Halfway done deer season

[jethro224]

Here in Illinois we have a goofy, short, split deer season. The weekend before Thanksgiving we get Fri-Sun for the first part of "firearm" season. We skip Thanksgiving weekend. Then we get Thurs-Sun the week after Thanksgiving for the 2nd part of "firearm" AND the first part of "muzzleloader" season. The next weekend, Fri-Sun, is the last part of muzzleloader season. Since I bought both kinds of tags my season is exactly halfway over. The first half was memorable.

Sometimes it seems like God, or Fate, or Lady Luck, or whatever you believe in, is smiling on you. It kinda seemed that way for me for a while when I won a new rifle at a rendezvous in October. Then I took that rifle to another rondy and handily won 1st place in the shoot.

I thought "Heck yeah! I'm gonna take this here lucky rifle deer huntin' and get me the bigun!"

That musta been when the smilin' turned into a chuckle...

The weather had been really nice for this time of year. The moon was gonna be just right. The bucks were still chasin' does. Opening day was gonna be GREAT!
Until the weather man said it wasn't gonna be so great... High winds in the forecast all weekend.

Then they changed their minds and decided that opening morning was going to be OK until late morning when the wind would kick up. :thumbsup: I'll just hurry up and get the bigun' early.

So, I got out there and saw the bigun right away. He was chasing 2 does down thru the thick brush about 75 yards away from where I was sitting in a deadfall tree. Couldn't get a clear shot.
Then here comes this little one-antlered yearling buck trotting by at about 25 yards in the wide open. :idunno:

Several more does and bambis came by but I didn't see that big buck any more so I decided to move down closer to where I had seen him earlier. There was a nice big old cedar tree about 50 yards deeper in there that looked like a good spot to sit.

After a while the wind started to get pretty serious just like the weather man said. Pretty soon all the branches were moving and I couldn't hear a thing for all the noise. Until I heard those galloping noises behind me.

Faster than you can read this, I heard the galloping and a big doe ran right past my tree. Right behind her was the big buck! They ran by so close that I coulda butt-stroked them! But I couldn't shoot! My rifle was across my lap facing left and they ran by on my right. By the time I could bring the rifle around they were well on their way.

As I stood there gaping, another buck came into view. I think it was "Slobberface" but can't be sure. Slobberface is a buck I've beeen watching grow up. He'd be 3 1/2 years old now. The first time I saw him he was a year old and I almost shot him. He has a big bulge on the side of his face and drools a lot. I thought he probably couldn't eat and was going to put him down. Just as I started to pull the trigger he bent down and ate an acorn so I let him go. Now he was a shooter.(if it was him)

Anyway, he stopped at about 50 yards broadside in an opening. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. POOF, a flash in the pan!
I said to him "You lucky SOB." and he walked away while I reprimed.

The this little one-antlered yearling trotted by at 25 yards in the wide open. :idunno:

The next morning the wind was blowing so hard that I just slept in. I did get out for the last couple hours but only saw a few does. I only had the firearm tag valid that first weekend and was holding out for a buck.

Sunday I saw a bunch of deer but not the bigun'. About 15 minutes before quitting time a decent sized buck came by and offered an easy shot at about 25 yards. He wasn't the bigun' but it's been several years since I have shot an antlered buck so I decided to take him.

I took a steady bead right behind his shoulder and fired. FFFFFFFIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ............BOOOM!
Of course, by the time that fizz was half done the buck was way gone. :surrender:

And then this little one-antlered yearling trotted by. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

Now both of my tags are valid. Both the firearm tag and the muzzleloader tag. So I was ready to take a nice doe for the freezer and still be able to hunt for the big buck.

Yesterday I only saw one deer all day long. A button buck.

Today was nice and calm. Cool but not too cold. Nice day to be out.
Around 8am a big doe presented me with a good shot and I took it. Well I took a shot, but not a real good one. Just as I squeezed the shot off she turned.

At first it was difficult to find a blood trail but finally I did. It wasn't real good tho. Didn't look like a lung hit. I began to worry that I had only wounded her. It didn't look like a gut-shot tho so I stayed on the trail. The blood trail got better as I went.

But it kept going. I stayed on it hoping to keep her moving and bleeding. She had stopped at a water hole and I jumped her but couldn't get a follow-up shot. I did see there was a lot of blood on her side and it looked like about the right area, but she ran pretty good.

I kept right after her and jumped her again in another 100 yards at another small water hole. Didn't see her that time but heard her crashing off. She jumped a fence and ran out into a CRP field.

At the far side of the CRP I jumped her again but still couldn't get a shot thru the tall weeds. This time she acted confused but ran off towards the creek into a thin strip of woods.

At this point I lost her blood trail and had to do some searching to get back on it. About the time I started to see blood again I heard her just up ahead of me. I could barely see her thru the thick brush along the creek and saw her go over the edge. The other side of the creek is open woods with a steep uphill slope so I busted thru the rose bushes and got to the bank so I might get a shot but didn't see her. Then I heard her thrashing in the water just downstream from where I stood. She was down and done.

My shot had hit just a little far back and went right thru her liver. Didn't hit much of anything else. I'm glad I stayed on her trail to keep her moving and bleeding. I'm even more glad that I finally caught up and found her.

There's still half of our deer season left. I still have my muzzleloader tag. There's still a big buck out there to hunt. My Possum rifle has blood on it. Now it's Bob's rifle for the rest of the season. (for the story of Bob's rifle look in the photo section) Maybe me and Bob can get us a big buck.

 

[rushlake1]

Way to stay on track! Good find! Nice Doe Too!
Keep after them Jethro!

 

[Spikebuck]

Glad you found her, congrats!

Liver hits are "funny" things...Never had one with a gun, but with bow I've had deer go down stone dead in 40 yards from them, and others that took a while. Seems to be the "luck of the draw" based on which arteries in there got hit.

Good luck on your buck hunt!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Good on you. I'm not seeing anything but four tiny antlerless, though there is a LOT of rub/scrape/droppings sign. They seem to be moving at night.

People may doubt global warming but there is a friggin yellow dandelion in my front yard and we are still in the 40 to 60°F range. October temps in December.

I don't know how to react and neither do the deer.

 

[smo]

Congrats Jethro :hatsoff: she will eat good.

 

[wattlebuster]

Good looking meat an gun :thumbsup:

 

[Critter Getter]

Thanks for taking the time to post such a fun hunting story and picture for us to enjoy. Congrats and good luck tagging a buck! Greg.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Well done

 

[Dave Marsh]

Great job. Congrats. :thumbsup:

Dave

 

[Patocazador]

Good job of keeping on her trail. :thumbsup:

Liver shots with a bow seem to be dependent on using a wide broadhead. I used to shoot a Razorbak 5 that was 7/8" wide. When I switched to a Hoyt Top Cut with a wider 4-blade head, liver shots dropped the deer in about 30 seconds.
If I've shot a deer in the liver with a firearm, I don't know about it.

 

[ebutch]

Thanks for sharing! Great story and nice size doe!

 

[excess650]

Your persistence paid off! :thumbsup: Congratulations on the doe and beautiful rifle!

 

[Silex]

:hatsoff: Weidmannsheil my friend!

Quite interesting half-season and a lot of fun to read.

Silex

 

[robinsroost]

Congratulations Jethro, way to stick with it. That is a nice fat doe from God's grocery store, glad she didn't become coyote food. BTW, that was one hell of a story. Keep yer powder dry.....robin :bow:

 

[will5a1]

Nicely done, thanks for sharing your hunt with us.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

That is one neat story. Now that gun is blooded hope you do well with Bob's gun and I hope it's the biggen! Dan.

 

[azmntman]

NICE!

My oldest sons first elk was with a .54. 80 yd shot middle of liver. (Connical) INCREDIBLE blood trail, actually kinda spooky, and she was down in 80 yds. Course it was on TOP of Hutch Mountian!

Liver hits work. Glad ya :hatsoff: found her!

 

[Black Hand]

I'm glad I stayed on her trail to keep her moving and bleeding. I'm even more glad that I finally caught up and found her.

A liver shot is massively devastating and will put an animal down from blood loss in very little time.

It would have been a far better idea to wait for 15-20 minutes and you would likely have found it dead not too far from where it was shot. They tend to find a quiet spot to lay down and die within a few minutes if not pushed. By pushing the deer you took a chance that it would have been lost.

Just my view on the matter...

 

[jethro224]

Sometimes a liver hit will put a deer down quickly. Other times not so much. At the time I didn't know it was a liver hit. It could have just as well been only a muscle hit.

In my experience, it can sometimes be better to keep a wounded deer moving in order to keep the blood flowing instead of clotting up. If the blood keeps flowing the deer will eventually lose enough blood to either die or become too weak to keep moving. I believe this is the case this time.

Just to be clear tho, I did not immediately push the deer after the shot. There were two other deer with her when I shot and they didn't run off. I didn't want to spook them and let them know where my spot was so I waited until they left the area. About 15 minutes. Then it took another 15 minutes or so to find the blood trail before I started seriously trailing her. The time between the shot and when I jumped her at the first water hole was at least 45 minutes, probably an hour or more.

When the doe ran from the water hole there wasn't much of a blood trail to follow at first. She started bleeding more again after 30 yards or so. It was when I jumped her the first time that I decided the best course of action was to keep pushing her hard to keep her bleeding. It worked.

 

[Black Hand]

In my experience, it can sometimes be better to keep a wounded deer moving in order to keep the blood flowing instead of clotting up. If the blood keeps flowing the deer will eventually lose enough blood to either die or become too weak to keep moving. I believe this is the case this time.

We will need to disagree. The deer will bleed and die regardless - pushing the animal only causes stress and can make it taste funky. Not to mention that wounded deer that are pushed can end up in places where they are very difficult to retrieve. Waiting does the trick because they aren't pushed, relax and bleed out.....