As I mentioned on an earlier post, I shot at and missed a doe last Saturday. Well.... here's the rest of the story.

After the shot, three does ran one way and the doe I shot at ran the opposite direction. After the shot I waited in my tree for about 10 min just to let things settle down. After I climbed down, I did not bother to reload my gun (big mistake) and walked over to where I shot at the doe. No blood, No hair, No deer parts, nothin. So, I started walking in the direction the doe ran to look for more sign.

I was hunting in swampy area with high weeds and thick brush, so visibility was poor at best. As I was walkin along this path, I kept hearing this "mewing" sound? Just as I walked around the corner of a heavy clump of brush, here came this doe, haulin ars right at me!

Don't know who was more surprised, me or the doe. But, there I stood, face to face, with a perfectly healthy (un-wounded) deer that I just shot at. She came to a skiddin stop just about 10ft. in front of me and I just stood there with my gun pointed at her, unloaded.

We both just stood there and looked at one another until she finally bolted back the way she came from. My guess is that since she had been separated from the other doe's she was suffering from a little "separation anxiety", that's what all the "mewing" was about.

Anyway, lesson here is?

1. Make the first shot count
2. Reload your gun after you shoot at your deer.
3. Modify muzzloader to affix bayonet for those close encounters.

SMOKEPOLE NO# 3 WAS GOOD GREAT STORY

Here's what happened to me a couple of seasons ago. A spike buck was running does around my stand one morning. He crossed bak and forth a few times right in front of me. I had finally had enough. At about 60 yrs I decided I was going to take him. The shot from the .50 cal knocked him down in his tracks. I reloaded. He lay there for a few minutes. He got up. I debated and decided to shoot him again before he could run off into the swamp and disappear forever. Second shot knocked him down again. I thought this time was for keeps. I waited a bit and started down the tree. At the base of the tree I reloaded. As I picked my way over to the deer at about 30yrds out he jumped up and I unloaded the third time. This time he was dead before he hit the ground. As I made it over to the deer I heard thrashing in the water over in the swamp and I figured it to be the does this spike had been running. Just to see how they would react to the grunt call I hit it a few times and went on about the business of retreiving the deer. Would you believe it, a huge buck ran up to within steps of me and I had nothing but the gun/club to defend myself. I had to scare him off by yelling at him. I was out of reloads.

Nahum 1:7

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>3. Modify muzzloader to affix bayonet for those close encounters. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

That was priceless