Today was the last day of muzzy season here in Ohio. It was a beautiful day, almost full moon, clear and cold in the morning then sunny and in the 40's during the day.
I set up on the one side of a ravine in the morning. Didn't see anything, so about 9:30am I decide to switch positions (I get antsy and find it hard to sit in one spot for more than 2 or 3 hours). So I relocated a short distance away, on the side of the ravine, sitting at the base of a pine tree looking into the ravine.
About 5 minutes after I sat down, I see a doe coming in. It kept looking back, and sure enough, 4 more does were following it. The lead doe was the biggest, so I kept my sights on it, and when it stepped into a shooting lane 50 yards away, I took the shot. Here were the results:
The side you see was the entrance wound. But what happened next was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me while hunting. At the shot, the doe spins around, and instead of running downhill or towards water (like all the hunting magazines say), the doe runs right up the side of the ravine directly at me. As it comes up over the lip, I see blood gushing from both sides of it. It sees me, lowers its head and makes a mad dash straight for me (I swear I am not making this up). As it bore down on me, it kind of dove headfirst at me, so I did the only logical thing- I was sitting down and the deer was about to headbutt me- I raised my boot and kicked it in the head.
It must have been on its last breath, cause after hitting my boot, it collapsed and expired within a few seconds. Dammdest thing I've ever seen. (I swear I am not making this up)
After all that excitment, I ended up passing on a couple of small Bambi-sized does later in the day and went home early to take care of the meat. Mmmmm, backstraps:
The shot was 50 yards, and I got pass thru. Here is the exit hole from the inside:
I have some more pics from the outside, but they are very graphic, so I thought I wouldn't post them. This was by far the bloodiest hit I've ever made on a deer. I went back and followed the trail the deer made when running up to try and bulldoze me, and the blood trail could have been followed by a 4 year old with vision problems. There was blood everywhere. I'm not sure why- maybe I hit the descending aorta? In any case it was something to see.
Okay, I'm tired and need to go to sleep now. Can't wait til next year! Maybe then it'll be a 10-pointer that tries to gore me
