truck driver
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2012
- Messages
- 168
Not being able to hunt due to prior business commitments and a broken ankle I hadn't hunted regularly for about 10yrs and decided I would give it my best effort this year.
All the farms I hunted on in the past have been developed and those that haven't no longer allow hunting due to the housing developments being too close so I was regulated to find a place on public hunting land in the local water shed. Public land can be a hard hunt with over crowding and over hunting but if your willing to work at it you can still kill a decent deer.
While scouting an area I found a nice scrape and rub line that looked to be active so I decided that I would set up off one of the scrapes on opening day which was only a day off.
Got up early and drove to the parking area near where I was going to hunt and was in the woods and set up by Dark 0530 it would be light enough to shoot by 0630 so I had an hour for things to settle down and wait. As the sun came up so did the wind and by 0830 it was blowing fairly hard. I saw another hunter moving around and decide I had been cut off and because of the wind I picked up to move to a location out of the wind as deer would be also.
Crossed a ridge which had a laurel thicket on the other side and eased thru the thicket to find a spot to sit down be side a nice size tree. I thought I should check my cell phone in case there was an emergency at home that I needed to tend to. While looking at the phone I thought now is when a deer would step out which would just be my luck.
I had just put the phone away when a nice size Doe stepped out to my left about 80yds away but stopped behind some saplings out of sight and didn't provide a shot. While watching where she was another Doe stepped out and stopped behind some saplings obscuring the vital areas and the only clear shot I had was at the neck and head.
Resting my elbow on my knee I decide it would be the best shot I would get and also knew the rifle was capable to place the bullet where I aimed if I was steady enough, well I wasn't stead enough and missed it cleanly as it took off at the crack of the rifle and out of sight.
The first Doe ran towards me and stopped about 50yds in front of me giving me a easy broad side shot but turned to look where the second Doe had ran to giving me my least favorite target, a Texas Heart shot which I normally won't take but was hungry for some tasty venison and I knew the 35 Whelen Ackely Improved with a 225gr Nosler Partition would get the job done from Stern to stem.
At the shot she dropped in her tracks but I had to finish her since the bullet failed to reach the vitals which surprised me at first till I dressed her out and found that the bullet had struck the H bone on the right side and crossed over to the left plowing threw the ribs and exiting behind the chest cavity. The bullet had also missed the guts so I was thankful for that since I was expecting a mess when I dressed her out.
I drug her out to my truck which was park a mile away and brought her home to wash out ,skin and hang to cool down.
While skinning her out I was afraid the legs wouldn't hold together since the H bone was destroyed but the meat held it together.
After quartering the next day I started cutting her up and boned the right leg out which I found that the femur had been shattered but wasn't struck by a bullet since there was no evidence of a bullet cavity or exit wound. Since the H bone and hip bone was destroyed by the impact of the 225gr Partition I feel that the force must have fractured the femur which looked like a compound fracture. Bullet velocity for the load had been chronographed at 2780fps 10' from the muzzle. I could have pushed it faster but this was the most accurate load giving 1/2" groups at 100yds.
Even with what looked like massive damage to the bones that where struck there was very little meat damage and I only lost about 1 pound of meat and there was very little blood shot meat that had to be discarded.
All the farms I hunted on in the past have been developed and those that haven't no longer allow hunting due to the housing developments being too close so I was regulated to find a place on public hunting land in the local water shed. Public land can be a hard hunt with over crowding and over hunting but if your willing to work at it you can still kill a decent deer.
While scouting an area I found a nice scrape and rub line that looked to be active so I decided that I would set up off one of the scrapes on opening day which was only a day off.
Got up early and drove to the parking area near where I was going to hunt and was in the woods and set up by Dark 0530 it would be light enough to shoot by 0630 so I had an hour for things to settle down and wait. As the sun came up so did the wind and by 0830 it was blowing fairly hard. I saw another hunter moving around and decide I had been cut off and because of the wind I picked up to move to a location out of the wind as deer would be also.
Crossed a ridge which had a laurel thicket on the other side and eased thru the thicket to find a spot to sit down be side a nice size tree. I thought I should check my cell phone in case there was an emergency at home that I needed to tend to. While looking at the phone I thought now is when a deer would step out which would just be my luck.
I had just put the phone away when a nice size Doe stepped out to my left about 80yds away but stopped behind some saplings out of sight and didn't provide a shot. While watching where she was another Doe stepped out and stopped behind some saplings obscuring the vital areas and the only clear shot I had was at the neck and head.
Resting my elbow on my knee I decide it would be the best shot I would get and also knew the rifle was capable to place the bullet where I aimed if I was steady enough, well I wasn't stead enough and missed it cleanly as it took off at the crack of the rifle and out of sight.
The first Doe ran towards me and stopped about 50yds in front of me giving me a easy broad side shot but turned to look where the second Doe had ran to giving me my least favorite target, a Texas Heart shot which I normally won't take but was hungry for some tasty venison and I knew the 35 Whelen Ackely Improved with a 225gr Nosler Partition would get the job done from Stern to stem.
At the shot she dropped in her tracks but I had to finish her since the bullet failed to reach the vitals which surprised me at first till I dressed her out and found that the bullet had struck the H bone on the right side and crossed over to the left plowing threw the ribs and exiting behind the chest cavity. The bullet had also missed the guts so I was thankful for that since I was expecting a mess when I dressed her out.
I drug her out to my truck which was park a mile away and brought her home to wash out ,skin and hang to cool down.
While skinning her out I was afraid the legs wouldn't hold together since the H bone was destroyed but the meat held it together.
After quartering the next day I started cutting her up and boned the right leg out which I found that the femur had been shattered but wasn't struck by a bullet since there was no evidence of a bullet cavity or exit wound. Since the H bone and hip bone was destroyed by the impact of the 225gr Partition I feel that the force must have fractured the femur which looked like a compound fracture. Bullet velocity for the load had been chronographed at 2780fps 10' from the muzzle. I could have pushed it faster but this was the most accurate load giving 1/2" groups at 100yds.
Even with what looked like massive damage to the bones that where struck there was very little meat damage and I only lost about 1 pound of meat and there was very little blood shot meat that had to be discarded.
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