I’ve been hunting from a brush pile overlooking a Greenfield this week, and my camera has shown some nighttime activity and I did get that one nice eight point buck on camera the other morning. Last night I had 2 does pop out of the jungle bedding area and come into the field around 3 o’clock, but they worked across and up away from me before I could even bring the gun to my shoulder. Unfortunately, they were the only deer that I saw before sunset arrived.
Today I returned to my brush pile and settled in about 2 o’clock. I watched a hawk hunt over the field for mice or voles. The hawk reminded me of a fighter jet with his flying ability.
At 3:10 a deer came out of the thick underbrush and entered the field. I couldn’t believe my eyes, yet I could see antlers even at 100 yards. I brought up the gun and got him in the scope at 9 X. Unfortunately, my shooting sticks are in the ground blind bag, and I was not using the ground blind so I had envisioned a shot below me near the corner of the field, and had a solid branch as a rest for that shot.
Where this deer came into the field, I had no rest. Admittedly, I was shaky and couldn’t hold the crosshairs solidly on his vitals with the scope on 9X. I finally thought to move my knee, closer to my chest and use that as a third access to support the rifle and it helped to steady the crosshairs somewhat. The buck was feeding and relaxed, stopping to scan the area and checking for danger. He was about 120 yards away from me, and finally the crosshairs settled on his shoulder and I squeezed off the shot. In the plume of smoke, I couldn’t see anything so I stood up and he was not there, and was not running away. I think I just dropped him in the field! I quickly reloaded the rifle and gathered up my gear and started to walk towards the field when all of a sudden, a big doe and a skipper popped out from the same trail. These were probably the same deer that I saw yesterday since they were on the same trail and it was about the same time of day. I sat back down in my brush pile and thought about shooting her when she got to about 90 yards from me, but I decided I wasn’t even sure if I had gotten the buck or not so I better not push my luck. After about five minutes, I got up and decided to spook her off of the field and go see what was going on with my buck.
I made my way across the field and finally could see him laying in the grass. As I got about 50 yards away from him, he suddenly tried to get up on his front legs with his head in the air. Obviously, my first shot had spined him, but he was still alive. Thankfully, I had already reloaded the rifle and I was able to put a second one in him and that ended it. The best part was, I was able to walk up through the field to my truck and drive right to him. I thought that he was an eight point but when I lifted his head, he was originally A 6 (no brow tines), but he had broken off his main beam, so he had three on one side, and one tine on the left on the broken beam. He was a good size buck probably 160 pounds or so and I’m thrilled that I got him in the late season.
Seems like everything went right for you that day. Nice weather, not late in the day, connected on a long shot, opportunity to take a doe after the shot, and drive right up to the deer, no long drag. Congratulations on a nice hunt Jon.
Anyway, great job persevering and putting a good shot on him!
Previous Topic
Index