Post by Greg Krause on Nov 24, 2008 0:39:41 GMT -5
Thursday night I didn't go to sleep until 2:30am and was up at 4:15am Friday and headed for my treestand. I worked all day and at 11pm I was headed up state NY, to meet up with Logan, her sister(Emily) and Emily's boyfriend Bill. They headed up to my cabin and few hours before me. By the time I got there and finally climbed into bed it was 4am. The alarm woke me at 5:15am and Bill and I got up, geared up and headed out. I have never deer hunted up there and never Rifle hunted in my life. A few years back I took a deer with my ML in IL. Other than that I never hunted deer with a gun. Upstate is nothing like where i hunt here. The deer population is very low and it's bucks only. I have rifles, but my buddy Joe made me take his 30-06 Remington semi auto. He said it's a lucky gun and many people have taken their first deer with that gun. He said no need to shoot it, just aim and squeeze. It'll center a quarter at 100yds everytime.
Back to Sat at 5:15am......we get dressed and are on the porch by 5:45. he heads out to the right side of the property and I head down to the left. i knew that there was a small stream that leads from my pond down a steep hill through hardwoods to a bench that runs along the hill. The bench is only about 80yds wide and is lined by a pine grove on the bottom side. They logged an area to the left of the stream a number of years ago and now briars and brambles have taken over. Without any scouting I figured this area seemed to be my best bet. In past yearsI have seen a fairly well worn deer trail through here.
I set up 100yds from the pines, above the bench and settled in by 6:15. It was snowing hard and there was already 3" on the ground. the wind was right in my face and I was as optimistic as i could be, considering I was going on blind. As the sun came up i had a hard time keeping my eyes open, but it was a beautiful morning and I managed. at 7am i see a deer coming along the hardwoods/pine edge on the bench. He jumped the stream and was moving left to right in front of me. I through the scope on him and sure enough 8pts! I was stoked, I would have been happy with a spike horn. He's walking fast and finally pauses at 100yds in a wide opening. I settle the cross hairs on him and squeeze...........NOTHING. No click, no nohing. crap. I loaded a round but tried to do it quietly when i set up. I never closed the action fully. I started to panic. I pushed the action forward and pulled again......still nothing. I decide to rack another round and do it fast while giving a forward assist. I did it as fast as i could and had the gun back up, but the deer wasn't there. I scanned to the right and the deer had moved another 10yds. He was behind a lot of trees, but I could make out the base of his neck through a 4" opening. Other than that all i could see was his nose and tail. I quickly got the sight on his neck and squeezed. I saw the impact through the scope, his head spun and he dropped without so much as a twitch.
I tried to stand up and almost fell over. My legs were jello. i was shaking as hard as I ever had with a bow. It was awesome! As I got to him I could see that he must have turned towards me when he heard me rack the round. The shot entered the neck and broke the spine where it meets the shoulder and exited the front of the far lung!
we then saw a hole in his leg, the hole was between the main tendon and the bone, nothing was broken though. we looked closer and there was shaved hair and a scab on his brisket. A few days ago someone must have shot low on this deer and missed dropping him by just a few inches.
Logan bill and I went down and we cleaned him and got the 4 wheeler. we pulled him along the bench but the quad kept getting stuck going up the steep snowy hill. Bill and i finished that last 200yds up the 50+ degree slope. we went back for the quad and I almost flipped it 3 times.......the 4th I did and it came down on me. smashing my leg below the knee. It hurt like hell and I put ice on it but a nasty bruise is all I got. we finally managed to get it out later with help from a long rope and the other quad.
Of course Hank had to take part! I said find the deer when we were 100yds away and in seconds he was on it!
Had to get a few pics with Bill, who was the main reason I decide to head upstate with the Rifle.
Back to Sat at 5:15am......we get dressed and are on the porch by 5:45. he heads out to the right side of the property and I head down to the left. i knew that there was a small stream that leads from my pond down a steep hill through hardwoods to a bench that runs along the hill. The bench is only about 80yds wide and is lined by a pine grove on the bottom side. They logged an area to the left of the stream a number of years ago and now briars and brambles have taken over. Without any scouting I figured this area seemed to be my best bet. In past yearsI have seen a fairly well worn deer trail through here.
I set up 100yds from the pines, above the bench and settled in by 6:15. It was snowing hard and there was already 3" on the ground. the wind was right in my face and I was as optimistic as i could be, considering I was going on blind. As the sun came up i had a hard time keeping my eyes open, but it was a beautiful morning and I managed. at 7am i see a deer coming along the hardwoods/pine edge on the bench. He jumped the stream and was moving left to right in front of me. I through the scope on him and sure enough 8pts! I was stoked, I would have been happy with a spike horn. He's walking fast and finally pauses at 100yds in a wide opening. I settle the cross hairs on him and squeeze...........NOTHING. No click, no nohing. crap. I loaded a round but tried to do it quietly when i set up. I never closed the action fully. I started to panic. I pushed the action forward and pulled again......still nothing. I decide to rack another round and do it fast while giving a forward assist. I did it as fast as i could and had the gun back up, but the deer wasn't there. I scanned to the right and the deer had moved another 10yds. He was behind a lot of trees, but I could make out the base of his neck through a 4" opening. Other than that all i could see was his nose and tail. I quickly got the sight on his neck and squeezed. I saw the impact through the scope, his head spun and he dropped without so much as a twitch.
I tried to stand up and almost fell over. My legs were jello. i was shaking as hard as I ever had with a bow. It was awesome! As I got to him I could see that he must have turned towards me when he heard me rack the round. The shot entered the neck and broke the spine where it meets the shoulder and exited the front of the far lung!
we then saw a hole in his leg, the hole was between the main tendon and the bone, nothing was broken though. we looked closer and there was shaved hair and a scab on his brisket. A few days ago someone must have shot low on this deer and missed dropping him by just a few inches.
Logan bill and I went down and we cleaned him and got the 4 wheeler. we pulled him along the bench but the quad kept getting stuck going up the steep snowy hill. Bill and i finished that last 200yds up the 50+ degree slope. we went back for the quad and I almost flipped it 3 times.......the 4th I did and it came down on me. smashing my leg below the knee. It hurt like hell and I put ice on it but a nasty bruise is all I got. we finally managed to get it out later with help from a long rope and the other quad.
Of course Hank had to take part! I said find the deer when we were 100yds away and in seconds he was on it!
Had to get a few pics with Bill, who was the main reason I decide to head upstate with the Rifle.
Bow or gun, bagging a deer is a thrill either way as you just discovered 
Glad you weren't more seriously injured on the wheeler. Even they aren't meant to go in some places 
And it looks like that rack would be great to make a set of rattlers from 
