Category: Hunting

I have now killed twice as many deer this year as I have my whole life.  I was able to take a doe today.  And she is bigger than my buck, but I did not take any pictures, what was I thinking?

It was really funny.  Alex and I started walking out at 6:15 am.  On our way I mentioned to him that since I only have a restricted license (meaning that I have to take a buck with at least 4 points on one side) and a doe tag left, I’d just nap in my blind until it is light enough to see what is out there.  he thought that sounded like a good idea and decided he’d do the same.  So, I dozed for about 30 minutes before I started to do some serious hunting.  About 7:30, out came 5 does.  They were about 100 yards from me, about 50 yard out in front of Alex, who was just 50 yards away from me.  I let them graze for a couple of minutes before I raised my gun up to look through the scope to make sure that they were all does.  Then I looked to see which of the 5 was the biggest.  The one out front was biggest.  I waited.  I was sure that Alex would shoot.  After about 5 minutes, I decided to take the shot.  I was really hoping that Alex would shoot first, but I didn’t want to chance missing an opportunity, after all, it was the last day.  I squeezed the trigger, she sat down, went down on her front knees and rolled sideways.  Dropped her dead, one easy shot.  The other 4 does ran, about 5 or 6 more joined them and the field was clear again.  I sat there, waiting.  She wasn’t going anywhere, Alex was still sitting, I just waited to see what else would happen.  I can’t say how long it was I sat there.  I was debating getting up and taking care of the deer or just continue hunting and take care of it later.  I decided to get up and go see how big she was.  To take her to the house and prepare her.  I walked out of my blind and started towards her, got about 10 yards and realized I should count steps to see how far she was.  1, 2, 3,…. 99, 100.  Wow, a hundred yard shot and she fell dead.  I rolled her over, the bullet went clean through, almost in the exact same spot as where I shot the buck, just about over the fourth rib.  I looked around to see if there was any signs of hitting another deer, but there wasn’t.  A nice clean kill.  I looked over at Alex.  He was watching me, so I walked over to him and knelt beside his blind.  Our conversation went something like:

Me: Hey, were you sleeping?

Alex: yup

Me: Did I wake you up”?

Alex: No

Me: When I shot, I didn’t wake you up?

Alex: You shot?

Me: Yes.

Alex: Did you get it?

Me: Yes.

Alex: Where is it?

Me: Right in front of you. (and I turned to point and could not see her.  There was a dip in the field that completely hid the lying deer.  When I stood up, I could see her).

Alex: (now standing up too) Oh, there she is.

Me: Well, I’ll go get the truck and take her back to the yard and gut her there so you can continue hunting.

Alex: OK, sounds good.  Hey, I was wondering what you were doing out there, I couldn’t figure out why you would walk all the way over there in front of me while I was hunting.

Me: Well, I did have to go claim my kill.

So I went and got the truck, I had to have Alex help me lift her up into the truck.  I drove back to the house and he went back to sit.  He did see four does later, but they were 200 yards away and running.  He made a very good decision to not take a shot at one of them.

He came in about an hour and a half later, we got ready and went to church.  Later he went out again, then we walked through the woods behind him in hopes of pushing something out to him.  Nothing was there, so I sat with him in his blind for the rest of the afternoon.  He was getting cold around five.  I kept telling him that the deer will be moving soon and he needed to stick it out a little bit more.  It was really snowing by then and it wasn’t long before we saw two deer moving towards my property.  Alex really wanted to shoot a deer this year, this first year of his hunting.  He was watching and waiting for them to come our way, but they didn’t.  Then two more came out.  They stood out there a long time, some 200 yards away.  But with the weather, it was very hard to see them.  He just didn’t have a very good shot.  So we came in around 6 and he went in empty handed for the year.  He is really disappointed, and I guess my own experiences are no consolation for him.  I guess he doesn’t want to be as patient as I’ve been.  But it is good for him to learn patience.  I do know that he has shown some very good judgment hunting this year.  He passed up a few chances to get a deer because of dangerous or potentially dangerous situations.  He is  showing some very good responsibility.

I’ve been hunting for 25 years, though because of the military and a year of college out of state, I’ve only been able to hunt 19 of those seasons.  When I was in high school, I missed a buck, several years ago, maybe even 11 years ago, I missed two bucks with my shot gun.  The next year I shot a doe on the very last day of the extended doe season.

This year, I’ve been seeing a lot of buck activity in my field.  Nine days before the season started, I saw four bucks in the same part of my field.  That made me excited, anxious.  Well, on opening day I saw 13 deer, #13 being a little spike.  My son and I both let him go.  I was proud of him for doing that.  Spikes will be bigger next year.  The next few times out I only saw a few does.  Tonight I left my office at 4:50pm, went to Plumbs to buy cat food because if I didn’t feed the cats before I went out, they follow me out.  I came home and changed quickly before walking out to my blind.  On the way out, I saw three does.  They saw me and took off.  Once I got sat down, the wind picked up, I was thinking “Man is it cold, I am cold, what am I doing out here?”  I readjusted my hat and stuck with it, after all, since I got such a late start, I wouldn’t be out that long anyway.  As I sat there watching and waiting it was getting darker and darker.  Then I noticed a shape.  I looked at it through the scope and the shape was a deer.  I watched it walk in closer, hoping for antlers.  I just couldn’t see any.  Once I thought “was that an antler?”  I kept watching and hoping.  It changed direction a little, wait, was that an antler?  Oh wow, it is, that is a buck.  As I clicked the safety off, he started to trot.  Shoot, a running deer, I really don’t want to shoot at a running deer, but he isn’t going very fast.  Maybe if I just keep pace with him I can take the shot.  Bang, flash of red, huge cloud of smoke, where did he go?  I can’t see anything running away from here.  Where did he go?  A scan of the hilltop with the scope doesn’t show anything.  Wait, is that a pile of horse manure?  That pile wasn’t there earlier.  More magnification with the scope, sure looks like a pile of manure, but it wasn’t there earlier.  That has to be him.  I quickly got out of my blind and walked over there.  I was nearly on top of him before I could see him.  I did hit him, in fact I dropped him where he was.  I don’t know how in the world I dropped him, but he fell right down.  I nudged him to make sure he was dead.  I looked to see if there was breathing.  I grabbed onto his horn and drug him about 10 yards.  Changed my hand position and drug him another 10 yards.  Then I thought, he is dead, why am I dragging him, he is in an open field.  I can go get my truck, besides, I didn’t bring my knife, I need to field dress him out in the field so there is less mess near the house.  So I dropped him there and went and got the truck, field dressed him by headlights and then Jesse came out to see where I was so long after dark and helped me put him in truck and we drove up for photos. The buck should have been a six point, but ended up as a five.