Post by wilmsmeyer on Nov 27, 2007 11:17:10 GMT -5
On Friday, Nov 23, I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and "Ole split tine" met some copper.
There is quite a story surrounding this deer and the hunt that brought him here. Although not massive, he scores 145 1/4 gross which is pretty good around here.
This is one of the bucks we knew about from bow season. What started as a crispy morning in a swamp turned into a search for this buck that was missed by one of us from 170 yds with a Savage ML-II. That hurts! He ran toward the shooter and borroughed into some nasty, tall swamp "bamboo". He never came out? Was he hit or was he hiding?
Within 2 hrs we all came out of our stands and learned of the situation and began surrounding the area. 2 of the guys slowly converged on the initial POI and found nothing. The guy who shot directed them with hand signals as to where the buck was last seen....only 100 yds from his stand. Nothing at all. I watched this from 200 yds away through bino's. I was on the high bank of a pond overlooking the high grass surrounding that patch of hell that the deer ran into.
Eventually, it seemed as if the buck must have slipped out because he sure could have! The shooter guy came out of his stand and wanted to follow up first hand. The 3 of them stomped around for another 10 minutes and they jumped the buck....almost stepped on him. He went for the lighter yellow grass I was watching and started my way. First saw him at 160-180 yds slowly walking my way. Then he turned toward the creek and walked broadside. Thought he was going to slip us all. Then, for some reason, he turned my way and began loping directly at me. Seeing this was wild.....this stuff doesn't happen very often and it's what you dream of happening!
I had good cover and a wind advantage and decided that after he got within 50 yds I would try and stop him with a "MAAAAHHH". However, He slowed to a walk and stopped at about 60 yds. This was it....a head on shot. Much better then a running one so I took it while down on one knee and connected solidly on the point of the left front shoulder and exited the right rear back.
Load was a 12 ga 2 3/4 in. Barnes 1 oz Expander that shoots almost as good as my Savage out to 100 yds.
The only way I could make this story better would be to tell you that the other guy had made the first shot. He had hunted this swamp all week on a hunch that this buck was down there. His efforts, and the efforts of others, gave me the chance to shoot this buck. So, it comes with and asterisk for me.
i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/wilmsmeyer/11230712341.jpg
As a side note, this buck had suffered a non-gunshot wound that had penetrated his trachea just under his chin. Looked a few days old. He may not have been feeling too good and could explain why it took so long to get him up. Deer are suseptable to the strangest injuries and we're not sure what caused it. A fight? Did he run into a sharp stick? We believe that this wound would have eventually lead to a slow death and a mystery of what ever happened to him.
There is quite a story surrounding this deer and the hunt that brought him here. Although not massive, he scores 145 1/4 gross which is pretty good around here.
This is one of the bucks we knew about from bow season. What started as a crispy morning in a swamp turned into a search for this buck that was missed by one of us from 170 yds with a Savage ML-II. That hurts! He ran toward the shooter and borroughed into some nasty, tall swamp "bamboo". He never came out? Was he hit or was he hiding?
Within 2 hrs we all came out of our stands and learned of the situation and began surrounding the area. 2 of the guys slowly converged on the initial POI and found nothing. The guy who shot directed them with hand signals as to where the buck was last seen....only 100 yds from his stand. Nothing at all. I watched this from 200 yds away through bino's. I was on the high bank of a pond overlooking the high grass surrounding that patch of hell that the deer ran into.
Eventually, it seemed as if the buck must have slipped out because he sure could have! The shooter guy came out of his stand and wanted to follow up first hand. The 3 of them stomped around for another 10 minutes and they jumped the buck....almost stepped on him. He went for the lighter yellow grass I was watching and started my way. First saw him at 160-180 yds slowly walking my way. Then he turned toward the creek and walked broadside. Thought he was going to slip us all. Then, for some reason, he turned my way and began loping directly at me. Seeing this was wild.....this stuff doesn't happen very often and it's what you dream of happening!
I had good cover and a wind advantage and decided that after he got within 50 yds I would try and stop him with a "MAAAAHHH". However, He slowed to a walk and stopped at about 60 yds. This was it....a head on shot. Much better then a running one so I took it while down on one knee and connected solidly on the point of the left front shoulder and exited the right rear back.
Load was a 12 ga 2 3/4 in. Barnes 1 oz Expander that shoots almost as good as my Savage out to 100 yds.
The only way I could make this story better would be to tell you that the other guy had made the first shot. He had hunted this swamp all week on a hunch that this buck was down there. His efforts, and the efforts of others, gave me the chance to shoot this buck. So, it comes with and asterisk for me.
i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/wilmsmeyer/11230712341.jpg
As a side note, this buck had suffered a non-gunshot wound that had penetrated his trachea just under his chin. Looked a few days old. He may not have been feeling too good and could explain why it took so long to get him up. Deer are suseptable to the strangest injuries and we're not sure what caused it. A fight? Did he run into a sharp stick? We believe that this wound would have eventually lead to a slow death and a mystery of what ever happened to him.
