I'm two days into our Whitetail season and have filled one of my tags. For everyones info our tag gives us the right to harvest 1 deer per season. This year I was also drawn for an extra tag..... the bureaucrats call it "First Kill Antlerless"....and thats exactly what it is. If you want to use this tag you have to harvest a fawn, doe, young male......anything without antlers. Then you can hunt a buck. If you shoot the buck first your extra tag becomes void (no refunds of course). Don't ask me why......I just shake my head and wonder at the "powers that be" often.
Saturday morning was a typical fall morning and I found myself in my stand well before daylight. Nothing with fur was to be seen and I spent the morning watching the Chickadees playing in the trees around me. Saturday afternoon was basically the same but add a steady rain that soaked everything. Of course I was in a portable ladder stand with no cover overhead! Once home I had to dry everything and strip down my .270 to dry it off completely. As I was making my lunch for the next day I hear my wife say "Oh, it's snowing!" I thought to myself....snow is good, I like hunting in a thin layer of snow.
This morning I was up early again and saw that the snow had stayed on the ground. It started snowing again and I went to a covered blind.....everything was covered in a white coating of snow and ice..... a faerie tale setting in real life. The morning was a bust so I decided to take a very slow walk through the bush. It had stopped snowing and as the sun started coming back out the snow on the trees started falling off and it sounded like there were thousands of deer tramping through the woods....lol. Suddenly I heard a crash and about 20 yards behind me I saw the telltale white tail and the hind end of a deer doing Mach 1 away from me. I guess he was bedded down and just waiting for me to pass before making a run for it. That was the only deer I saw this morning but as most of you know it's enough to get the morale back up.
So instead of going to a blind this afternoon I decided to walk through the bush to see what I could find. I wasn't 50 yards into the woods when I spotted a deer about 100 yards in front of me! For those who hunt the prairies 100 yards is close but out here in the dense woods it could be a mile. With no chance at a shot I started my stalk. The deer was antlerless and slowly headed in the direction of a corn field, I had to get to it before it got there. The problem is that the floor of the woods is covered with a thick layer of wet leaves hiding many dead branches. So a slow stalk was the only way. The deer was heading towards the opposite side of a knoll that I could use for cover. I did step on a branch and the deer was staring right at me as I froze in place. It went right back to nosing around still headed for that corn field. After about 20 mins I made it to the knoll with no way of knowing if the deer was still there. As I was just getting to where I could start to see over the knoll I stepped on a branch again.....and l spot the tips of two ears over the rise! It was still there and very close. I saw enough of the ears to know when it turned away from me and I started my climb again. By the time I crested the rise the deer was only about 40 yards ahead of me quartering away. I raised my rifle and took the shot. It leaped into the air and I could see the splash of red on it's side as it covered about 50 yards before crashing to the ground. With the adrenaline coursing through my veins I had to calm myself down or I would have run up to it right away. I gave it a good 15 minutes and saw that it was down for good before going to investigate.
It was a young male, about 110lbs, perfect for the freezer! The 150gr bullet from my 270 had entered right behind the ribs and there was a small exit wound on it's opposite shoulder. When I gutted it out I found that I had clipped the stomach but the shot had obliterated the liver and heart as well as the lungs.
The deer is no trophy but the stalk was incredible! I'm pumped up and I can't wait for tomorrow.......
Here's how he lay when I got to him.
Saturday morning was a typical fall morning and I found myself in my stand well before daylight. Nothing with fur was to be seen and I spent the morning watching the Chickadees playing in the trees around me. Saturday afternoon was basically the same but add a steady rain that soaked everything. Of course I was in a portable ladder stand with no cover overhead! Once home I had to dry everything and strip down my .270 to dry it off completely. As I was making my lunch for the next day I hear my wife say "Oh, it's snowing!" I thought to myself....snow is good, I like hunting in a thin layer of snow.
This morning I was up early again and saw that the snow had stayed on the ground. It started snowing again and I went to a covered blind.....everything was covered in a white coating of snow and ice..... a faerie tale setting in real life. The morning was a bust so I decided to take a very slow walk through the bush. It had stopped snowing and as the sun started coming back out the snow on the trees started falling off and it sounded like there were thousands of deer tramping through the woods....lol. Suddenly I heard a crash and about 20 yards behind me I saw the telltale white tail and the hind end of a deer doing Mach 1 away from me. I guess he was bedded down and just waiting for me to pass before making a run for it. That was the only deer I saw this morning but as most of you know it's enough to get the morale back up.
So instead of going to a blind this afternoon I decided to walk through the bush to see what I could find. I wasn't 50 yards into the woods when I spotted a deer about 100 yards in front of me! For those who hunt the prairies 100 yards is close but out here in the dense woods it could be a mile. With no chance at a shot I started my stalk. The deer was antlerless and slowly headed in the direction of a corn field, I had to get to it before it got there. The problem is that the floor of the woods is covered with a thick layer of wet leaves hiding many dead branches. So a slow stalk was the only way. The deer was heading towards the opposite side of a knoll that I could use for cover. I did step on a branch and the deer was staring right at me as I froze in place. It went right back to nosing around still headed for that corn field. After about 20 mins I made it to the knoll with no way of knowing if the deer was still there. As I was just getting to where I could start to see over the knoll I stepped on a branch again.....and l spot the tips of two ears over the rise! It was still there and very close. I saw enough of the ears to know when it turned away from me and I started my climb again. By the time I crested the rise the deer was only about 40 yards ahead of me quartering away. I raised my rifle and took the shot. It leaped into the air and I could see the splash of red on it's side as it covered about 50 yards before crashing to the ground. With the adrenaline coursing through my veins I had to calm myself down or I would have run up to it right away. I gave it a good 15 minutes and saw that it was down for good before going to investigate.
It was a young male, about 110lbs, perfect for the freezer! The 150gr bullet from my 270 had entered right behind the ribs and there was a small exit wound on it's opposite shoulder. When I gutted it out I found that I had clipped the stomach but the shot had obliterated the liver and heart as well as the lungs.
The deer is no trophy but the stalk was incredible! I'm pumped up and I can't wait for tomorrow.......
Here's how he lay when I got to him.
