Bambi Whacking 2022-2023

[6-Pack]

I checked the weather and Saturday looks like a crappy hunting day with rain. Took off the day tomorrow and taking out my oldest rain (he has the day off from school). It’s his first year out and he is beyond excited.

 

[fabsroman]

We are of a like mind on ammo selection. The more I look at that 300 Ham'r the more I think it would be the perfect mild to moderate range small frame AR round - it does about 400 fps better than 300 AAC (and near on 1800 lb-ft muzzle energy from the Ham'r, which is about 350 over the AAC). But the 6.5G v 6ARC is a much closer call. My daughter was actually starting to show an interest last night, maybe I'll build out all three and save the AAC for my youngest ;p

And, it is subtly amusing that you mention state regs being dumb - I was reminded how dumb they are this week when I took my middle two for the hunter safety class. I heard them spout off no less than nine (9) inaccurate (ranging from misleading to flat wrong) statements of Maryland law regarding hunting. The class is being led by a current local sheriff, a current NRP officer, and a retired NRP officer. I haven't had it in me to jump on them, but I have politely and discretely pulled them to the side to point out their errors after class (e.g., last night they asserted that smokeless muzzleloaders were illegal, which is flat wrong). I get that they are volunteers, but they should know that an adult child or grandchild can't automatically hunt on a parent/grandparent's property without a license.

On the first night it was asserted that it is illegal to transport a deer uncovered. I didn't correct that one because, while to my knowledge that is incorrect, I haven't had time to pull the regs and check. Best I can recall there was a bill to that effect almost twenty years ago that didn't pass.

I did almost fall out of my seat while the current local sheriff's deputy advised people that broke the law (e.g. shooting a duck out season by mistake) to rat themselves out and "just own it - we will work with you and it will go a lot better for you...." If I tried to stifle the laugh my eye twitch would have turned into a stroke. It was also hilarious when a seven year old kid started the discussion by improvising a version of SS&S with "I would skin it so you couldn't tell"

I think you might be over thinking the cartridge/gun issue a little. Just a little. Most important thing is always bullet placement. Even with my .300 Win Mag, a bad shot is a bad shot and the deer is going to keep on walking. I've had one gut shot and one hindquarter shot with that rifle and the deer still kept on moving. I think your son will be just fine with almost any deer legal cartridge you set him up with. I'm going to start mine on a 243 Win bolt gun, maybe 25-06 once I get him to the range and see what he can handle.

NSFW - but still hilarious decades later

 

[fabsroman]

I checked the weather and Saturday looks like a crappy hunting day with rain. Took off the day tomorrow and taking out my oldest rain (he has the day off from school). It’s his first year out and he is beyond excited.

Good luck to you guys.

 

[AlBeight]

And here we go. So I was taking the trash out, not a care in the world, skipping like a school girl. I mean like a middle aged guy shuffles. I glance around and I see a buck startle in the front side yard 50yds away. So I pull the trash can off the driveway into the grass and just stare at him for a minute, while he stares back. I was pretty sure he was headed down between the neighbor's fence and my property towards the backwoods, creek, and the feeder. I slowly walked away to where he could see me and then sprinted back inside, down to the basement and grabbed my cross bow, blaze orange hat, and range finder. I cocked it by the basement side door and when I looked up, I could see him out there walking along 60yds away. So, what the heck, I am going to scare him off anyway. I opened the door and slipped out right as he was passing behind the chicken coop (the coop is 40yds from the house). So I ran as fast and as quietly as I could over the coop thinking maybe he'd pass close by. Nah, he didn't take the main path, but a secondary path 10yds further away. So as he walked behind two huge trees between us, I slipped around the coop and steeped to the side of the trees.

He frozen looking over his shoulder at me. Leveled the cross bow, and thwhack. Right in the vitals. The bolt dropped to the ground just barely exiting and off he took. He/we scared half a dozen, maybe right other deer down in the woods and at the feeder. A few across the creek. They mostly looked like does, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. He turned a bit and leaped over some bushes and when tearing off for the hills (actually the huge bamboo groove between my property, and two of my neighbors' that tends to shelter deer bedding down in there that is probably half an acre).

I left my crossbow there and went back inside to let my younger son who is 12 know I might need his help. "Really dad, you shoot a deer? I thought you were all talk when you went running out with your crossbow". I went back out after around 30 minutes total from the shot (I stood around calming down and thinking over the shot and analyzing it in my head for 15 before I went back in).

I went over, found the arrow, looked for a few minutes and found the first signs of blood (pictured earlier) and then went back in to give him another 15-20 and get my son since I didn't see any clear signs up blood right after the bushes, but I didn't walk around to the other side as I didn't want to get any closer to where he might be bedded down. Just in case.

My son and I went back out after that time with a headlamp and flashlight as it was 90% dark by then. It only took a minute searching behind the bushes to find the blood trail and it kept pretty thick and steady. Not nearly as much blood as I had hoped for, but was a nice color and he was for sure bleeding pretty good. Then I found a couple of spots 30yds in where he had obviously stumbled. Then another one 15 yards further. And then there he lay 20yds from that spot. Maybe 80yds total run from where he was hit laying there, dropped maybe 50yds from the bamboo (which is good, because the bamboo is mostly downhill to towards the creek and F-ing thick to retrieve deer from, which I've done twice).

It went in just in front of the diaphragm slightly high, traveled forward and downward and exited almost in the middle of his chest. He was standing a little blew me and I rangefinded it at 30yds from about where I think he was standing, but it may have been more like 26-28. I had guessed closer to 20, but aimed a little high just in case, figuring if it was more like 30 or even 35 I'd still get a heart shot. I tend to also pull it a bit high when I am shooting off hand (just a couple of inches at 30 when I am careful). Hit the rear of one lung, traveled forward and out through the front lobe of the other lung and I think it clipped one of the heart arteries and might have clipped its windpipe and/or veins/arteries to the neck. When I opened him up, the chest cavity was absolutely FILLED with blood that sloshed out when I cut through the diaphram. The entrance wound was a bit too high to bleed down well, so it was mostly coming out the front exit wound as he was running.

Not the 7-pt I had been keeping an eye on and trying to connect with. Which is good, because he is a healthy and decent sized maybe 2 year old. Could be a very healthy yearling, but I am guessing 2 1/2. Anyway, the 7 is missing a brow tine and generally didn't have a great spread. This guy was a huge 6-pt I had not seen before. The entire while I was watching him (you know, all of about 90 seconds I actually had eyes on him over the 5 minutes it was since I first saw him till he took off wounded) I was thinking he didn't look right to be the 7. He seemed way too big and the antlers didn't look right. Looked too big.

Yeah, this guy was almost certainly a 3 1/2yr old and coulda, shoulda been an eight. But I am not remotely complaining. He has a real nice set on him and a haus. I almost couldn't drag him up out of the woods and I was about to insist on a divorce from my wife by making her come help me, or calling a buddy. That or rig a long rope and use my riding mower to drag him up and out. He has to be around 140lbs dressed out. Might even be a little bigger. Hanging in my shed till tomorrow and I'll skin and butcher him late morning once I've helped my wife with some outdoor Christmas decorating or there will be hell to pay. Fortunately I was already taking the day off work, though I was going to cut and chop firewood for the latter half of the day. Now it'll be listening to music and butchering up a deer. I think I am going to try to Euro mount him. Watching a couple of youtube videos it doesn't look too hard to do, and I have a pot big enough to boil the head for a few hours, plus peroxide.

I'll have to do it outside on my propane burner. I just know if I tried to do it in the kitchen my wife would freak out. I can't possibly imagine why though. Women, right?

Big boy. Way to take advantage of the situation. Have fun cutting him up.

 

[fabsroman]

And here we go. So I was taking the trash out, not a care in the world, skipping like a school girl. I mean like a middle aged guy shuffles. I glance around and I see a buck startle in the front side yard 50yds away. So I pull the trash can off the driveway into the grass and just stare at him for a minute, while he stares back. I was pretty sure he was headed down between the neighbor's fence and my property towards the backwoods, creek, and the feeder. I slowly walked away to where he could see me and then sprinted back inside, down to the basement and grabbed my cross bow, blaze orange hat, and range finder. I cocked it by the basement side door and when I looked up, I could see him out there walking along 60yds away. So, what the heck, I am going to scare him off anyway. I opened the door and slipped out right as he was passing behind the chicken coop (the coop is 40yds from the house). So I ran as fast and as quietly as I could over the coop thinking maybe he'd pass close by. Nah, he didn't take the main path, but a secondary path 10yds further away. So as he walked behind two huge trees between us, I slipped around the coop and steeped to the side of the trees.

He frozen looking over his shoulder at me. Leveled the cross bow, and thwhack. Right in the vitals. The bolt dropped to the ground just barely exiting and off he took. He/we scared half a dozen, maybe right other deer down in the woods and at the feeder. A few across the creek. They mostly looked like does, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. He turned a bit and leaped over some bushes and when tearing off for the hills (actually the huge bamboo groove between my property, and two of my neighbors' that tends to shelter deer bedding down in there that is probably half an acre).

I left my crossbow there and went back inside to let my younger son who is 12 know I might need his help. "Really dad, you shoot a deer? I thought you were all talk when you went running out with your crossbow". I went back out after around 30 minutes total from the shot (I stood around calming down and thinking over the shot and analyzing it in my head for 15 before I went back in).

I went over, found the arrow, looked for a few minutes and found the first signs of blood (pictured earlier) and then went back in to give him another 15-20 and get my son since I didn't see any clear signs up blood right after the bushes, but I didn't walk around to the other side as I didn't want to get any closer to where he might be bedded down. Just in case.

My son and I went back out after that time with a headlamp and flashlight as it was 90% dark by then. It only took a minute searching behind the bushes to find the blood trail and it kept pretty thick and steady. Not nearly as much blood as I had hoped for, but was a nice color and he was for sure bleeding pretty good. Then I found a couple of spots 30yds in where he had obviously stumbled. Then another one 15 yards further. And then there he lay 20yds from that spot. Maybe 80yds total run from where he was hit laying there, dropped maybe 50yds from the bamboo (which is good, because the bamboo is mostly downhill to towards the creek and F-ing thick to retrieve deer from, which I've done twice).

It went in just in front of the diaphragm slightly high, traveled forward and downward and exited almost in the middle of his chest. He was standing a little blew me and I rangefinded it at 30yds from about where I think he was standing, but it may have been more like 26-28. I had guessed closer to 20, but aimed a little high just in case, figuring if it was more like 30 or even 35 I'd still get a heart shot. I tend to also pull it a bit high when I am shooting off hand (just a couple of inches at 30 when I am careful). Hit the rear of one lung, traveled forward and out through the front lobe of the other lung and I think it clipped one of the heart arteries and might have clipped its windpipe and/or veins/arteries to the neck. When I opened him up, the chest cavity was absolutely FILLED with blood that sloshed out when I cut through the diaphram. The entrance wound was a bit too high to bleed down well, so it was mostly coming out the front exit wound as he was running.

Not the 7-pt I had been keeping an eye on and trying to connect with. Which is good, because he is a healthy and decent sized maybe 2 year old. Could be a very healthy yearling, but I am guessing 2 1/2. Anyway, the 7 is missing a brow tine and generally didn't have a great spread. This guy was a huge 6-pt I had not seen before. The entire while I was watching him (you know, all of about 90 seconds I actually had eyes on him over the 5 minutes it was since I first saw him till he took off wounded) I was thinking he didn't look right to be the 7. He seemed way too big and the antlers didn't look right. Looked too big.

Yeah, this guy was almost certainly a 3 1/2yr old and coulda, shoulda been an eight. But I am not remotely complaining. He has a real nice set on him and a haus. I almost couldn't drag him up out of the woods and I was about to insist on a divorce from my wife by making her come help me, or calling a buddy. That or rig a long rope and use my riding mower to drag him up and out. He has to be around 140lbs dressed out. Might even be a little bigger. Hanging in my shed till tomorrow and I'll skin and butcher him late morning once I've helped my wife with some outdoor Christmas decorating or there will be hell to pay. Fortunately I was already taking the day off work, though I was going to cut and chop firewood for the latter half of the day. Now it'll be listening to music and butchering up a deer. I think I am going to try to Euro mount him. Watching a couple of youtube videos it doesn't look too hard to do, and I have a pot big enough to boil the head for a few hours, plus peroxide.

I'll have to do it outside on my propane burner. I just know if I tried to do it in the kitchen my wife would freak out. I can't possibly imagine why though. Women, right?

Congrats on that deer.

I would have a hard time not shooting a buck like that if it wandered into my yard. Thing is, most of the bucks stay across the street were there is a creek and lots of tree cover. Only see a small buck here and there on my side of the road, but I see the big boys running the creek bed. Just got permission from my neighbor to bow hunt down there, so that might happen next season after my son, daughter, and I have had some time to practice.

 

[wilcam47]

And here we go. So I was taking the trash out, not a care in the world, skipping like a school girl. I mean like a middle aged guy shuffles. I glance around and I see a buck startle in the front side yard 50yds away. So I pull the trash can off the driveway into the grass and just stare at him for a minute, while he stares back. I was pretty sure he was headed down between the neighbor's fence and my property towards the backwoods, creek, and the feeder. I slowly walked away to where he could see me and then sprinted back inside, down to the basement and grabbed my cross bow, blaze orange hat, and range finder. I cocked it by the basement side door and when I looked up, I could see him out there walking along 60yds away. So, what the heck, I am going to scare him off anyway. I opened the door and slipped out right as he was passing behind the chicken coop (the coop is 40yds from the house). So I ran as fast and as quietly as I could over the coop thinking maybe he'd pass close by. Nah, he didn't take the main path, but a secondary path 10yds further away. So as he walked behind two huge trees between us, I slipped around the coop and steeped to the side of the trees.

He frozen looking over his shoulder at me. Leveled the cross bow, and thwhack. Right in the vitals. The bolt dropped to the ground just barely exiting and off he took. He/we scared half a dozen, maybe right other deer down in the woods and at the feeder. A few across the creek. They mostly looked like does, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. He turned a bit and leaped over some bushes and when tearing off for the hills (actually the huge bamboo groove between my property, and two of my neighbors' that tends to shelter deer bedding down in there that is probably half an acre).

I left my crossbow there and went back inside to let my younger son who is 12 know I might need his help. "Really dad, you shoot a deer? I thought you were all talk when you went running out with your crossbow". I went back out after around 30 minutes total from the shot (I stood around calming down and thinking over the shot and analyzing it in my head for 15 before I went back in).

I went over, found the arrow, looked for a few minutes and found the first signs of blood (pictured earlier) and then went back in to give him another 15-20 and get my son since I didn't see any clear signs up blood right after the bushes, but I didn't walk around to the other side as I didn't want to get any closer to where he might be bedded down. Just in case.

My son and I went back out after that time with a headlamp and flashlight as it was 90% dark by then. It only took a minute searching behind the bushes to find the blood trail and it kept pretty thick and steady. Not nearly as much blood as I had hoped for, but was a nice color and he was for sure bleeding pretty good. Then I found a couple of spots 30yds in where he had obviously stumbled. Then another one 15 yards further. And then there he lay 20yds from that spot. Maybe 80yds total run from where he was hit laying there, dropped maybe 50yds from the bamboo (which is good, because the bamboo is mostly downhill to towards the creek and F-ing thick to retrieve deer from, which I've done twice).

It went in just in front of the diaphragm slightly high, traveled forward and downward and exited almost in the middle of his chest. He was standing a little blew me and I rangefinded it at 30yds from about where I think he was standing, but it may have been more like 26-28. I had guessed closer to 20, but aimed a little high just in case, figuring if it was more like 30 or even 35 I'd still get a heart shot. I tend to also pull it a bit high when I am shooting off hand (just a couple of inches at 30 when I am careful). Hit the rear of one lung, traveled forward and out through the front lobe of the other lung and I think it clipped one of the heart arteries and might have clipped its windpipe and/or veins/arteries to the neck. When I opened him up, the chest cavity was absolutely FILLED with blood that sloshed out when I cut through the diaphram. The entrance wound was a bit too high to bleed down well, so it was mostly coming out the front exit wound as he was running.

Not the 7-pt I had been keeping an eye on and trying to connect with. Which is good, because he is a healthy and decent sized maybe 2 year old. Could be a very healthy yearling, but I am guessing 2 1/2. Anyway, the 7 is missing a brow tine and generally didn't have a great spread. This guy was a huge 6-pt I had not seen before. The entire while I was watching him (you know, all of about 90 seconds I actually had eyes on him over the 5 minutes it was since I first saw him till he took off wounded) I was thinking he didn't look right to be the 7. He seemed way too big and the antlers didn't look right. Looked too big.

Yeah, this guy was almost certainly a 3 1/2yr old and coulda, shoulda been an eight. But I am not remotely complaining. He has a real nice set on him and a haus. I almost couldn't drag him up out of the woods and I was about to insist on a divorce from my wife by making her come help me, or calling a buddy. That or rig a long rope and use my riding mower to drag him up and out. He has to be around 140lbs dressed out. Might even be a little bigger. Hanging in my shed till tomorrow and I'll skin and butcher him late morning once I've helped my wife with some outdoor Christmas decorating or there will be hell to pay. Fortunately I was already taking the day off work, though I was going to cut and chop firewood for the latter half of the day. Now it'll be listening to music and butchering up a deer. I think I am going to try to Euro mount him. Watching a couple of youtube videos it doesn't look too hard to do, and I have a pot big enough to boil the head for a few hours, plus peroxide.

I'll have to do it outside on my propane burner. I just know if I tried to do it in the kitchen my wife would freak out. I can't possibly imagine why though. Women, right?

Nice,congrats!

 

[KIBarrister]

And here we go. So I was taking the trash out, not a care in the world, skipping like a school girl. I mean like a middle aged guy shuffles. I glance around and I see a buck startle in the front side yard 50yds away. So I pull the trash can off the driveway into the grass and just stare at him for a minute, while he stares back. I was pretty sure he was headed down between the neighbor's fence and my property towards the backwoods, creek, and the feeder. I slowly walked away to where he could see me and then sprinted back inside, down to the basement and grabbed my cross bow, blaze orange hat, and range finder. I cocked it by the basement side door and when I looked up, I could see him out there walking along 60yds away. So, what the heck, I am going to scare him off anyway. I opened the door and slipped out right as he was passing behind the chicken coop (the coop is 40yds from the house). So I ran as fast and as quietly as I could over the coop thinking maybe he'd pass close by. Nah, he didn't take the main path, but a secondary path 10yds further away. So as he walked behind two huge trees between us, I slipped around the coop and steeped to the side of the trees.

He frozen looking over his shoulder at me. Leveled the cross bow, and thwhack. Right in the vitals. The bolt dropped to the ground just barely exiting and off he took. He/we scared half a dozen, maybe right other deer down in the woods and at the feeder. A few across the creek. They mostly looked like does, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. He turned a bit and leaped over some bushes and when tearing off for the hills (actually the huge bamboo groove between my property, and two of my neighbors' that tends to shelter deer bedding down in there that is probably half an acre).

I left my crossbow there and went back inside to let my younger son who is 12 know I might need his help. "Really dad, you shoot a deer? I thought you were all talk when you went running out with your crossbow". I went back out after around 30 minutes total from the shot (I stood around calming down and thinking over the shot and analyzing it in my head for 15 before I went back in).

I went over, found the arrow, looked for a few minutes and found the first signs of blood (pictured earlier) and then went back in to give him another 15-20 and get my son since I didn't see any clear signs up blood right after the bushes, but I didn't walk around to the other side as I didn't want to get any closer to where he might be bedded down. Just in case.

My son and I went back out after that time with a headlamp and flashlight as it was 90% dark by then. It only took a minute searching behind the bushes to find the blood trail and it kept pretty thick and steady. Not nearly as much blood as I had hoped for, but was a nice color and he was for sure bleeding pretty good. Then I found a couple of spots 30yds in where he had obviously stumbled. Then another one 15 yards further. And then there he lay 20yds from that spot. Maybe 80yds total run from where he was hit laying there, dropped maybe 50yds from the bamboo (which is good, because the bamboo is mostly downhill to towards the creek and F-ing thick to retrieve deer from, which I've done twice).

It went in just in front of the diaphragm slightly high, traveled forward and downward and exited almost in the middle of his chest. He was standing a little blew me and I rangefinded it at 30yds from about where I think he was standing, but it may have been more like 26-28. I had guessed closer to 20, but aimed a little high just in case, figuring if it was more like 30 or even 35 I'd still get a heart shot. I tend to also pull it a bit high when I am shooting off hand (just a couple of inches at 30 when I am careful). Hit the rear of one lung, traveled forward and out through the front lobe of the other lung and I think it clipped one of the heart arteries and might have clipped its windpipe and/or veins/arteries to the neck. When I opened him up, the chest cavity was absolutely FILLED with blood that sloshed out when I cut through the diaphram. The entrance wound was a bit too high to bleed down well, so it was mostly coming out the front exit wound as he was running.

Not the 7-pt I had been keeping an eye on and trying to connect with. Which is good, because he is a healthy and decent sized maybe 2 year old. Could be a very healthy yearling, but I am guessing 2 1/2. Anyway, the 7 is missing a brow tine and generally didn't have a great spread. This guy was a huge 6-pt I had not seen before. The entire while I was watching him (you know, all of about 90 seconds I actually had eyes on him over the 5 minutes it was since I first saw him till he took off wounded) I was thinking he didn't look right to be the 7. He seemed way too big and the antlers didn't look right. Looked too big.

Yeah, this guy was almost certainly a 3 1/2yr old and coulda, shoulda been an eight. But I am not remotely complaining. He has a real nice set on him and a haus. I almost couldn't drag him up out of the woods and I was about to insist on a divorce from my wife by making her come help me, or calling a buddy. That or rig a long rope and use my riding mower to drag him up and out. He has to be around 140lbs dressed out. Might even be a little bigger. Hanging in my shed till tomorrow and I'll skin and butcher him late morning once I've helped my wife with some outdoor Christmas decorating or there will be hell to pay. Fortunately I was already taking the day off work, though I was going to cut and chop firewood for the latter half of the day. Now it'll be listening to music and butchering up a deer. I think I am going to try to Euro mount him. Watching a couple of youtube videos it doesn't look too hard to do, and I have a pot big enough to boil the head for a few hours, plus peroxide.

I'll have to do it outside on my propane burner. I just know if I tried to do it in the kitchen my wife would freak out. I can't possibly imagine why though. Women, right?

Congrats!

 

[KIBarrister]

I think you might be over thinking the cartridge/gun issue a little. Just a little. Most important thing is always bullet placement. Even with my .300 Win Mag, a bad shot is a bad shot and the deer is going to keep on walking. I've had one gut shot and one hindquarter shot with that rifle and the deer still kept on moving. I think your son will be just fine with almost any deer legal cartridge you set him up with. I'm going to start mine on a 243 Win bolt gun, maybe 25-06 once I get him to the range and see what he can handle.

NSFW - but still hilarious decades later

But overthinking stuff is what I do!

Yeah, you are correct- especially until I get some tree clearing done to make for longer shooting lanes on the double stand. Hell, I could load up 77gr hpbt for an AR and he’d be alright (natural good shot - and understands placement). But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to put together another rifle!

 

[gtodave]

Not sure if he has a website but they are off Detrick Road in New Market. Same road as Gaver Farms. I think they are in the England Acres Farm.

This is correct. They do have a Facebook page.

 

[outrider58]

Not sure if he has a website but they are off Detrick Road in New Market. Same road as Gaver Farms. I think they are in the England Acres Farm.

Found their website...

Clint's Cuts | You pop 'em, we chop 'em

clintscuts.com

 

[outrider58]

And here we go. So I was taking the trash out, not a care in the world, skipping like a school girl. I mean like a middle aged guy shuffles. I glance around and I see a buck startle in the front side yard 50yds away. So I pull the trash can off the driveway into the grass and just stare at him for a minute, while he stares back. I was pretty sure he was headed down between the neighbor's fence and my property towards the backwoods, creek, and the feeder. I slowly walked away to where he could see me and then sprinted back inside, down to the basement and grabbed my cross bow, blaze orange hat, and range finder. I cocked it by the basement side door and when I looked up, I could see him out there walking along 60yds away. So, what the heck, I am going to scare him off anyway. I opened the door and slipped out right as he was passing behind the chicken coop (the coop is 40yds from the house). So I ran as fast and as quietly as I could over the coop thinking maybe he'd pass close by. Nah, he didn't take the main path, but a secondary path 10yds further away. So as he walked behind two huge trees between us, I slipped around the coop and steeped to the side of the trees.

He frozen looking over his shoulder at me. Leveled the cross bow, and thwhack. Right in the vitals. The bolt dropped to the ground just barely exiting and off he took. He/we scared half a dozen, maybe right other deer down in the woods and at the feeder. A few across the creek. They mostly looked like does, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. He turned a bit and leaped over some bushes and when tearing off for the hills (actually the huge bamboo groove between my property, and two of my neighbors' that tends to shelter deer bedding down in there that is probably half an acre).

I left my crossbow there and went back inside to let my younger son who is 12 know I might need his help. "Really dad, you shoot a deer? I thought you were all talk when you went running out with your crossbow". I went back out after around 30 minutes total from the shot (I stood around calming down and thinking over the shot and analyzing it in my head for 15 before I went back in).

I went over, found the arrow, looked for a few minutes and found the first signs of blood (pictured earlier) and then went back in to give him another 15-20 and get my son since I didn't see any clear signs up blood right after the bushes, but I didn't walk around to the other side as I didn't want to get any closer to where he might be bedded down. Just in case.

My son and I went back out after that time with a headlamp and flashlight as it was 90% dark by then. It only took a minute searching behind the bushes to find the blood trail and it kept pretty thick and steady. Not nearly as much blood as I had hoped for, but was a nice color and he was for sure bleeding pretty good. Then I found a couple of spots 30yds in where he had obviously stumbled. Then another one 15 yards further. And then there he lay 20yds from that spot. Maybe 80yds total run from where he was hit laying there, dropped maybe 50yds from the bamboo (which is good, because the bamboo is mostly downhill to towards the creek and F-ing thick to retrieve deer from, which I've done twice).

It went in just in front of the diaphragm slightly high, traveled forward and downward and exited almost in the middle of his chest. He was standing a little blew me and I rangefinded it at 30yds from about where I think he was standing, but it may have been more like 26-28. I had guessed closer to 20, but aimed a little high just in case, figuring if it was more like 30 or even 35 I'd still get a heart shot. I tend to also pull it a bit high when I am shooting off hand (just a couple of inches at 30 when I am careful). Hit the rear of one lung, traveled forward and out through the front lobe of the other lung and I think it clipped one of the heart arteries and might have clipped its windpipe and/or veins/arteries to the neck. When I opened him up, the chest cavity was absolutely FILLED with blood that sloshed out when I cut through the diaphram. The entrance wound was a bit too high to bleed down well, so it was mostly coming out the front exit wound as he was running.

Not the 7-pt I had been keeping an eye on and trying to connect with. Which is good, because he is a healthy and decent sized maybe 2 year old. Could be a very healthy yearling, but I am guessing 2 1/2. Anyway, the 7 is missing a brow tine and generally didn't have a great spread. This guy was a huge 6-pt I had not seen before. The entire while I was watching him (you know, all of about 90 seconds I actually had eyes on him over the 5 minutes it was since I first saw him till he took off wounded) I was thinking he didn't look right to be the 7. He seemed way too big and the antlers didn't look right. Looked too big.

Yeah, this guy was almost certainly a 3 1/2yr old and coulda, shoulda been an eight. But I am not remotely complaining. He has a real nice set on him and a haus. I almost couldn't drag him up out of the woods and I was about to insist on a divorce from my wife by making her come help me, or calling a buddy. That or rig a long rope and use my riding mower to drag him up and out. He has to be around 140lbs dressed out. Might even be a little bigger. Hanging in my shed till tomorrow and I'll skin and butcher him late morning once I've helped my wife with some outdoor Christmas decorating or there will be hell to pay. Fortunately I was already taking the day off work, though I was going to cut and chop firewood for the latter half of the day. Now it'll be listening to music and butchering up a deer. I think I am going to try to Euro mount him. Watching a couple of youtube videos it doesn't look too hard to do, and I have a pot big enough to boil the head for a few hours, plus peroxide.

I'll have to do it outside on my propane burner. I just know if I tried to do it in the kitchen my wife would freak out. I can't possibly imagine why though. Women, right?

Congrats Lazarus! Glad you found him.

 

[lazarus]

Congrats on that deer.

I would have a hard time not shooting a buck like that if it wandered into my yard. Thing is, most of the bucks stay across the street were there is a creek and lots of tree cover. Only see a small buck here and there on my side of the road, but I see the big boys running the creek bed. Just got permission from my neighbor to bow hunt down there, so that might happen next season after my son, daughter, and I have had some time to practice.

Good luck! My oldest is talking about it a lot more. He wants a bow for Christmas and would like to squirrel hunt. I told him if he is willing to keep getting good grades (first quarter freshman year was very not good, but he is doing significantly better this quarter) and put the time in to practice spring and summer I'd absolutely take him to get his hunter's safety class and take him any kind of hunting he wants to do.

 

[lazarus]

But overthinking stuff is what I do!

Yeah, you are correct- especially until I get some tree clearing done to make for longer shooting lanes on the double stand. Hell, I could load up 77gr hpbt for an AR and he’d be alright (natural good shot - and understands placement). But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to put together another rifle!

This is the way.

 

[akalma]

And here we go.

Congratulations! It is a good mature buck!

 

[sclag22]

I checked the weather and Saturday looks like a crappy hunting day with rain. Took off the day tomorrow and taking out my oldest rain (he has the day off from school). It’s his first year out and he is beyond excited.

I was going to bring my oldest but he's only 7, and could barely weather 45 degrees, so I'm not bringing him in the rain haha. My plan is to just hike in deep and pack out a kill if I'm lucky enough. Getting tired of seeing nothing this year. Got shafted of an opportunity in ML because of guys who "figured they'd take a shot across the field just to see if they could hit the deer". Spoiler alert, they couldn't, and it ruined my chance of about a 40yd shot as they walked into my lanes.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Good luck to ya!

 

[ChrisD]

Had this one chase some does out into a cut beanfield this morning. I was watching in the woods behind the stand, and was a bit surprised that this one and six does came running across in front of me.
I started wearing contact lenses earlier this year vs. Glasses. So this is my first season hunting with them. I notice that they seem to dry out in a breeze, causing my vision to blur sometimes. This morning being cold I guess, when I looked through the scope, I was seeing double. Had to quickly blink a few times to clear it up.


I also came across what’s in the second picture mid morning. Looks like its been there a while.

 

[gwchem]

Congrats guys!

Lazarus, great story. Let us know how the mount turns out. I'm about to do one too, the buck I shot last week. Simmer/Boil, pressure washer, and peroxide.

 

[outrider58]

Had this one chase some does out into a cut beanfield this morning. I was watching in the woods behind the stand, and was a bit surprised that this one and six does came running across in front of me.
I stared wearing contact lenses earlier this year vs. Glasses. So this is my first season hunting with them. I notice that they seem to dry out in a breeze, causing my vision to blur sometimes. This morning being cold I guess, when I looked through the scope, I was seeing double. Had to quickly blink a few times to clear it up.


I also came across what’s in the second picture mid morning. Looks like its been there a while.


View attachment 390475 View attachment 390476

Very nice Chris!

I'm still batting zero.

 

[ChrisD]

Very nice Chris!

I'm still batting zero.

I have had a bit of a dry spell this year. Didn’t take a shot in WV last week, or early ML or bow. Our farm lease in MD was logged early this year which has definitely changed things up. All of the bucks I‘ve come across have been spikes to small 6’s so far. This is the first one I raised the rifle on. Thought he was an 8 running across the field.

 

[outrider58]

I have had a bit of a dry spell this year. Didn’t take a shot in WV last week, and our farm in MD was logged early this year which has definitely changed things up. All of the bucks I‘ve come across have been spikes to small 6’s so far. This is the first one I raised the rifle on. Thought he was an 8 running across the field.

I'll be hitting it hard this Sunday and Monday. Going by this thread, the bucks seem to be back on the prowl. So far, all I've seen were dinks.