themanpcl
Well-Known Member
After about 4 yrs on this property, finally got a shot at a good buck on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Got in stand an hour before shooting light to a spot that I set for bow hunting but in an area that was heavily used in rut last season. I saw chasing from a different stand last year. Knew bedding was south east of me and they generally moved later in the am. Supposed to be N, NW wind but I can always count on weird winds here...lol.. So after daylight I had 2 does filter down from the hill above me. Heard some commotion from the bedding area after. A little later an 8pt is running does from the west up to me. They aren't having it. They got to 20 ft from stand so I had to do the Jedi mind trick to get them to calmly leave..lol...A little later a 6 pt came in to play. Then a spike. The 8 pt was running the show and the does around. So this was a fun morning. Got to about 8:20 and I was going to txt and check on my Dad. Well right in mid txt I hear a step. Coming from the east down the logging road west where I wanted him to come from but NOT where I had expected after all the earlier chasing. So I have to slide phone away to my pocket. I'm all leaned forward resting on my lap at this point. My gun is standing on the platform leaning against my leg. There are some leaves on a tree between me and him but not blocking all view. Slowly I reach down to pick up the gun and he spots me. I freeze. He looks for a minute, then works some branches right next to my trail cam and makes a scrape so I try again. He stops and looks again, I freeze again. Crap. Jedi mind trick employed again to make him calm. He wanders down the trail toward a mock scrape I made 3 weeks earlier. He stops and sniffs so I get the hands on the gun but I'm still leaned over and facing wrong way to fling lead. I try again to get gun to a point where I can get a shot. Nada, and he's focused in on me now. This is all within 20 yds. He looks like he's going to bolt so I make a plan. He starts a slow trot down the logging road. I make one swift move to get the gun from where I have it leaned over my lap to pointed at him. He stops for a split second. I pull trigger. He gets jolted from shot, right front shoulder/leg gone and nose buried in the ground using his other 3 legs to propel him down the hill. He goes about 75 yds and I hear nothing. I look and see no movement anywhere. There is a drop off that leads to a ditch so I look to be sure. After about 10 mins of silence I scan the bottom. I see white. I get the binos out and scan. He's motionless against a tree. I wait another 20 and get down. I go to the shot and ZERO blood. Plenty of turned over leaves and dirt at impact and the path his nose took to the bottom of the hill. I was pleased. I had this one on cam earlier in the year. He's a mature deer so I was really pumped. Wondered why he never bled. No exit wound and when cleaning I found out why. Bullet went in behind shoulder, took out front right shoulder/leg and blew out the heart so he was dead before he knew it.
