Just got back from the Taxidermist...
08-24-2005, 06:07 PM
#7
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New England
Posts: 811
RE: Just got back from the Taxidermist...
It was the second to last day of hunting on Anticosti Island, Quebec last year. Everybody else in camp had their buck except for me, so you can imagine the crap I was taking. To my defense, this was my first season hunting after taking a 13 year hiatis from it to go to school, work, get married, move too many times. So, I was still trying to remember all the tips from this forum, various videos, and the Benoit family book on deer hunting (a must for me given I grew up 10 miles from the Benoit house in Duxbury, VT and went to high school with one of the Benoit kids).
OK, back to the hunt. On the second to last day, I decided to venture into some swampy areas that I remembered seeing which nobody had gone to. Walked across the swamp (fairly smallish swamp maybe 400 yards long by 300 yards wide). I stood in the middle for a while and figured out the wind direction. Then I just made my way quietly to the end of the swamp with the wind in my face. I found some trees to hide behind and broke some branches away to make a shooting zone for me where I could scan the swamp. Grunted for a while pretty aggresively and threw in some attempts at a doe call, rubbed sticks together and broke branches off trees. Up until this day, I thought of this more an approach to attract Moose, but was convinced that the tip given to me by my friend that morning on call techniques was sincere and honest.
Well, after what I would say would be 4 hours, which was more like 1.5, and being determined that my buddy had made a fool out of me, I decided I better move on out before I do any more damage. I was literally taking my rifle off my shooting stick when I saw a flicker of white about 300 yards down field. There was heavy brush so I couldn't tell whether it was a doe or a buck, but I was sure it was a deer. As you can imagine, the blood started pumping and my buddy started to become my friend again (hero if this turned out as I hoped). I glassed down to the area where I thought the deer was and I could just see the tail duck off in the woods all the way to the other side of the swamp.
I decided at that point that maybe this call thing was working and I should give it another. So I called for another 5 minutes or so, less frequent than I had done initially. About 30 minutes after seeing the deer duck off in the woods, I glassed to about 10:00 where I was standing as I heard something. There I could clearly see the bucks head, neck, and rack, but had no visibilty of the body. I could tell from the way he was looking though that he was profiled to me, probably between 130 and 150 yards away. I knew that about 30 yards behind him was a 45 degree incline going up a good 200', and there was nothing in the area, so if I missed him the bullet would plant in the dirt not far away. So I took my best guess of where his vitals would be given his position, somehow squeezed off a round which astonished me given how hard my heart was pumping, and dropped him on the spot he was standing.
Here is a picture of him from the field. He weighed in at 135lbs which is a good sized deer for Anticosti. I just finished my last shoulder roast tonight and have not thought of anything since the end of hunting season except that I can't wait to get back out in the woods hunting.
Cheers,
Dan
p.s. I forgot to mention that I hunted a few days in NH after I got back from this trip. On my last day, I was walking through the woods and happened upon a nice 6 or 8 pointer, no more than 50 yds from me. Being absolutely sure that the deer would keel over just from the sound of my superior marksmanship, I took a shot at him and am not even sure I was within a foot of hitting him. A great lesson learned that I think of as often as the deer I harvested.
OK, back to the hunt. On the second to last day, I decided to venture into some swampy areas that I remembered seeing which nobody had gone to. Walked across the swamp (fairly smallish swamp maybe 400 yards long by 300 yards wide). I stood in the middle for a while and figured out the wind direction. Then I just made my way quietly to the end of the swamp with the wind in my face. I found some trees to hide behind and broke some branches away to make a shooting zone for me where I could scan the swamp. Grunted for a while pretty aggresively and threw in some attempts at a doe call, rubbed sticks together and broke branches off trees. Up until this day, I thought of this more an approach to attract Moose, but was convinced that the tip given to me by my friend that morning on call techniques was sincere and honest.
Well, after what I would say would be 4 hours, which was more like 1.5, and being determined that my buddy had made a fool out of me, I decided I better move on out before I do any more damage. I was literally taking my rifle off my shooting stick when I saw a flicker of white about 300 yards down field. There was heavy brush so I couldn't tell whether it was a doe or a buck, but I was sure it was a deer. As you can imagine, the blood started pumping and my buddy started to become my friend again (hero if this turned out as I hoped). I glassed down to the area where I thought the deer was and I could just see the tail duck off in the woods all the way to the other side of the swamp.
I decided at that point that maybe this call thing was working and I should give it another. So I called for another 5 minutes or so, less frequent than I had done initially. About 30 minutes after seeing the deer duck off in the woods, I glassed to about 10:00 where I was standing as I heard something. There I could clearly see the bucks head, neck, and rack, but had no visibilty of the body. I could tell from the way he was looking though that he was profiled to me, probably between 130 and 150 yards away. I knew that about 30 yards behind him was a 45 degree incline going up a good 200', and there was nothing in the area, so if I missed him the bullet would plant in the dirt not far away. So I took my best guess of where his vitals would be given his position, somehow squeezed off a round which astonished me given how hard my heart was pumping, and dropped him on the spot he was standing.
Here is a picture of him from the field. He weighed in at 135lbs which is a good sized deer for Anticosti. I just finished my last shoulder roast tonight and have not thought of anything since the end of hunting season except that I can't wait to get back out in the woods hunting.
Cheers,
Dan
p.s. I forgot to mention that I hunted a few days in NH after I got back from this trip. On my last day, I was walking through the woods and happened upon a nice 6 or 8 pointer, no more than 50 yds from me. Being absolutely sure that the deer would keel over just from the sound of my superior marksmanship, I took a shot at him and am not even sure I was within a foot of hitting him. A great lesson learned that I think of as often as the deer I harvested.
08-24-2005, 07:11 PM
#10
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: ne bama
Posts: 6,340
RE: Just got back from the Taxidermist...
Being absolutely sure that the deer would keel over just from the sound of my superior marksmanship, I took a shot at him and am not even sure I was within a foot of hitting him. A great lesson learned that I think of as often as the deer I harvested.
