Southwest Deer Hunt Chronicles II

[Sparkitoff]

Day 1 AM-

I arrive at my host's house in the dark. He is waiting for me. We make a short greeting and I get to work loading the rifle. This time, the rifle is my son's "new" flintlock that I gave him for Christmas. He has other obligations so he suggested I use it on the hunt. We did sight it in just the other day. The load is 80 grains Goex FFFg, a .530 Hornady swaged ball on a pillow ticking patch lubed with 7:1 Ballistol/Water (dried). My host suggests I walk to a fenceline where the deer have been going to water early and then heading to a feed patch. I know the spot so I carefully head out. I notice it seems colder than the 39 degrees I expected and there is no moon so it is very dark. About a half-mile in a step in a hole about knee deep. It startles me and twists me but I am otherwise upright and okay. I did pull my right hip and have a sensation there. I find the way to the spot and wait for daylight. 6:30AM I can just barely see. I do notice the water that the deer were using is frozen. That is bizarre to me considering what temperature I expected based on some weather app I consulted yesterday. As the sun comes up and 7AM approaches I am entertained by a Mockingbird that keeps dive-bombing something in the dirt and landing on a branch. I look left and see a deer coming. It's posture is that of a buck but it is not light enough to see antlers yet. He goes to a little patch that looks like winter wheat and some kind of oats (although I think its the wrong season for oats). At 7:30AM there is enough light to see through the rangefinder and make out details. This is an 8-point buck that I have seen on the past trip here. He's a little young and thin-antlered to be real interesting. He is also 157-yards and has no motivation I can see to come this way. At 7:40AM he leaves the way he came. Nothing transpires for over an hour and a half. I am real cold in spite of a new vest I found while on the fishing trip last week, and a new jacket that my sweetie gave me on Christmas. At 9:45 a coyote runs across the field. I whistled but he jumped sideways mid-stride and kept right on going. At 10:30 I get up and head out. The goat hide frizzen cover with hair on also works good as a pan brush to clear the pan of priming powder and make the rifle safe. When I get to the house my friends says, "wow is that all you had on", referring to my outfit. "Yeah" I reply. "That's awful thin for 22 degrees" he says. "Really"? I inquire. "What did you think it was" he asks. "39" is my short reply. "Where did you get that from", he asked with a laugh. Oh well, he asks me to help his friend that stopped by because he has to run to a doctors appointment. The friend introduces himself and his name is familiar, yet not uncommon so I think nothing of it....

 

[Sparkitoff]

Day 1 - Mid-day
… so my friend has assigned me to help his other friend. This gentleman tells me he wants to young sheep for BBQ. I ask if he has a rifle and he says, "I'm kind of a City person, I was hoping you would take care of this". There is a herd of sheep on a 20-acre spread. He explains that he comes by every New Years to get two sheep from my friend and that usually they drive out to them, he picks out two and my friend shoots them. Well, this ain't hunting but it is an excuse to use my .32 caliber rifle. I load a .310 ball over 22 grains of FFFg Goex in a .018 patch. When we get out there it takes a while to get near a sheep that he picks as they herd is very skittish. Anyway, from 20-yards the .32 puts a small sheep right down with a head shot. After following the flock some more with the truck he picks another and I repeat the drill. When we get back I think he's taking these sheep and leaving. Oh no. He looks at my like I'm crazy and says, "I need these cleaned and quartered to put in my cooler"! Ok, a skinning I will go. I was not warned about this task! The gentleman asks "what kind of knife is that?" and I simply say "A Case folding knife". He doesn't comment more but I say to him, "there's a famous knife-maker that has the same name as you". He says, "really"? When I am done and I get the meat in his cooler he opens the back of his truck and pulls out a few things. There is a relative of my friend that just stopped by and he offered to hose down the cleaning area for me. This gentleman gives both of us a BBQ meat hook with an antler handle with leather thong and a long, curved/pointing shaft for flipping meat. He says, "I guess I am the famous knife-maker". I am not sure if he is serious or not! I say I will follow him to the gate since I have an opener in my vehicle. At the gate this gentleman gets out of his truck and comes over to my window. He shakes my hand and thanks me. Then he says, "I don't think of myself as famous and I'm a little surprised you've heard of me, but I guess you know your knives". He hands me a sheath with a knife in it. He says, "I didn't want that other guy to see me give this to you but I made this two weeks ago and I'd like you to have it. Made the sheath too". I thank him profusely and he drives off. After he departs I finally examine what I have been gifted. The sheath is a basketweave pattern pancake style. The handle sticking out is a purple/sparkly material on one side and a lizard skin type of look in orange and brown on the other handle side. I ease the knife out and see it is a Damascus utility style blade. Sure enough, there's the "Famous Knife-Makers" stamp that he uses on the blade. Wow, you never know who you're really talking too.....

 

[Sparkitoff]

Day 1 PM-
I head out at 3PM to get settled early. This time I am going to sit in an old outhouse. The wind has picked up and it is blowing from the South, so if I am exposed the whole open area will receive my scent. The little outhouse is on the North end of the area and should help block and contain any scent. The walk in seems to go quickly. As I turn down the path to the outhouse I see two does. This is a good sign! At the wooden structure I find a bucket and a log to sit on. This gives me a great view to the North and West, the direction I hope the deer will come from so they are heading into the wind. The deer will be using their noses and ears but I have a little advantage by being situated in a perfect ambush location. The time ticks on with little action. I look at my watch and it is 530PM already. Way out to the West, more than 200-yards, I see a tiny blob. I think it is a deer but then talk myself out of it. Then it is in a different spot. Hmmmm. Maybe it is a deer. I dig out the rangefinder, not for the distance it can tell me but for the magnification the lens has. It is not a deer, but a brown and black spotted hog. It roots around for a little while and fades into the brush behind it. Wait there it is again to the left. No, this blob seems taller. Even in the rangefinder it is still a blob as the light is fading. It turns and now I can see it is a doe. Too far and not on the hit-list anyway. It is 6PM and too dark to shoot. Tomorrow is another chance but it will be the last since I have to be back for other obligations. I open the frizzen, wipe powder out of the pan with the hairy frizzen stall and lower the flint. The walk back is chilly with the falling temperature and the wind. At the house my friend is cooking on the grill....

 

[lwscrim]

Intriguing story so far...
Thanks for sharing, I will be following...
Best of luck!
Sam A.

 

[Patrick Thomas]

Good stuff Spark. So cool that you worked with the “famous knife maker”. Kind of a weird way to round up sheep, but to each his own.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Day 2 - AM
Short version, nada. I left in the darkness and headed to a likely spot. I noticed that it was extremely quiet. Later, the lightbulb came on and I realized that the frozen mornings had the grass crunching under my feet, but this 50 something degree morning was eerily silent. No wind, no noise. It is overcast and dim. About a half hour after sunrise I look down at my rifle. The frizzen stall is still in place. Duh. Yeah, the flint is down and the pan is not primed either. No time like the present, I move the flint to half-cock and prime the pan. 9AM seems to take forever to get here. There are no deer, no wildlife whatsoever. This is the first time I have ever been on this property and not seen a single animal. Nearly every time out I see at least one deer, although it may be distant. At 10AM I push the frizzen forward, wipe the pan and lower the flint. The walk back is still very quiet but seems quick. My friend has coffee waiting and tells me he has to go pick up a boat at the lake, so he needs me to do another favor....

 

[Sparkitoff]

BTW-
Here is the knife I received yesterday....

 

[Patocazador]

That will make a nice patch-cutting knife.

Are you withholding the knife maker's name on purpose?

 

[Sparkitoff]

He did not say whether or not I could post to the whole world that he gave me a knife, and two BBQ tools and I don't know if he wants everyone to know his annual sheep cookout deal. So, out of respect I did intentionally leave out his name.

 

[lwscrim]

That is an awesome blade! You don't see too many custom knives with a single bevel...
I agree, that would make a great patch knife.

 

[Sparkitoff]

So late morning, early afternoon I took care of some other chores for my host while he took care of pending business. One of the people I was helping has a buck that comes in with his cows every time they feed. The buck supposedly comes right into the pen area along with the cows. After helping these guys I got the invitation. We drove out there and I literally sat under an animal lean-to. The guy put out some sweet feed and rang a bell. Here come the cows. Two, four, ten.... A lot of cows. Suddenly, one of the cows appears to have antlers. Sure enough, the buck walks right in with them! This deer has a lot of short tines. He might have 10 or 12, maybe a few more points, but he is obviously young. This deer is either very smart or very naïve. He was too tame to excite me and the whole thing didn't feel right so I passed. I walked out the structure and past the cows and the buck. He just ran to the other side of the pen area, didn't even run away and was within 50-yards the whole time. I thanked the owner profusely and told him I just didn't want to shoot a deer this way. I would rather have an older deer than a big deer. I am not a trophy hunter and I don't care specifically about antler size or configuration. I want to beat a buck on his own turf by being smarter, savvy or even lucky. I will try again at about 3:30PM today....

 

[Spikebuck]

I thanked the owner profusely and told him I just didn't want to shoot a deer this way.

Good for you. That would not be fair chase at all.

I like the outhouse stand idea...would make it a lot easier when suddenly one needs to go while on stand!!! Seriously though...I have hunted out of old abandoned farm structures before. Very effective blinds if in the right location.

 

[Brokennock]

Great story thusfar. I completely respect and admire your choosing to leave the knife maker's name out of it.
I am a little baffled that he didn't want to get involved dressing the sheep though. If I were making knives like that I'd want to put in some, "product testing and evaluation," time. Lol.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Day 2 PM-

I decided to go back to the outhouse. I had a good feeling about that spot and couldn't stop thinking about how a big buck should come in from the heavy brush just across this narrow pasture. The nice, comfortable 54 degrees was a welcomed change. I eased in there slower than ever, as quiet as I could possibly be. There is hardly any breeze at all but when there is a puff it is coming from the South, and I am on the North end of this piece. I eased into the outhouse and got settled. Just to appease myself and inspire confidence, I stuck my vent-hole pick in the hold real slowly. Crunch. Yes, there is powder where it should be. I wiped the frizzen and flint with a dry patch I had loose in my pocket. Then I filled the pan to the usual spot with FFFFg. The rifle barely fit across the tight confines of this structure and a few times I brushed the muzzle against the wood wall as a pivoted from side to side. I did not see anything moving, yet I had a feeling something was about to happen. I looked at my watch and it was already 5:05PM and not a single living creature had shown itself. Still, I had that feeling. Hunters know the strange feeling, like a 6th sense, when you just know something is going to happen. To my hard right is a small shallow water pool that I cannot see. I can see the trail just in front of it as far right as is visible. About 11 O'clock from the outhouse is a large tree at 78 yards and to the left of that and 26 yards further back is another tree. To the left of that is a plow disc set that has obviously been sitting for a while since grass has grown through it. The pasture continues to widen to my left where the view terminates at a 5-strand barbed wire fence. The property on the other side of the wire is a neighbors large cow pasture and there is a ditch and drop off right on the other side so a deer that went under or over that fence disappears from view instantly. I can't help but think of my two boys that would love to see this scene and I know will be exited if this rifle gets to "make game". The mental motion picture plays over and over in my head. A buck comes from the narrow section on the right, just in front of the water hole. When it comes into view I raise the rifle and rest it out the hole in the front board. As the deer passes the tree in front of me I pull the cock back and set the trigger. When the deer is broadside, I put the sights behind his front leg and squeeze. He drops right there....

 

[Sparkitoff]

… I look at my watch again and I am surprised that it is 5:35PM and I still haven't seen anything yet. There is plenty of light, but usually something I spotted before this time. My imagery of the buck scene is playing again when something catches my attention straight ahead. A buck! There is no mistaking the setting sunlight shining off the antlers. The antlers appear yellow on the bottom and white on top. The buck is between 150 and 200-yards straight ahead. He has to cross a barbed wire fence to get into this pasture and on my friends property. A full minute goes by and he is hung up there. I just know this is going to happen. He wants to come to this pasture. He's coming this way. His posture is that of an old buck, he keeps his head low and swaggers, swinging his head from side to side. At the barbed wire he hesitate. This whole while he is directly facing me, and he is still out of range and one full step on the neighbors side of the fence. Without warning he makes one smooth fluid leap over the barbed wire onto this side. He goes to the left and is behind the 78-yard tree. I fish around for my rangefinder and finally find it. He is 126-yards. I notice he has a patch of hair missing on his left side. It is worn grey and about the size of a volleyball. He slowly turns around and I see two white spots on his right side where hair is missing. His antlers are as wide as his ears, have some height to them but I do not see a lot of points. I can't tell if there are 8 points or not even. The antlers appear to be heavy on the bottom but thin out quickly in the tines. I try to study his body. The belly line droops down from the chest and stays flat until the front of his back legs where it tapers up slightly. This is an old deer. He is not massive as far as his rack, but this area is not know for huge deer. The antlers don't impress me as much as his shape and mannerism. Enough of the rangefinder, he's moving back to the right. He just cleared the tree. Wait he's going left again. Okay, this rifle needs to be out the "window" on this outhouse. Easy, slow, don't bang the barrel. The buck is now left of the 78-yard tree and not in line with the further tree yet. I ease back the flint and visually inspect the lock to make sure everything looks good to go. The buck is now hung up in front of the disc-set. I don't want to shoot there because I could accidentally hit my friends farm equipment, even though it looks to be abandoned there, but the green and yellow paint is still bright. Two more step, come on buddy! A moment of question and hesitation goes through my mind. I have seen bigger antlers here. Even the "tame" deer this afternoon had a bigger rack. Do I really want this deer? I stare over the sights. He has some worn spots on his hide and a scar on his neck. This is an old deer regardless of this antler size and I will be grateful for him. There, he cleared the disc-set and is broadside. I put the front blade on his ribs. It looks like I am about 3 inches behind the curvature of his shoulder. Breathe out and squeeze. Bam! The rifle goes off and the smoke momentarily blocks vision as it hangs in the little wooden structure. There's the buck to the left, running. He just did a front somersault but is on his feet. Come on, fall over.... He's just standing there, tail tucked, head down. Ok, time to reload. I pop the top on my reloading tube and pour powder. I pluck the patch and ball from the other side of the tube and set it on the muzzle. Where's my short starter? Can't locate it. Ok, have a back-up. Need to cut the patch. Well, my knife if burried under a jacket and vest on my belt. The little bit of extra patch can't make that much difference. I short start it with the backup starter. The stick on the rifle comes out and I try to push the ball down. Nope. It aint budging. What's the buck doing now. He hops a few steps forward and lies down. This ball will not seat. I need something more sturdy. I step outside the back of the outhouse. There is a little piece of rebar on the ground and it is about 4-feet long. Yeah, that'll have to do. I carefully ease it down the barrel not wanting to scratch the bore. Ok, there goes the ball. It's down. Wait but the deer isn't. He's up again and now at the back barbed wire fence. If he goes through I will loose sight of him. Well, I don't see him now. I call my friend. "Hey I shot a deer that is on his feet, can you come to me with the truck"? He says "yeah hang in there". I see the buck again, he's in the corner of the West and South fences. Too far too shoot as it is around 255-yards. He lies down again. I look at my watch. More than 10-minutes have gone by and this buck has only covered about 160-yards of ground, but now he is on the edge of the thick stuff. I can see my friends truck. Where is that deer? I look with the rangefinder. He is right about to enter the woodlot. There he goes.....

 

[Sparkitoff]

…. my friend arrives and I re-tell the story. He says the adjacent landowner does not live around here but he will call him. No answer. He says, "we could just go look right by the woodline". I suggest we look for blood and other evidence. At the location of the shot there is no sign of a hit at all. Nada. Hair, blood, guts? Nope. Well great, now it's dark too. We go where the buck laid down. Well, here's the spot for sure but no blood or other sign. How about where he was last on the barbed wire fence? Out come the flashlights. My friend finds one spot of blood. One spot the size of a pencil eraser on a flat, tan rock. Well, he went under the wire at the last spot before the woods. Hmmm. There is a drag mark in the bare dirt and a smooth spot. He dragged his belly on the ground, and maybe a leg...or it could have been an antler that made the proverbial line in the sand. Conference time. I don't want to push this deer. Let him lay down. He made it to the woods. I think he will feel less vulnerable there and stay down. My friend has a concern. The landowner has some of his property leased. What if someone is there tomorrow? We might not be able to look for this deer in the morning. I must be back home by early afternoon tomorrow. My friend suggest we call Jay the Dog Man. Uh, who? A guy that has a deer tracking dog. He lives in town. My friend finds his internet page or whatever on his phone. 2018, tracked 24 deer, located 24 deer, recovered 22. 2019, tracked 17 deer, located 13 deer recovered 12. Not a bad track record. I am willing to be #1 for 2020. $50 to come out and $100 if they find the deer. OK. I have enough invested already that this sounds like a plan. We call. Well, they won't even come out for 3-hours after the shot. He knows where my friend lives. I tell him I shot about 5:35-5:40. He says, "see you at 8:40", and hangs up. This is going to be a long 3-hours folks. Any hunter who has had this happen knows the nearly unexplainable feeling you get. I am optimistic with the shot, the reaction and this dog. I am not going to try to guess what happened or beat myself up over this. It happens. Oh I will agonize and pray for patience until the dog gets here, can't help that. Maybe dinner and small talk to keep me busy. Sorry to keep you hanging....I'll report in tonight whether we find it or not. Wish us luck!

 

[lwscrim]

Dang, Had me on the edge of my seat for this one...
We'll be on standby, good luck!

 

[Sparkitoff]

So the dog is here. I just found out how this works. I show them the place of shot impact and last know place deer was. The dog is sent. Dog has a tracking collar with GPS. If dog stops, they go to him . If monitor looks like chasing a live deer, they will try to cut it off with lights and let dog sort of bay it. I get to wait at truck. Here we go.....

 

[Sparkitoff]

So after an hour there is nothing to report. I am going to get on my knees, say a prayer and if it His will to let me get this deer, let it be found, but if not, OK, lets call it off and be done with it. I am going to put these guys with the dog on the exact trail where the deer was last. They have gone all around there as best as I can tell but I don't think they've gone down that specific trail...…

 

[Sparkitoff]

God is great!

I'll take better pictures and report or answer questions in the morning. This has been a long night, but this hunt....is over!