My daily double
Jan 5, 2015 12:53:34 GMT -5
Post by rossman40 on Jan 5, 2015 12:53:34 GMT -5
I got the oportunity to hunt the same area Myers129 hunted for the Ohio ML season. I had to help the daughter move down to Tenn so I wasn't able to make it on the opening day to hunt with Cole but was there Saturday. I ended up getting up there late, kinda good because the area had freezing rain, roads were icey and it had just switched over to rain. I just about wiped out the statue in front of the courthouse, and there were still other slick spots but by then I was in 4WD. I had the choice of several stands (including the one Cole shot out of) and decided to go to a barn that had windows on the second story so I could change clothes and load while waiting for daylight. With the weather being so crappy it was after 7:30 before I could see well enough to shoot more then a few yards. The only thing bad about shooting out of this barn is you have to bounce between the 3 windows but it was nice and dry and fairly tight so your out of the wind. A little after 8:00 I spot 4 deer walking down the road to the east that I drove in on, I went ahead and quietly opened the windows on the north and east sides and take a seat at the east window watching them. They just kept walking right towards the barn. 2 large does and two slightly smaller ones, it seemed the dominant doe of the bunch was one of the bigger ones and was a bit darker. The biggest deer poacher I've ever known always told me to shoot the dominant doe of the bunch first if you want a chance to get more then one. They finally come up to within 50yds of the barn and something spooks them a bit and they all kinda jump but pretty much stay there kinda in alert mode. The dominant doe puts a small oak between us but the other larger doe is standing on a road giving me a perfect broadside. With them getting a bit nervous I decide now is the time and I drop the hammer on the one standing in the road with a boilerroom shot and at the shot it's a bang-flop on that one but I also see one of the smaller does that was behind and to the left on the ground and kicking away and then kind gets on it's side and crawls at a pretty high rate of speed and gets into the brush about 25yds to the right. I went ahead and reloaded and waited about 20 minutes and thought I would at least check for sign to see if I hit the second deer. The one I was aiming at was of course DRT (Dead Right There) but no fur, body parts or blood trail on the second and I searched about 40yds in the direction it was going. So I went back in the barn and waited to see if anything else decided to come by. I waited till 10:00 and decided to field dress the one I had on the ground so I drag it over to a area and gutted it out there and then got it hung to drain. Of course it started to rain hard while I was dressing out the deer so I was getting fairly wet. I started to head back to the barn and thought since I was going to be here till the deer moved again in the evening I would double check on that other deer. The direction it was going went down a hill and I walked all the way down the hill about 100yds and at the bottom is the deer, standing on all four legs kinda leaning against a tree with it's head down. I can see it breathing and it's tail is twitching. I walk up behind it to about 8 feet away and yell at it and kick some limbs at it and it just keeps standing there. I get visions of the deer kicking and decide I ain't getting any closer so I give it the coup de grâce and it drops. I look it over and I can see where the shot I just made was but there was like a bullet hole just about between the ears and two bullet holes in the left ear. The only thing I can think of is after passing thru the first deer the bullet skipped off the second deer's skull and then thru the ear giving it a serious concussion/brain damage. I get the deer back up to the area to dress out, of course it started to rain again pretty hard while I was dressing out the second one so I ended up pretty soaked by the time I got packed up ready to head home but by golly I had two deer, no tag sandwich this year.. The smaller one was a 1 1/2 year old and the larger one was 2 1/2. I spent 8 days in the field this year deer hunting and it rained 6 of them so I'm looking at upgrading my rain gear.
