Tennessee Deer Talk: My quickest kill.......

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#1913709 - 05/06/10 07:54 AM

My quickest kill.......

Bottom Hunter
16 Point

Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15494
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms

Offline

A few years ago, I had permission to hunt a small property owned by my brother-in-law. It was a decent place to go, especially when the Hatchie River is up. His land is across the River from the Refuge and on high ground (basically where a bluff ends at the river).

The wind was out of the South and I only had one stand that I could hunt. I went to it around 3:00 for an afternoon hunt.

The stand was a ladder stand on a set aside field that contained waist high sage grass. A great place for deer to bed down.

I climbed in the stand, laid my gun across the rail , took out my binoculars and began looking around the field. I did not see any deer the first time that I glassed the field, so I settled down for a long and enjoyable wait. Or at least that's what I expected.

Less than a minute after I stopped glassing, I got my phone out and began texting my wife to let her know that I was in the stand and that I was okay. During the middle of texting, I happened to raise my head and caught movement in the field. I stared at the area of the movement for a minute or so , but saw nothing else. I contribited it to the movement of the sage brush.

I went back to texting, finished that and put my phone back in my pocket.

As I raised my head again, I again caught movement. This time, though, I pinpointed the source. I could see a set of antlers (pretty nice) in the brush. I quickly got out my binoculars and took a closer look. Sure enough, there was a nice buck bedded down in the field about 75 yards away.

After some thought, I decided that the deer had been there all along, but must have had his head down. I had glassed the field pretty well and hadn't seen him before. I looked at him for quite some time before determining that he was indeed a shooter....(over 100 inches).

the wind was blowing pretty well and the buck seemed to not be in a hurry, so I had plenty of time to weigh my options.

The shot was not that far, but the wind was blowing , the sage brush was somewhat in the way and all I had was a neck shot. I've made longer neck shots but under more desireable conditions.

Like I said before, it was still early afternoon, so I suspected that the deer wouldn't be moving any time soon, so I had plenty of time. I thought about trying to stalk up to him and shoot him when he stood up, but I didn't know for sure if he might come up running....Instead, I decided to try yelling at him, hoping he would stand up to take a look.

After three or four attempts, I realized that since I was close enough to hear the steady roar of the interstate traffic, the deer wasn't paying me any mind. Also, living so close to people (I could see three homes from my stand)the deer had gotten used to the noises and they didn't alarm him.

I finally decided that I had two options. I could sit and wait for a couple of hours (if it took that long) until dusk when I expected the buck to get up or I could fire a warning shot across his bow, so to speak, and maybe he would stand up.

I rested the rifle across the rail and took aim well above the buck's head. I didn't want to accidently hit the buck. To make a long story somewhat shorter, after three warning shots, the buck still had not moved. I only had two more shells. The buck did, however, move around without actually standing up.

Now, I could see, through the scope, a clear opening to the buck's neck. Even with the blowing wind, I felt confident that I could place a shot into the buck's neck without much trouble.

Even with my confidence factor high, I still waited for a few minutes to see if he might stand up, he never did. I hate taking questionable shots, even if I know that I can make them...

As I again rested the rifle on the stand's rail, and found the buck's neck in the scope, I held it there long enough to pretty much tell that the wind was not blowing anything into my line of fire. Even then, I still questioned what I was about to attempt.

I held the gun steady and pictured the bullet traveling exactly where I was looking . I had no idea when the gun would go off, the pressure on the trigger was just that slow and light.

The entire adventure took less than a half hour and even as I admired my buck (115") I still couldn't justify the shot. Sure, I could see no reason why i shouldn't take the shot because nothing was blocking my view, but even then, there was still that possibility of error.

Thankfully, the bullet hit exactly where I was looking and the deer never knew what hit him. I did have some trouble finding the deer. Even though I marked him before going to him, the waist tall weeds made it far harder that I expected.

I have only taken another neck shot in my recent memory and that was last season. The result was the same. neck shots are devastating and deadly, but you must have the confidence that you can make them. I'm not the most confident shooter, but I always seem to make the right decision......except for that time...well, that's for another time.

BH

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