Southwest Deer Hunt Chronicles II

[Walkingeagle]

Congrats sir!
Walk

 

[lwscrim]

A Hardy Congratulations!
Sam A.

 

[BIGBEAR]

Congrats, glad you found him .....

 

[Sparkitoff]

Here's the final scoop. According to the tracking collar the deer went 318-yards. It was not on the property we thought, it continued on the trail and actually went through a different fence and was on the Southern neighbors place. The ball hit somewhat low and behind the lungs on the left side. It did not break the lungs at all and was imbedded in the opposite shoulder on the right side. There is a voluntary deer check station here. They laughed because I wanted to know how old he is. The lady said "most people expect us to score it but hardly anyone cares about the age". She looked at and measured teeth, measured body weight and looked at nose and antlers. Her conclusion was 5.5 years old. I was excited. She laughed again and said, "I can't wait to see you bring in a 10-year old doe, you'll bring cake"! The buck has two broken tines on one side and one on the other. The circumstances after the shot weren't good but it worked out. I am happy with accomplishing this - an old buck on his own turf with my son's flintlock rifle. Thanks for following along with me.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Well, there is some humor here. Last time I was here I couldn't find my priming flask. After much looking I found it hanging under my truck. To prevent losing it, I put a 24" lanyard on it with a 6" piece of antler on the other end (with a pick mounted on it). Well, I lost it. Can't find it anywhere. LOL … life is good!

 

[Spikebuck]

Congratulations! I'm sure glad you and your "team" found him. If the shot went in guts and then angled forward to the opposite shoulder I'm surprised there was no lung damage, but it had to have broken through the diaphragm. All good in the end though. Thanks for the day-by-day narrative....I really enjoyed following along on your hunt!

When I was on a lease with a group of folks we used to have discussions all the time about the goals we had...maturity over big antler size (which can occur on "immature" deer, especially at 3.5 YO). Or you can have really old deer that either just never had the genetics or are on the down slide of antler growth. Of course you hope both go together, but maturity/age is what increases the challenge as every year they get more cautious and harder to hunt. And that goes for does of that age as well.

The lady's old doe comment made me think about my young grandson who in 2018 shot a doe that was so old they couldn't age her because her back teeth were virtually gone. At least 12 1/2 was all the DNR biologist at the check station could tell him, but could have been 20. That's a trophy even though there were no antlers as old does don't miss much!

 

[Patocazador]

That's a gnarly deer. He looks about used up. Good for you!

I was on a lease for 24 years where we aged all of the deer killed. Oldest ever was a doe that the biologist aged at 11+ yrs.
He said that's about as old as they can figure out from the teeth.