This year I didn't bow hunt or buy a muzzle loader permit.......Regular gun season opened this past weekend...........
Got up early and hiked up a very steep hill to the edge of our Bowater lease......where the hardwoods meet the pine thickets.......I was almost to where I was going to hunt when I saw a light..........another hunter, while not on the lease property was setting up his self climbing tree stand right where I had intended to hunt........so I stopped and set up where I was........
After the sun came up, I could see him clearly with his blaze orange shining brightly..........About 8 am he shot.......at that point I didn't see the deer but right after the shot I heard the deer running toward me...........The deer appeared about 5 yards left and to the front of me.........If I'd of had an "assault weapon" with a bayonet on it I could have stuck him..........I could see the blood foaming from the deer's mouth as he passed me at a full run..........I did manage to get a shot off from my 45.70 just before the deer disappeared into the thick southern pine thicket..........I missed.....but don't feel bad as the deer was only in sight for a couple of seconds at the most........this was a classic point and pull shot, and the leupold scope set at 1.75X was not useful at all..........I hunted yesterday with my 35 remington and a ghost ring setup!
I yelled over to the other guy, whom I didn't know, that he had hit the deer and I saw blood.........I waited for him to climb down from his stand and waited for him to come over........I offered the fellow a cup of coffee......we both had a cup and talked for a few minutes before trailing the wounded deer, which had ran onto my lease.........I asked him what he was shooting and he told me .257 Weatherby magnum..........I bit my tongue........I asked him how far the deer was from him when he shot and he replied about 20 yards.......I asked him what grain bullet......he said he was shooting the biggest he could find which was a 117 grain and pulled out what looked to be a round nose.........the very farthest either one of us could see to shoot was about 40 yards.........40 yards is not really a realistic range as the small hardwood trees were scattered very close together and with a 20 yard shot a fellow wouldn't have to worry to much about hitting one of the small trees or branches that are everywhere in this area...... Once the deer get in the pines, 7 to 10 yards is about all I can see to shoot...........the terrain if very steep, and very thick with the pines 10 to 15 feet tall and black berry brambles well over my head........which is the reason I chose to hunt the 45.70..........I didn't want to track one in this thick brush.......
So we start trailing and I'm thinking ok.......surely the deer couldn't run far being hit with the highest velocity 25 caliber known to man..........the blood trail was fairly easy to see with spots on the sage grass and pines every few feet............trailed the deer about 30 minutes through the roughest parts of america.........much like the stuff Johnny Horton wrote about in the classic song "The Battle of New Orleans".........the deer made it another couple of hundred yards past me...........
So I'm also thinking.....I bet that deer has a hole in him the size of a softball on the side I didn't see..........well, the deer was hit high and to the rear........top of the lung just a couple of inches below the spine just short of center.......it was hard to find the entrance wound........and there was no exit wound........bullet must have exploded with in a couple of inches........
So, it wasn't a big deer, certainly not the 10 pointer that lives there..........but just about the right size for the freezer......
Anyway, turns out the fellow and his buddy live close buy.........we stood and talked for awhile after they had the deer out of the woods and came back for the climber........Nice fellows......gave me a fair amount of information......showed me some rubs I hadn't seen earlier...........told me about the 10 pointer they had been hunting during bow and muzzleloader season but handn't got a shot at....(I've seen him to but didn't let them know it)......showed me one of their permanent stands and gave me permission to hunt that stand during the week days........Asked about the possibility of getting on my lease............told them when the lease renewed in July I didn't think there would be a problem with the other fellows that are also on the lease..........We can't keep a lock on the gate more than a month, so maybe someone who lives close might be able to watch it during the off season........It's not so much that we care if anyone gets on the land during the off season as we don't.....but the illegal dumping is terrible......and they low down %(^*^! don't even throw it off to the side but dump right in the middle of the road.....
So, I got up at 4 this morning........looked out the window at the rain coming down and the wind whipping about 20 mph......turned on the weather channel to look at the radar............expecting 1 to 2 inches today and rain/snow tomorrow.......heck I went back to bed........might hunt late this afternoon if the wind lays down..........planning on going in the morning but again, with the wind the way it is I might wait for conditions to improve........
First weekend......and I'm skunked so far........
