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It Only Takes One

LonewolfNopack

Junior Member
1,503
127
The woods
Let me start off by saying that I hate typing, and would much rather tell every single one of you the story in person rather then taking an hour to type it.:smiley_crocodile:

With that said, here is my story.


It has been another really slow year for me. By really slow, I mean close to 150 hours in the stand with only about 15 different deer spotted. I keep close stats of my hunts and will figure out the exact number of hours hunted and deer seen later this winter, but for now the numbers I gave are pretty accurate. It started out slow with a 5 day trip to Vinton county and not seeing a single deer the whole trip, and it pretty much stayed that way the entire season. Many long sits in the stand only watching leaves blow, in areas that in the not too distant past use to keep me pretty entertained with deer. There is a lot more I could fill in here, but for the sake of me not liking to type, I will fast forward to Monday evening.

After a frustrating morning hunt, I moved to another property. This property had been my honey hole in years past, but this year the well had seemingly run dry. The weekend of youth gun, I realized why when I drove by and saw that two hunters had taken up solid residence sitting directly on the property line bordering the CRP field that I had been hunting. In the past, nobody ever had permission to hunt this property and it was a sanctuary of sorts for the deer. When I drove by on Monday, once again the same truck was there and the same two guys were perched on the property line. Frustrated, I debated cutting wood right on the property line. I finally calmed down and decided to just sneak over to my stand, and hope for the best. As frustrating as it was, they have permission from the landowner to be there, and there is nothing I could do about it. I didn't want to risk walking through the CRP to cut wood and scaring something out to them. I was settled into my stand later then hoped for, around 2 pm. At 2 30 I noticed a doe bedded 250 yards away directly behind someones back yard. Soon after, I see a buck stand, milling around right behind these people yard! It was a highly unusual place to see a deer, yet highly expected. This is how these deer survive. This buck had the doe locked down tight in an area that would easily be overlooked by even the most keen hunter. I watched the two of them stand up and lay back down for about an hour. Around 3 30 I see the buck take off running towards me, and quickly noticed that the doe is in front of him. It wasn't long until he began grunting and dogging her pretty hard. I turned in my stand, and prepared for the shot as I watched the deer approaching the 100 yard mark. I zoomed in my scope for the highest magnification, and placed the cross hairs on the bucks chest. I was sitting down, and had my arm rested on my leg to steady the gun. It soon occurred to me however, that my leg was shaking so badly, there was no way I could steady for a shot!! I have never shook that bad in my life. There was no way I was going to shoot free hand at 100 yards, so all I could do was calm myself and hope they would come closer.
 
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LonewolfNopack

Junior Member
1,503
127
The woods
Sure enough, like a wild hair was in her butt, the doe took off running right in my direction, and was soon stopped 40 yards in front of me. The buck was right behind her. They had ran kind of at an angle, and so I had to turn my gun and body to the right if I wanted to shoot. It just so happened that there was a tree branch right in front of me and in order to get on them with the gun, I had to lift the gun up and around the tree branch since they were no longer directly in front of me and had ran at an angle. As I lifted the gun around the branch, the doe spotted me and quickly blew at me and took off. My heart started to sink. The buck had not spotted me but he was on extremely alert since his girlfriend just got spooked by something. I knew he was going to run soon. It was now or never!! I put my head down and looked through the scope of my 870 20 gauge and was horrified that all I could see was grass! I simply could not find the buck in the scope. The magnification was still turned all the way up from when the buck was originally 100 yards out, and now it was zoomed in way to close. I slowly grabbed the adjustment ring and turned it down several clicks. Finally the buck appeared in my scope! He was just about ready to run when I fired the first shot. Boom!!! The shot seemed good as the buck took off. He was running right towards the two guys on the property line, about 120 yards from where my stand was. I quickly ejected the shell and shot at him again while he was running. This second shot dropped him right in his tracks. He flipped head over hills and laid on his back motionless. I think he may have kicked once. I bet those other guys could hear me gasp when I watched him laying their motionless, not quite yet grasping what had just happened so fast. I sat in stand for 10 minutes, thanking God the whole time. I climbed down, and when I reached the ground I put another shell in the gun, "just in case". I walked directly to where the deer was laying, and when I got about two steps away from him, my jaw dropped as I watched him jump up, as though resurected from the dead, and take off running again!!
 
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LonewolfNopack

Junior Member
1,503
127
The woods
Once I got my bearings and realized what had just happened, I raised my gun and fired my 3rd shot into him, hoping to hit him anywhere at this point knowing he was already shot twice and wounded badly, and was running right to the other hunters. I was so startled, I am not sure how much aiming was involved in this shot. He continued to run, and I will never forget seeing the big rack going through there with 10 lbs of grass caught up in his rack from where he had just taken a dirt nap 10 minutes before. Stunned, in disbelief and not sure about what to do next, I just sat down in a shock. After making a few texts and calls to some fellow friends and members of the site, as well as others, I followed the dismal blood trail to the last point I lost sight of him. Not impressed with the blood, and getting increasingly close to the other two hunters, I decided to back out and wait for a while to look for him. About 20 minutes after dark, I get a call from the landowner. She said that two hunters are in the driveway and that they said someone from the property had shot a deer, and it had been laying dead under their stand for the past 3 hours. I have not had many happier phonecalls in my life!! Apparently after that third shot, the deer made it about 60 yards before piling up. The deer had just crossed the property line and the other hunter was getting ready to shoot him when the deer dropped dead right under his stand.

There were MANY close calls on this hunt, so many things that could have went wrong. Not spooking the deer, not getting a shot at the deer, not finding him in my scope, not finding him after he came back to life, etc. The final one is what if this guy had decided he wanted this big rack for himself, and simply took the deer and never said a word about it?? Still sends chills down my spine thinking of all the "what ifs". All I can say is I was so fortunate that day, and oh yah even when you have almost zero deer to hunt, you have to remember it only takes one to turn your entire season around. That is really the only way I stayed in the stand all season, was with that thought in my head and in my heart.

BTW,

I have pics of this deer when he was 1.5, 3.5, 4.5 and also this year when he was 5.5. The brows give him away. I thought I had him when he was 2.5 as well but I think I was mistaken. I never name deer and try not to grow too attached to them, but it was cool to have known this deer has been around using this area pretty much all of his life. In an area where there are more hunters then deer, that is amazing for me to think about. I would say maybe even an act of God. Some deer's will and means for survival is unreal. I will have to sort through my flash drive to find them all, but once I do I will post them up as well.
 
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LonewolfNopack

Junior Member
1,503
127
The woods
Thanks everyone. I forgot to mention one of my first thoughts after laying hands on the deer was how much I would really have liked to have found his sheds this spring.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Unreal! Outstanding job well done! Congratulations.

One thought: Just goes to show there are still some decent people out there. Those guys easily could have drug that stud to their truck without saying a word. Good for them for their actions. Better for you though. haha
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Congratulations again, Seth. Having lived through many nearly deerless years, I appreciate fully what you went through to get that big rascal. He is one fantastic deer, well done!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
After the long deerless season that you've had in the way of sightings and long hours logged you deserved this pig! That's a great deer buddy and couldn't be any happier for you! Great read and hunt!

Perseverance helps kill big deer! Way TOO stick with it!

Congrats buddy!