Post by DCS on Dec 12, 2015 18:11:56 GMT -6
A deer story…….
As you may remember our last hunting trip was a total wash out, literally. It was Thanksgiving cold, raining; we ended up just coming home early. We decided on the way home from that trip that we would watch the weather for the next several weeks and if it looked good, we would just make a “quickie trip for axis” just us two, no trailer, not much of anything.
After watching the weather we decided it was time, so we took off Wednesday morning.
We got there around 1pm Wednesday afternoon we were extremely quiet, no loud talking, no slamming the truck doors, no loud music. We eased out to our blinds about 2:30pm and hunted until 5:45 and then came in.
The next morning I was in my blind just as the sun was just thinking about coming over the horizon. About 15 minutes into the hunt I could make out the silhouettes of 4 or 5 small hogs at the “sendero” feeder. Ten minutes later I noticed something else, there were two deer milling around also. I am wondering if they are whitetail or sika. I bring the binoculars up and lo and behold they turn out to be axis. Big axis one a doe I guess no horns and the other one still a big animal, but with very short horns, that was the one I wanted. I was thinking the other one might be pregnant, wasn’t sure but I was not going to take any chances.
To me the deer seemed nervous, I eased my 308 Browning A-Bolt onto my home made sand bag, took off the safety and placed the cross hair on my axis deer. My finger was gently resting on trigger waiting for the deer settle down. Within a heart beat both deer were just gone, took off in flash. As I lowered the rifle, I could see a big and I mean big black and white spotted mama hog ran into the middle pack disrupting my hunt.
I hunted for a while longer, but the axis never returned. I left the blind around 10am for a little breakfast and returned shortly afternoon and hunted until 5:45 all I saw were two sikas at the other feeder.
I was bummed.
That night we changed tactics and decided we ought to get us a whitetail if an axis does not present itself to us. The next morning I hunted a different blind that overlooks a canyon with a feeder on the other side, about a 125 yard shot and a feeder to the west of the blind, about a 100 yard shot.
Shortly, after the feeder went off on the feeder across the canyon, a whitetail appeared, without thinking, I just flung the sliding window open and the deer bolted, God, what was I thinking, dead quiet and I do something like that. About, 30 minutes later I see two whitetails at the west feeder, so I turn 180 degrees in the chair and in the process manage to bang the gun on everything in the blind….twice. By the time I get the gun out of the window, the deer are gone. I am really getting mad at myself now.
After about an hour, a decent looking 8 point comes strolling by, I am wanting a doe for sausage, sure enough 5 minutes later a doe is in the feeder pen. I ease the 308 out the window, the doe hears me and is staring right at me standing broadside, it’s to late for her, I squeeze the trigger, BOOM. She is down. All RIGHT. Finally, got me one, about time. She spun around 360 degrees hit the ground, I can see a big wound in her shoulder, a little further up then I like, but still a good hit. She kicks a little and lays still, raises her head and then drops it. Kicks her back legs, raises her head and tries to stand up. I am thinking what the hell. As I pull the bolt back and rack another round in, she hopes over the dam pen and is gone in a flash. I am thinking what in the world just happened?
I finish my coffee, giving her a good 20 minutes to bleed out and then start looking for her. I find the blood trail right away and start tracking, The longer I track, the less blood I am finding. After about 45 minutes the blood trail crossed the property line and then just disappears. I am so bummed out I cannot believe it. I should have popped in another round and shot her in the head, now I have wounded animal running around.
I walk back to the feeder and find out my bullet had actually hit the hog paneling that we had put up and I guess the bullet had fragmented. If it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all.
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I go back to the cabin, eat breakfast and go back out around 11:30. The plan is to hunt until 4:45, pack up and come back home the next morning.
Finally, the feeder goes off at 4pm, at 4:30 a WT doe jumps into the west feeder, I am tired, thirsty, have lost all my confidence, not to mention upset with myself. I ease my rifle out, I am bound and determine this deer is not walking out of this feeder pen. I am going for a heart shot, the deer is at an angle from me, I place the cross hairs in front of the shoulder and pull the trigger. As soon as I pulled the trigger I also pulled the shot. I could see hair fly in the scope. The doe stared at me and causally jumped over the hog panel and trotted off.
I was steaming mad at myself! I have lost two deer in the same dam day, I have never done that. I walked over to the feeder pen where she stood, no blood, anywhere, at all, nothing, at all, zilch, nothing, I am guessing I just caught some hair.
At this point I am done, I am walking back to blind with the intention of loading up, locking the blind up, going back to cabin and just getting nasty drunk. So, I am walking back, looking down on ground, kicking rocks, when I just happen to look to my right a see a bright white rock with red on it. I am thinking, now that is just odd looking. I walk over to it and I be dammed if it isn’t wet blood and then I see the blood trail. I call Patsy on the radio and tell her the good news, I start tracking the blood and it never ends, that is bad. Don’t tell me I am going to loose another deer because I cannot find it. I call her back and tell her to bring me some trail tape and hurry because we are running out of daylight fast. This deer has gone a long way too just like the other did and my gut is telling me that I have just lost my second wounded deer.
Finally, after what seemed liked hours (really just 10 minutes or so) I could hear the side by side coming up from the canyon, I am just stomping my feet and clapping hands, hurry up, hurry up. Finally, she up coming up the hill, because the engine is revving, up. Soon the engine idles down. OK, she is at the ravine and she is shifting into low range, she is close. I am waiting and waiting and waiting. Soon, I hear something on the radio, cannot make it out. I rudely, tell her to come on up, let’s go. She says, something about a deer. I am rolling my eyes, where are at? I have your deer here! What tha……
I walk over to where she is at and I cannot believe what I am seeing. That deer I was tracking ran all over the country and doubled back and dropped dead right in the middle of road.
The End.
As you may remember our last hunting trip was a total wash out, literally. It was Thanksgiving cold, raining; we ended up just coming home early. We decided on the way home from that trip that we would watch the weather for the next several weeks and if it looked good, we would just make a “quickie trip for axis” just us two, no trailer, not much of anything.
After watching the weather we decided it was time, so we took off Wednesday morning.
We got there around 1pm Wednesday afternoon we were extremely quiet, no loud talking, no slamming the truck doors, no loud music. We eased out to our blinds about 2:30pm and hunted until 5:45 and then came in.
The next morning I was in my blind just as the sun was just thinking about coming over the horizon. About 15 minutes into the hunt I could make out the silhouettes of 4 or 5 small hogs at the “sendero” feeder. Ten minutes later I noticed something else, there were two deer milling around also. I am wondering if they are whitetail or sika. I bring the binoculars up and lo and behold they turn out to be axis. Big axis one a doe I guess no horns and the other one still a big animal, but with very short horns, that was the one I wanted. I was thinking the other one might be pregnant, wasn’t sure but I was not going to take any chances.
To me the deer seemed nervous, I eased my 308 Browning A-Bolt onto my home made sand bag, took off the safety and placed the cross hair on my axis deer. My finger was gently resting on trigger waiting for the deer settle down. Within a heart beat both deer were just gone, took off in flash. As I lowered the rifle, I could see a big and I mean big black and white spotted mama hog ran into the middle pack disrupting my hunt.
I hunted for a while longer, but the axis never returned. I left the blind around 10am for a little breakfast and returned shortly afternoon and hunted until 5:45 all I saw were two sikas at the other feeder.
I was bummed.
That night we changed tactics and decided we ought to get us a whitetail if an axis does not present itself to us. The next morning I hunted a different blind that overlooks a canyon with a feeder on the other side, about a 125 yard shot and a feeder to the west of the blind, about a 100 yard shot.
Shortly, after the feeder went off on the feeder across the canyon, a whitetail appeared, without thinking, I just flung the sliding window open and the deer bolted, God, what was I thinking, dead quiet and I do something like that. About, 30 minutes later I see two whitetails at the west feeder, so I turn 180 degrees in the chair and in the process manage to bang the gun on everything in the blind….twice. By the time I get the gun out of the window, the deer are gone. I am really getting mad at myself now.
After about an hour, a decent looking 8 point comes strolling by, I am wanting a doe for sausage, sure enough 5 minutes later a doe is in the feeder pen. I ease the 308 out the window, the doe hears me and is staring right at me standing broadside, it’s to late for her, I squeeze the trigger, BOOM. She is down. All RIGHT. Finally, got me one, about time. She spun around 360 degrees hit the ground, I can see a big wound in her shoulder, a little further up then I like, but still a good hit. She kicks a little and lays still, raises her head and then drops it. Kicks her back legs, raises her head and tries to stand up. I am thinking what the hell. As I pull the bolt back and rack another round in, she hopes over the dam pen and is gone in a flash. I am thinking what in the world just happened?
I finish my coffee, giving her a good 20 minutes to bleed out and then start looking for her. I find the blood trail right away and start tracking, The longer I track, the less blood I am finding. After about 45 minutes the blood trail crossed the property line and then just disappears. I am so bummed out I cannot believe it. I should have popped in another round and shot her in the head, now I have wounded animal running around.
I walk back to the feeder and find out my bullet had actually hit the hog paneling that we had put up and I guess the bullet had fragmented. If it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all.
I go back to the cabin, eat breakfast and go back out around 11:30. The plan is to hunt until 4:45, pack up and come back home the next morning.
Finally, the feeder goes off at 4pm, at 4:30 a WT doe jumps into the west feeder, I am tired, thirsty, have lost all my confidence, not to mention upset with myself. I ease my rifle out, I am bound and determine this deer is not walking out of this feeder pen. I am going for a heart shot, the deer is at an angle from me, I place the cross hairs in front of the shoulder and pull the trigger. As soon as I pulled the trigger I also pulled the shot. I could see hair fly in the scope. The doe stared at me and causally jumped over the hog panel and trotted off.
I was steaming mad at myself! I have lost two deer in the same dam day, I have never done that. I walked over to the feeder pen where she stood, no blood, anywhere, at all, nothing, at all, zilch, nothing, I am guessing I just caught some hair.
At this point I am done, I am walking back to blind with the intention of loading up, locking the blind up, going back to cabin and just getting nasty drunk. So, I am walking back, looking down on ground, kicking rocks, when I just happen to look to my right a see a bright white rock with red on it. I am thinking, now that is just odd looking. I walk over to it and I be dammed if it isn’t wet blood and then I see the blood trail. I call Patsy on the radio and tell her the good news, I start tracking the blood and it never ends, that is bad. Don’t tell me I am going to loose another deer because I cannot find it. I call her back and tell her to bring me some trail tape and hurry because we are running out of daylight fast. This deer has gone a long way too just like the other did and my gut is telling me that I have just lost my second wounded deer.
Finally, after what seemed liked hours (really just 10 minutes or so) I could hear the side by side coming up from the canyon, I am just stomping my feet and clapping hands, hurry up, hurry up. Finally, she up coming up the hill, because the engine is revving, up. Soon the engine idles down. OK, she is at the ravine and she is shifting into low range, she is close. I am waiting and waiting and waiting. Soon, I hear something on the radio, cannot make it out. I rudely, tell her to come on up, let’s go. She says, something about a deer. I am rolling my eyes, where are at? I have your deer here! What tha……
I walk over to where she is at and I cannot believe what I am seeing. That deer I was tracking ran all over the country and doubled back and dropped dead right in the middle of road.
The End.
