Hunter and fishermen have to tell stories, so here is mine
I've been big game hunting for about 24 years, but this was my most successful. I got my first turkey, and my 5th deer (not exactly a prolific hunter, even if I have been hunting for a while). I will say I am 5 for 5 on deer. Every deer I have shot at, has ended up in my freezer. This is also the first time I have shot deer in back to back seasons.
The farm on which I hunt is state land, and allows hunting by permit, and limits to 15 hunters on the land at a time. Most of the deer hunters there, run dogs through the woods and drive their trucks around those woods to catch deer which the dogs have flushed out. Learning from my father, we have always preferred to find a stand, and sit on it for several hours. We also find the afternoon, a calmer and more productive time.
I had flushed some does in the woods for which I had no shot, and while I was sitting on a hill overlooking a flood plain, I had a truck driving down a farm road flush a doe out of a thicket about 150 yards away, she nearly ran me over getting into the woods, but again no safe shot.
This year my dad and I have been hunting a tract of woods called "The Big Woods", it is about 350-500 acres of uninterrupted woods, and we are usually in there by ourselves. (at least during firearms season). There are some seldom used roads, and in some cases overgrown and blocked by trees through those woods. I have sketched them to the best of my knowledge below.
I have walked those roads a few times, and I flushed the does on that road.
On the very last day of deer season in Virginia Saturday 1/5/13. My dad and I parked at the entrance to the road shown at the bottom left on the above picture. He dropped off about 400 yards into the woods, and having walked the roads before, I knew of a good spot in the woods, which was fairly open, and presented a natural ramp for deer coming out of the ravines in the woods. You can see the river to the upper left of that photo, it actually makes a bend around that farm, so think of it as basically parallel to the top of the woods. There is also a creek in those woods, about 75 yards from the edge of the North of that map, which basically curves around. That circular portion of the road at the top is about 60 yards from the creek, and about 150 feet or so higher, and it is a pretty steep slope, with some gullies going down.
So I decided to walk up to about the top right most portion of the road on that map. It is a little over a mile through there, we parked and set off at about 1:30PM, I walked very slowly, not still hunting slow, but slow enough not to make much noise. About a quarter of the way in, I saw a small flock of turkey, they were pretty big, it was no longer turkey season though. There was an odd amount of squirrel activity for the middle of the day as well. It took me a little over an hour to actually get to my stand, as I took the longest way around.
I sat on my stand for about 30-45 minutes, and watched the squirrels. At one point I thought I heard the wind in the trees, which I thought was odd, since it was not a windy day at all. Eventually I realized it was something big running through the woods. Off to my right about 100 yards away, I saw large shapes running along a ridge perpendicular to the road. All I could see were flashes of them through the trees. I could not even tell the were deer, although I knew for a fact they were. I of course thought to myself, if only I had set up 50 yards further down the road. Perhaps 45 seconds later, I heard the leaves crunching again and coming in my direction. I dialed my scope from 6x down to 3x (Remington 700 BDL .30-06 3-9x32mm scope 150gr. Sierra Gameking over 52 gr. IMR4064) , and then I saw a group of deer running off the hill and down onto the road on which I was sitting (the road is completely under trees, and blocked off any every direction by fallen trees). The first deer came running straight down the road at me. I put my scope on him, and saw he had a HUGE rack. Then he got to within 30 yards of me, saw me and veered off the road, up the hill and into thick trees. I saw there were at least 4 or 5 other deer following him. Of that group of 5 or 6 at least 4, if not all of them were bucks. The other deer crossed over the road further away from me. One of them stopped on the side of a slope, I got my scope on him, and he moved. The last one in line, stopped on the slope about 60-70 yards from me. I got my scope on him, saw he was a buck (does were legal anyway) I put my reticule over his heart/lungs region. I was shooting completely off hand, I had no rest. As I was pulling the trigger, he started to move again, plus I may have actually jerked a tiny bit. I found out later, I missed by about 3 inches low of the spot I was aiming.
As I lowered by gun to cycle another round, I saw him stumble. I knew then that I had hit him. He ran off up the hill. I waited and about 30 seconds later, after I knew that all the other deer were long gone, I heard thrashing up the hill. I waited about 5 minutes. I knew that I should wait another 20 minutes at least. Yet, I knew at the top of the hill was a very thick grove of pines, ~30 acres of pines. I also didn't know what kind of wound the deer would have, and I really don't have the stomach for letting something I shot suffer for too long.
After waiting for 5 minutes, I headed over to where I thought the deer was standing when I shot him, I saw no blood. I moved up the hill, and then I saw a white tail going away from me. I could tell that there was no way he could out run me. Still he would not let me get to within 30 yards of him before he got up and ran through the woods. When I saw him laying down, and had a good broad side shot, although I could not get a great shot, I aimed for the back of the lung area, and shot him in the diaphram area. He got up and ran some more, then laid down, and ran, and laid down. I was moving through that pine wood, much faster than I would have, had I not been chasing the deer. At one point I ran across the road which runs in the middle of the loop, and then through again into the pines. I probably ended up chasing him 500 yards before I put another shot into his heart and ended it.
Then I tried dragging him with one arm for about 200 yards, before I decided to walk my gun and reversible coat about 100 yards in front of me and go back and drag the deer to them with both arms. I was trying to drag him back to the road I had crossed while chasing him, but as is too easy in a thick pine wood, I got turned around. I called my dad up on his cell phone and tried navigating him through the woods roads, closer to my position. Eventually I saw him about 200 yards away, and he came and helped me drag it to the truck. Dragging through that thick pine wood was no fun task for sure.
In the picture below, I was sitting about where the blue star is, the red arrows indicate the path of the group of bucks, and the red star is about where I shot the buck. The red arrows beyond there are where I shot him. The road is approximated with the orange line and the creek bottom in blue line. The red X is about where I finally had to drag him from. I shot him at about 3:45. Chased him down until about 4:00 and finally got in the truck at about 4:50, which was 10 minutes before sunset.
When I finally tracked him down, I saw that his antlers were odd. He had a fairly normal 4 point branch on one side, and the other was kind of deformed. 3 points, or even 5 depending on how you count (anything you can hang a ring on, in some parts) The brow tine on the deformed branch actually pointed down. There was algae growing on his antlers, and he had a big sore on the crown of his head. I actually wondered if it might be another antler growing, but it was more of a scab. Eventually I found out that there was actually a big dent in his skull under that wound. I suppose, his deformed antler couldn't stop other bucks from getting to his skull when fighting. He is the biggest deer I have shot. I shot an 8 pointer with a 17" spread when I was 15, but it only weighed 130-150 pounds. I show a 9 pointer with a 9"-10" spread, but with a really tall rack (see him in this thread http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=634238) but he was only in the 140-160 pound range. The deer I shot this year, had a large body, and after dragging him and lifting him in the truck(I was sore the next day), I would say he was in the 160-180 pound range.
So I said above, my first shot was about 3 inches lower than where I wanted it. It hit him in the right leg, just below the shoulder. You will be able to see the hole in the pictures. That completely severed that bone. It went through that and tore a big hole through the brisket area, and part of his left leg. As I was chasing him, I eventually saw he was covered in blood. I was upset with myself for the shot, my first three deer(3 doses of 12 gauge #1 buck for the first two, and a 150gr. .30-30 at 60 yards for the third) , got no further than 30 yards before dropping dead, and the one I shot last year (150gr. remington Core lockt .30-06) made it about 50-60 yards before dropping. I understand things happen like this while hunting, but I never want the animals to suffer. I usually go through a day or 2 of remorse after killing a deer.
I've been big game hunting for about 24 years, but this was my most successful. I got my first turkey, and my 5th deer (not exactly a prolific hunter, even if I have been hunting for a while). I will say I am 5 for 5 on deer. Every deer I have shot at, has ended up in my freezer. This is also the first time I have shot deer in back to back seasons.
The farm on which I hunt is state land, and allows hunting by permit, and limits to 15 hunters on the land at a time. Most of the deer hunters there, run dogs through the woods and drive their trucks around those woods to catch deer which the dogs have flushed out. Learning from my father, we have always preferred to find a stand, and sit on it for several hours. We also find the afternoon, a calmer and more productive time.
I had flushed some does in the woods for which I had no shot, and while I was sitting on a hill overlooking a flood plain, I had a truck driving down a farm road flush a doe out of a thicket about 150 yards away, she nearly ran me over getting into the woods, but again no safe shot.
This year my dad and I have been hunting a tract of woods called "The Big Woods", it is about 350-500 acres of uninterrupted woods, and we are usually in there by ourselves. (at least during firearms season). There are some seldom used roads, and in some cases overgrown and blocked by trees through those woods. I have sketched them to the best of my knowledge below.
I have walked those roads a few times, and I flushed the does on that road.
On the very last day of deer season in Virginia Saturday 1/5/13. My dad and I parked at the entrance to the road shown at the bottom left on the above picture. He dropped off about 400 yards into the woods, and having walked the roads before, I knew of a good spot in the woods, which was fairly open, and presented a natural ramp for deer coming out of the ravines in the woods. You can see the river to the upper left of that photo, it actually makes a bend around that farm, so think of it as basically parallel to the top of the woods. There is also a creek in those woods, about 75 yards from the edge of the North of that map, which basically curves around. That circular portion of the road at the top is about 60 yards from the creek, and about 150 feet or so higher, and it is a pretty steep slope, with some gullies going down.
So I decided to walk up to about the top right most portion of the road on that map. It is a little over a mile through there, we parked and set off at about 1:30PM, I walked very slowly, not still hunting slow, but slow enough not to make much noise. About a quarter of the way in, I saw a small flock of turkey, they were pretty big, it was no longer turkey season though. There was an odd amount of squirrel activity for the middle of the day as well. It took me a little over an hour to actually get to my stand, as I took the longest way around.
I sat on my stand for about 30-45 minutes, and watched the squirrels. At one point I thought I heard the wind in the trees, which I thought was odd, since it was not a windy day at all. Eventually I realized it was something big running through the woods. Off to my right about 100 yards away, I saw large shapes running along a ridge perpendicular to the road. All I could see were flashes of them through the trees. I could not even tell the were deer, although I knew for a fact they were. I of course thought to myself, if only I had set up 50 yards further down the road. Perhaps 45 seconds later, I heard the leaves crunching again and coming in my direction. I dialed my scope from 6x down to 3x (Remington 700 BDL .30-06 3-9x32mm scope 150gr. Sierra Gameking over 52 gr. IMR4064) , and then I saw a group of deer running off the hill and down onto the road on which I was sitting (the road is completely under trees, and blocked off any every direction by fallen trees). The first deer came running straight down the road at me. I put my scope on him, and saw he had a HUGE rack. Then he got to within 30 yards of me, saw me and veered off the road, up the hill and into thick trees. I saw there were at least 4 or 5 other deer following him. Of that group of 5 or 6 at least 4, if not all of them were bucks. The other deer crossed over the road further away from me. One of them stopped on the side of a slope, I got my scope on him, and he moved. The last one in line, stopped on the slope about 60-70 yards from me. I got my scope on him, saw he was a buck (does were legal anyway) I put my reticule over his heart/lungs region. I was shooting completely off hand, I had no rest. As I was pulling the trigger, he started to move again, plus I may have actually jerked a tiny bit. I found out later, I missed by about 3 inches low of the spot I was aiming.
As I lowered by gun to cycle another round, I saw him stumble. I knew then that I had hit him. He ran off up the hill. I waited and about 30 seconds later, after I knew that all the other deer were long gone, I heard thrashing up the hill. I waited about 5 minutes. I knew that I should wait another 20 minutes at least. Yet, I knew at the top of the hill was a very thick grove of pines, ~30 acres of pines. I also didn't know what kind of wound the deer would have, and I really don't have the stomach for letting something I shot suffer for too long.
After waiting for 5 minutes, I headed over to where I thought the deer was standing when I shot him, I saw no blood. I moved up the hill, and then I saw a white tail going away from me. I could tell that there was no way he could out run me. Still he would not let me get to within 30 yards of him before he got up and ran through the woods. When I saw him laying down, and had a good broad side shot, although I could not get a great shot, I aimed for the back of the lung area, and shot him in the diaphram area. He got up and ran some more, then laid down, and ran, and laid down. I was moving through that pine wood, much faster than I would have, had I not been chasing the deer. At one point I ran across the road which runs in the middle of the loop, and then through again into the pines. I probably ended up chasing him 500 yards before I put another shot into his heart and ended it.
Then I tried dragging him with one arm for about 200 yards, before I decided to walk my gun and reversible coat about 100 yards in front of me and go back and drag the deer to them with both arms. I was trying to drag him back to the road I had crossed while chasing him, but as is too easy in a thick pine wood, I got turned around. I called my dad up on his cell phone and tried navigating him through the woods roads, closer to my position. Eventually I saw him about 200 yards away, and he came and helped me drag it to the truck. Dragging through that thick pine wood was no fun task for sure.
In the picture below, I was sitting about where the blue star is, the red arrows indicate the path of the group of bucks, and the red star is about where I shot the buck. The red arrows beyond there are where I shot him. The road is approximated with the orange line and the creek bottom in blue line. The red X is about where I finally had to drag him from. I shot him at about 3:45. Chased him down until about 4:00 and finally got in the truck at about 4:50, which was 10 minutes before sunset.
When I finally tracked him down, I saw that his antlers were odd. He had a fairly normal 4 point branch on one side, and the other was kind of deformed. 3 points, or even 5 depending on how you count (anything you can hang a ring on, in some parts) The brow tine on the deformed branch actually pointed down. There was algae growing on his antlers, and he had a big sore on the crown of his head. I actually wondered if it might be another antler growing, but it was more of a scab. Eventually I found out that there was actually a big dent in his skull under that wound. I suppose, his deformed antler couldn't stop other bucks from getting to his skull when fighting. He is the biggest deer I have shot. I shot an 8 pointer with a 17" spread when I was 15, but it only weighed 130-150 pounds. I show a 9 pointer with a 9"-10" spread, but with a really tall rack (see him in this thread http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=634238) but he was only in the 140-160 pound range. The deer I shot this year, had a large body, and after dragging him and lifting him in the truck(I was sore the next day), I would say he was in the 160-180 pound range.
So I said above, my first shot was about 3 inches lower than where I wanted it. It hit him in the right leg, just below the shoulder. You will be able to see the hole in the pictures. That completely severed that bone. It went through that and tore a big hole through the brisket area, and part of his left leg. As I was chasing him, I eventually saw he was covered in blood. I was upset with myself for the shot, my first three deer(3 doses of 12 gauge #1 buck for the first two, and a 150gr. .30-30 at 60 yards for the third) , got no further than 30 yards before dropping dead, and the one I shot last year (150gr. remington Core lockt .30-06) made it about 50-60 yards before dropping. I understand things happen like this while hunting, but I never want the animals to suffer. I usually go through a day or 2 of remorse after killing a deer.
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