IAyoteHNTR
New member
I started the day well before sunrise sitting in the small hillside timber where I shot the button buck yesterday with my handgun (see first handgun deer story). I sat there until 9 am and only saw a couple deer as I was walking in that were on the edge of the fingerling timbers to the NW. It was still too dark to tell what they were and they slowly walked off to the North before I got settled in. After that I didn't see anything else.
Went to town to get breakfast and do a few chores. Stopped out at my buddy's gun shop and picked up one more doe tag since I've got a co-worker who was all but begging me to try and get a doe that he could have for his freezer since he got blanked during 1st season. So now he owes me big time!
I decided to break out my home made snow camo to put over everything else since I knew I'd be sitting in a spot that would work well with that camo. Went out to the tree stand about Noon and sat in that area til 2 not seeing a thing and then decided to go back out to the Southern area where I've been seeing deer just about every time I've been out there.
I got settled into the little hillside timber again around 2:30. I took a nap for a bit. Oops! I was all nice and cozy and warm so napping off was nice with the sounds of all the little birds, squirrels, etc around me. I probably only napped for 20-25 minutes but when I woke up the wind had changed from a SE direction to it now being a Westerly breeze so I changed my position just a little to look to the W/NW towards the fingerling timbers.
Not sure what time it was but it happened fairly suddenly........6-7 deer come out of the Southern end of that timber and 4 of them literally run right at me! I thought they would turn to the East towards the chiseled corn field right in front of me but they still kept coming right at me! They must have been headed for the deer trail that ran about 10 yards off to my left up through there. I had to make quick decisions. There were no bucks, all does and the 4 that kept coming were getting real close so I slowly pulled back the trigger on the H&R Slug Hunter and waited for the biggest one to get into this small clearing within this big clump of fallen trees, etc and pulled the trigger. BANG! She did a 180 and ran back out into the clearing and then to the East in front of me and made it about 25-30 yards and started wobbling and then fell over. The funny thing was what the other does were doing. 2 small ones stayed right there milling around in circles not even 15 yards from me. It's like they didn't know what happened. 2 other does that hadn't been part of the lead 4 were still near the edge of the fingerling timber and just stood there and stared at the doe that got shot and it was like they were wondering why there sister had just layed down over there. It was rather funny to watch. They just stood there staring for the longest time while the little does were just on my left doing circles. None of those deer had a clue where I was and never caught my scent since I had the wind in my face. Eventually something spooked the 2 little ones off and they took off in the direction they came from and the other does followed.
I sat there chuckling to myself, had a smoke and a few sips of my Pop I had with me and decided to just sit there for a while as it was still quite some time before sunset and I thought heck, you never know, maybe a buck will show up before I'm done.
Now on to the buck..........
I sat there til you could tell it was going to only be another 20-25 minutes before the end of shooting time and I decided to get up and slowly walk around the corner to the SW and make it to the edge of that timber looking towards a picked corn field to the South. For some reason I just had this really good feeling that I might see something. I made it around the corner and see 3 does way out there in the field so I crept up as far as I could, next to the last tree I could stand against and decided to wait it out and see if a buck might show up. Well wouldn't you know it, enter stage left slowly but surely is a buck but he's WAAAY out there like the does. I estimated it to be about 225 yards, it was hard to tell and I forgot to put my rangefinder in my pocket. I'm going to go back out tomorrow and get an exact range.
I was looking this buck over pretty good through my 2-7 power Nikon scope and the more I looked I thought his rack was probably easily better than my last year's buck but I knew I was running out of daylight and the odds of him coming North towards me through the set aside grass were probably slim to none. I told myself I wouldn't shoot a buck this year unless it was bigger than last year's but WOW can I pull off a shot like that? I had shot the H&R out to 300 while practicing so I knew it could be done. The bottom circle on the reticle of the scope according to my Nikon Ballistics Match Calculator app on my phone is for about 210 yards and the top of the bottom post in the scope should be for 265 yards. So I decide to try it. I put the gun on a branch and got really steady, put the deers vitals in between the bottom circle and the top of the post in the reticle, take a few deep breaths to calm myself, and pull the trigger.
The buck crumples! He struggles back to his feet and limps badly from his hind legs about another 10-15 yards and falls over! WOW! I can't hardly believe I pulled it off!
When I got to him I see the hole towards the top of his back about 4-5 inches down but in the middle of his body.........I forgot to figure windage, DUH. It looks like I caught maybe the top of his lungs just below his spine but he was definitely dead.
So the 3rd hunt on the 3rd day was a charm to say the least. Funny how it took me 3 shots to get the button buck yesterday too. I think 3 is my new favorite number.
Here's the pics.......................
Went to town to get breakfast and do a few chores. Stopped out at my buddy's gun shop and picked up one more doe tag since I've got a co-worker who was all but begging me to try and get a doe that he could have for his freezer since he got blanked during 1st season. So now he owes me big time!
I decided to break out my home made snow camo to put over everything else since I knew I'd be sitting in a spot that would work well with that camo. Went out to the tree stand about Noon and sat in that area til 2 not seeing a thing and then decided to go back out to the Southern area where I've been seeing deer just about every time I've been out there.
I got settled into the little hillside timber again around 2:30. I took a nap for a bit. Oops! I was all nice and cozy and warm so napping off was nice with the sounds of all the little birds, squirrels, etc around me. I probably only napped for 20-25 minutes but when I woke up the wind had changed from a SE direction to it now being a Westerly breeze so I changed my position just a little to look to the W/NW towards the fingerling timbers.
Not sure what time it was but it happened fairly suddenly........6-7 deer come out of the Southern end of that timber and 4 of them literally run right at me! I thought they would turn to the East towards the chiseled corn field right in front of me but they still kept coming right at me! They must have been headed for the deer trail that ran about 10 yards off to my left up through there. I had to make quick decisions. There were no bucks, all does and the 4 that kept coming were getting real close so I slowly pulled back the trigger on the H&R Slug Hunter and waited for the biggest one to get into this small clearing within this big clump of fallen trees, etc and pulled the trigger. BANG! She did a 180 and ran back out into the clearing and then to the East in front of me and made it about 25-30 yards and started wobbling and then fell over. The funny thing was what the other does were doing. 2 small ones stayed right there milling around in circles not even 15 yards from me. It's like they didn't know what happened. 2 other does that hadn't been part of the lead 4 were still near the edge of the fingerling timber and just stood there and stared at the doe that got shot and it was like they were wondering why there sister had just layed down over there. It was rather funny to watch. They just stood there staring for the longest time while the little does were just on my left doing circles. None of those deer had a clue where I was and never caught my scent since I had the wind in my face. Eventually something spooked the 2 little ones off and they took off in the direction they came from and the other does followed.
I sat there chuckling to myself, had a smoke and a few sips of my Pop I had with me and decided to just sit there for a while as it was still quite some time before sunset and I thought heck, you never know, maybe a buck will show up before I'm done.
Now on to the buck..........
I sat there til you could tell it was going to only be another 20-25 minutes before the end of shooting time and I decided to get up and slowly walk around the corner to the SW and make it to the edge of that timber looking towards a picked corn field to the South. For some reason I just had this really good feeling that I might see something. I made it around the corner and see 3 does way out there in the field so I crept up as far as I could, next to the last tree I could stand against and decided to wait it out and see if a buck might show up. Well wouldn't you know it, enter stage left slowly but surely is a buck but he's WAAAY out there like the does. I estimated it to be about 225 yards, it was hard to tell and I forgot to put my rangefinder in my pocket. I'm going to go back out tomorrow and get an exact range.
I was looking this buck over pretty good through my 2-7 power Nikon scope and the more I looked I thought his rack was probably easily better than my last year's buck but I knew I was running out of daylight and the odds of him coming North towards me through the set aside grass were probably slim to none. I told myself I wouldn't shoot a buck this year unless it was bigger than last year's but WOW can I pull off a shot like that? I had shot the H&R out to 300 while practicing so I knew it could be done. The bottom circle on the reticle of the scope according to my Nikon Ballistics Match Calculator app on my phone is for about 210 yards and the top of the bottom post in the scope should be for 265 yards. So I decide to try it. I put the gun on a branch and got really steady, put the deers vitals in between the bottom circle and the top of the post in the reticle, take a few deep breaths to calm myself, and pull the trigger.
The buck crumples! He struggles back to his feet and limps badly from his hind legs about another 10-15 yards and falls over! WOW! I can't hardly believe I pulled it off!
When I got to him I see the hole towards the top of his back about 4-5 inches down but in the middle of his body.........I forgot to figure windage, DUH. It looks like I caught maybe the top of his lungs just below his spine but he was definitely dead.
So the 3rd hunt on the 3rd day was a charm to say the least. Funny how it took me 3 shots to get the button buck yesterday too. I think 3 is my new favorite number.
Here's the pics.......................
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