ravenousfishing
40 Cal.
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2007
- Messages
- 260
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I am usually not the type of person to post "Look at what I did" threads or photos, but todays hunt still has me :haha:
We had a very slow firearms season on our farm, with all deer activity being nocturnal.Well we finally got some snow and cold temps to hunt, which is not all that common on the Eastern Shore of Md.,and we were hoping the deer would feel compelled to move a little earlier than normal in the evening.
Once I climbed into my treestand and got settled in, I proceded to adjust my sunglasses that I wear over my prescription glasses. After getting all the straps all tangled up in my facemask and cap, I heard a light clink. It took me a few moments to figure out that the lense had popped out of my glasses and fallen to the ground. I pried the cap off the nipple on my GPR and climbed down the ladder to look for the lens, hopefully laying on top of the slowly melting snow. Wrong. After 20 min on my hands and knees, this is what the ground now looked like. :cursing:
Back up the ladder I climbed, fully planning on packing it in. My eyesight isnt terrible, but I do need glasses to see distances clearly, and more importantly in this case, to see my sights. Of course the lens that popped out was my right, or shooting eye. Well, I sighted down the barrel and was pleasntly suprised that I could just make out the sights. Maybe, I'd get lucky and something would show early enough that I could still see with my reduced vision. :nono:
It took a while for my eyes to adjust to a pair of glasses with one lens and for my right eye to stop watering, but eventually I could focus somewhat and at least enjoy the show.Ten minutes after sunset (legal to hunt deer here for 30 min after) the woodducks and teal started buzzing overhead on their approach to our flooded sorghum. Seems they learned from the deer to show up after legal shooting hours as well :idunno:
With 10 min of legal light to go I heard a squirrel start barking 25 yds, but of course I couldnt see him well enough to tell which way he was looking. Next thing I know, here come at least 3 does headed right at me down a clear trail. About 40-50 yds out they all turned and browsed their way to towards the field edge, 30 yds away. The second doe in line appeared to be the largest, and as she stopped in an small opening, I slowly raised my rifle and.....I couldnt see my front sight :cursing:
After several attempts at raising the front of the rifle and slowly lowering the blur into the notch of the rear sight, I had almost convinced myself I could take the shot but wasnt 100% sure there wasnt something in the way. If I strained too hard to see the front sight, the deer disappeared. Just then, my buddy about 300yds away fired and all 3 deer perked up, but didnt run. After looking around a bit, the deer I had been eying (pun intended), slowly started walking away from the field on a path that would take directly accross the path in front of me at 50-60 yds, not that I could see to shoot her anyway.
Im still not sure exactly what made me do it, but in the 10 secs or so it took her to get to the path, I reached up and slid my glasses around to the side of my head so that the left lens was in front of my right eye, and when she walked into the path I had a beautiful sight picture, so I pulled the trigger. Im not into "selfies" but I wish I had a photo. Probably looked like somebody hit me upside the head with a tennis raquet. :haha:
On the shot, she kicked, ran about 30 yds and stopped. I watched for a couple min through binoculars as she walked away slowly, but never wobbleing or showing any sign of being hit. In fact, one of the other does stopped running as well. As I played it over in my head, I knew I had a good sight picture when I fired, and I'm plenty comfortable with this rifle at this range. I decided to climb down a few minutes later and sneak out to the field, that way I wouldn't push her if it was a poor shot and we could come back after retrieving my buddies deer.
Back at the barn, the 3 of us realized that somehow, we had all left our bright LED lights at home. So we scrounged up a few weaker lights and a Coleman lantern and off we went for my buddies deer. We picked up her blood trail easily in the snow and found her piled up maybe 20 yds into the woods. :thumbsup: By now It had been an hour since I had shot so we went to look for my deer. I went to where I was pretty sure she was standing and........nothing. I walked up the path a bit and back in case I was wrong, but not a drop of blood. Man you've got to be kidding. Last week I had shot a doe with the same rifle and there was blood sprayed out both sides of her trail, making it easy to follow. When I went back to where I thought she was standing, my friend pointed out a 3 ft long furrow in the snow and leaves and said that looks like where your bullet went, and sure enough, it lined up perfectly with the stand. But, no hair, no blood. Nothing. Again, I ran it all through my mind, but couldnt see how I missed. :idunno: With the snow, it didnt take long to find where the 3 deer had run from the kicked up dirt and leaves. One buddy walked in on one trail, another started near the furrow, and I went to where I had last seen her. after 15 min of searching, my buddy following the trail of leaves found her piled up 50 yds from where she was shot. There was one drop of blood 5 ft from where she lay. The .530 RB over 110g ffg had passed through both lungs and 2 ribs before exiting into the ground.
What started out as a miserable afternoon, turned into a pretty cool hunt.
I guess the moral of this overly long story is you gotta play the cards that are dealt you. Be familer with your equiptment and dont give up just because there is no blood. If you feel that you should have hit your target, you probably did.
Our third hunter also shot what turned out to be a buck that had already dropped its antlers. In addition, it had a big open gouge on its back and an infected area full of green smelly puss next to that. Plus there was a fist sized growth or knot on its neck. That one isnt getting eaten
We had a very slow firearms season on our farm, with all deer activity being nocturnal.Well we finally got some snow and cold temps to hunt, which is not all that common on the Eastern Shore of Md.,and we were hoping the deer would feel compelled to move a little earlier than normal in the evening.
Once I climbed into my treestand and got settled in, I proceded to adjust my sunglasses that I wear over my prescription glasses. After getting all the straps all tangled up in my facemask and cap, I heard a light clink. It took me a few moments to figure out that the lense had popped out of my glasses and fallen to the ground. I pried the cap off the nipple on my GPR and climbed down the ladder to look for the lens, hopefully laying on top of the slowly melting snow. Wrong. After 20 min on my hands and knees, this is what the ground now looked like. :cursing:
Back up the ladder I climbed, fully planning on packing it in. My eyesight isnt terrible, but I do need glasses to see distances clearly, and more importantly in this case, to see my sights. Of course the lens that popped out was my right, or shooting eye. Well, I sighted down the barrel and was pleasntly suprised that I could just make out the sights. Maybe, I'd get lucky and something would show early enough that I could still see with my reduced vision. :nono:
It took a while for my eyes to adjust to a pair of glasses with one lens and for my right eye to stop watering, but eventually I could focus somewhat and at least enjoy the show.Ten minutes after sunset (legal to hunt deer here for 30 min after) the woodducks and teal started buzzing overhead on their approach to our flooded sorghum. Seems they learned from the deer to show up after legal shooting hours as well :idunno:
With 10 min of legal light to go I heard a squirrel start barking 25 yds, but of course I couldnt see him well enough to tell which way he was looking. Next thing I know, here come at least 3 does headed right at me down a clear trail. About 40-50 yds out they all turned and browsed their way to towards the field edge, 30 yds away. The second doe in line appeared to be the largest, and as she stopped in an small opening, I slowly raised my rifle and.....I couldnt see my front sight :cursing:
After several attempts at raising the front of the rifle and slowly lowering the blur into the notch of the rear sight, I had almost convinced myself I could take the shot but wasnt 100% sure there wasnt something in the way. If I strained too hard to see the front sight, the deer disappeared. Just then, my buddy about 300yds away fired and all 3 deer perked up, but didnt run. After looking around a bit, the deer I had been eying (pun intended), slowly started walking away from the field on a path that would take directly accross the path in front of me at 50-60 yds, not that I could see to shoot her anyway.
Im still not sure exactly what made me do it, but in the 10 secs or so it took her to get to the path, I reached up and slid my glasses around to the side of my head so that the left lens was in front of my right eye, and when she walked into the path I had a beautiful sight picture, so I pulled the trigger. Im not into "selfies" but I wish I had a photo. Probably looked like somebody hit me upside the head with a tennis raquet. :haha:
On the shot, she kicked, ran about 30 yds and stopped. I watched for a couple min through binoculars as she walked away slowly, but never wobbleing or showing any sign of being hit. In fact, one of the other does stopped running as well. As I played it over in my head, I knew I had a good sight picture when I fired, and I'm plenty comfortable with this rifle at this range. I decided to climb down a few minutes later and sneak out to the field, that way I wouldn't push her if it was a poor shot and we could come back after retrieving my buddies deer.
Back at the barn, the 3 of us realized that somehow, we had all left our bright LED lights at home. So we scrounged up a few weaker lights and a Coleman lantern and off we went for my buddies deer. We picked up her blood trail easily in the snow and found her piled up maybe 20 yds into the woods. :thumbsup: By now It had been an hour since I had shot so we went to look for my deer. I went to where I was pretty sure she was standing and........nothing. I walked up the path a bit and back in case I was wrong, but not a drop of blood. Man you've got to be kidding. Last week I had shot a doe with the same rifle and there was blood sprayed out both sides of her trail, making it easy to follow. When I went back to where I thought she was standing, my friend pointed out a 3 ft long furrow in the snow and leaves and said that looks like where your bullet went, and sure enough, it lined up perfectly with the stand. But, no hair, no blood. Nothing. Again, I ran it all through my mind, but couldnt see how I missed. :idunno: With the snow, it didnt take long to find where the 3 deer had run from the kicked up dirt and leaves. One buddy walked in on one trail, another started near the furrow, and I went to where I had last seen her. after 15 min of searching, my buddy following the trail of leaves found her piled up 50 yds from where she was shot. There was one drop of blood 5 ft from where she lay. The .530 RB over 110g ffg had passed through both lungs and 2 ribs before exiting into the ground.
What started out as a miserable afternoon, turned into a pretty cool hunt.
I guess the moral of this overly long story is you gotta play the cards that are dealt you. Be familer with your equiptment and dont give up just because there is no blood. If you feel that you should have hit your target, you probably did.
Our third hunter also shot what turned out to be a buck that had already dropped its antlers. In addition, it had a big open gouge on its back and an infected area full of green smelly puss next to that. Plus there was a fist sized growth or knot on its neck. That one isnt getting eaten
