Well I went yesterday for my first hunt of the season with a rifle.
Ean a young member (21) who has been hunting with since he was in the 8th grade, wanted to go after school.
We got there and I dropped him off and headed to my area.
Six cows were chowing down on my foodplots. I had noticed some evidence of cows in the plots on Sunday and had figured it was the property owners, but I saw him on my way in and he said he saw the cows yesterday and they were not his. He would try to find the owners.
Plots that were knee high two weeks ago were eaten to the ground. wheat, oats, winter peas, and turnips
After about 30 minutes of watching them go from one plot to the next, I could not stand it any more and got down. I decided to try and drive them up to the pasture of our owners. Well that worked fine for the first 1/2 mile, but when they got about 200 yards for the gate, they started going everywhere but the way I wanted them too.
I ended up chasing them for about 2 hours and running them back into there home pasture of a neighbor. I was getting close to getting me some T-bone steak.
It was now, 6:30 and my afternoon was a bust. I thought I would scout a little while waiting for dark and picking up Ean.
I was so angry I told myself no deer better not show itself, it would have a bad day. About 7:00 I got back to the truck and drove into the pasture closer to were Ean was Sitting. I pulled up on a knoll near where we have a shooting tank and cut off the truck. About 2 minutes later here comes a deer out of the woods, I reach over and get my rifle, bumping the windshield and making a loud noise. The deer stops and looks at me, then continues to eat, about 150 yards down the hill. I proceed to stick the rifle out the window and bam. I see a puff of dust and deer runs back the way it came. Now it is almost dark and I can't believe I missed the deer. Well since I have not shot my rifle this year I figured it could have been off.
I figure I should go look for blood just to make sure.
I needed a flash light to see anything by now, the deer was about 70 yards from the woods when I shot and I tried to see a reference before I went to look. Nothing out where I thought she was standing. I made a little circle with my weak flashlight and figured I would walk up the edge of the woods where the deer ran into. After about 30 yards of walking the wood line I saw a couple small drops of blood. Nothing back toward the field and nothing in the few feet heading into the woods. Oh crap I hit it and not good. Now it was dark. There was about a 20 yard strip of woods then about 20 yards of pasture then a pine thicket.
I found about 3 spots of blood in the first strip of woods. I lost the blood when it hit the other strip of pasture. I went over to the pine thicket and started to walk the edge. I figured it I could find the blood going in I would go get a better light and Ean to help me. I am thinking it is going to be a long night. After about 5 minutes I did find a few big chunks of what looked like liver at the edge of the thicket. I took off my hat to hang on a limb and started back to the truck. As a after thought I figured I could look just in the trail to see if I could see any more blood. The deer was lying about 20 feet into the woods piled up against a tree.
It didn't appear the deer kicked one time after it hit the ground.
Well I went and got the truck and loaded her up and head to get Ean. He was just getting down out of his stand. He started to put his stuff in the truck and said "What an animal" she weighted 122 lbs.
We went back to camp and did the quick processing job, without even field dressing her.
Someone showed me this a few years back and it is the way to go. Within about 20 minutes we had the deer quartered, loins removed, and back straps. Everything else was dumped in a big container and desposed of. She is now chilling and I will finish the processing in a few days. I have a new sausage stuffer I want to try out.
PS, before someone jumps on me for shooting out of my truck.
The law reads, varified , this morning with the retired DNR agent at my school. You can shoot from a Vehicle, 4 wheeler, tractor, etc. as long as it is not moving ( it can be running). Now public roads is another issue.
