Well, the season is over for me. I'd hoped to make use of several remaining doe tags this weekend but circumstances and weather conspired against me.
I finally got the chance to hunt a great woods full of deer as opposed to the open fields I've been relegated to this year. Unfortunately I couldn't get my sidelock to fire and I forgot the bullets for my revolver, so I was relegated to my scoped Omega.
I thought there would be enough breeze to still-hunt, but one I got in there I realized it was a little too quiet to sneak up on deer in squichy snow. I slowly got within 80 yards of one group and was manuevering into shooting position, but another group walked up within 20 yards behind me while I had my back turned and they all gave me "the flag". I took up a stand but saw none more until I walked out, when I really screwed myself.
A nice doe spooked out and ran across an open field, but stopped at what looked like 200 yards (I was close, I paced off 180 later). I hurredly turned up to 9X on the scope, set the elevation, and BANG! The deer took off unhurt across the field, looking more scared than deer usually are when a shot goes off that far away and doesn't connect.
I didn't realize until I got halfway home that when I dialed up the magnification I reset my range elevation to the "2" setting, thinking 200 yards....problem is "2" is 300 yards on that scope. The deer was so scared because the bullet buzzed by about 6 inches behind her ear.
We all do dumb things and I proved I'm no exception :?
The funny thing is, I drilled that little detail about the scope settings into my head all summer so this wouldn't happen. Somehow in the two weeks since I had last shot that little part of my routine hadn't even occurred to me.
Time to start practicing and testing gear for next season.
