My daughter and I went up to a friends house on the mountain this afternoon. This was her first time hunting this season, and the first time that this property had been hunted in about 2yr.
He and his fam had just gotten back from a trip, but they put the animals (horses and a dog) up and let us have free roam of the place. Their property is about 60 acres, but between their house, barns, horse pastures, and strange shape and topography, it hunts a lot smaller than that. We went to the far edge of his broken pasture and sat down about 20yd into the woods at about 2:30.
We saw squirrels and turkeys, and had good daddy daughter chats about her first semester of college, dreams for the future, etc. About 20 minutes before dark we decided that we weren't comfortable taking a shot into the pasture where we expected the deer to pass, so we decided to quietly work our way back to the vehicle while looking for deer in the little cleared strips along the way. Nothing doing until we turned the bend at their front pasture and could almost see our vehicle. She whispered "deer" and dropped down into high kneeling.
The deer was about 80-100yd out and quartering hard to. She waited until it turned broadside, dropped into low kneeling, and then paused. I saw her fumble with the safety as it turned straight on, and she patiently waited until it turned broadside again. Her 270 barked, the deer ran about 60 or 70 yd, cartwheeled and came to its final resting place.
Then another doe ran out behind the first one, then doubled back and stopped broadside, while she and at least 2 more were blowing the whole time. I stepped forward to clear my daughter and steadied myself. I squeezed the trigger and the second doe dropped as my 270 barked. 2 deer down with only 3 minutes of shooting light left. Both with the highly inadequate 270 Winchester.
I called my friend and let him know where we shot the deer, asking him where he wanted us to field dress them since they were a few hundred yards in front of his house on one of his horse pastures. He insisted that we dress them there…
He is not a hunter, but wanted to come out and watch the gutting. He even took some pictures. My daughter has grown more squeamish of blood and guts over the years, so she almost gagged a few times, whereas she used to want to identify all of the organs.
Pictures were not the best due to the timing and trying to get things buttoned up quickly, but it was nice being able to open the gate and drive right up to them.
Got the deer home, skinned, and on ice when I got this picture and text "told me he had a great night." He still insisted that his formerly white, now red, dog was not a problem despite my apologies.
He and his fam had just gotten back from a trip, but they put the animals (horses and a dog) up and let us have free roam of the place. Their property is about 60 acres, but between their house, barns, horse pastures, and strange shape and topography, it hunts a lot smaller than that. We went to the far edge of his broken pasture and sat down about 20yd into the woods at about 2:30.
We saw squirrels and turkeys, and had good daddy daughter chats about her first semester of college, dreams for the future, etc. About 20 minutes before dark we decided that we weren't comfortable taking a shot into the pasture where we expected the deer to pass, so we decided to quietly work our way back to the vehicle while looking for deer in the little cleared strips along the way. Nothing doing until we turned the bend at their front pasture and could almost see our vehicle. She whispered "deer" and dropped down into high kneeling.
The deer was about 80-100yd out and quartering hard to. She waited until it turned broadside, dropped into low kneeling, and then paused. I saw her fumble with the safety as it turned straight on, and she patiently waited until it turned broadside again. Her 270 barked, the deer ran about 60 or 70 yd, cartwheeled and came to its final resting place.
Then another doe ran out behind the first one, then doubled back and stopped broadside, while she and at least 2 more were blowing the whole time. I stepped forward to clear my daughter and steadied myself. I squeezed the trigger and the second doe dropped as my 270 barked. 2 deer down with only 3 minutes of shooting light left. Both with the highly inadequate 270 Winchester.
I called my friend and let him know where we shot the deer, asking him where he wanted us to field dress them since they were a few hundred yards in front of his house on one of his horse pastures. He insisted that we dress them there…
He is not a hunter, but wanted to come out and watch the gutting. He even took some pictures. My daughter has grown more squeamish of blood and guts over the years, so she almost gagged a few times, whereas she used to want to identify all of the organs.
Pictures were not the best due to the timing and trying to get things buttoned up quickly, but it was nice being able to open the gate and drive right up to them.
Got the deer home, skinned, and on ice when I got this picture and text "told me he had a great night." He still insisted that his formerly white, now red, dog was not a problem despite my apologies.
