joshtribe

Ok....here's my huntin' story.

On Tuesday after college, I went with my brother to hunt from our blind we made. At about 2:30 we set up in the woods and waited...and waited, and waited. Saw nothing. At 5:10 PM, quitting time, we packed up and unloaded our guns. As we left the blind and headed for the truck, two deer (too dark to tell if they were bucks or does) jumped out of the woods into the field about 10 yards from our blind. They joined up with 3 other deer from the other woods and together they raced around the country side. It's almost like they had watches on and new when it was safe to party...we couldn't believe it. If they had jumped out a couple minutes earlier, we'd be gloating about the deer we got.

He had to work, and I had school, so we didn't get to hunt until this afternoon. We got back to the blind about 3:30 where we put out some Excite doe urine and some vanilla, an idea I got from this forum. I blew on the doe call off and on, but we saw nothing. At about 4:55PM, I heard what sounded like a twig snapping from inside the woods. Then I felt my brother tap me on the leg. I slowly turned and looked at his hand. He gave me the ok sign, pointed to the east (the direction he was facing...looking into the woods...I was looking north along the edge of the woods), and put up two fingers, meaning two deer. I turned just enough to get a peak, I saw a doe's face and the flickering of a whitetail about 50 yds. into the woods. The excitement was unbearable. My heart started beating so fast I thought it was gonna explode. I began to hyperventilate and shake as the snapping twigs got louder and louder. I couldn't really look their way or they'd sense the motion and run, so I tried to listen and see what I could out of the corner of my eye. Click, my brother turned off his safety (of his Mossberg 500), I took the cue and clink...I cocked my Savage Model 90 single shot 20 gauge birdgun. My brother had a decent shot as they got closer, but for some reason, he didn't shoot. Instead, we sat like statues in the blind as the deer walked behind me, and then around to my right side. I could believe it...they were licking the doe urine off of the twigs around the blind, about 5 feet away from me. They had no clue I was there. Thanks to those who provided the scent neutralizer recipe and too my cover scent, face mask, and paint. When they turned and started to sniff at the vanilla I put on the ground about 10 yards away, I took the opportunity to slowly pull my gun out of the slit facing the north to the slit facing the east where I sighted up with the biggest of the deer. I heard the noises of a third deer, but I figured if it was bigger and better than the one I was aiming at, then my brother would have stopped me from shooting. When the deer turned and bent over to eat some wheat, it offered me a perfect 20 yard broadside shot. Any hesitation I had left me because who knows when I'd get another shot like that. I pulled the trigger. The deer jumped and took off running back into the woods. I immediatelly told my bro, "Good hit! Good hit!" I could see a dark patch behind its shoulder as it ran. We waited about 5 minutes before we got out and looked for the blood trail. I always thought blood trails would be hard to find and follow....this one was clear as day. We came across the deer about 60 yards from where I shot it. On closer evalution, what we thought was a doe was actually a young buck with 1 inch antlers. So we took some pics, hauled it to where we had some light (it was getting dark) and field dressed it. That was an adventure in and of itself...neither of us had field dressed a deer before. But other than the fact that it took us a long time, I think we did pretty good. My shot was perfect vertically, but too close to the guts. The slug had gone into the last couple ribs near the diaphram, ricocheted off the ribs, and gone through the stomachs, not a total lung shot, but not a total gut shot either. So I didn't get a monster buck and my shot wasn't perfect, but hey, it was my first deer, so I'm proud of that. It's a memory that'll last forever. Tomorrow I'm gonna get my kill registered and taken to the butcher. Should be yummy.