davidmil

So I slept in, cleaned the driveway of 5 new inches of snow and decided to take a walk at the Zoo about 10:30 with my SHOTGUN. Do you believe it? I almost got stuck but managed to get the Explorer unstuck. I left it where it was and started walking. I hadn't walked a 100 yards and I saw a fresh bed. I started slowly sneaking along and came right up on a doe at about 30 yards. She saw me first and exploded. She ran across this little hill top, down a hill across a little gully and up the other side. There were some blowdowns in the area so I just took my time. When I got overlooking the gully I stopped and glassed. I picked up a deer in the thick stuff. He moved his head and I saw what I thought were bigger horns than they were. He was behind a bunch of small limbs covered with fresh snow. I eased ahead and found a hole in the stuff. I couldn't get a steady rest and there were still some limbs so I moved up 5 yards to another tree. Lots better. He was about 90 yards away angled away. I squeezed and he bolted but stopped after 15 yards. I could see the point of his shoulder so let another fly. He dropped like a sack. The first bullet entered at the front of the back ham and stopped just under the skin on the offside front shoulder. The 2nd one hit him right at the base of the neck. I called it good shooting for a smooth bore Browning light 12 with a modified barrell. That's the first deer I've shot with a gun in years. Much ground shrinkage from what I saw in the thicket but believe it or not, I needed the meat for the freezer. I've given too many away this year.



This critter has a club foot. Anyone know what causes it? Here's a picture of the foot.

badshotbob

Sounds like a fun hunt to me. Congrats. The foot thing is wierd. No clue. Maybe too many deer resulting in bad genetics/deformaties?

philbert8

I think it's a deformity from stepping near the famous davidmil outhouse tree[:'(]

Steve F.in MD

Just needs a pedicure

Rack-attack

Congrats on another David

Don't know about the foot - looks nasty though

Ken/WV

Congrat's. I wish we had gotten snow like that. [&:]

davidmil

High Country... no you don't. They got more at this woods than I got at the house. It was really tough going in the woods. There must be a foot of it and it heavy stuff. You had to go real slow or the snow kind of KRUMPED as you compressed it. Makes walking a slow process. The one nice thing about it, the deer slid on it pretty easily. I had only probably walked 150 yards from the truck when I saw this guy. I only had a 250 yard drag. Glad he wasn't one of those 200 pounders or I might have had to walk back to the truck and get my deer sleigh.

Trebark

Great job, Dave!
I didn't get out today, but I was up in Frederick yesterday morning while the white stuff was falling. Missed a bruiser at 130 yards. He was out in a field, and a little further than I thought. Awkward shooting angle, and I didn't have a great hold on the slug gun, and I wound up with a nice scope bite right between the eyes! I drew more blood from myself than the deer, but I'm glad it was a clean miss. We'll get him another day.
Charlie

dogdr

nice stalk! i have never had the patience or the stealth to do that. I would guess he was born with the foot that way, or injured it somehow and it healed funny. My dad once killed a yearling doe that was missing a front limb. thw whole thing was missing- shoulder blade and all! no scar, no sign of hair loss, injury, or anything. It moved so well dad didnt notice it was 3 legged until he dressed it. I wish I would have taken pictures.

Coastie

Looks like this deer may be a survivor of EHD, it does weird things to the hoof if they survive. Ask your local wildlife biologist to be sure. Don't worry about the meat, it is fine.