HuntnID
Well-Known Member
Well, I realize it's February 10th and most of us have been done hunting big game for a couple months now. I know I always enjoy reading about everybodyelses hunts and seeing pictures of the animals they have taken. For these two reasons, I figured I would upload a video and tell the story of the deer I shot this year.
It was by no means a monster buck but fortunately for the buck and for me, it was the last day of the season and I had not shot anything yet...I say fortunately for the buck because after we glassed this buck, we realized it had been crippled and there is absolutely no way he was going to make it off the hillside he was on. His fate was likely going to be death by coyote/starvation but boy did I have a deal for him....death by 300 Sierra Matchking.
Like I said, it was it was the very last day of deer season and I had held out on shooting anything, not so much because I was holding out for a monster buck but mostly because I had been having a lot of fun going out, getting better at glassing and seeing deer. I do recall it was a Sunday(I note that because it seems everything we shoot is on a Sunday, no clue why), and it was very foggy and a drizzling rain had been coming down all morning. I did not expect to see much out in the clearings but we were gonna make the best of our deer season and bad day hunting is better than a day anywhere else in my book.
Most of the glassing we were doing was from the truck, three large men stacked in an extended cab pickup does not make for a comfortable day.
We were glassing a very brushy clearcut and my dad spotted a deer that I later ranged at 680 yards. A closer look through the spotting scope showed it to be a small buck.
My brother and I began planning the logistics of the shot and concluded it was too windy to shoot that far so we snuck up the road and were able to find another clearing that was only 450 yards from the deer.
While we were watching the deer we realized it was only using three legs to walk. The clearcut the deer was in had a lot of windfalls and brush that made for a tough shot. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the deer to work its way out of a brush patch and into a position I could make a shot.
The deer was slowly moving behind a fallen log when I found an acceptable shot. There was a vertical branch a bit behind his shoulder and so I decided to center punch him in the shoulder and get him put down.
I touched the shot off and nothing happened. The deer didn't move and only lifted his head out of curiosity. After a moment of shock and double checking, we saw that my bullet had hit an alder 30 feet in front of me and no larger than dime; it didn't even make it to the hillside the deer was on. I was able to adjust my position a bit and shoot again. The shot his slightly more forward than intended but still dropped the deer in his tracks.
When we got over to the deer, we saw that he had been shot in the right knee and in the nuts. Really, I felt like I had done the guy a favor by shooting. I did learn a lesson that day: Check your shooting lane carefully. I had become focused on the shooting lane the deer was in that I didn't pay much attention to the brush close by.
I have attached a combination of video clips my brother was able to take of the deer.
http://youtu.be/wA5b-q1zEaE
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wA5b-q1zEaE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wA5b-q1zEaE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It was by no means a monster buck but fortunately for the buck and for me, it was the last day of the season and I had not shot anything yet...I say fortunately for the buck because after we glassed this buck, we realized it had been crippled and there is absolutely no way he was going to make it off the hillside he was on. His fate was likely going to be death by coyote/starvation but boy did I have a deal for him....death by 300 Sierra Matchking.
Like I said, it was it was the very last day of deer season and I had held out on shooting anything, not so much because I was holding out for a monster buck but mostly because I had been having a lot of fun going out, getting better at glassing and seeing deer. I do recall it was a Sunday(I note that because it seems everything we shoot is on a Sunday, no clue why), and it was very foggy and a drizzling rain had been coming down all morning. I did not expect to see much out in the clearings but we were gonna make the best of our deer season and bad day hunting is better than a day anywhere else in my book.
Most of the glassing we were doing was from the truck, three large men stacked in an extended cab pickup does not make for a comfortable day.
We were glassing a very brushy clearcut and my dad spotted a deer that I later ranged at 680 yards. A closer look through the spotting scope showed it to be a small buck.
My brother and I began planning the logistics of the shot and concluded it was too windy to shoot that far so we snuck up the road and were able to find another clearing that was only 450 yards from the deer.
While we were watching the deer we realized it was only using three legs to walk. The clearcut the deer was in had a lot of windfalls and brush that made for a tough shot. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the deer to work its way out of a brush patch and into a position I could make a shot.
The deer was slowly moving behind a fallen log when I found an acceptable shot. There was a vertical branch a bit behind his shoulder and so I decided to center punch him in the shoulder and get him put down.
I touched the shot off and nothing happened. The deer didn't move and only lifted his head out of curiosity. After a moment of shock and double checking, we saw that my bullet had hit an alder 30 feet in front of me and no larger than dime; it didn't even make it to the hillside the deer was on. I was able to adjust my position a bit and shoot again. The shot his slightly more forward than intended but still dropped the deer in his tracks.
When we got over to the deer, we saw that he had been shot in the right knee and in the nuts. Really, I felt like I had done the guy a favor by shooting. I did learn a lesson that day: Check your shooting lane carefully. I had become focused on the shooting lane the deer was in that I didn't pay much attention to the brush close by.
I have attached a combination of video clips my brother was able to take of the deer.
http://youtu.be/wA5b-q1zEaE
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wA5b-q1zEaE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wA5b-q1zEaE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
