My Deer Hunting So Far
11-12-2012, 03:53 PM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Comance county, OK
Posts: 11,408
My Deer Hunting So Far
Well, i've not killed a deer yet but did zap a sow that was given to another hunter who was glad to get it. Passed on about 20 deer that were within range. Last Saturday was spent in my favorite compartment on Quanah Parker range: Ft. Sill.
At daybreak i was watching a big game plot where three does and two fawns were feeding. The distance was 70-90 yards. Watched them eat their fill and walk off.
10 a.m. found me in a remote part of the compartment crawling over blowdown and hunting against the wind. i spotted a really nice ten point buck about 40 yards away. Quickly drew down on him and just as quickly lowered the gun. That area had a bad ice storm in January 2010. Its a tangle of downed trees and tree limbs. It would have been a 1/2 mile drag through the worst stuff imaginable.
Normally i kill 3-7 deer per year. All but one are usually given away. This year is different. This is the most fun i've had in years. My friends can't depend on me for venison this year: They can go get their own. All i want is one for myself.
At daybreak i was watching a big game plot where three does and two fawns were feeding. The distance was 70-90 yards. Watched them eat their fill and walk off.
10 a.m. found me in a remote part of the compartment crawling over blowdown and hunting against the wind. i spotted a really nice ten point buck about 40 yards away. Quickly drew down on him and just as quickly lowered the gun. That area had a bad ice storm in January 2010. Its a tangle of downed trees and tree limbs. It would have been a 1/2 mile drag through the worst stuff imaginable.
Normally i kill 3-7 deer per year. All but one are usually given away. This year is different. This is the most fun i've had in years. My friends can't depend on me for venison this year: They can go get their own. All i want is one for myself.
11-12-2012, 07:30 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Illinois
Posts: 1,482
I'm glad you are having fun - that is the most important part for me. I might have passed on that buck too- dragging a deer long distances through that kind of crap is not fun. I remember a couple times dragging deer long distances through swamps - not fun at all....
11-12-2012, 07:37 PM
#4
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
I'll agree with that. My days of dragging deer long distances or through nasty stuff are over.
A few years back the forester who manages the timber on our lease sent in a crew of Mexicans with industrial size brush cutters (a circular saw bladed weedeater on steroids) to thin a 50 acre patch of really thick eight foot high pines. They muscled their way through the mess laying down nine out of every ten trees, leaving foot high two-inch diameter stumps under a carpet of waist high downed trees that resembled a pile of jackstraws with limbs. I shot a doe on a plot next to that cut and she made it about 80 yards into the laid down trees. I damn near died getting her out of there. Even though it was only 80 yards, it was the only time I ever considered abandoning a downed deer.
A few years back the forester who manages the timber on our lease sent in a crew of Mexicans with industrial size brush cutters (a circular saw bladed weedeater on steroids) to thin a 50 acre patch of really thick eight foot high pines. They muscled their way through the mess laying down nine out of every ten trees, leaving foot high two-inch diameter stumps under a carpet of waist high downed trees that resembled a pile of jackstraws with limbs. I shot a doe on a plot next to that cut and she made it about 80 yards into the laid down trees. I damn near died getting her out of there. Even though it was only 80 yards, it was the only time I ever considered abandoning a downed deer.
11-13-2012, 01:44 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: arkansas
Posts: 3,162
In 09 we had the terrible ice storm come through here. The old timers couldnt ever remember one being that bad. Very few trees made it through it without any damage. Were still feeling the effects of it at our place. A couple of good things did come out of it. It opened the canopy and let lots of undergrowth start growing and gave the hen turkeys good nesting spots which they needed with the influx of all the hogs now.
