As of that morning I had spent 98.5 hours hunting, not including time setting up treestands and ground blinds, playing with game cameras etc, I am referring strictly to time spent with either a muzzleloader or centerfire in hand actively seeking a whitetail. I had used a variety of techniques, walking up old logging roads, treestand sitting, ground blinds etc. I had even sat on the top of a ridge calling in the early pre rut in a rain and snow mix. I had chosen to do this as the wind was again out of the south, the layout of the area we are hunting made a south wind our enemy to this point.
While Andrea was getting ready to go to the office I spent some time doing some electronic scouting; there was an area that I could stalk into, hunt using the wind and hopefully find some sign in the snow. I knew I was entering an area that was incredibly thick, full of blown down spruce, overgrown with shrubs, from thorny wild rose to grape vines running everywhere. There would be a fair amount of climbing over, crawling under and attempting to quietly sneak in.
I quickly failed the quiet part, even the best options for sneaking in were littered with dead branches, every tree was covered in dead branches and I am of course not in the classification of "ninja". After inadvertently snapping a few branches I remembered reading an article years ago about using a grunt call to cover those snapping branches and decided to give it a try. As part of my morning preparations I had grabbed the grunt tube Dad had packed away in my gun case after his last hunt. I pulled that out of my back back and figured why not. After catching on a few more branches I gave a couple of basic grunts, slightly articulated by opening and closing my hand a bit as I blew it....A very short time later I heard a loud snap to the west, the wind was coming from the SW and into my face from the left. I quickly checked google maps to ensure I was close to the area I planned to be and sure enough I was about 50 yds from the South tip. Mind you it had taken 45 minutes to get here, a mere 100 yds from the old logging road.
Another step after waiting a minute, a broken clump of branches (intentional this time) and a decisive grunt initiated a response from the west, it had the sound of antlers banging on small trees. Could this actually work, was I able to imitate an invading buck, stirring up the resident bucks rut driven urges to dominate and protect his territory? One thing was abundantly clear, I had learned over many years of hunting these deer will try and get downwind and scent the invader. My task was to keep moving North along the edge of the area forcing him to move with me until I could find an opening that would allow me to put eyes on him.
Knowing the going was going to be thick and tough. I had elected to hunt with the 308 carbine today, it was the best option I had for crawling under, over and through. I had thought after carrying it I should switch the scope from the 3X9X40 DOA to a very good Bushnell Legend 2X7X32. I had originally gotten that scope as part of a larger package on a BLR chambered in 358 Win. This was at the same time I bought Andreas M700 BDL special edition in .243
She still has the rifle and the dress, both are deadly :)
That scope has impressed me more than almost any other scope I have owned including several Leopolds, except one Vortex. My good friend Doug allowed me to compare high end scopes including Swarovski, Leica, and others head to head and I still love this little bushnell, It gathers light far better at dawn and dusk than any other scope I have experienced and has amazing optical clarity...Nonetheless, it is on my muzzleloader for now, I have another good scope for that and will be swapping them after I am done hunting mid-December.
As I moved North sometimes accidentally breaking branches or stepping on them I continued to utilize Dad's grunt tube to cover the noise, in my mind I was doing an acceptable job of emulating a rival buck but I had not heard any more from the west indicating he as playing my game. Another 30 minutes had passed and I had only covered 60 - 70 yds, I was standing very still behind a clump of trees watching to the west for anything when I caught a hint of brown moving through a clump of 8 - 10 ft high spruce. He was following my script, but I needed to be careful he didn't get far enough ahead to loop around me and get my scent. Suddenly after a few quick steps I noticed an opening where I could get a look at him as he moved through, it was 30 yds at most and a fair amount of brush would provide him some cover.
It seemed like 10 minutes but was more likely closer to one minute and I picked up his ghostly movement as he curiously emerged from from the spruce thicket seeking to get a scent of the intruder closing in on his bedding area. As he stepped out I could see a short but thick set of antlers, a thick neck and front shoulders, another step and I had a somewhat clear shot at the heart and lung area. My rifle functioned as intended and he gave the little jump deer tend to do when shot. That was when things got curious, he started walking in a clockwise direction like nothing had happened. He was about 10 yds from me at this point, in a clear area and I could see blood on his right shoulder, right where it should be, but no other signs he had been shot. I had already chambered another round (pocketing my Norma brass from the first one - reloaders will get that) and sent another 165 gr hornady SST through his chest broadside, he staggered a few steps and laid down dead about six paces from where I stood.
What a gratifying experience, as a dedicated, long time hunter, I know that most of the time the whitetail will outsmart the hunter at this type of hunting style. They are quieter, have better vision for movement at ground level, incredible hearing and sense of smell. We are intruders in their environment and seldom are we able to trick them, especially on the ground. Usually hunters are either high in a tree, hidden in a blind frequently sitting on a bait pile in order to elude detection. I do both, not usually on bait pile, I usually look for travel corridors and setup ambush points, hard to do later in the season as deer become less and less predictable.
I learned on recovery that my first shot deflected and entered the right shoulder and exited almost straight down, definitely not a mortal wound, in fact he likely was just in a bit of shock when he wandered around in front of me for the second opportunity. I believe if I had not taken the second shot when I did he likely would have recovered and either attacked me or ran off.
He does not look as large laying there, not so much a "ground shrinkage issue as a lousy photographer issue. He was certainly large enough when I was dragging him off the mountain. It was three hours from the time I took these pictures until he was field dressed, dragged out and sitting on the back of my truck at home.
Our neighbour Mo, who lets us hunt his property has a 4 wheeler that was going to be available for the recovery, except Mo curls Thursday afternoons. Andrea had assured me she would help me recover any deer - except she was at a meeting in Greenwood. So it was up to me - drag this fellow out, over, under and through. We set off on our journey, me excited and thank you, Mr. Whitetail grudgingly uncooperative as the kids doing chores. I finally got him to an area about 100yds from the truck when I sent Jesse, who owns the property we were parking on a text to see if he was around to help me get him on the back of the truck. Sure enough, a very good hunter, he was excited to see the deer I had harvested, he was there in minutes to help finish dragging him out and get him on the truck.
By the time I got home, Andrea was there and Noah was home from college, they helped me unload and get him hung up in the shop...Noah even helpfully took this picture...speaking of lousy photographers. For those that care - he was 4X5 or 9 pointer with a broken off G2. I never scored him yet but might before we butcher him. I do not intend to mount the skull but may mount the horns on a wood plate -- watch for some woodworking blogs over the winter to see if that happens.
We will be butchering Sunday, followed by a smoked venison roast for dinner with family and friends.
Next blog - another rifle or a review of the butchering and weekend fun, maybe Andrea will have hung one up beside mine this weekend.
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