A Hunting Story

[Art Eatman]

Keith's "Two'fers" thread brought this to mind...

Years ago, a highway contractor got a deer lease on a never-hunted ranch in west Texas. He, my father and two others went one weekend to try their luck on mule deer.

My father looked down into a shallow canyon; made some racket and slung some rocks and jumped a nice buck. As usual, he went for a neck shot and rolled the buck.

He goes down into the brush toward the buck; it jumped up and ran again. So, he goes through the same drill, and rolled the buck again. He heads over to gut the deer, and darned if it doesn't jump up again and take off! So, another repetition...

This time he figures he's got a pretty shot-up, messy job to deal with. Dead and ruined deer, what with thre '06 bullets through it. He's puzzled, though, because with a neck shot a deer is supposed to stay dead.

He struggles through some catclaw and Lo! And, Behold! Once again, Ol' Bucky shows he's tougher than a .30-'06. Once again, Bang-whop!

When my father gets to the now-finally-dead buck, he can only find one bullet hole. Uh-oh.

Back-tracking, he finds, sure enough, another buck--with only one bullet hole. And--you guessed it--two more bucks with one bullet each.

Now, Texas law only allows one mule deer buck, then and now. Needless to say, he was doing some tall talking to get the other three guys to put their tags on his deer.

I first heard the story some years later, when one of the guys on that hunt said, "Say, did you know what kind of game hog your old man is?"

, Art

 

[Lennyjoe]

Had a guy on the land that I hunted in Georgia do the same thing with 2 identical 6 point bucks. Shot the first one, seen it fall in its tracks, then get up and he shot it again. When he got there loe and behold two bucks laying next to each other. Both neck shot and deader than a door nail.

Deer were laying in a field with waist high grass.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Ok I'll have to divulge my twof'er story I think the staute of limitaions is about up............

Several years ago I hunting down by Deming on an ibex/ deer combination hunt. In any case I was driving up to the ibex area when I spied a cute little forked horn mulie. I figured what a great deal I'll fill the ole deer tag and concentrate on getting a really nice ibex billy.

So I slid the pick up to a stop stealthly slipped out the door and placed the crosshair squarely on the bucks vitals and squeezed off sendind a 165gr gameking into that cute little ole buck and down he went. Woohp.

I started to stand up and....There he goes so I ploped down into a sitting position and wohped again and down he went.

I went over to him gutted him and shouldered him up and walking back to the truck realized that I was carrying a little 3X3 and I culda sworn that when I shot he was a forky.

I loaded the deer and started to drive off when the light bulb came on. Sure enough I returned to the scene of the crime and there lay a dead forky.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

This one is my dad's story and since it happened in the 1950's I suppose he's probably not in trouble. Party hunting was pretty common in those days.

He shot a buck, field dressed it and started dragging it to camp. On the way he saw another buck so he shot that one and finished dragging the first one back. Went back to the 2nd buck, field dressed it and started dragging and you guessed it, another buck.

He said after he shot the fifth one, he finally left his rifle in camp. He was tired of dragging. Yes, there were tags for all the deer.

 

[Byron Quick]

Mine didn't have a real good ending. Two does were grazing about 70 yards away. I shot both of them in the neck...with one shot. The one that was in the back was mortally wounded but ran into the woods a hundred yards or so. I didn't realize I had hit her. I found her carcass a couple of days later.

 

[kentucky bucky]

An old timer I know killed a buck and a doe with one shot, accidentally, during a buck only season years ago when does were off limits. Being a good citizen he went strait to the game warden and showed him what happened and turned in the doe. The game warden in that county was a beancounting pencil pushing idiot, and charged the old man for shooting an illegal deer. My friend didn't know that the "officer" had a reputation for stupidity in the face of reason. The old timer had to go to court and worried about it for quite a while. The judge didn't press it and told him to just be more careful in the future. I think he paid the court costs. The ironic thing is that the old timer was a retired police judge for years in our county..............I guess you know what we would do from that time forward if we accidentally shot a illegal deer!!!!

 

[HankB]

Art, several years ago I heard a variation on your story.

Seems Grampa was along in years, and now confined to a wheelchair - which made hunting difficult. His sons and grandsons wheeled him out to a clearing, and left the old man to his thoughts for a while on what might be his last hunt.

He saw a deer - shot it - it went down, and got up. Shot again - it went down, got up. And again.

Sons & grandsons, hearing three shots, thought Grampa was in trouble. When they got to him, he was almost in tears, thinking he was too old to shoot straight.

Grampa brightened up a lot when they found three bucks within 20 yards of each other.

 

[sm]

Does fowl count?

Duck hunting, now do not ask me why I had #4 buckshot in my coat, but I did, and this was back in lead shot days. Dummy me had not checked coat, just tossed shells in. I was taught to focus on one "bird" and shoot it. Greenheads are screaming in just outside of dekes, acting skittish. I see one coming through the trees, afterburners on , from my right to left. I pick him up, bird, belly, beak, boom...so focused, swinging hard and fast...I didn't see the other greenhead screaming in from left. Plop ! 2 greenheads ?

Fellas in other blind told me about second greenhead, bit of long shot being past dekes..."some really good loads you using.... good shooting, ...good eye...". OOPs , sunk that hull and got to checking coat for shells...

 

[mete]

Reminds me of a friend who shot a buck. When he retreived the deer he was horrified and confused that it had no antlers. What had happened is that he shot the deer late in the season when the deer went down the antlers had come off !

 

[Matt G]

Having taken a nice doe the week before, I was a man on a mission to get my brother a good buck on the one weekend he was coming hunting with us. I sat with him near a stand of acorn-laden oaks, and waited. After an hour or two, the coffee took its effect, and I went a coupla hundred yards downwind to deal with the bladder pressure. Coming back, I saw and glassed a nice 8 pt coming around my brother's position, circling downwind from about 100 yards out.

I being the experienced, all-in-the-know hunter ( ), I had told him to focus on the oaks upwind. He never turned around to see the buck. 80 yards behind him, I froze as the buck sneaked around my brother. Finally, the buck moved behind a brush pile, and I made another 20 yards toward David, doing a rather humorous attempt to yell across 60 yards in a whisper, before the buckstepped out.

I froze, and realized that the buck was following a semicircular trail toward me, and would soon wind us both. Caught in the open, I just held my breath as the buck got closer, and at 60 yards stopped and tested the air. His tail sort of waivered, but he took a few more steps. When he stopped again, I gave in and shot him, surprising my brother no end. I walked up, and found a rather lame looking young 6 pt dead on the ground! This buck could NOT be mistaken for the buck I had glassed... unless one just made the assumption that it would be the same one. Apparently, when the nice buck went behind the brush pile, it chased out the little sad buck, and I finished the "ol' switheroo." A one-buck county, that was that for me.