I'll get to the title in a minute, but first the rest of the interesting details…
Yesterday morning I took a buddy of mine, who happens to be a veteran, hunting with me on a small parcel of public land by boat. We saw several deer, and he shot a nice unique 10pt at 10yd making a rub. We had fun, but I had to take him back to get his deer taken care of while I went out to run some errands and get gas in the boat.
I went back out solo in the afternoon, getting out a little later than I wanted. At the boat ramp I stepped off the boat to get the vehicle pulled back up, but instead of stepping into a few inches of water with a couple of extra inches of mud, i instead stepped into silt and sunk up above my knee and filled my boot with water. Nice, soggy foot to go with running late.
Got into my stand at about 3:30, took my boot off to drip dry while I hunted, and tried to not sweat. Wind was perfect and consistent. I saw nothing but squirrels until about 45min before the end of shooting light, but then heavy cloud cover rolled in and made it look like it was almost night. 10min or so later I look right and see a small doe angling in, so I switch over for a left hand shot. As I'm waiting for her to clear I hear deer start to blow and run to my left at a distance and direction that I knew could not be from me spooking them.
Suddenly I realized that this was not deer being spooked by people, but a crazy chase! Several deer are running through the woods at over 100yd away, but I could hear the running, blowing, grunting, wheezing, growling, etc from my location. Since it is already prematurely darkening it was hard for me to see what deer was what through the woods, but they soon turned and ran towards me. The doe was in the lead, but I saw a bigger deer (later identified as a small 8pt) chasing off another deer down below. The doe comes in in front of me to 15yd, but a one antlered spike swings in below me and chases her back uphill. A small 8pt cuts in and runs the spike off, and then returns to the doe 40-50yd in front of me in some sapling brush. The spike sneaks back in, and then the 8pt turns to run it off. The hot doe turns to walk off to the left, and the 8pt comes back in. At this point I can only see from the front of the doe's shoulder forward and I'm afraid that she's going to bolt, so I place the crosshairs on the area where her shoulder meets her neck and squeeze.
As the smoke cleared, I think that I saw that she had immediately dropped at the shot, but couldn't tell for sure. The other deer look around trying to figure out what just happened, and the 8pt tries to get the doe back up before turning to run the spike back off. The 8pt then returns to the doe, and the spike slips back in as I try to reload my ML. The spike is 20 or so yards straight in front of me on the ridge, and he picks me out as I reload the ML and eventually blew and trotted off with the smaller doe. But the 8 stayed. He tried to get the doe up, licked her all over, and I believe that he even tried to breed her on the ground. But he would not leave.
I waited until it got fully dark and he continued to hang around. I could see him with my binoculars and hear him moving in the leaves, and that's when I began to get nervous about what would happen when I climbed down. I let my bag down and he didn't leave. I climbed down and he didn't leave. I packed up my climber and gear and he didn't leave. I grabbed my knife and ML and started walking up the ridge while thinking that I may end up being on the news for being caught in the middle of an ungulate love triangle and getting gored by a sex-crazed buck.
My confidence briefly picked up as I neared and he began to trot off… but I really began to think that I may end up on the news for being gored by a buck when he stayed just about 15yd out at the edge of my headlamp light throw. I could hear him pace back and forth as I started to field dress his mistress. I'd make a few cuts, then look up and see his eyes in my headlamp light. I continued this process over and over and took 4 times longer to field dress that doe than I normally would, but he finally worked off when I drug her down the ridge the short distance to the boat.
Thankfully I ended up with some venison and no additional holes in my body, but it will definitely be one of the most memorable hunts that I will ever have.
Added gratuitous carnage pick because I'm a bit of a ballistic geek. 325gr FTX did it's job on the shoulder/neck junction, and gave a good exit wound
Yesterday morning I took a buddy of mine, who happens to be a veteran, hunting with me on a small parcel of public land by boat. We saw several deer, and he shot a nice unique 10pt at 10yd making a rub. We had fun, but I had to take him back to get his deer taken care of while I went out to run some errands and get gas in the boat.
I went back out solo in the afternoon, getting out a little later than I wanted. At the boat ramp I stepped off the boat to get the vehicle pulled back up, but instead of stepping into a few inches of water with a couple of extra inches of mud, i instead stepped into silt and sunk up above my knee and filled my boot with water. Nice, soggy foot to go with running late.
Got into my stand at about 3:30, took my boot off to drip dry while I hunted, and tried to not sweat. Wind was perfect and consistent. I saw nothing but squirrels until about 45min before the end of shooting light, but then heavy cloud cover rolled in and made it look like it was almost night. 10min or so later I look right and see a small doe angling in, so I switch over for a left hand shot. As I'm waiting for her to clear I hear deer start to blow and run to my left at a distance and direction that I knew could not be from me spooking them.
Suddenly I realized that this was not deer being spooked by people, but a crazy chase! Several deer are running through the woods at over 100yd away, but I could hear the running, blowing, grunting, wheezing, growling, etc from my location. Since it is already prematurely darkening it was hard for me to see what deer was what through the woods, but they soon turned and ran towards me. The doe was in the lead, but I saw a bigger deer (later identified as a small 8pt) chasing off another deer down below. The doe comes in in front of me to 15yd, but a one antlered spike swings in below me and chases her back uphill. A small 8pt cuts in and runs the spike off, and then returns to the doe 40-50yd in front of me in some sapling brush. The spike sneaks back in, and then the 8pt turns to run it off. The hot doe turns to walk off to the left, and the 8pt comes back in. At this point I can only see from the front of the doe's shoulder forward and I'm afraid that she's going to bolt, so I place the crosshairs on the area where her shoulder meets her neck and squeeze.
As the smoke cleared, I think that I saw that she had immediately dropped at the shot, but couldn't tell for sure. The other deer look around trying to figure out what just happened, and the 8pt tries to get the doe back up before turning to run the spike back off. The 8pt then returns to the doe, and the spike slips back in as I try to reload my ML. The spike is 20 or so yards straight in front of me on the ridge, and he picks me out as I reload the ML and eventually blew and trotted off with the smaller doe. But the 8 stayed. He tried to get the doe up, licked her all over, and I believe that he even tried to breed her on the ground. But he would not leave.
I waited until it got fully dark and he continued to hang around. I could see him with my binoculars and hear him moving in the leaves, and that's when I began to get nervous about what would happen when I climbed down. I let my bag down and he didn't leave. I climbed down and he didn't leave. I packed up my climber and gear and he didn't leave. I grabbed my knife and ML and started walking up the ridge while thinking that I may end up being on the news for being caught in the middle of an ungulate love triangle and getting gored by a sex-crazed buck.
My confidence briefly picked up as I neared and he began to trot off… but I really began to think that I may end up on the news for being gored by a buck when he stayed just about 15yd out at the edge of my headlamp light throw. I could hear him pace back and forth as I started to field dress his mistress. I'd make a few cuts, then look up and see his eyes in my headlamp light. I continued this process over and over and took 4 times longer to field dress that doe than I normally would, but he finally worked off when I drug her down the ridge the short distance to the boat.
Thankfully I ended up with some venison and no additional holes in my body, but it will definitely be one of the most memorable hunts that I will ever have.
Added gratuitous carnage pick because I'm a bit of a ballistic geek. 325gr FTX did it's job on the shoulder/neck junction, and gave a good exit wound
j/k
