Post by: lokidog on October 18, 2014, 11:57:52 PM
I decided to hunt with her this evening as I have hardly ever gone out with her. I've been tossing apples out on a neighbor's trail to the beach the last two days, but have not had the apples eaten during the day. Anyways, we found a spot to sit in the bushes at about 5:15. We had a dinner date with some heighbors at 7:00. It was kind of windy, but away from the trails. At about 6:10 a doe came out at 12 yards, munched on an apple a bit with her butt towards us. She kept glancing back in the woods but nothing came out behind her. She started to walk towards us, then turned as if to continue across the path.
She stopped at 10 yards and Weathergirl pulled the trigger. Just as she fired, the deer turned a bit away and jumped straight up kicking out her back legs. She bolted like a streak of lightning to our right, there was a bluff just past her, then turned 180 degrees and blasted off to the left crossing the trail about 35 yards away. We got up and looked at the impact point. We found some brownish stomach looking yuck and Weathergirl's heart fell. We followed the trail to where we had seen her cross and found more of the brownish ooze. :( So, we decided to head to dinner and give her a chance to expire if it was a gut shot. Of course the first question our hosts asked was if she had gotten a deer this evening....
After a great dinner of lightly seared yellowfin tuna (caught by our host last month), Ceasar salad, and homemade lasagna, we rolled our stuffed selves back out to the woods to recover her deer. My son loves to track deer so he was, of course, along with us.
We returned to the last location of sign and slowly worked our way off the trail. Fortunately, the brown soon turned to red and we were able to fairly easily follow the trail. After a total running distance of about 90 yards we found the doe piled up. The bullet entered a little far back on the right side, hit the stomach, punched one lung, totaled the liver, destroyed half of the other lung, and exited center shoulder on the off side (Hornady 2 3/4" SST slug).
And so ends another island hunting season, deer number 24 on the island in our 9th year for us and friends. :tup:
Her is an As She Lay and the happy tracker and shooter shot.
Post by: Becky on October 19, 2014, 12:27:55 AM
Post by: Mtn.Ghost on October 19, 2014, 02:16:08 AM
Nice deer, good story and congratulations to the lady on another successful season :tup:
Post by: PolarBear on October 19, 2014, 02:20:54 AM
Post by: BIGMIKE on October 19, 2014, 07:32:51 AM
Post by: Boss .300 winmag on October 19, 2014, 07:50:23 AM
ZMan is going to to be guide some day. :chuckle:
Post by: weathergirl on October 19, 2014, 10:40:25 AM
:tup: and good job writing up her story since she wasn't going to share with the class lol.
I just didn't really see it as a "story." Maybe just more a list of comments about it. Here's my bulleted list:
- Nice to sit in the woods with the husband and have him be quiet for a while. :chuckle:
- Nice to just go with the husband's suggestions of where/how to hunt instead of the work of deciding for myself.
- Another lesson in sometimes it is worth it to sit and wait...(I prefer to walk and stalk). I was sure we weren't going to see anything until suddenly there were the urgent whispers from lokidog "DEER! DEER!" since he, of course, saw her first.
- I realized that I have a hard time not rushing the shot once I see a deer. Lokidog told me to wait when I first lined up on her...so I did...but then once he said "OK, whenever" I could have taken about two more seconds to be sure I had the shot I wanted. Then when we saw the "gutty blood" and Lokidog said "not good" my heart sank and was filled with regret for not waiting just 2 more seconds.
- I rarely can even remember the second before I shoot. It seems some, like Lokidog, can remember every detail, but for me it seems like the rush of it all shuts off the memory.
- I don't think I even hear or feel the shot, but maybe that goes with the memory loss.
- So glad Lokidog was there to help observe which way she ran, because I also have a hard time noting all the details in the heat of the moment. I usually try really hard to focus when by myself, and take a photo with my phone so I can remember the way it looked.
- It is SO HARD to walk away and let the deer die without pushing her further. If I were by myself, I probably would have, which could have made things worse.
- The best part of the whole experience is watching my son shine at his tracking abilities in the dark...he loves it! And he's awesome at it!
- The doe was still lactating...ugh...a whole new set of questions (this is only the 2nd doe I've ever shot...maybe it's common?)
- And then the hauling and gutting and feeling better by just getting her home.
- Lastly, I've been hunting for over 10 years now, most years shooting a deer...and there is always so much to learn. It is always humbling, emotional (I'm pretty sure I've never shot a deer without crying...Lokidog thought maybe I cried less this time...I don't know :chuckle:). My emotions are always tangled about what I could have done better, the pride, the regret, the feeling "cool", the dread of work, the joy of good meat, the role model aspect for my son, etc. etc. But maybe I just make everything in life more complicated than it needs to be. :chuckle:
There's my "story"
Post by: lokidog on October 19, 2014, 11:01:56 AM
Here is a short video of the end of the tracking, I did get a bit frustrated when he would not look where the flashlight beam was though, especially since I had already seen the white of the deer's belly ahead of us. :rolleyes:
Fortunately, I think she was down before we even got out of our little hidey hole.
http://youtu.be/luiXoiWlwdM (http://youtu.be/luiXoiWlwdM)
Post by: REHJWA on October 19, 2014, 11:17:59 AM
Post by: MLBowhunting on October 19, 2014, 12:03:54 PM
Post by: splashcaster on October 19, 2014, 12:07:42 PM
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 19, 2014, 01:53:28 PM
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on October 19, 2014, 02:18:34 PM
Nice ...Congrats :tup::tup: and good job writing up her story since she wasn't going to share with the class lol.
I just didn't really see it as a "story." Maybe just more a list of comments about it. Here's my bulleted list:
- Nice to sit in the woods with the husband and have him be quiet for a while. :chuckle:
- Nice to just go with the husband's suggestions of where/how to hunt instead of the work of deciding for myself.
- Another lesson in sometimes it is worth it to sit and wait...(I prefer to walk and stalk). I was sure we weren't going to see anything until suddenly there were the urgent whispers from lokidog "DEER! DEER!" since he, of course, saw her first.
- I realized that I have a hard time not rushing the shot once I see a deer. Lokidog told me to wait when I first lined up on her...so I did...but then once he said "OK, whenever" I could have taken about two more seconds to be sure I had the shot I wanted. Then when we saw the "gutty blood" and Lokidog said "not good" my heart sank and was filled with regret for not waiting just 2 more seconds.
- I rarely can even remember the second before I shoot. It seems some, like Lokidog, can remember every detail, but for me it seems like the rush of it all shuts off the memory.
- I don't think I even hear or feel the shot, but maybe that goes with the memory loss.
- So glad Lokidog was there to help observe which way she ran, because I also have a hard time noting all the details in the heat of the moment. I usually try really hard to focus when by myself, and take a photo with my phone so I can remember the way it looked.
- It is SO HARD to walk away and let the deer die without pushing her further. If I were by myself, I probably would have, which could have made things worse.
- The best part of the whole experience is watching my son shine at his tracking abilities in the dark...he loves it! And he's awesome at it!
- The doe was still lactating...ugh...a whole new set of questions (this is only the 2nd doe I've ever shot...maybe it's common?)
- And then the hauling and gutting and feeling better by just getting her home.
- Lastly, I've been hunting for over 10 years now, most years shooting a deer...and there is always so much to learn. It is always humbling, emotional (I'm pretty sure I've never shot a deer without crying...Lokidog thought maybe I cried less this time...I don't know :chuckle:). My emotions are always tangled about what I could have done better, the pride, the regret, the feeling "cool", the dread of work, the joy of good meat, the role model aspect for my son, etc. etc. But maybe I just make everything in life more complicated than it needs to be. :chuckle:
There's my "story"
Post by: Becky on October 19, 2014, 06:59:29 PM
:tup: and good job writing up her story since she wasn't going to share with the class lol.
I just didn't really see it as a "story." Maybe just more a list of comments about it. Here's my bulleted list:
- Nice to sit in the woods with the husband and have him be quiet for a while. :chuckle:
- Nice to just go with the husband's suggestions of where/how to hunt instead of the work of deciding for myself.
- Another lesson in sometimes it is worth it to sit and wait...(I prefer to walk and stalk). I was sure we weren't going to see anything until suddenly there were the urgent whispers from lokidog "DEER! DEER!" since he, of course, saw her first.
- I realized that I have a hard time not rushing the shot once I see a deer. Lokidog told me to wait when I first lined up on her...so I did...but then once he said "OK, whenever" I could have taken about two more seconds to be sure I had the shot I wanted. Then when we saw the "gutty blood" and Lokidog said "not good" my heart sank and was filled with regret for not waiting just 2 more seconds.
- I rarely can even remember the second before I shoot. It seems some, like Lokidog, can remember every detail, but for me it seems like the rush of it all shuts off the memory.
- I don't think I even hear or feel the shot, but maybe that goes with the memory loss.
- So glad Lokidog was there to help observe which way she ran, because I also have a hard time noting all the details in the heat of the moment. I usually try really hard to focus when by myself, and take a photo with my phone so I can remember the way it looked.
- It is SO HARD to walk away and let the deer die without pushing her further. If I were by myself, I probably would have, which could have made things worse.
- The best part of the whole experience is watching my son shine at his tracking abilities in the dark...he loves it! And he's awesome at it!
- The doe was still lactating...ugh...a whole new set of questions (this is only the 2nd doe I've ever shot...maybe it's common?)
- And then the hauling and gutting and feeling better by just getting her home.
- Lastly, I've been hunting for over 10 years now, most years shooting a deer...and there is always so much to learn. It is always humbling, emotional (I'm pretty sure I've never shot a deer without crying...Lokidog thought maybe I cried less this time...I don't know :chuckle:). My emotions are always tangled about what I could have done better, the pride, the regret, the feeling "cool", the dread of work, the joy of good meat, the role model aspect for my son, etc. etc. But maybe I just make everything in life more complicated than it needs to be. :chuckle:
There's my "story"
Lol those are great notes and you can form a story from that ;) haha. I think guys are better story tellers when it comes to hunting, like you've said before to me they can stretch out a 10 minute hunt into a 10 page story :chuckle:.