Big doe story
Nov 26, 2017 21:52:13 GMT -5
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swilk, whitetaildave24, and 6 more like this
Post by poc on Nov 26, 2017 21:52:13 GMT -5
Went to hang a stand on Friday evening. Walked way back on HNF and put it up. Sat there for a few minutes, just didn't like the spot once I got up the tree. Came down and walked about half way back to the truck, found what I had been told by a guy that always gets big deer looked like a good spot. Put my stand up. It was about 5:40 so I just headed back to the truck. Got about 50 yards from the truck, I'm walking in a dry creek bed, the area above me on the bank e plod each with deer, they run 3 different directions, I can't tell how many there are. I just stopped and stood still for a bit, when I started again there was a deer right above me on the bank I didn't see, behind a tree. She ran but didn't blow, just trotted off. I went ahead to the truck and left.
Next day I came back with an old climber stand, not my good one, it was hung up already, remember. I went up the creek bed 25 yards and into the woods about 30 yards. I could literally still see my truck from my stand. I climbed a smallish Poplar tree as most of the rest around were HUGE old pines or little scrub. I sat and listened to the squirrels for hours. Finally about 5:30 I heard a herd of elephants coming through the woods, turned out to be 4 deer but they were making no effort to be quiet. I saw a yearling first and another small doe then a larger doe came into view. I could still hear more leaves crunching behind them and was hoping for a buck but it turned out to be just another big doe. I waited for a good shot, they were coming right toward my stand and were up wind from me. I was golden, until the seat cushion on that old stand slipped a little a made a scratching noise. They all jumped but didn't run but a couple of steps and stopped. One of the large does was now about 30 yards out, the smaller ones were further away to my left and I couldn't see the other big one, she was down in the creek bed still. Finally after a few minutes I couldn't hold my gun up and longer, I had to let it down to rest my arms, they were starting to shake and I knew I couldn't hit a shot like that. So I slowly relaxed and let the gun rest on my leg. I had been standing up since they came into view, now about 15 minutes ago. After a few minutes, still very wary that large doe moved out from behind the trees that were blocking me. I waited just a few seconds and brought my gun up. She was angling away from me and I didn't really have a good vitals shot and she was moving away from me. I decided to go for a head shot since from this angle hitting her anywhere but the back left side of the head would've been a miss. She lifted her head and turned it towards the other big doe this gave me an even better angle for a kill/miss shot. I fired and she hit the ground immediately, didn't move. The other deer busted and ran but not very far. The other big doe put herself in an opening and I had a perfect broadside shot on her, but I didn't have another doe tag. I've bought them online in the stand before, but it was 5:50 now and I didn't know of I could get it done quick enough so I decided not to try.
I got to see some interesting deer behavior. I did a light doe grunt a couple of times and the larger of the small deer snorted. Then she began stamping her foot. She'd stamp, the other big doe would stamp. She'd stamp the other big doe would stamp. That went on for several minutes. Then, the deer I shot started kicking around. I was really confused, I thought maybe I'd hit her in the spine or something. She kicked and thrashed around for several minutes. I quickly descended my tree thinking I was going to have to put another bullet in her. The other deer all blew and ran off when I started down in the noisy old stand. I got to the deer and found I'd hit her just right. I suppose it was just stray neurons firing causing the kicking. Because all brain activity had been distributed by the shot.
Using an H&R in 357 Maximum with 180gr soft points bullets over a really high charge of AA1680. Vortex 2-7x35 scope. I also videoed the hunt, but it was really dark. I haven't had a chance to review it yet.
Not a shot I'd usually take but it seemed right in this case.
Next day I came back with an old climber stand, not my good one, it was hung up already, remember. I went up the creek bed 25 yards and into the woods about 30 yards. I could literally still see my truck from my stand. I climbed a smallish Poplar tree as most of the rest around were HUGE old pines or little scrub. I sat and listened to the squirrels for hours. Finally about 5:30 I heard a herd of elephants coming through the woods, turned out to be 4 deer but they were making no effort to be quiet. I saw a yearling first and another small doe then a larger doe came into view. I could still hear more leaves crunching behind them and was hoping for a buck but it turned out to be just another big doe. I waited for a good shot, they were coming right toward my stand and were up wind from me. I was golden, until the seat cushion on that old stand slipped a little a made a scratching noise. They all jumped but didn't run but a couple of steps and stopped. One of the large does was now about 30 yards out, the smaller ones were further away to my left and I couldn't see the other big one, she was down in the creek bed still. Finally after a few minutes I couldn't hold my gun up and longer, I had to let it down to rest my arms, they were starting to shake and I knew I couldn't hit a shot like that. So I slowly relaxed and let the gun rest on my leg. I had been standing up since they came into view, now about 15 minutes ago. After a few minutes, still very wary that large doe moved out from behind the trees that were blocking me. I waited just a few seconds and brought my gun up. She was angling away from me and I didn't really have a good vitals shot and she was moving away from me. I decided to go for a head shot since from this angle hitting her anywhere but the back left side of the head would've been a miss. She lifted her head and turned it towards the other big doe this gave me an even better angle for a kill/miss shot. I fired and she hit the ground immediately, didn't move. The other deer busted and ran but not very far. The other big doe put herself in an opening and I had a perfect broadside shot on her, but I didn't have another doe tag. I've bought them online in the stand before, but it was 5:50 now and I didn't know of I could get it done quick enough so I decided not to try.
I got to see some interesting deer behavior. I did a light doe grunt a couple of times and the larger of the small deer snorted. Then she began stamping her foot. She'd stamp, the other big doe would stamp. She'd stamp the other big doe would stamp. That went on for several minutes. Then, the deer I shot started kicking around. I was really confused, I thought maybe I'd hit her in the spine or something. She kicked and thrashed around for several minutes. I quickly descended my tree thinking I was going to have to put another bullet in her. The other deer all blew and ran off when I started down in the noisy old stand. I got to the deer and found I'd hit her just right. I suppose it was just stray neurons firing causing the kicking. Because all brain activity had been distributed by the shot.
Using an H&R in 357 Maximum with 180gr soft points bullets over a really high charge of AA1680. Vortex 2-7x35 scope. I also videoed the hunt, but it was really dark. I haven't had a chance to review it yet.
Not a shot I'd usually take but it seemed right in this case.
