Joe's 2nd Deer
Mood:
vegas lucky
Topic: Joe
They had a youth deer season this weekend. Joe and I went to the Powells to hunt. Parked the truck at the edge of the field and walked to the woodline. Some of the corn at the edge of field had not been harvested yet. So our plan was to wait at the edge of woodline until 7:30 when it was legal to hunt. Once it was time, I would walk thru the corn and Joe would walk parellel to me along the woodline. If any deer were browsing in the corn, they should make a break for the woodline and Joe would be able to take a shot.
We had about 20 minutes before it was legal to hunt. So we sat down on a couple of rocks and waited by a small stream. We heard the screech of a hawk and heard some squirrels chattering in the tree's as we waited. It gradually became lighter and finally it was time to commence the hunt. I remember commenting to Joe that we had two things in our favor. The air was still - hardly any breeze at all, and it had rained recently, so the leaves were not noisy.
Picture an L. Joe and I are at the tip of the shorter leg of the L away from the corner. The truck is parked at the furtherest point away from that corner. There is woods bordering the open field to outside of the L, there is a partially harvested cornfield to the inside of the L. As we walk out of the woods, I let Joe go first. He spots a deer in the open field close to the truck - about 400 yards away. Definitely has antlers. We later remarked that we could have just sat in the truck and got this buck. It was casually browsing and walked within about 50 feet of the truck. It disappeared in some brush and walked out the other side and went out of sight into the unharvested corn. It was headed to the top of the L when we lost sight of it. It was too far away for a shot with the slug rifle - they are only good to about 100 yards.
I walked up to Joe who had crouched down. "It is probably headed to bed down in the woods, let's follow along the edge of the unharvested corn and see if we can get a shot when it walks out of the corn. We made our way along the corn and made it to the corner of the L where we slowed our pace and started to head up the long portion of the L. Joe was in front and crouched down after going about 100yards. I did likewise, about 20 yards behind him.
I had a set of binoculars and slowly got them out of my pocket and glassed ahead. The field had a gentle rise and Joe was to the top of that rise while I was too far back to get a good look. But the deer had crossed the open space and was walking along the woodline towards us. Finally I spotted him. He was still casually walking, pausing every so often but he definitely had no idea that we were around.
As he got closer, Joe who had his gun in the ready position slowly raised it up and drew a bead. I was trying to stay as still as possible and was even trying to control my breathing - taking shallow breathes. In my mind I was saying shoot, Joe, shoot. But Joe was patient letting the deer gradually get closer and closer. Finally about 100 feet away the deer started to go into the woods at a gap by a rock pile. Joe took his shot. The deer stayed on his feet and turned 180 degree's - he was stunned. Joe chambered another round and and let loose another shot. This round knocked the deer down. It was pretty much out for the count. I commented to Joe that was good shooting since we knew that the sights were off on that gun - it shot to the right, so you had to aim to the left to be on target.
When we got closer we saw that it was nice 7 point buck. When time came to dress the deer, I discovered that I had lost my good knife. Somewhere in all the crouching and walking it must have fallend out of my pocket. I went back to the truck and searched, the only utensil I had was a swiss army knife. That would have to do. I did as best I could but when it came time to break open the chest - the knife just wasn't up to the task. I was afraid that I would just break the blade.
What to do - we drove the truck to the deer and put it in back. We went to the Powells and asked if they had a heavy duty knife we could borrow. And boy was it a knife, a big Martha Stewart kitchen knife. The blade was 12 inches and heavy duty. We drove to an open field and finished field dressing. The swiss army knife did have a saw on it that we were able to use when even the Martha couldn't break the pelvic bone.
Now to check in the deer. We went to a local shop that did the deer check - the guy was also a taxidermist. While he did the checkout, we looked at some his past work. He had a stuffed Panther on a log, a standing beer, coyotes, a wolf, etc. Even a badger. Not to mention some very nice bucks. Joe's buck had a good rack, but not as nice as some of the racks in the shop. I had told Joe that I would do one and only one mount for him if he got a nice buck. We talked about it after leaving the shop, did he want to mount his first deer with antlers. No, let's not mount this one - I think that I can get one even bigger. So I know what we will be doing next fall.
Posted by christ77
at 8:59 AM EST
down
happy
a-ok
not sure
bright
crushed out
celebratory