Page 5 of 5
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:12 pm
by Paul
No. I haven't heard anybody else in the woods.
I'm going out again tomorrow morning.
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:58 pm
by Paul
Today was my last day to hunt before going on vacation.
My lady friend shot one at her friend's farm last night so she didn't hunt with me this morning.
At around 8:30 I got a call from a local business who's server was down so I had to quit hunting and went back to town.
When I got back home I went out hunting again. I positioned myself up a hill where I had seen deer activity before.
I saw one from maybe 45 yards away. I noticed that one side of antlers was a little odd but took a shot when it was between a couple trees.
As soon as it ran I saw that one side of antler was completely missing.
I waited a few minutes then followed the blood trail.
I found it and stood 30' away from it as it looked at me. Then it sprinted off. Doh!
It probably went 200' before I couldn't hear it so I went back to the house to wait for it to die.
I went back out an hour later and followed the blood trail again. This time when I got 50' away from it (it was in a creek bed) it got up and ran into some thick brush. I stayed still and it stopped about 200' away from me. It stood there and stared at me so I left and went back home.
It was on my neighbor's land and I've never met the new guy so I went to his place to ask for permission to get the animal.
When I knocked on his door I heard some panicked mumblings and things being hastily put away.
When he opened the door the house smelled of marijuana.
He gave me permission to get the animal so I went back home and waited for my lady friend (she's my hunting mentor) to help me bet the buck.
We approached it from the other side, because if it ran away I wanted it to run towards my house.
I couldn't find it in the thick growth so we went way back up the hill do where I'd last seen blood, then we followed the blood trail.
Eventually we found the buck. It was dead. Whew!
I field dressed him (which is cutting out everything internal from the throat to the butt-hole then started the arduous process of dragging him back to the house.
He probably weighed 150 or 160 pounds sans guts. It was a lot of work and I took a lot of breaks on the way.
My fried is a biologist and staid that one of the antlers broke off after it had fully formed, but awhile ago.
It was a 4.5 year old male (judging by his teeth).
I have the head in the back of her truck but the rest of the deer is at the processors. She's going run some tests on the deer (CWD & TB) then get the skull back to me so I can to a European mount.
It's an ugly rack, otherwise I'd have it mounted. I think I'm going to to the Unkbill thing and just bury the head to let the flesh rot off. It's not really a trophy, but it'd be need to have.
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:08 pm
by GORDON
I want to see pics of the guy pile. With annotations.
If you can find a license plate inside it that suggested it swam up from southern waters, you will win the internet for the month.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:18 pm
by Paul
GORDON wrote:I want to see pics of the guy pile. With annotations.
Freudian slip?
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:22 pm
by GORDON
Indeed.
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 2:29 pm
by Paul
Today was opening day of archery season.
I decided that I'd only shoot a buck or a solo doe.
I meant to go to bed early but I ended up being up past midnight.
I kept waking up to check the clock, not wanting to oversleep my 5:45 wakeup time.
I heard some deer behind me but I didn't see them.
At around 9:00 a big doe came by, but she was followed by a couple fawns.
The mother wandered off but the fawns stuck around for about a minute to nibble on some leaves.
The good news is that they were all clueless as to my presence.
I won't go out again this evening because it's hot out and the butcher will be closed, so I don't want to have to make a trip to town to pack the carcass with ice.
When I got back home I took a nap and had a dream that it was 3:45 and I had to wake up at 5:45 again.
When I decided that I'd just stay up the two hours I woke up on my sofa, confused.
Edited By Paul on 1378593608
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:31 am
by Paul
I've had plenty of opportunities to bag deer with a bow this season, but I keep waiting for something special.
If I harvest one now I have no reason to hunt until gun season in November, and I like my in-the-woods time.
I hunted the blind yesterday morning and saw three. I could have shot any of them, but hoped that they'd be followed by a buck, which they were not.
The third was a fawn, that was left of frame.
Edited By Paul on 1380810717
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 11:03 am
by Paul
I saw this one earlier this week, but he's small:
I want one of these guys:
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:50 pm
by GORDON
Isn't it illegal to hunt with a salt lick?
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:44 pm
by Paul
No.
It's not even illegal to dump piles of corn and hunt that, unless you are on public land.
This was muzzleloader weekend, but I went bowhunting anyway. I had to wear hunter orange though, so I sat in the blind.
I saw a ton of deer in September but during the last couple weeks there haven't been many deer.
I've been told it's called the October lull.
I didn't see any during my previous four hunting trips so I vowed to take the next deer to present itself.
Today I seized my opportunity.
She was small, but I had a good shot.
My arrow pierced both lungs and I found it about 15' behind the deer.
Can you guess which one went though the deer?
I waited two hours before searching for the deer.
There was plenty of blood at the site, but I had trouble finding any blood in the direction it ran.
Can you find the blood in this picture?
You can't, because there is no blood in that picture. That is autumn screwing with me.
It took me three hours to find the deer.
She'd run a bit under 200 yards.
The first drop of blood I found was 100' away from where I shot it.
I was crawling a lot of the time, trying to find blood.
Eventually I found a section where it ran straight up a hill. There was blood about every 15 feet, but when it hit a clearing (and the deer could go in any direction) the blood disappeared.
I probably spent an hour in that clearing but couldn't find any more blood.
The last blood splatter was when it had just entered the clearing, and I noticed that one drop looked like the deer was heading right, so I went right.
That eventually went into some really thick, really hairy woods, but I was frustrated so I just kept going.
Then bazinga:
(I found it on a log, but hauled it to clearing for this photo, and to field dress it)
field dressed it (gore), and then took it home where I skinned and butchered it.
I dumped the head, bones, and skin in the woods for the critters to eat.
Edited By Paul on 1382319937
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 10:24 pm
by GORDON
You're a madman.
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:55 pm
by Paul
I included the gay pile pic specifically for you.
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:09 am
by GORDON
I saw your gay pile.
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:09 am
by Paul
GORDON wrote:You're a madman.
Just because I'm carrying a decapitated deer head, with a cape made out if its own skin, doesn't make me a madman.
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:09 pm
by Paul
Yesterday was the opening day for gun season.
It was quiet all morning, then I heard a deer running. I thought, "Oh crap it caught my scent and got spooked!" but then I noticed that it was running towards the tree I was in.
A second deer was behind it, but she took a different path.
Then I heard more running, but it was a big German shepherd, chasing the deer.
If it was a coyote I'd have shot it.
I'd never seen that dog before.
Any pet owner who lets their dog run around in the woods on opening day is someone who doesn't care about their dog.
I didn't see anything else worth mentioning the rest of the day.
My ex-girlfriend however, texted me that she shot two, and her friend shot a monster doe.
They are both deer biologists, and they both said that the latter doe was the biggest they'd seen.
As far as my ex-GF getting two, her story was that she shot a doe at 100 yards.
Then the doe's fawn showed up and sniffed around, so she shot him too.
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:21 pm
by Paul
I set my alarm for 5:25am so I wouldn’t feel bad about laying there before getting out of bed.
I dressed, and went to one of my deer stands.
At around 7:45am a deer came up over the ridge directly in front of me.
I didn’t move until he went behind some trees.
Whenever his head as out of sight I’d move, to get my revolver, or pull it up, or get it in position.
I had to wait until he got to a clear place to shoot, so I had a fairly small window of opportunity.
Fortunately he cooperated and stopped right where I wanted him to, about 25-30 yards away.
Having missed good shots before due to hesitation, I seized the opportunity and fired my revolver.
He took off running, bust I couldn't see if he was hit!
He ran far too, which is not a good sign.
He went way down the hill, the across the creek, then I could hear him run up the hill. It sounded like he went 200 yards.
I was afraid that I might have missed him.
I have no magnification on the revolver, and it is shakier than a rifle.
I can shoot a nice grouping on the target range, but real-world situations are different than the target practice.
I checked out the kill zone and found hair and blood:
What I didn’t like is that I saw white hair.
The white parts of a deer are not good to hit (tail, or belly).
I texted my ex-GF a photo and she said that it from the look of the blood (creamy) it was probably a lung shot, so the deer should be dead within a few minutes.
I went home to change and came back out 40 minutes.
Last month the leaves were still colorful and falling. The ground looked like this a month ago:
There is no blood in that picture.
The deer I shot last month with an arrow didn’t bleed much, which made it hard to track in the colorful ground.
Today’s deer was a different story.
The hand-loaded .44 magnum hollow point made the buck bleed like crazy.
I texted a friend that Stevie Wonder couldn’t lose the trail:
Everything read in that picture is boood.
Blood on every plant it touched, blood all over the ground… easy peazy!
I followed the blood down and over a creek, and up a hill. Then I saw it laying on the other side of an old log:
[
I field dressed it (I gutted it) then dragged it 150’ or so, to a place I could access with the ATV.
Dragging a deer downhill is easy. They just slide.
Getting him up the bank was a struggle, as was getting his limp/heavy body onto the ATV.
I drove him home and put him in my car.
My daughter and I drove to my ex-GF's house where we processed our kills, oo together we had 4 deer to process.
It’s a 1:15 card ride to Frankfort, and it was a lot of work, so my daughter and I didn’t get back until a little before 9:00.
My venison barely fits in the freezer. I’ll need to move some to my in-laws deep freezer eventually.
Note: I don't know why there was a tuft of white hair at the site where I shot him.
The bullet went in and out, through the ribs/lungs.
There is no white fur in that area.
It must have been loose and fell when he panicked.
Edited By Paul on 1384144289
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 9:32 pm
by Paul
I got a buck last year, dead in the shoulder.
This season, on opening day (Saturday) I got a 2.5 year old doe with my compound bow. I hit it too far back, which seems to be a pattern of mine. The arrow still went into the lung though.
I've experimented with canning meat and I kind of like it. I made 5 mason jars of meat and ate one for supper tonight.
