success last night

[nodakhorseman]

Had a pretty fun hunt last night with the GPR (.50 cal). I was hunting some pretty rugged hills west of the Missouri River last night and managed to take home this guy. He has a really funny rack. The spike side is roughly 14" long. The spread on the other side is a little over 8" wide.

I was sitting on the edge of a shallow ravine that emptied into an alfalfa field. There were several heavy trails that emptied into this hayfield. There was a really strong wind, so I didn't know if they'd feed there or not that night.

There wasn't a lot of cover to hide in, so I was laying on my back in thicket of brush and I was propped up basically from my shoulder blades on up.

With about an hour of shooting time left, 3 mule deer does came trotting across the field right in front of me. They were completely up wind of me and had no idea I was there. With the strong winds on that field, they quickly trotted across the field and were looking for a more sheltered feeding area I'm guessing.

About 10 minutes later, 2 whitetail fawns did the same thing as the mule deer. They were all crossing about 30 - 40 yards upwind of me...each giving me good shots if I chose to shoot. They way I'm laying, they just appear and I can't see them coming. All of the sudden, they're there. Since they're all on the move, I figured I would have to shoot pretty quick though.

I'm pretty optimistic at this point, as they're all crossing right where I hoped they would.

Except for 2 coyotes (I'm a coyote magnet), the next 40 minutes or so go by w/out a sniff. With about 10 minutes of shooting left, a nice big doe hits the field on the same trail and does the same quick trot, but angles my way and crosses broadside about 10 yards away. Just as she disappeared, this buck appeared and he was hot on her tail and traveling the quickest of all the deer I had seen that evening. I had my gun ready, as I had a pretty narrow lane in the thicket to shoot through. As he passed, I felt like I was taking a crossing shot on a mallard. I swung through and touched off the GPR. Right away, I could see the entry hole. He ran about 80 yards before stumbling and falling--a nice double lung shot and no ruined meat.

I was shooting a .490" RB, .018" pillow ticking, an overpowder card and 75 grains of FFF Goex.

The weather man is calling for below zero day time temps this weekend, so tomorrow is a butchering day. I have 2 deer to cut up before mother nature turns them to cinder blocks.

 

[rabjr]

Nice grats on the buck, now get to work on those coyotes! :thumbsup:

 

[jethro224]

Grats on the buck! :hatsoff:
Got ya a pretty unique hat rack for the wall too. :thumbsup:

 

[RC]

:thumbsup: AttaBoy! :thumbsup: CONGRATS!! :hmm: yotes next!!

 

[nodakhorseman]

I almost got another deer on my way home, too! My truck is in for repairs, so I was hunting with my little Saturn car. I laid down the back seats and put down a tarp before loading the buck. His nose was poking my elbow every time I shifted.

Anyway, on the way home in the dark, I had a big mule deer buck broadside my car. He ended up being fine (I was going about 30 mph), but he shattered the left front quarter panel of my car. :hmm:

I'm glad he was fine--I didn't have any more room in the car anyway!

 

[PGTMG]

Nice deer and good story! You are focused man. It looks cold and I do not know if I could have resisted the coyotes. :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

That's great...good story too, congratulations!
:hatsoff:

(and what the heck's all that white stuff ?????)

 

[paulvallandigham]

Its seems to be always the case that when you are looking for a deer, you don't see one, and when you have enough, they start trying to climb into your car, even when its moving!

Sorry to hear about the damage. That was a nice 1 1/2 year old buck you took. Obviously, something either genetic, or an early injury is responsible for that left antler being a single spike. He should be good eating and your probably did th3 gene pool a favor by removing him.
Congratulations on a successful hunt. A great story.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Good job!

In my old hunting group we used to call those fleeting 10 yard opportunities "grouse shots".

 

[PreglerD]

You did a fine job with your GPR!

Congrats and Waidmanns Heil :thumbsup:

Kirrmeister

 

[bucktails]

Very neat looking rack nodakhorseman. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

 

[agill]

Nice shot. Sorry to hear about the car.

 

[smo]

Great hunt, nice buck :thumbsup:

 

[PitchyPine]

Grats on your harvest. :thumbsup:

 

[nodakhorseman]

That was a nice 1 1/2 year old buck you took.

I'm a biologist by trade and in a past life I ran a deer aging station during the Wisconsin gun season. By tooth wear, he aged at 2 1/2 years. The bases were real thick and then he went all to heck from there. I measured again tonight and his "good" side had a spread of 8 3/4".

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Good for you! Nice story as well. Like to see the load info included. Sorry about the car.

 

[texcl]

Congrats on the deer, I was hunting NW ND today and it got down to -15 in my stand, had 2 deer come within 20 yards, but my jacket had hardened in the cold weather and gave off a crakling sound as I was aiming in and spooked them, should have shot when they were 50 yards out or so, oh well there's always tomorrow. I had a deer bash into the fender of my truck not to long ago, sure is a bummer.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Interesting. You can't see that in the picture. Do you think that one antler was injuried early in its formation?

I was basing my estimation on his age from the white on his nose, and body size. I could not get a good idea of the width of that good antler from your picture. From what you have described, he would more likely be a 2 1/2 year old buck rather than the 1 1/2 year old. I am sorry I was mistaken, but very happy that you corrected me.When I ran a check station for two years, we practiced estimating the age of the deer from looking at the body size, antler shape, and width, and the white, or grey on the nose, before opening the mouth to look at the teeth. The deer here feed on corn and soybeans, so they get very large, very quickly, and deer with deformed racks will be found to have an injury- possibly a would from the prior season, or a poacher- or the rack was damaged during the growth- not from fighting, but usually from some other " natural " accident.

 

[blueridger]

Nice deer. Congrats.

 

[chance]

Great deer and story.