Hi Everyone! Thought you might like to see this, I still can't believe it myself!
First, lets go back to the 25th of October, opener for Elk at home........
Nugget and I are just hopping the back fence at my Mom and Dad's place, in hopes of the herd of Elk coming through like last year, yeah, good luck!
Before we had even left the back of their yard, I look up to see 10 or so whitetails there, giving us the evil eye. In the group was 3 good bucks, a clean three point (120ish), a four point ( mid 140's to 150) and a bit of a bruiser, couldn't tell how many he had as it was a bit before legal light but he was wide and tall compared to what the usual genetics are around home.
They scampered off to the neighbors place, not in a hurry at all, just annoyed that their breakfast had been cut short. The big guy stopped at the border fence, and stood broadside for me. I didn't realize until I took another look at him just how big he seemed, really high and nice width. At 400 yards I couldn't tell much more.
Long story short, all day long I saw nary an Elk. I didn't really care, there is so much pressure on them around home you have a better chance winning the lotto, it is a good excuse to take a day off from work none the less.
Over the duration of the day, dawn to dusk I lost count at 47 Whitetail running about yet I still made it to a 60 count easily. I am sure many were doubled counted, same groups from morning and evening grazing sessions but still I haven't seen deer like this since the winter of `96, before we had a severe cold spell that killed off much of the population. Backing up a bit, my Mom and Aunt share the quarter section my Great Grandfather, Ivar Erickson cleared by hand when they homesteaded here. Dad has been looking after the haying and raising and selling the Beeves each fall. This year he had the nicest second growth of oats(greenfeed) as well as second growth alfalfa, the makings of perfect Deer vittles . Hence the reason every Deer with in the area was stopping by to feast.
Generally the Deer are insanely cautious, only coming out at dusk if you are lucky. This year, it was out before legal light, staying to dine until 11am, then off for a nap. Get up and go back out as early as 1pm and start eating again!
Good times are in store says I!
Well, it is still the 25th, Whitetail is not open and I am beside myself watching these Deer file out of the bordering property, walking by me at 20 yards and grazing at that range too! Sure, some would spook when the wind changed, but as soon as they hit the bush, another group bigger than them came out for their turn. 5:30pm rolls around and I am hoping those bucks are going to show. Sure enough I see the 3 point and the 4 point hop the fence.
By the way, I am not counting the brow tines as points on these deer. Then I caught some tines moving out from behind the hill. He came blowing over the top of the knoll, putting the run on the other two bucks. Sweet! After a short distance he skids to a halt with a Bulldog stance, lowers his head, throws it way back and then lets out a big exhale of breath from his nostrils, like a Bhrama Bull. He clearly was the dominant and didn't take any crap from the others. Even the coyote laying in the field didn't bother him. I knew I wanted this Deer! I watched him for 40 minutes, studying his obscure rack, guessing him to be close to 160.
All I had to do was talk Dad into keeping his cows out of the field so they would keep coming through and it would be gravy, right? Wrong! Dad shipped the calves on the next day and let the cows out to the field, ARGH! I had never seen a buck this big at home and I've hunted there 16 years now, so I have an idea of what lurks there. My world was falling apart around me as I figured there would be no way those Deer would come back now. Here comes November 1st! I head out to the back corner, sure enough, cattle there and I watch most of the Deer file out of the bush, and continue on north along our fenceline to other fields where I cannot hunt,
woe is me as I fight back the tears. All day I only saw 20 Deer and none of the bucks in sight! The joys of hunting farmland. Off for home I go with my lip dragging, sulking like a baby.
Saturday rolls around and after getting a pep talk from my Bride, off I go again. All night had been very foggy and the growing moon gave a strange ambience that illuminated all the landscape. There was game everywhere.
As soon as legal light came the shots started ringing out, all over. Near, far and all around. I was quite sure I was the only one left with a full mag. I started to wonder, had someone shot that buck already? Has he moved on?
I hadn't seen any sign since the 25th and hunting time for me is real precious this fall.
Morning passed with not a Deer in the back field, off to the bush I go. Seeing a couple scrapes I decide to give my rattling antlers a go. No response. So I leave my pack and go for a walk, bumping into a spiker at close quarters. I wait for him to pass by and head back to my gear. From that postition, I can see the hayfield. It's 1pm, and there are Deer grazing!! As I start the quarter mile hike to get back to my field observation post, there are four Does munching away, by the time I get to my spot it had grown to 15, with the respectable 3 point in tow. There is only one way to get big Deer in the farmland, and that is to let the little ones grow so I let them pass by. The weather was very mild, so I rolled out my waterproof blanket I had on my pack, get all cozy and have me a nap.
3pm rolls around and I get to thinking something is going to start happening so I sit up and no sooner do I look over to the fencline, the bruiser buck comes out and jumps onto our property! Broad daylight, I can't believe it. I look in my field glasses to make sure it's him. I am pretty sure but the buck fever is hitting home already, I have to press my binos against a tree to calm the shakes. Yup, its him. I pull up my Brno 21H, turn the scope up to 8 power and level it, resting my forehand against a tree. No it can't be him , can it? I start doubting myself. Down goes the rifle, up come the glasses again and this time there is no doubt, being able to see the stickers on him and the split on his main beam, there was no doubt.
I bring up the rifle again, he is still just inside our fence by 10 yards, his head down, quartering toward me. He is grazing and I am thinking the way I have seen him act so far, he could just up and bolt to catch up with the herd now on top of the hill, out of my view. I decide to shoot. With his head still down, I put the cross hairs just inside his shoulder. He is 250 yards away, and my rifle is zeroed at that range. Off comes the safety and I squeeze the trigger.
KAPONG!!!!
His whole body dropped a bit as he turned and launched himself towards cover. I have cycled another round but he has already jumped the fence and I haven't permission to hunt there so I have to hold back. As he landed from the fence jump, he sprang up right away again with a wild rodeo kick like a Bronco would let loose. I had read they will do this if hit in the heart, but had never seen it before. I jumped up and paced off the distance to where he was standing, trying not to look at where I last saw him and loose his starting point. There it is on the ground, a big tuft of hair and oh crap I say to myself, I only grazed him. Stupid, you should have waited until he came closer, all different thoughts going through my head as I trace his bounds for 20 yards before he made his jump. Nothing on the groung at all except where he touched down, kicking up dirt on top of the snow.
But wait, look at those tracks, he isn't landing and taking off clean! All four prints are looking like a car that did a four wheel drift on a corner, he has to be hit! I get over to the fence and look where he landed, sure enough, a big spray of blood in a 2 foot diameter circle where he landed. Had I only looked in the bush a bit further, I would have seen him already expired under the big spruce.
I run back to the house to get permission to access the land and race back, parking my truck next to the fence. I climb out, load my 7x57 again and peer over the fence into the bush, there he is! There he is!
I can see the heavy main beam rising above his still body. I hop the fence and run over to him, my biggest Whitetail to date with such an awesome shot, and only needing one shot taboot. This was great!
I had hauled my Mom out with me to take snapshots before the dirty work made a mess of things. They turned out great too. Sixteen years ago she came with me to this same property to get my very first Whitetail, a Doe within a quarter mile of where we were now. It was neat to have her along again, so many years later. So much has changed since then too!
The 154gr Hornady Interbond hit perfect, just inside the shoulder, taking only one rib before taking off the top of the heart, destroying one lung, clipping the liver and ending up laying in with the small intestines. Oddly enough there was no mess aside from alot of blood. Weight retention is just over 81%, pretty good considering how much body it passed through. Expanded to .692" and 125.2 grains. Length is down from 1.383" to .466"! With a muzzle speed of 2813, it would have hit around the 2400fps mark. Put that together with the excellent groups it prints, I may have found a load I will have to keep using for awhile.
Go ahead and take a wild guess at what he scores. At first I guess him to be 160 to 165. After I shot him I figured less. He is a tough one to judge. None the less a beautiful example of a great animal.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read! Hope you enjoyed a tale of a manic deppresive Hunter's rollercoaster ride! lol
Noel
First, lets go back to the 25th of October, opener for Elk at home........
Nugget and I are just hopping the back fence at my Mom and Dad's place, in hopes of the herd of Elk coming through like last year, yeah, good luck!
Before we had even left the back of their yard, I look up to see 10 or so whitetails there, giving us the evil eye. In the group was 3 good bucks, a clean three point (120ish), a four point ( mid 140's to 150) and a bit of a bruiser, couldn't tell how many he had as it was a bit before legal light but he was wide and tall compared to what the usual genetics are around home.
They scampered off to the neighbors place, not in a hurry at all, just annoyed that their breakfast had been cut short. The big guy stopped at the border fence, and stood broadside for me. I didn't realize until I took another look at him just how big he seemed, really high and nice width. At 400 yards I couldn't tell much more.
Long story short, all day long I saw nary an Elk. I didn't really care, there is so much pressure on them around home you have a better chance winning the lotto, it is a good excuse to take a day off from work none the less.
Over the duration of the day, dawn to dusk I lost count at 47 Whitetail running about yet I still made it to a 60 count easily. I am sure many were doubled counted, same groups from morning and evening grazing sessions but still I haven't seen deer like this since the winter of `96, before we had a severe cold spell that killed off much of the population. Backing up a bit, my Mom and Aunt share the quarter section my Great Grandfather, Ivar Erickson cleared by hand when they homesteaded here. Dad has been looking after the haying and raising and selling the Beeves each fall. This year he had the nicest second growth of oats(greenfeed) as well as second growth alfalfa, the makings of perfect Deer vittles
. Hence the reason every Deer with in the area was stopping by to feast. Generally the Deer are insanely cautious, only coming out at dusk if you are lucky. This year, it was out before legal light, staying to dine until 11am, then off for a nap. Get up and go back out as early as 1pm and start eating again!
Good times are in store says I! Well, it is still the 25th, Whitetail is not open and I am beside myself watching these Deer file out of the bordering property, walking by me at 20 yards and grazing at that range too!
Sure, some would spook when the wind changed, but as soon as they hit the bush, another group bigger than them came out for their turn. 5:30pm rolls around and I am hoping those bucks are going to show. Sure enough I see the 3 point and the 4 point hop the fence.By the way, I am not counting the brow tines as points on these deer. Then I caught some tines moving out from behind the hill. He came blowing over the top of the knoll, putting the run on the other two bucks. Sweet!
After a short distance he skids to a halt with a Bulldog stance, lowers his head, throws it way back and then lets out a big exhale of breath from his nostrils, like a Bhrama Bull. He clearly was the dominant and didn't take any crap from the others. Even the coyote laying in the field didn't bother him. I knew I wanted this Deer! I watched him for 40 minutes, studying his obscure rack, guessing him to be close to 160. All I had to do was talk Dad into keeping his cows out of the field so they would keep coming through and it would be gravy, right? Wrong! Dad shipped the calves on the next day and let the cows out to the field, ARGH!
I had never seen a buck this big at home and I've hunted there 16 years now, so I have an idea of what lurks there. My world was falling apart around me as I figured there would be no way those Deer would come back now. Here comes November 1st! I head out to the back corner, sure enough, cattle there and I watch most of the Deer file out of the bush, and continue on north along our fenceline to other fields where I cannot hunt,woe is me as I fight back the tears.
All day I only saw 20 Deer and none of the bucks in sight! The joys of hunting farmland. Off for home I go with my lip dragging, sulking like a baby.Saturday rolls around and after getting a pep talk from my Bride, off I go again. All night had been very foggy and the growing moon gave a strange ambience that illuminated all the landscape. There was game everywhere.
As soon as legal light came the shots started ringing out, all over. Near, far and all around. I was quite sure I was the only one left with a full mag. I started to wonder, had someone shot that buck already? Has he moved on?
I hadn't seen any sign since the 25th and hunting time for me is real precious this fall.
Morning passed with not a Deer in the back field, off to the bush I go. Seeing a couple scrapes I decide to give my rattling antlers a go. No response.
So I leave my pack and go for a walk, bumping into a spiker at close quarters. I wait for him to pass by and head back to my gear. From that postition, I can see the hayfield. It's 1pm, and there are Deer grazing!! As I start the quarter mile hike to get back to my field observation post, there are four Does munching away, by the time I get to my spot it had grown to 15, with the respectable 3 point in tow. There is only one way to get big Deer in the farmland, and that is to let the little ones grow so I let them pass by. The weather was very mild, so I rolled out my waterproof blanket I had on my pack, get all cozy and have me a nap. 3pm rolls around and I get to thinking something is going to start happening so I sit up and no sooner do I look over to the fencline, the bruiser buck comes out and jumps onto our property!
Broad daylight, I can't believe it. I look in my field glasses to make sure it's him. I am pretty sure but the buck fever is hitting home already, I have to press my binos against a tree to calm the shakes. Yup, its him. I pull up my Brno 21H, turn the scope up to 8 power and level it, resting my forehand against a tree. No it can't be him , can it? I start doubting myself. Down goes the rifle, up come the glasses again and this time there is no doubt, being able to see the stickers on him and the split on his main beam, there was no doubt.I bring up the rifle again, he is still just inside our fence by 10 yards, his head down, quartering toward me. He is grazing and I am thinking the way I have seen him act so far, he could just up and bolt to catch up with the herd now on top of the hill, out of my view. I decide to shoot. With his head still down, I put the cross hairs just inside his shoulder. He is 250 yards away, and my rifle is zeroed at that range. Off comes the safety and I squeeze the trigger.
KAPONG!!!!
His whole body dropped a bit as he turned and launched himself towards cover. I have cycled another round but he has already jumped the fence and I haven't permission to hunt there so I have to hold back. As he landed from the fence jump, he sprang up right away again with a wild rodeo kick like a Bronco would let loose. I had read they will do this if hit in the heart, but had never seen it before. I jumped up and paced off the distance to where he was standing, trying not to look at where I last saw him and loose his starting point. There it is on the ground, a big tuft of hair
and oh crap I say to myself, I only grazed him. Stupid, you should have waited until he came closer, all different thoughts going through my head as I trace his bounds for 20 yards before he made his jump. Nothing on the groung at all except where he touched down, kicking up dirt on top of the snow. But wait, look at those tracks, he isn't landing and taking off clean! All four prints are looking like a car that did a four wheel drift on a corner, he has to be hit! I get over to the fence and look where he landed, sure enough, a big spray of blood in a 2 foot diameter circle where he landed. Had I only looked in the bush a bit further, I would have seen him already expired under the big spruce.
I run back to the house to get permission to access the land and race back, parking my truck next to the fence. I climb out, load my 7x57 again and peer over the fence into the bush, there he is! There he is!
I can see the heavy main beam rising above his still body. I hop the fence and run over to him, my biggest Whitetail to date with such an awesome shot, and only needing one shot taboot. This was great!
I had hauled my Mom out with me to take snapshots before the dirty work made a mess of things. They turned out great too. Sixteen years ago she came with me to this same property to get my very first Whitetail, a Doe within a quarter mile of where we were now. It was neat to have her along again, so many years later. So much has changed since then too!
The 154gr Hornady Interbond hit perfect, just inside the shoulder, taking only one rib before taking off the top of the heart, destroying one lung, clipping the liver and ending up laying in with the small intestines. Oddly enough there was no mess aside from alot of blood. Weight retention is just over 81%, pretty good considering how much body it passed through. Expanded to .692" and 125.2 grains. Length is down from 1.383" to .466"! With a muzzle speed of 2813, it would have hit around the 2400fps mark. Put that together with the excellent groups it prints, I may have found a load I will have to keep using for awhile.
Go ahead and take a wild guess at what he scores. At first I guess him to be 160 to 165. After I shot him I figured less. He is a tough one to judge. None the less a beautiful example of a great animal.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read! Hope you enjoyed a tale of a manic deppresive Hunter's rollercoaster ride! lol
Noel
