CBRHunter
11-17-2007, 10:51 PM
Well on top of having a wonderful waterfowl season (only our second ever), I've also managed to fill my first 2 deer tags! One a MD doe draw I had, and just on Thurs was able to knock a WT buck also! Enjoy:
Nov 1 was my first deer hunt, first time with a tag in my pocket and rifle in my hand. I've been the scout on others but getting out of the truck to look for my own deer sure was an awesome feeling. We were so eager to get out to my draw zone (mulie doe) that we were an hour before hunting light! Oh well we'll check things out and calm down a bit. So there we are getting into our gear with the 15 min countdown and what walks by our truck - a nice 8-10 pt buck! Oh wow...we're in the deer!!
So we figure he's probably on the prowl for does and that must mean they're close, but upon further glassing....he was being kicked out by this pig of a buck surrounded by like 15 does!! What a start. So off on a hike we go, but in rookie eagerness we took a crappy line to them and had to crawl for an hour to get within distance. Good workout, but...So we finally get to where I was smacking the target nicely @ 200 yrds from the deer and I get ready to line up a shot from my knee and..can't see 'f' all bc of the foilage. So Dustin offers his shoulder as a rest and we get a little higher. Ok..what a difference it makes having a deer in the sights! I line up, take a ton of deep breaths and boom! Dirt underneath her flies and she jumps, runs about 20 ft and they all turn to us and slowly wander north. Crap!! Ok the stalk is on and I decide I need to get a lot closer...target practice is way easier!
As we're planning the new stalk a nice group of 4 does gathers east of us so we change our plan and sneak up on them. Here's where I decided that mulies aren't so smart. As I'm crawling to get closer the biggest doe starts walking toward me to check me out. Well hell if you're going to do that I set up for a shot and she stops about 140yrds away broadside. I breath, set up on my knee and get her in my sights, however just as I shoot a strong wind comes up, she turns a bit and we hear a faint "whap" and see the hillside dirt clump a bit but she just jumps and they all take off, including the pig buck who was bedded down over a little knoll. We watch them and she gets passed by the rest of the little herd and decides not to jump the fence and goes and beds down. Ohhh I think I got her! So off to the shot site for blood sign and what not. After 1/2 hr there isn't any sign and we decide to head to where she is laying down. We get within 300yrd of her and she jumps up and takes off over the fence....wtf!? Ok so we go track her trail and look for blood, nothing but only very faint possible blood in a little patch of grass. While all this is happening a C.O. pulls up near the field and watches us for a while then takes off. So we head to the truck to drive a few fields over and see if she met up with her herd. We meet up with the C.O. not 200 yrds from the group. Chat with him for a while about what happened and he said she joined up late but looked pretty ok, suggested we watch them for a while then try and take her again and then he left and wished me good luck in filling my tag.
Ok we watch them for a couple hours and they keep rearanging their bedding order and we lose track of the doe, so off on a sneak we go again to try and get them to stand. They spook and while counting them notice one is missing I stand and then pop up comes this big doe slowly but then quickly joins the others....crap, I try for a running shot but this was stupid as I shot like 20ft behind her...deer are way harder to hit with a rifle than ducks with a shotgun! She joins her herd at the top of the hill and heads off with them. We glass her and can't see any vital or gut wounds and head to the bed spot and can't see any blood or wound sign. We track them back to their orignal bed spot and decide to go home for lunch and a bit of an adreneline calm down.
After some food and thinking and praying to the deer gods we head back out to get this doe. When we get there we spot the herd miles away and get out prepared for a trek. But as we're walking about a km away from the road we spot a deer bedding down who's walking a bit goofy (weird head movement) and is huge. We decide to check her out, so sneak mode it is. And what a sneak it is!! After looking at the deer we also spot a smaller one bedded down a little ways away from the other one. Neither one knows we're coming bc a harsh north wind picked up and we're very well covered in the tall grass, and they're hidden behind some scrub brush and tumble weeds. We sneak to within 50 yrds before she realizes we're there and lifts her head. We stop and wait. She decides to stand and I peek over the brush and see that she's looking right at me, I also see that she's nicked in the neck but not bleeding or too wounded - so that's what happened earlier, she was stunned, probably her neck hurt, but totally survivable. I also can only see her head and neck and now we're like 30 yrds away, but after dumb mistakes this afternoon I don't want to wound her again or have to track her or spook her into a full out run. She's kinda cornered and the way we snuck there is a corridor for her to head to to my right and I recalled that after my morning shots all the deer would run about 20yrds then stop and look in the direction. I decide to try something unorthidox. I give her a 'warning' shot into the ground behind her/over her. Dustin pipes up 'how the heck did you miss her by that much!' and I think he is really dissapointed, but I tell him it was a warning shot, he's very confused! But like I thought she runs to about 80yrds from me and stops, turns broadside and looks at me. Holy crap - served on a platter if I miss this I', hanging up the gun before it ever gets a chance to take a deer. I kneel down to steady the gun but can't see anything again bc of the brush....I realize I have to take this shot standing up. Whew...deep breaths, line her up, and BAM! WHAP! DROP!! It was like a freakin hunting video where the deer just hits the ground...it was so awesome! The whole day finally came together and I did it...I took my first deer! And then time took forever to move, finally we go to her and I was in awe, can't even describe how proud I was, what a feeling! I tag her and then take a look, she was nicked in the neck, maybe 1/2 deep graze fresh, and then we take a look at the boiler room. I couldn't have placed it better if I walked up and put the bullet there, boiler room, right behind the shoulder through and through shot! Upon cleaning her it was a heart shot! That little 6.5 x 55 sure did pack a wallop!!
My mulie doe
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k255/cbrhunter/IMG_3320.jpg
Nov 1 was my first deer hunt, first time with a tag in my pocket and rifle in my hand. I've been the scout on others but getting out of the truck to look for my own deer sure was an awesome feeling. We were so eager to get out to my draw zone (mulie doe) that we were an hour before hunting light! Oh well we'll check things out and calm down a bit. So there we are getting into our gear with the 15 min countdown and what walks by our truck - a nice 8-10 pt buck! Oh wow...we're in the deer!!
So we figure he's probably on the prowl for does and that must mean they're close, but upon further glassing....he was being kicked out by this pig of a buck surrounded by like 15 does!! What a start. So off on a hike we go, but in rookie eagerness we took a crappy line to them and had to crawl for an hour to get within distance. Good workout, but...So we finally get to where I was smacking the target nicely @ 200 yrds from the deer and I get ready to line up a shot from my knee and..can't see 'f' all bc of the foilage. So Dustin offers his shoulder as a rest and we get a little higher. Ok..what a difference it makes having a deer in the sights! I line up, take a ton of deep breaths and boom! Dirt underneath her flies and she jumps, runs about 20 ft and they all turn to us and slowly wander north. Crap!! Ok the stalk is on and I decide I need to get a lot closer...target practice is way easier!
As we're planning the new stalk a nice group of 4 does gathers east of us so we change our plan and sneak up on them. Here's where I decided that mulies aren't so smart. As I'm crawling to get closer the biggest doe starts walking toward me to check me out. Well hell if you're going to do that I set up for a shot and she stops about 140yrds away broadside. I breath, set up on my knee and get her in my sights, however just as I shoot a strong wind comes up, she turns a bit and we hear a faint "whap" and see the hillside dirt clump a bit but she just jumps and they all take off, including the pig buck who was bedded down over a little knoll. We watch them and she gets passed by the rest of the little herd and decides not to jump the fence and goes and beds down. Ohhh I think I got her! So off to the shot site for blood sign and what not. After 1/2 hr there isn't any sign and we decide to head to where she is laying down. We get within 300yrd of her and she jumps up and takes off over the fence....wtf!? Ok so we go track her trail and look for blood, nothing but only very faint possible blood in a little patch of grass. While all this is happening a C.O. pulls up near the field and watches us for a while then takes off. So we head to the truck to drive a few fields over and see if she met up with her herd. We meet up with the C.O. not 200 yrds from the group. Chat with him for a while about what happened and he said she joined up late but looked pretty ok, suggested we watch them for a while then try and take her again and then he left and wished me good luck in filling my tag.
Ok we watch them for a couple hours and they keep rearanging their bedding order and we lose track of the doe, so off on a sneak we go again to try and get them to stand. They spook and while counting them notice one is missing I stand and then pop up comes this big doe slowly but then quickly joins the others....crap, I try for a running shot but this was stupid as I shot like 20ft behind her...deer are way harder to hit with a rifle than ducks with a shotgun! She joins her herd at the top of the hill and heads off with them. We glass her and can't see any vital or gut wounds and head to the bed spot and can't see any blood or wound sign. We track them back to their orignal bed spot and decide to go home for lunch and a bit of an adreneline calm down.
After some food and thinking and praying to the deer gods we head back out to get this doe. When we get there we spot the herd miles away and get out prepared for a trek. But as we're walking about a km away from the road we spot a deer bedding down who's walking a bit goofy (weird head movement) and is huge. We decide to check her out, so sneak mode it is. And what a sneak it is!! After looking at the deer we also spot a smaller one bedded down a little ways away from the other one. Neither one knows we're coming bc a harsh north wind picked up and we're very well covered in the tall grass, and they're hidden behind some scrub brush and tumble weeds. We sneak to within 50 yrds before she realizes we're there and lifts her head. We stop and wait. She decides to stand and I peek over the brush and see that she's looking right at me, I also see that she's nicked in the neck but not bleeding or too wounded - so that's what happened earlier, she was stunned, probably her neck hurt, but totally survivable. I also can only see her head and neck and now we're like 30 yrds away, but after dumb mistakes this afternoon I don't want to wound her again or have to track her or spook her into a full out run. She's kinda cornered and the way we snuck there is a corridor for her to head to to my right and I recalled that after my morning shots all the deer would run about 20yrds then stop and look in the direction. I decide to try something unorthidox. I give her a 'warning' shot into the ground behind her/over her. Dustin pipes up 'how the heck did you miss her by that much!' and I think he is really dissapointed, but I tell him it was a warning shot, he's very confused! But like I thought she runs to about 80yrds from me and stops, turns broadside and looks at me. Holy crap - served on a platter if I miss this I', hanging up the gun before it ever gets a chance to take a deer. I kneel down to steady the gun but can't see anything again bc of the brush....I realize I have to take this shot standing up. Whew...deep breaths, line her up, and BAM! WHAP! DROP!! It was like a freakin hunting video where the deer just hits the ground...it was so awesome! The whole day finally came together and I did it...I took my first deer! And then time took forever to move, finally we go to her and I was in awe, can't even describe how proud I was, what a feeling! I tag her and then take a look, she was nicked in the neck, maybe 1/2 deep graze fresh, and then we take a look at the boiler room. I couldn't have placed it better if I walked up and put the bullet there, boiler room, right behind the shoulder through and through shot! Upon cleaning her it was a heart shot! That little 6.5 x 55 sure did pack a wallop!!
My mulie doe
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k255/cbrhunter/IMG_3320.jpg