Not such a bad day after all (deer down w/pics)
11-29-2011, 07:01 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Illinois
Posts: 1,482
Not such a bad day after all (deer down w/pics)
Well, Monday was the season opener in Ohio. I was able to go down this morning (Tues). Weatherman was calling for horrible weather- warm & rain all day. When we go there, was barely sprinkling and even that stopped soon.
I didn't see anything right away so about 8:30am I decided to change locations and took a slow stroll to the other end of our land. Halfway there, I spooked up a deer. It was behind a lot of trees and looking through the 4 power scope I could see its body but not what part of the body. It then turned and faced me and I could see it was a doe. Facing me head on at about 60 or 70 yards, I had about a 10 inch gap between 2 trees to shoot. So I took the offhand shot.
At the shot, it turned and ran down the hill. After reloading, I couldn't find any blood where the deer was standing. I wasn't sure if I hit it or not, so I just slowly walked in the direction it went. Well, I hadn't gone far when I saw white belly hair staring at me.
Turns out it was a button buck which I kinda felt bad about, but had no way of being able to tell with a 4 power scope at 65ish yards throug the trees. After the shot the deer ran about 70 or 80 yards. The bullet hit about 3 inches to the right of where I was aiming, directly on the point of the left shoulder:
The bullet hit the point of the shoulder, blew a pretty gruesome hole (which was not seen until I skinned the deer) through the shoulder, and travelled all the way through the deer front to back lodging in the rear ham. I measured total penetration at 22 inches:
Here's another pic of the recovered bullet:
The shoulder wound was too graphic for me to post- I thought it would be a bit much. The bullet only hit 1 lung, and no other vital organs (though it did go thru the stomach and intestines unfortunately). Given that, I was surprised that it didn't run further than it did.
It is a pretty small deer, but hey, I say you take what you can get when you have limited days hunting in the field.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I saw about 14 turkeys and 1 more doe later in the afternoon. I was however treated to a very nice view and beautiful sunset sitting out in the open before dark:
I had a blast today- got to hunt with my dad, and as his health gets worse, who knows how many more times we'll be able to do this. Better news, we're heading out again tomorrow morning and the weather looks good- temps in the 30's and light snow. Bring on a buck!
I didn't see anything right away so about 8:30am I decided to change locations and took a slow stroll to the other end of our land. Halfway there, I spooked up a deer. It was behind a lot of trees and looking through the 4 power scope I could see its body but not what part of the body. It then turned and faced me and I could see it was a doe. Facing me head on at about 60 or 70 yards, I had about a 10 inch gap between 2 trees to shoot. So I took the offhand shot.
At the shot, it turned and ran down the hill. After reloading, I couldn't find any blood where the deer was standing. I wasn't sure if I hit it or not, so I just slowly walked in the direction it went. Well, I hadn't gone far when I saw white belly hair staring at me.
Turns out it was a button buck which I kinda felt bad about, but had no way of being able to tell with a 4 power scope at 65ish yards throug the trees. After the shot the deer ran about 70 or 80 yards. The bullet hit about 3 inches to the right of where I was aiming, directly on the point of the left shoulder:
The bullet hit the point of the shoulder, blew a pretty gruesome hole (which was not seen until I skinned the deer) through the shoulder, and travelled all the way through the deer front to back lodging in the rear ham. I measured total penetration at 22 inches:
Here's another pic of the recovered bullet:
The shoulder wound was too graphic for me to post- I thought it would be a bit much. The bullet only hit 1 lung, and no other vital organs (though it did go thru the stomach and intestines unfortunately). Given that, I was surprised that it didn't run further than it did.
It is a pretty small deer, but hey, I say you take what you can get when you have limited days hunting in the field.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I saw about 14 turkeys and 1 more doe later in the afternoon. I was however treated to a very nice view and beautiful sunset sitting out in the open before dark:
I had a blast today- got to hunt with my dad, and as his health gets worse, who knows how many more times we'll be able to do this. Better news, we're heading out again tomorrow morning and the weather looks good- temps in the 30's and light snow. Bring on a buck!
