyway since I had already gathered the necessary gear the night before.
I arrive at my parking spot around 8:10, grab all my gear (rifle, backpack, fold up blind, stool), and head off to the treed ridge between 2 cuts where I had chased the previous days deer up and over. I have my new outhouse blind set up, bino's and coffee in hand around 9:00 watching the 2 cuts for any sign of movement.
Around 9:25 I see 2 deer coming down the large hill I had climbed the day previous, but they disappeared out of sight before I had a chance to ID them. Grab another coffee and a smoke and keep checking both cuts.
9:35 on my low side cut I see something walking towards the 3 slash piles in the middle of the cut (which I had ranged earlier at 175m, 225m and 232m) I grab my binos and take a look and all I can see is 2 does when, from behind the only tree still standing in the area, walks a 2 point buck. I grab my rifle from the corner of the blind and try and steady myself with my elbow on my knee but was still pretty shaky with the adrenaline running again. Knowing that this was not going to suffice for me to make a proper, clean shot (as learned the day previous) I decided to get out of the blind as slowly and as quietly as I could and try and get to a prone position.
Well the zipper on taught nylon blind is none to quiet and my audience in the low side cut block was a testament to that as all 3 deer were looking up my way to see what the racket was, fortunately I had enough cover around me the that they did not see any movement and continued on grazing around the 2 slash piles between 225m and 232m.
I crawled out into the snow and finally found a comfy position with a fallen tree as a rest for the rifle, took the safety off, lined up the cross hair on the buck and let one fly. He did a little jump and then just kind of sauntered behind one of the slash piles, turned around and started walking back out toward the does as if nothing had happened. WTF...did I miss again?!?!?! Chamber another round (making sure not to short stroke it) put the cross hairs on him once again and let another one fly, again he jumps and then just stands there, again I am thinking there is no way I pulled the 2nd shot as I was prone, with a steady rest and a good (and much calmer) hold. Well he only stood for about 3 seconds then falls to the ground, kicks a few times and that was it, it was all over.
Deer down at 9:44 (Double lung shot and apparently a shot that went in above his shoulder and out above the other shoulder with no real damage to the meat, which I suspect was 1st shot), gutted by 10:30 (first gutting....whew....only cut myself 2 times HAHA) then the next 2 and a half hours was dragging him through a cut block, up a 50 degree hill (the ridge I mentioned), down the other side of the 50 degree hill (this was much, much easier than the UP portion) across another cut, through a treed area, across another small cut to the original road through the blocks (which is fenced now) and finally to the truck at 12:55. I believe the entire trip was only about 1KM but being out of shape and dragging dead weight (mostly uphill) took its toll on me. The last 200M+ was the easiest terrain wise but the hardest for me physically. Next time I pack a sleigh.....or bring help!!!!
This is where he dropped:
This was after I got him home:
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2yrs of tag soup now 2 in less than week........YAY!!!!
So I got off work Friday and got a text from a buddy asking if I was shooting our local match this weekend and I replied that I was not shooting the match but was going out to look for a Whitetail this weekend. His response was "Can you be here in hour?"
I said ABSOLUTELY I can.
I got to his place at approx 4:15 and we were out in the field by 4:30
We sat on his hay field until just about dark and about 2 minutes before we were ready to call it Miller Time I take one last look with the bino's and spot a deer walking into the field from the right hand side somewhere between the 200m haybale and the 315m tree line.
I got ready while he watched the doe, I put the cross hairs on the top of her back and let the shot go.
I missed the result but she apparently jumped into the air, hit the ground, and didnt move after that. 1 shot kill and DRT......Excellent.
Hit her high in the shoulder, nicked the bottom of the spine and the bullet deflected down and out her lower shoulder on the other side. Very little meat damage.
Gutted her out at my buddies place (in the rain) where we had the use of the tractor to hang her from.
Tenderloins are in the fridge ready for the BBQ tonight.
She's a fair bit bigger than the buck I got last Sunday which wieghed in at 86lbs fully dressed. Guessing she's in the 100-120lb range dressed out.
Now to get a Whitetail buck to complete the tag out for this year......here's hoping anyway.
I went to the same spot, where yesterday, I whiffed on a 2 point (thanks again to buck fever....damn I hate that stuff...LOL).
This will be slightly long winded
Scroll down to skip the story and see the pics if you wish. Yesterday's story:
Went for a walk to a small cut block I could see from branch road I was on, I saw not so much as a single set of tracks all through trees or in the cut block so I decided I would head back towards the truck and sit on the larger cut and glass it for awhile. After a phone call from one of my shooting buddies (Call went like this: Him- What are you up to? Me: Sitting on a stump watching over a cut block. Him: Oh....well I was calling to see if you wanted to go sit on a stump and watch a cut block. Good Luck)
Not 30 seconds after hanging up and grabbing my bino's out of my pocket, lo and behold I watch a deer walk into the cut block and behind a slash pile, back out from the slash, and back behind it, I am pretty sure it's a doe but hard to tell from the distance I am at. I pan right to see another one enter from the same place. I am almost sure this one is a buck (had a much more golden rear end) but cannot make out whether it has antlers or not.
I watch these 2 for about a 1/2 hr and I can tell where they are headed to so I decide to walk around 1 cut, up a large cut hill and across to the treed area between the hill cuts to see if I can cut them off. As I am coming down the far cut on the other side of the trees I see some fairly fresh tracks (had snowed overnight) heading down into the lower cut where I saw the previous 2.
Sure enough as I look up from the tracks I am staring down a 2 point at about 150yds. I unshoulder my rifle, take off the safety, put the cross hairs on him, try and get my heartrate down to somewhat human paced rate and pull the trigger. He runs about 50yds away from me and stops in a gulley then proceeds up the ridge on the other side of the cut from me.
He hadn't jumped or made any indication that he had been hit so I went to where he had been standing and no sign of a hit. Chased him over the ridge into a lower block where I went to take another shot at him and I had apparently short stroked the bolt leaving an empty chamber and nothing but a "CLICK" and the realization that the reason I probably missed him was because I flinched in a way I have never flinched before (you learn this when you think there is a round in the chamber and there is not one, you see every movement of the rifle as it would have been if there was a round in there), the scoped ended up looking about 2 feet under the deers belly as I had "pushed the rifle" with my shoulder.
Today's story:
Fast forward to today where I had my alarm set for an early rise (5:45) to get out for first light. Well, when the alarm went off I was so tired that I made a decision, at that moment, to just stay in bed and snuggle with the wife.
About an hour later she can't sleep and gets up, in turn waking me up. (around 7:00) so I decided What the Hell, I may as well get ready and go out anyway since I had already gathered the necessary gear the night before.
I arrive at my parking spot around 8:10, grab all my gear (rifle, backpack, fold up blind, stool), and head off to the treed ridge between 2 cuts where I had chased the previous days deer up and over. I have my new outhouse blind set up, bino's and coffee in hand around 9:00 watching the 2 cuts for any sign of movement.
Around 9:25 I see 2 deer coming down the large hill I had climbed the day previous, but they disappeared out of sight before I had a chance to ID them. Grab another coffee and a smoke and keep checking both cuts.
9:35 on my low side cut I see something walking towards the 3 slash piles in the middle of the cut (which I had ranged earlier at 175m, 225m and 232m) I grab my binos and take a look and all I can see is 2 does when, from behind the only tree still standing in the area, walks a 2 point buck. I grab my rifle from the corner of the blind and try and steady myself with my elbow on my knee but was still pretty shaky with the adrenaline running again. Knowing that this was not going to suffice for me to make a proper, clean shot (as learned the day previous) I decided to get out of the blind as slowly and as quietly as I could and try and get to a prone position.
Well the zipper on taught nylon blind is none to quiet and my audience in the low side cut block was a testament to that as all 3 deer were looking up my way to see what the racket was, fortunately I had enough cover around me the that they did not see any movement and continued on grazing around the 2 slash piles between 225m and 232m.
I crawled out into the snow and finally found a comfy position with a fallen tree as a rest for the rifle, took the safety off, lined up the cross hair on the buck and let one fly. He did a little jump and then just kind of sauntered behind one of the slash piles, turned around and started walking back out toward the does as if nothing had happened. WTF...did I miss again?!?!?! Chamber another round (making sure not to short stroke it) put the cross hairs on him once again and let another one fly, again he jumps and then just stands there, again I am thinking there is no way I pulled the 2nd shot as I was prone, with a steady rest and a good (and much calmer) hold. Well he only stood for about 3 seconds then falls to the ground, kicks a few times and that was it, it was all over.
Deer down at 9:44 (Double lung shot and apparently a shot that went in above his shoulder and out above the other shoulder with no real damage to the meat, which I suspect was 1st shot), gutted by 10:30 (first gutting....whew....only cut myself 2 times HAHA) then the next 2 and a half hours was dragging him through a cut block, up a 50 degree hill (the ridge I mentioned), down the other side of the 50 degree hill (this was much, much easier than the UP portion
) across another cut, through a treed area, across another small cut to the original road through the blocks (which is fenced now) and finally to the truck at 12:55. I believe the entire trip was only about 1KM but being out of shape and dragging dead weight (mostly uphill) took its toll on me. The last 200M+ was the easiest terrain wise but the hardest for me physically. Next time I pack a sleigh.....or bring help!!!!This is where he dropped:
This was after I got him home:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2yrs of tag soup now 2 in less than week........YAY!!!!
So I got off work Friday and got a text from a buddy asking if I was shooting our local match this weekend and I replied that I was not shooting the match but was going out to look for a Whitetail this weekend. His response was "Can you be here in hour?"
I said ABSOLUTELY I can.
I got to his place at approx 4:15 and we were out in the field by 4:30
We sat on his hay field until just about dark and about 2 minutes before we were ready to call it Miller Time I take one last look with the bino's and spot a deer walking into the field from the right hand side somewhere between the 200m haybale and the 315m tree line.
I got ready while he watched the doe, I put the cross hairs on the top of her back and let the shot go.
I missed the result but she apparently jumped into the air, hit the ground, and didnt move after that. 1 shot kill and DRT......Excellent.
Hit her high in the shoulder, nicked the bottom of the spine and the bullet deflected down and out her lower shoulder on the other side. Very little meat damage.
Gutted her out at my buddies place (in the rain) where we had the use of the tractor to hang her from.
Tenderloins are in the fridge ready for the BBQ tonight.
She's a fair bit bigger than the buck I got last Sunday which wieghed in at 86lbs fully dressed. Guessing she's in the 100-120lb range dressed out.
Now to get a Whitetail buck to complete the tag out for this year......here's hoping anyway.
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