Missouri's firearms deer season started this past Saturday and I went to the Haverstick Homestead last Wednesday evening to bow hunt for a couple of days before the season kicked off. My goal was to kill a couple of fat does with whatever weapon I had in my hand at the time. However, I was plagued with horny bucks running all over the place and could never get a doe to stand still long enough to make that happen. I passed on some spikes and forkies with my bow and called in a He Daddy wallhanger that I just couldn't get a shot on that I wanted. After two days of perfect weather and many deer sightings, I put the recurve away and broke out my 54 flinter.
It was 17 degrees down in the holler Saturday morning and the wind was only supposed to be light that day and coming from the northwest - perfect! I was going to hunt the ridge behind our barn as I had seen umpteen deer on it Thursday morning of all sizes. I figured my chances were pretty good at filling my grocery list. We had a pretty good acorn crop this fall and the deer were up there vacuuming them up like candy. I ascended the southern slope of the ridge, grabbed my climbing stand and my hunting gear, and walked out to the west end of the ridge to my selected spot. It was still dark when I reached the tree I was going to climb and I could already hear deer tromping around. I was all set up and ready for action with about 10 minutes to spare before shooting light.
Within the first 30 minutes, I saw a little 8-pointer coming from the west end of the ridge towards me. He ended up walking within 20 yards of me and I let him keep on walking since I didn't want to burn my buck tag on him and it was still early yet. Later I saw a couple of does run by at high speed with a little spike hot on their trail. Finally, at around 8, I saw fawn feeding my way from the east that had been run off by her mother. While she wasn't as big as I really wanted, she would help fill the freezer just the same. I patiently waited while she took her sweet time closing the distance. I guess eating acorns is tiring business, though, because she decided to lay down for a rest before she got close enough for me to shoot.
While she was resting, a commotion took place directly behind me down in the bottom of Tater Cave Holler. I finally was able to turn around to see what was happening and saw a nice heavy 8-pointer chasing a doe. When they came out of the holler away from me, I turned back to check on my bedded deer and she was gone. About 20 yards from her bedding spot, however, was a big doe on full alert. Before I could move my gun into position, she left the area too. Dang! Just what I was wanting, too!
Another 30 minutes went by and I see another fawn feeding from the west and heading my way. It finally was getting into range and I was getting ready to cock the hammer when I heard some noise to my left. A bigger deer was standing on that side of me. Since I was wanting meat, I switched my attention to that deer only to see two little spikes on top of its head. Just my luck! The two deer spot each other and start walking towards one another. When the fawn on my right gave me a good quartering-away angle, I pulled the trigger on my 54. It ran just a little ways before piling up and my empty freezer was about to get some business.
After getting out of the tree and getting my gear squared away, I walked over to my prize. It was a little button buck. I gave thanks to the little feller's spirit for the good meat his body would provide my family and had him loaded in the truck in short order. He's hanging in my garage right now and will be cut up and put away this evening. The load I used to take this deer was 65 grains of FFF under a .53" PRB.
Darren
It was 17 degrees down in the holler Saturday morning and the wind was only supposed to be light that day and coming from the northwest - perfect! I was going to hunt the ridge behind our barn as I had seen umpteen deer on it Thursday morning of all sizes. I figured my chances were pretty good at filling my grocery list. We had a pretty good acorn crop this fall and the deer were up there vacuuming them up like candy. I ascended the southern slope of the ridge, grabbed my climbing stand and my hunting gear, and walked out to the west end of the ridge to my selected spot. It was still dark when I reached the tree I was going to climb and I could already hear deer tromping around. I was all set up and ready for action with about 10 minutes to spare before shooting light.
Within the first 30 minutes, I saw a little 8-pointer coming from the west end of the ridge towards me. He ended up walking within 20 yards of me and I let him keep on walking since I didn't want to burn my buck tag on him and it was still early yet. Later I saw a couple of does run by at high speed with a little spike hot on their trail. Finally, at around 8, I saw fawn feeding my way from the east that had been run off by her mother. While she wasn't as big as I really wanted, she would help fill the freezer just the same. I patiently waited while she took her sweet time closing the distance. I guess eating acorns is tiring business, though, because she decided to lay down for a rest before she got close enough for me to shoot.
While she was resting, a commotion took place directly behind me down in the bottom of Tater Cave Holler. I finally was able to turn around to see what was happening and saw a nice heavy 8-pointer chasing a doe. When they came out of the holler away from me, I turned back to check on my bedded deer and she was gone. About 20 yards from her bedding spot, however, was a big doe on full alert. Before I could move my gun into position, she left the area too. Dang! Just what I was wanting, too!
Another 30 minutes went by and I see another fawn feeding from the west and heading my way. It finally was getting into range and I was getting ready to cock the hammer when I heard some noise to my left. A bigger deer was standing on that side of me. Since I was wanting meat, I switched my attention to that deer only to see two little spikes on top of its head. Just my luck! The two deer spot each other and start walking towards one another. When the fawn on my right gave me a good quartering-away angle, I pulled the trigger on my 54. It ran just a little ways before piling up and my empty freezer was about to get some business.
After getting out of the tree and getting my gear squared away, I walked over to my prize. It was a little button buck. I gave thanks to the little feller's spirit for the good meat his body would provide my family and had him loaded in the truck in short order. He's hanging in my garage right now and will be cut up and put away this evening. The load I used to take this deer was 65 grains of FFF under a .53" PRB.
Darren
