This is my second year hunting whitetail, and according to my wife, I am obsessed. That being said, it has been fairly disappointing going out day after day and not seeing any big deer. I had filled four tags, but none were big. a spike, a 3 pointer and 2 does. Well yesterday, Christmas eve, I finally got my chance. I went with a friend as a guest to his hunt club. I had to bring my climber, and had to walk through the snow about 400 yards to get to where he wanted me to sit. So I finally get to where he says and all the trees are cedars, and none of them are climber friendly. I ended up finding a pine that I could get about 10 ft up in. The tree I was in was on the edge of a cut corn field. I could see a few hundred yards to my right if I bent down and peered through the other trees, and I could see abour 50 yards to my left through branches, and an open view right in front of me. I was in the stand about 15 min, and I saw a flash of brown to my right. I threw the gun up, and out came a very nice 8 pointer running across the field 150 yards to my right. He got all the way across the field and was getting ready to go into the other set of woods. The only thing I could think to do that far away to get him to stop was to yell. So I gave the biggest baapp I could. He stoped right on the wood line and and looked at me giving me a left broad side shot. He only paused for a second and began to turn to run again so I shot quickly. I honestly was so shaken up from this one minute ordeal that I thought that I missed because he ran, and did not appear to be hurt. Usually when I shoot they do not run. I use a 270 wsm with ballistic tips so they usually will at least fall and get back up. I waited about 30 min to go look, and my friend met me where I shot him at. NO BLOOD! all we had were some tracks in the snow to follow, but this is a deer haven so there were about 20 sets to choose from. We followed several sets of tracks about 150-200 yards and never picked up a blood trail so we called it off and assumed I missed. While walking out of the woods I noticed that my friend had lost his blaze orange hat, well we started backtracking looking for the hat and my friend said "I'll be damned look at that set of horns". There he was about 20 yards from where we were looking, he had a perfect heart shot and he was a perfect 8 pointer. The only people who can understand the feeling of seeing that deer are the ones who have been there. I dont think you could have slapped the smile off my face. All of my hard work and dedication had paid off. Best part is this all happened on Christmas eve. Couldnt ask for a better gift. After walking through these woods, we realized this buck was still in full rut. The smell was the first give away but the area he was running to was filled with scrapes. He scraped all the way to the ground through 20" of snow, and when he was running across the field he was going straight to this area to check the scrapes. Right place at the right time! here are a couple of pics.
Got my first big buck yesterday!!!!!
- Thread starter csd4682
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subman47
Member
Nice one , Congrats
countertop
Member
Good looking buck. Where were you?
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That's a dandy buck congratulations. A lot of people when they don't find a blood trail assume that they've missed. A critter hat's been hit through the pump many times won't leave any blood on the ground at all.
What a great story!
What a great story!
wankerjake
Member
Awesome, thanks for the story and pics.
Countertop, I was in Fluvanna County, in central VA. H&H, your right, I am learning that about heart shots. My first buck was a 3 pointer with black powder from only 20 yards. He was looking right at me and I placed the shot right through his heart. The only reason I knew I hit him was where I shot him I found a small piece of hair. I went about 75 yards to where I last saw him and found one drop of blood. I ended up looking for him for over an hour. was going to call off the search and assume I just grazed him. I ended up finding him 300 yards away down by a creek.
countertop
Member
Fluvanna County has some great hunting. My dog trainer is down there, and I was looking at some flooded river bottom land to purchase last year. Kicking myself that I didn't, but the finances weren't to be at the time.
Countertop, Your right, the hunting here is fantastic. I am going to join the huntclub where I shot this buck. I have seen 2 pope bucks and one 200 (wet score, will go down some) class boone killed here this year, and prob a dozen other wall hangers. We had such a good accorn crop last year that there have been giants this year. Unfortunatly, there were no accorns this year, so we are fearing next years buck sizes.
Sav .250
Member
#1............. congrats
deerhunter61
Member
Congrats! Nice looking buck.
preachnhunt
Member
Good job! Congratulations.
22-rimfire
Member
Very nice buck. Congrats. Have you figured out why the bullet did not exit the deer? I usually used 150 gr SP's (270 win) and there is seldom not an exit and there is almost always a good blood trail after a 20 feet or so if it made it that far. Been pretty much only using a revolver for the last few years. Didn't hunt this past season. Too busy at work and I didn't spend the proper amount of time scouting and practicing with the big bore revolver.
The bullet did exit and did leave a pretty nice blood trail. The deer didnt bleed for the first 15-20 yards. What happened is when I shot, I thought I saw him run directly into the woods. He actually ran in the woods a couple of yards, and the turned and ran along the woodline for about 30-40 yards and the he cut back into the woods. We were looking for him on one trail, and he was parrallel to us by about 30 yards. When we were looking, we were looking at the ground so hard for blood that neither of us ever really looked left or and we had walked right by him
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