Ice Day doe

[Tony Logan]

I live in the part of West TN that was supposed to be demolished by Ice Storm Cleon. We were out to school on Friday waiting for the disaster to hit, Fortunately it never did, but I sat home just long enough to know I needed a day in the woods if I could just get there on Saturday. I waited til the freezing rain was nearly passed by and since we still had electricty I made the 100 mile drive to my Dad's home to hunt for does on Saturday morning. It was a crisp 23 with 13 wind chill that morning. I was hunting a place just narly thick hollow full of trails and rubs just below a soybean field that had not been picked this year. It was to wet so far. I did see two nice bucks,one walked down the edge of the bean field and was missing most of one half of his rack from fighting something bigger I hope, and the other was a healthy 9 point, this 9 point was not a giant Northern deer but a nice TN deer for sure that would have come home to my freezer had I not already shot 3 smaller bucks. Any way I knew it was going to happen. In the past couple of years I havent been able to pass up anything, if I did we would be going to the grocery store for meat, yuck. Any way I enjoyed the view and company of song birds and a couple of squirrels until just before dark when this big doe came down the hill on the way to the soybeans and stopped about 45 yards behind me just before dark. I could make her out well enough to see she was broadside and in the clear but not much else. I could see my sights well enough to put a .562 round ball from my lefty flinter with 90 FFF thru her lower shoulder. She made it 125-150yds without much use of her left leg but she disappeared up the brushy hollow for sure. The ball made a complete pass thru even blowing dirt up in the trench it cut in the ground, not much of anything but hair at the scene, I did find enough blood to reassure she was hit within about 10 feet. I had a very limited blood trail to follow with a 58 hole thru her vitals.
For the life of me, I am not getting the results with the 58 that I keep reading about folks getting with much smaller calibers on here. I have taken 5 with the 58 this season and have only seen 2 hit the ground. (one was hit above shoulder in bottom of spine, other heart shot) the rest have been double lung and at least one shoulder. I plan to shoot a few more, maybe I can figure out the magic spot to put them dead right there. Heres a few scenes from the tree. Dad's best friend his fiest/mtn. cur came to check things out in the last pic.

 

[roundball]

Looks cold, congratulations !
:thumbsup:

 

[Wes/Tex]

Better than I did ! Good job!! :hatsoff:

 

[Alden]

Congrats. You were wearing more than that out there I hope!

 

[house]

Nice deer. Congrats! Is that a Mt, Feist in the last picture..?

 

[jethro224]

:thumbsup: Looks like a good hit.

:idunno: Most of my ML deer kills have been with .50 and .54 calibers. One double-lunged buck basically just stood there until he fell over. A couple were bang-flops when I hit vertebra. The rest all ran.
The runners were all heart and/or lung hits. A couple only made it 30-40 yards. Most went about 100. A couple went farther. Usually down to the bottom of a deep gully and away from the truck...

 

[PJC]

A nice flintlock trophy.
Many fine meals to follow I am sure.
PJC

 

[Stoner]

Nice deer, man it looks cold.

 

[TLanoy]

Congratulations on the fine doe! :thumbsup:

 

[Wes/Tex]

It's finally dawning on me that all the guys getting to have themselves photographed with deer have dogs somewhere in the picture. Could that be what I'm doing wrong! :haha:

 

[Britsmoothy]

A good behaved dog will tell yer alot :thumbsup:

To the OP; well done sir. Some deer will run with a cannon ball through them :hatsoff:

Brits.

 

[wattlebuster]

Congrats Tony. Great eats :thumbsup:

 

[dbutch]

Nice shooting!
at 4-5 deer you are not failing.
double lung-heart is more meat friendly
to anchor its high shoulder -neck-head shot.
A pass through is a pass through.
For those south of the mason-Dixon line its not cold here(north) till you need a face mask. :grin: to quell the frostbite.

 

[Tony Logan]

I believe double lung is the way to go then. I have killed deer with everything. I am just kinda new to shooting them with patched round balls. The mtn. fiest in the pic is quite fond of deer blood and very smart. She trees squirrel, raccoon, and oppossum on a daily basis. She even treed a bobcat a few weeks ago. Too bad TN has a bunch of red tape to go thru to use a dog to recover your dead deer because she would love to help.

 

[Tony Logan]

:thumbsup: Looks like a good hit.

Yeah Jethro
Thats the exit hole in the pic, she wasnt exactly squared up, so I shot her in the front left shoulder and it went out on the right side.

I agree totally about them running away from the truck if they cant find a cliff to jump off :rotf:

 

[agill]

Congratulations! :hatsoff:

 

[hanshi]

You've certainly done better than me this season. Wait until you have a dozen or so deer to start seeing a pattern. Sometimes the exceptions come first. Congratulations.

 

[Tony Logan]

I got a new hunting spot a good friend of mine has quit deer hunting and taken up duck hunting. He has told me I could hunt his place the last couple of years. I feel very fortunate, I dropped the doe off for him at the processor. I finally broke down and quit hunting my own property. The last couple of years weren't that spectacular. we actually ran out of deer meat this summer. I saw 4 and got three of them. I don't plan on doing that this year. I plan on eating it every time I want to.

 

[jethro224]

we actually ran out of deer meat this summer.

Ahhhh... that explains the roadkill we were eatin' at the rondy. :wink:

 

[Spikebuck]

Congratulations!

Deer are amazingly resilient creatures and can take some real punishment and still keep going. You've been puttin' 'em down this year and recovering them, so you're doing it right! :hatsoff: