oldsmellhound

Well, a few of us braved the 10 degree temps and snow to hunt the Ohio blackpowder opener. It was a pretty great day to be out hunting, to say the least. I went with my hunting buddy and my dad. Usually there are more like 5 or 6 of us that go, but some unamed persons wimped out because of the cold.

I saw a few but didn't have a clear shot in the a.m. My hunting buddy shot a buck that had dropped its antlers early (he thought it was just a really big doe) at around 8:30. After lunch at the cabin, we went out again to different spots.

As I was walking out, I came over the crest of a hill and saw a group of 5 does. I crouch down as they come across an open area in front of me. I lined up the crosshairs on the lead doe and when she stopped, I pulled the trigger. Through the smoke I saw her limp back the way she came, I quick reload and crawl forward. She's standing there about 70 yards away, and all I can see clearly is her head & neck. So I aim for the neck, fire, and she drops on the spot.



Turns out my first shot was a bad one- hitting too far back. I have no idea what happened, the shot felt good to me- possibly it had not completely stopped moving when I fired. In any case, I was able to seal the deal with the neck shot 90 seconds later.

Turns out, while I was field dressing the deer, my dad (who was using the new Wolf I had bought) connects on another doe out of a tree stand. I went up to meet him, and we tracked his deer that had run off into some thick stuff. His shot was less than ideal as well (I keep telling him he needs to practice more), so the deer required a finishing shot. But I was happy nonetheless - first blood for the Wolf!

My hunting buddy ended up getting a doe in the afternoon as well- so we came home with 4 deer! Pretty nice day hunting

As far as technical details:

My deer:
60 yard initial shot
200 Shockwave
80 grains T7 3f
complete pass-thru (but thru the paunch)
70 yard follow-up shot (same load) neck shot, instant death

Dad's deer:
35 yard shot
250 grain Deep Curl (Gold Dot)
70 grains T7 3f
complete pass-thru (liver & paunch shot)
follow-up neck shot with same load at 10 yards

My hunting buddy was using a Traditions Tracker with 90 grains JSG and a .429 Hornady XTP 240 grain.

Sorry for the poor quality picture. I wish I had more but my cell phone died before lunch time- I suspect the cold temps killed it.

johnnyo

nice... 4 deer in one afternoon!

builder459

Good job, venison back straps soon!

Breechplug

Congrat's for You and Your Dad! I and My Buddy and a few other's (actually a-lot) of others Shot what they thought were Big Does during our Late ML Season here in N.Y. Dec 13th-21st that turned out to be Bucks that had dropped there Antlers early, earlier than I have ever witnessed in over 30 years. I can only think it was because of our early Cold and Snow we had this Mid November on. I hope it did'nt put too much of a Hurtin on next years Buck population
(BP)

cayugad

Congratulations on making some venison...

BigDaddy12t

Congrats on an awesome day in the woods!

moridgerunner

Sounds like you had a great day in spite of the cold! Congratulations!!

Michael396

Congratulations! My hunting crew came up empty handed today. Did not see one single deer, but I was able to post from the blind with my iPhone.

oldsmellhound

Same here. My buddy came upon the deer pretty fast and had to take a quick shot. He thought it was just a very large doe, but upon closer inspection... turned out to be a buck. Had he had more time to glass the deer, he might have been able to tell it was a buck. It's happened to us a few times, but hey, what are you going to do? Normally we see 7 or 8 does for every buck sighted where we hunt, but this year we have seen WAY more bucks than usual.

falcon

Congrats on the deer.