Daver
PMA Member
My youngest son Mark is a very eager young hunter and reminds me of myself back in the day. 
He has shot a bunch of does in the past few years, gun and bow, and passed many different bucks and for one reason or the other, just couldn't close the deal on a buck...until now. And this was no picnic either.
For a couple of different reasons, we had not hunted our farm during the shotgun seasons yet this year. (Although our tracking effort revealed that someone else apparently had!! We found various boot prints ALL OVER our place. I think we got fresh snow just a couple of days ago and so these tracks had to be within the last 2-3 days.)
Even though we had not been there since the weekend after Thanksgiving, I strongly suspected that the deer would be using our soybean/rye food plot and they were. We went down yesterday mid-morning and Mark went out early for a sit, at about 1:30P. When he was just about too cold to take it any more, the deer showed up. :grin:
Somehow he had managed to get his gloves off in preparation for a shot and then one of the herd spied him and proceeded to give him the hairy eyeball for what he thought was about 10 minutes. He didn't think he should move so he held still and slowly froze up even worse waiting for them all to relax. :grin: So by the time he was able to line up on this guy, he was frozen and shaking like a leaf. He actually has some mild frostbite on a couple of fingers, I told him to rub some dirt on it and he would be fine. :grin:
He was using my 12 gauge with a slug barrel and open sights. I think nerves and the cold influenced things quite a bit and his shot was low...only he didnt know that at the time. He actually lobbed a couple more at it as it retreated, but now in retrospect I am pretty sure those were misses. Hearing his description of things, I decided we would wait overnight...and had we not done that I am pretty sure we would not have recovered him. When in doubt...back out. :way:
We picked up the trail this morning and followed what was for the most part a fairly modest blood trail for about 250 yards. He bedded I think 5 times over that distance. Following the trail slowly and quietly, I spotted him bedded ahead of us about 75 yards and although he was weakened, his head was still up this morning. A final finishing shot closed the deal and now Mark has a buck to hang on the wall.
Never mind that this was the ONE buck I specifically did not want shot this year on our place. Oh well. Given the cold, the shaking and all, I don't think Mark recognized him last night, as he has passed larger bucks before. We have quite a few trail cams on this guy and I think he is a 3-1/2, 10 pointer, 125"-ish that I really think could have shot up with another year or two of growth. But it is his first buck and he has passed up several others, so no worries, he was happy, so I was happy.
Tine length is not overly impressive, but there is decent mass to make up for that. He STRONGLY resembles one of the big deer shot in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. I am 90% sure we have one his dad's shed from a few years ago.
He has shot a bunch of does in the past few years, gun and bow, and passed many different bucks and for one reason or the other, just couldn't close the deal on a buck...until now. And this was no picnic either.For a couple of different reasons, we had not hunted our farm during the shotgun seasons yet this year. (Although our tracking effort revealed that someone else apparently had!!
We found various boot prints ALL OVER our place. I think we got fresh snow just a couple of days ago and so these tracks had to be within the last 2-3 days.)Even though we had not been there since the weekend after Thanksgiving, I strongly suspected that the deer would be using our soybean/rye food plot and they were. We went down yesterday mid-morning and Mark went out early for a sit, at about 1:30P. When he was just about too cold to take it any more, the deer showed up. :grin:
Somehow he had managed to get his gloves off in preparation for a shot and then one of the herd spied him and proceeded to give him the hairy eyeball for what he thought was about 10 minutes. He didn't think he should move so he held still and slowly froze up even worse waiting for them all to relax. :grin: So by the time he was able to line up on this guy, he was frozen and shaking like a leaf. He actually has some mild frostbite on a couple of fingers, I told him to rub some dirt on it and he would be fine. :grin:
He was using my 12 gauge with a slug barrel and open sights. I think nerves and the cold influenced things quite a bit and his shot was low...only he didnt know that at the time. He actually lobbed a couple more at it as it retreated, but now in retrospect I am pretty sure those were misses. Hearing his description of things, I decided we would wait overnight...and had we not done that I am pretty sure we would not have recovered him. When in doubt...back out. :way:
We picked up the trail this morning and followed what was for the most part a fairly modest blood trail for about 250 yards. He bedded I think 5 times over that distance. Following the trail slowly and quietly, I spotted him bedded ahead of us about 75 yards and although he was weakened, his head was still up this morning. A final finishing shot closed the deal and now Mark has a buck to hang on the wall.
Never mind that this was the ONE buck I specifically did not want shot this year on our place. Oh well. Given the cold, the shaking and all, I don't think Mark recognized him last night, as he has passed larger bucks before. We have quite a few trail cams on this guy and I think he is a 3-1/2, 10 pointer, 125"-ish that I really think could have shot up with another year or two of growth. But it is his first buck and he has passed up several others, so no worries, he was happy, so I was happy.
Tine length is not overly impressive, but there is decent mass to make up for that. He STRONGLY resembles one of the big deer shot in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. I am 90% sure we have one his dad's shed from a few years ago.
