HuntingNet.com Forums

I' m sitting in my climber at 8am yesterday (Sunday) morning watching a pine filled depression and sitting near a trail, hoping to ambush deer as the walk around the depression and head into a swamp behind me. I hear deer moving in the swamp behind me and catch a glimpse of a tail. Well, they' ve gotten around me and are already in the swamp. I' m a little bummed. Suddenly I hear deer spooked on the far side of the depression I' m watching. A big doe comes tearing around the depression and breaks off and heads for the swamp, exactly as I anticipated. Of course I was hoping for a leisurely walk instead of a frantic dash, so although I follow her with the gun, I can' t even think about shooting. Unknown to me (for a few seconds) is that a 4 point buck is right behind her. However instead of breaking off, he comes half circle around the depression and screetches to a halt a few feet from my treestand, looking at me. My gun, of course, is pointed away from him, where the doe disappeared. I freeze, he whirls and makes two bounds and stops about 10 yards away behind a tree. I can see his head and his back end. His chest is obscured by the tree. No way I' m taking a head shot, so I' ve got the gun up, trying to decide whether I can see enough of his lung area to try for a shot. I don' t know what I would have decided cause he took one step forward. I shot him in the base of the neck, just above the shoulder. I' m not an advocate of neck shots, but a ten yards it was plenty big enough. He dropped like a stone. I racked another shell in, and waited to see if he would get up. While I' m waiting, I hear another deer in the depression to my left, and see another one to my right. She is looking in my direction. We both wait about 5 minutes and then she lifts her tail and struts broadside through the depression. Too brushy to shoot. She then turns and heads to my left in the direction of the swamp. Just as she exits the brush, she freezes cause she sees the dead buck. I had been watching her, trying to decided if she was big enough to shoot. Now or never. I shot her behind the front shoulder, and she ran off. I heard her crash a few seconds later. I got out of the stand, found a good blood trail and found her easily. A double! Gutted them, dragged them out, tagged them, hung them, and still made it to church on time to teach Sunday School. A good day.