HarryToolips
10-27-2019, 08:36 PM
I don't normally create threads dedicated just to a 'meat buck' but this one there's more of a story to it so here goes..the time I've had to hunt the last few weeks has been only with my 6 year old, which is great, but it ain't always easy to still hunt or sit with a kid that age, and the next two weeks I am at a bro's wedding, so I knew my solo hunting time is/was limited..so with that, I had 6 hours to hunt, taking me to last light..I knew the woods I was heading to had good pockets of whitetails, and I was enthusiastic about the prospect of still-hunting whitetails solo..I had a mule deer in the freezer at this point, but wanted to put one more freezer filler in the freezer (either a meat WT buck or a dry doe) before saving my last tag for something special..
So I get out to my spot, and with anticipation of hitting the good areas where I know the whitetails will be, I'm a little hurried at first in my walk, do a quick scan through the binos then keep up a good pace..then all of a sudden two good sized does wheeze snort and are off 100 miles an hour..damn, didn't even see them, man they blend in well, I swear I just looked there..OK I gotta slow down, so I hike up the next knoll, hey there's a WT, hmmm too small, short nose, must be a yearling with it's mum - yup there's the mother, decent size but no, I'm going to shoot a dry doe if I can help it...another hour goes by - going slow but the wind is circling a bit, spook up the same pair I think, oh well, not much I can do about the wind, stay on track, going slow, damn there's another one spotted me just before I spotted it, small buck but moving too quick and too many branches in the way, not going to take that shot...OK, I'll keep going but I gotta slow down, go for a bit longer, start scanning an area, when I hear movement to my right - wow 2 WT antlerless, I must be going slow enough now they didn't hear me - hmm another mother/yearling pair, aint gonna shoot em, but let's see what happens, the mother is now 10 yards from me, catches sight of me and knows something isn't right - starts stomping her feet to try to get me to move - I remain still, she bolts so for fun I do a wheeze snort at her, it worked she stops for another minute but is suspicious like all whitetails, time to high tail it out, so her and the yearling bolt..oh well that was fun..keep up the turtle pace, got two hours of light left, and they are starting to move a bit and feed in the woods...slowly ascend a hill, wind is in my face, finally settling down - keep scanning before I move these deer materialize out of nowhere - oh look there's one to my left, OK it's a small buck, he is looking at me now but hasn't bolted yet, surprised that I'm there, I drop to one knee, he's quartering away, but almost too much of a quartering away shot, I only have small area of the vitals to aim at - but I'm a confident shot, I tell myself I've done shots like these before, deep breath, squeeze - boom - look at him -f**k I can tell as he limps off beyond a little knoll and out of my immediate site that I nailed him in the shoulder - OK, if I move to my left I should get a better glimpse of him - yup damn, it's a shoulder shot but I can tell that my shot was bad enough that I took out his shoulder without hitting the vitals - DAMN! I pray to God and say you allowed me to shoot this deer, don't let him suffer, help me finish the job! As he's limping he spots me and he knows the chase is on - if it was a kill shot I'd let him bed and die but I know I didn't hit him good enough, I have to pursue this deer and get another shot on him! He weaves and limps his way in front of me, through thick brush and standing fir and pine, and I'm trying to keep him in my sights while trying to be somewhat quiet - I get to where he just was - no blood to follow and I've got maybe an hour of light left, I need to spot this buck! There he is! 200 yards or so in front of me as he limps his way up a hill - I know where he is going - I be-line it to the that spot, and slow right down where I figure he'll hit the top of the hill - hey! is that him? No! That buck is way bigger! 2 of them! And they're fighting! Full on spar, two bucks, much bigger racks than the guy I just wounded - hey maybe he'll live and....NO! I have to finish the job on this guy, it's my fault he's wounded, let's put this smaller buck down ethically..just then, to my left I catch a glimpse of him limping toward the two other bucks, who with their fighting, still haven't spotted me - the one buck un-locks his antlers from the other and charges at the wounded small buck! He takes the hit like hes been hit by a truck but keeps himself on his feet but continues on a straight path..I find an opening between two trees that I see he's heading toward, limping very hard now, - I take a deep breath - he enters the zone - boom, I see him instantly go down, start kicking the death kick for all of 5 seconds, while the two bigger bucks run off like bats out of hell....PHEW! I watch him in the scope, yup he's staying down..OK I'll keep an eye on him as I round the top of this little ridgeline toward him..there he is, poke him in the eye with my barrel of my gun - phew he's down, I have more meat for me and my family and this guy didn't have to suffer long!....
So I get out to my spot, and with anticipation of hitting the good areas where I know the whitetails will be, I'm a little hurried at first in my walk, do a quick scan through the binos then keep up a good pace..then all of a sudden two good sized does wheeze snort and are off 100 miles an hour..damn, didn't even see them, man they blend in well, I swear I just looked there..OK I gotta slow down, so I hike up the next knoll, hey there's a WT, hmmm too small, short nose, must be a yearling with it's mum - yup there's the mother, decent size but no, I'm going to shoot a dry doe if I can help it...another hour goes by - going slow but the wind is circling a bit, spook up the same pair I think, oh well, not much I can do about the wind, stay on track, going slow, damn there's another one spotted me just before I spotted it, small buck but moving too quick and too many branches in the way, not going to take that shot...OK, I'll keep going but I gotta slow down, go for a bit longer, start scanning an area, when I hear movement to my right - wow 2 WT antlerless, I must be going slow enough now they didn't hear me - hmm another mother/yearling pair, aint gonna shoot em, but let's see what happens, the mother is now 10 yards from me, catches sight of me and knows something isn't right - starts stomping her feet to try to get me to move - I remain still, she bolts so for fun I do a wheeze snort at her, it worked she stops for another minute but is suspicious like all whitetails, time to high tail it out, so her and the yearling bolt..oh well that was fun..keep up the turtle pace, got two hours of light left, and they are starting to move a bit and feed in the woods...slowly ascend a hill, wind is in my face, finally settling down - keep scanning before I move these deer materialize out of nowhere - oh look there's one to my left, OK it's a small buck, he is looking at me now but hasn't bolted yet, surprised that I'm there, I drop to one knee, he's quartering away, but almost too much of a quartering away shot, I only have small area of the vitals to aim at - but I'm a confident shot, I tell myself I've done shots like these before, deep breath, squeeze - boom - look at him -f**k I can tell as he limps off beyond a little knoll and out of my immediate site that I nailed him in the shoulder - OK, if I move to my left I should get a better glimpse of him - yup damn, it's a shoulder shot but I can tell that my shot was bad enough that I took out his shoulder without hitting the vitals - DAMN! I pray to God and say you allowed me to shoot this deer, don't let him suffer, help me finish the job! As he's limping he spots me and he knows the chase is on - if it was a kill shot I'd let him bed and die but I know I didn't hit him good enough, I have to pursue this deer and get another shot on him! He weaves and limps his way in front of me, through thick brush and standing fir and pine, and I'm trying to keep him in my sights while trying to be somewhat quiet - I get to where he just was - no blood to follow and I've got maybe an hour of light left, I need to spot this buck! There he is! 200 yards or so in front of me as he limps his way up a hill - I know where he is going - I be-line it to the that spot, and slow right down where I figure he'll hit the top of the hill - hey! is that him? No! That buck is way bigger! 2 of them! And they're fighting! Full on spar, two bucks, much bigger racks than the guy I just wounded - hey maybe he'll live and....NO! I have to finish the job on this guy, it's my fault he's wounded, let's put this smaller buck down ethically..just then, to my left I catch a glimpse of him limping toward the two other bucks, who with their fighting, still haven't spotted me - the one buck un-locks his antlers from the other and charges at the wounded small buck! He takes the hit like hes been hit by a truck but keeps himself on his feet but continues on a straight path..I find an opening between two trees that I see he's heading toward, limping very hard now, - I take a deep breath - he enters the zone - boom, I see him instantly go down, start kicking the death kick for all of 5 seconds, while the two bigger bucks run off like bats out of hell....PHEW! I watch him in the scope, yup he's staying down..OK I'll keep an eye on him as I round the top of this little ridgeline toward him..there he is, poke him in the eye with my barrel of my gun - phew he's down, I have more meat for me and my family and this guy didn't have to suffer long!....