Classic Morning
This morning I walked into the woods around 7:30. No need for a flashlight. I moved down the hardwoods a few hundred yards to a ladder stand that has been leaning against a pine for years. 21 degrees and cloudy made for great viewing with no glare off the snow as the sun came up. Around 8 ish, I saw movement way down the woods. Over time, ( as it can only drag out as you wait for a deer to come in you have see from a distance...) 6 does came in to a known location 60 yards from me. 60 yards of saplings and trees. I was betting they would come from there move past me on a 4 wheeler trail that leads them to a 3 way intersection offering 30- 80 yard shots.
Not sticking to the plan
I failed to consider that some of the doe's may not use the trail. As they started to move my way the 2 first ones were cutting up towards me. I was already turned the right way but having been in a semi-ready/gun 1/2 way to my eye damn it this gun is getting heavy position, I wondered how long I could go undetected from a 12 foot ladder stand and five of the six does being from 10 ft to 40 yards and there was something behind me down the woods that kept getting their attention.
Everyone look away...
A noise from a farm a country block away in the opposite direction caused all of them to look that way. Can you believe that out of those now 6 deer only 1 was offering a clean shot at about 35-40 yards down hill. I swung to just behind her shoulder to the heart/lung, took one more quick look around and fired. The deer exploded all around my peripheral vision but I stayed glued on the doe I has just shot. Shit. She hunched the back half of her back and ran 10 yards into the brush and dead fall. She was now about 50 yards out. I waited 15 min. Smoked a Swisher Sweet and climbed down after reloading. By now she was laying down but her head was looking all around. Shit. I knew where I had held but she sure did look gut shot. I knew I had to back out and let her lay. I would not have been able to sneak up and get a second clean shot with the dead-fall.
Correction.
"Over time, ( as it can only drag out as you wait for a deer to come in you have see from a distance...) "
is wrong. Waiting 2-6 hours for a gut shot deer to die so you don't push it away is really when time drags out.
I could not figure out what happened but I knew she was hit hard. After 3 hours Jeff and I drove down the the outside area of the woods and walked in slowly. I knew where she was last laying and saw her from now higher ground. Glassing her out I saw her head down, eye open and no lung movement. I still came in quiet but she was dead although not for long. I was glad I had given her the 3 hour. I bet she had only been gone for 30-60 min.
O say can you see.
We got her out of the brush and onto the trail. We could now see the shot. I hit her pretty much where I had held however a little further back by a inch or two. The exit however came out in the white hair just where the inside rear leg turns into body. I caught 1 lung, some liver and a little gut. She was either turned more than I remember or was moving when I shot quartering TOO me.
This morning I walked into the woods around 7:30. No need for a flashlight. I moved down the hardwoods a few hundred yards to a ladder stand that has been leaning against a pine for years. 21 degrees and cloudy made for great viewing with no glare off the snow as the sun came up. Around 8 ish, I saw movement way down the woods. Over time, ( as it can only drag out as you wait for a deer to come in you have see from a distance...) 6 does came in to a known location 60 yards from me. 60 yards of saplings and trees. I was betting they would come from there move past me on a 4 wheeler trail that leads them to a 3 way intersection offering 30- 80 yard shots.
Not sticking to the plan
I failed to consider that some of the doe's may not use the trail. As they started to move my way the 2 first ones were cutting up towards me. I was already turned the right way but having been in a semi-ready/gun 1/2 way to my eye damn it this gun is getting heavy position, I wondered how long I could go undetected from a 12 foot ladder stand and five of the six does being from 10 ft to 40 yards and there was something behind me down the woods that kept getting their attention.
Everyone look away...
A noise from a farm a country block away in the opposite direction caused all of them to look that way. Can you believe that out of those now 6 deer only 1 was offering a clean shot at about 35-40 yards down hill. I swung to just behind her shoulder to the heart/lung, took one more quick look around and fired. The deer exploded all around my peripheral vision but I stayed glued on the doe I has just shot. Shit. She hunched the back half of her back and ran 10 yards into the brush and dead fall. She was now about 50 yards out. I waited 15 min. Smoked a Swisher Sweet and climbed down after reloading. By now she was laying down but her head was looking all around. Shit. I knew where I had held but she sure did look gut shot. I knew I had to back out and let her lay. I would not have been able to sneak up and get a second clean shot with the dead-fall.
Correction.
"Over time, ( as it can only drag out as you wait for a deer to come in you have see from a distance...) "
is wrong. Waiting 2-6 hours for a gut shot deer to die so you don't push it away is really when time drags out.
I could not figure out what happened but I knew she was hit hard. After 3 hours Jeff and I drove down the the outside area of the woods and walked in slowly. I knew where she was last laying and saw her from now higher ground. Glassing her out I saw her head down, eye open and no lung movement. I still came in quiet but she was dead although not for long. I was glad I had given her the 3 hour. I bet she had only been gone for 30-60 min.
O say can you see.
We got her out of the brush and onto the trail. We could now see the shot. I hit her pretty much where I had held however a little further back by a inch or two. The exit however came out in the white hair just where the inside rear leg turns into body. I caught 1 lung, some liver and a little gut. She was either turned more than I remember or was moving when I shot quartering TOO me.
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ickle::smiley_clap:Way TOO go Jim! Thanks for not dragging it out as well!lol
