I thought I would share the story of my first successful deer kill. This is the second season I have tried to get a deer. I consider myself a novice deer hunter. My friend invited me to go hunting with him and his son around the Slave Lake area. We were driving the dirt roads and came across two deer in the ditch. By the time we got close enough they jumped into the bush. As you can see there is plenty of grass, and there were tracks every where so I decided I would sit there for the evening hunt.
My friend has a lot more experience than I do hunting deer and told me to stand beside the telephone pole and they would not notice me. I stood at that telephone pole for about 3 hours before sunset. I heard lots of noises in the bush. I did a little bit of grunting and bleeting with my Primos calls, but nothing came out to greet me. A pack of wolves in the distance started howling like crazy and they kept at it for well over an hour. I had to walk about 1km back to my truck in the dark (a little nervous I have to admit), but I was sure there were some deer hanging around so I came back in the morning well before sunrise.
I got setup nice and early. It was completely silent. Not a sound. No wind. Nothing. Every single leaf that fell almost sounded like a boulder falling down a mountain. I never realized that a leaf could make so much noise as it hit branches falling down. Every time I twitch at all, it sounds ridiculously loud, so I basically stood there like a statue just turning my head left and right to look down each side of the road. I could see for 1000m at least one way and about 400m the other. I did a little bit of calling, but not much. I was expecting to hear them coming and then see them, but it did not happen that way. I spent most of my time looking to my left down the 1000m stretch of bush. About an hour and a half after standing there I turned my head to the right and was surprised to see a doe walking down the ditch away from me at about 350-400m. She was munching on the grass, oblivious to me. I slowly raised my rifle (K-31 with 8-32x scope) and got the cross hairs on her. She was walking away so I quacked like a duck really loud (I have watched a number of youtube videos and all the pros like to quack to get them to stop and turn). The doe stopped and turned broadside and I fired and.... MISSED! I immediately tried chambering another round as the doe stood there wondering what the heck happened. The problem with the K-31 and scope is that the ejected casing hits the bottom of the scope and falls back into the chamber, so by the time I held the rifle upside down, shook it, and got another round in she had jumped away. If that hadn't have happened I would have had at least one more shot at her.
So I was really pissed off at myself for missing. But to be fair I had zero'd in the rifle at 75m. I aimed at the top of her back hoping that would make up the distance but it obviously didn't work. I decided I would wait it out and hope something else came along. After another 2 hours of waiting, with a little bit of calling I was getting discouraged (and hungry), so I said to hell with the noise and sat down and started eating my granola bars and water, making plenty of noise doing so. I was pretty much ready to call it quits. Suddenly, I hear a noise to my left and standing there 5-6 meters behind me (on the other side of that tree line you can see in the pic) are two deer staring straight at me! I couldn't believe they could get that close to me without hearing them! I very slowly try to turn around and grab my rifle without making too much noise. I can see the doe this whole time, the bush is a little thick and I think she was trying to figure out what I was. I was able to get my rifle up, but because I am so close to the doe I can't make anything out through my scope. It's all blurry. I spooked the doe and she jumped into the bush about 20 meters away, but the other one didn't go with her right away. It kind of slowly made it's way to the edge of the bush and stopped and stared towards me. I still could not see anything through the scope. Then I hear the doe start making this really loud WHOOOSH type sound. Again and again and again. I finally was able to find the slower one, but I could only make out the head. Then she started moving to the left into my cross hairs and that's when I fired. I couldn't tell if I hit her for a second or two so I started to run through the bush after her. As I was doing so I heard her yell out quite loudly and that's when I knew I got her.
The shot was about 25 meters. When I ran up to her I realized that I had shot a fawn. She seemed a lot larger through the scope. I hit her just above and behind her should blade. I put my tag on her and called my friend and he came to where I was and instructed me how to gut and skin it.
Some of things I learned from this hunt:
1. Don't count on hearing them before seeing them. They will pop out of no where when you least expect it.
2. Don't use a K-31 with a scope if you want the ability to have a second shot. I'll never use that setup again.
3. A 8-32x scope is way too powerful. I will get a 4-8x scope for my next setup, or just go with iron sights. If I had my M-14 with me instead (which I left in the truck), I would have definitely had the mother when she was 5 meters away from me.
4. When I do decide on my next rifle setup, spend time at a real range and get to know my rifle better.
5. Don't wear such a silly hat unless it's REALLY cold out. I could have worn a more inconspicuous hat that might not have spooked the doe so quickly.
6. A leaf can make an incredible amount of noise, which might trick you into thinking you're hearing a deer in the bush, when actually you're not.
7. Have a couple liters of water in the truck to wash down the carcass after gutting. Too much hair, grass, and leaves on my meat.
8. Deer leave a trail to and from wherever they bed down. When I went into the bush to retrieve my kill, I noticed a definite trail leading up the hill and straight down to me at the pole. I just happened to pick the perfect spot. I think they had simply been taking the same trail they had been before to go eat and they simply walked into me.
There is still more season left so I will take the many things I learned and hopefully get another one before the end. This was my first kill so I thought I would share it with you.
