Finished the Illinois season with a bang
01-15-2011, 05:42 PM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Southern Illinois
Posts: 650
Finished the Illinois season with a bang
I made it out this morning to fill some remaining tags. My 3 yr old daughter told me last night that I was supposed to kill her a deer so she could eat it.
I was stuck using the open sights on my Optima Elite after some recent scope 'issues' *don't ever, EVER buy a Bushnell Banner-bad experience X's 2*. The morning started bad, with me being sick to my stomach when I woke up. I finally got ready to walk out the door when I found out that when I washed my hunting gear last night I didn't get my coat and gloves all the way dried. Bummer. So I grabbed a spare jacket from under a load of laundry and headed out. The wind was blowing like crazy, so being lacking in the warmth department due to wet gear I decided to toss the idea of the stand I was planning to sit in and find a brush pile to get out of the wind. I found some fresh trails in the snow and picked a spot looking over a little bottom with a ditch.
I looked up and saw several deer moving into view just before 8am. I picked the biggest (closest lol) one and I was able to get my gun on my monopod and make the 75 yard shot to put momma doe on the ground. I went in to have the kiddos help find her. I put a hurtin on her with the SST. It left a big exit hole, but not much blood trail to follow. I just don't get it. Even on the snow, I did most of the trailing just by following hoof prints and loose hair. She bled out on the inside I guess. She only went about 50 yards through the thick briars and honeysuckle and hit the ground when she popped out into a grassy field.
The 2020/11 season is over for me, because I am now stuck inside with the flu. Great. At least I was able to get some more meat before it hit.
The picture is of my daughter after she blood trailed 'HER' deer.
Optima Elite .50
90gr Blackhorn209
STS primer
Hornady 250gr SST
Ron Laughlin BP
rw
I was stuck using the open sights on my Optima Elite after some recent scope 'issues' *don't ever, EVER buy a Bushnell Banner-bad experience X's 2*. The morning started bad, with me being sick to my stomach when I woke up. I finally got ready to walk out the door when I found out that when I washed my hunting gear last night I didn't get my coat and gloves all the way dried. Bummer. So I grabbed a spare jacket from under a load of laundry and headed out. The wind was blowing like crazy, so being lacking in the warmth department due to wet gear I decided to toss the idea of the stand I was planning to sit in and find a brush pile to get out of the wind. I found some fresh trails in the snow and picked a spot looking over a little bottom with a ditch.
I looked up and saw several deer moving into view just before 8am. I picked the biggest (closest lol) one and I was able to get my gun on my monopod and make the 75 yard shot to put momma doe on the ground. I went in to have the kiddos help find her. I put a hurtin on her with the SST. It left a big exit hole, but not much blood trail to follow. I just don't get it. Even on the snow, I did most of the trailing just by following hoof prints and loose hair. She bled out on the inside I guess. She only went about 50 yards through the thick briars and honeysuckle and hit the ground when she popped out into a grassy field.
The 2020/11 season is over for me, because I am now stuck inside with the flu. Great. At least I was able to get some more meat before it hit.
The picture is of my daughter after she blood trailed 'HER' deer.
Optima Elite .50
90gr Blackhorn209
STS primer
Hornady 250gr SST
Ron Laughlin BP
rw
01-16-2011, 02:08 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,834
Glad you got some brown down. I hunted all 3 gun seasons here in Ill and saw 0,nada, ziltch!!!!!!!!!!! Damn those tags are dry and stick to your filings!!!!! Glad I got what I did during bow season. Love those SST's!!!! I have never had one fail yet. Have taken 8 deer with them and have yet to recover one projectile!!!!!!!
Last edited by SecondChance; 01-22-2011 at 03:59 PM.
01-16-2011, 02:55 PM
#8
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: N. Illinois
Posts: 527
Glad you got some brown down. I hunted all 3 gun seasons here in Ill and saw 0,nada, ziltch!!!!!!!!!!! Damn those tags are dry and stick to your filings!!!!! Glad I got what I did during bow season. Love those SST's!!!! I have never had one fail yet. Have taken 8 deer with them and have yet to recover one!!!!!!!
