We have been able to rifle hunt since the end of September, but between a truck in the shop getting a motor replaced, a new baby coming next month, work, kids, and life in general, my family and I had not been hunting, or even been out to the ranch hardly at all this season, until yesterday.
The County I live in has one of thier festivals on the first weekend of November every year and so I always try to save that weekend to BBQ and hang out with friends. Well this year was no different, we planned on staying in town and enjoying the festival. Friday consisted of work in the morning and setting up the BBQ pit, canopies, tables, cooking supplies and everything else that goes into a cookoff. Saturday was the big day where the main part of the competition is and by 8pm everything is pretty much done and it was time to enjoy cold drinks, BBQ, croud watching, and live music.
At around 9pm I got a call from my father-in-law asking some questions about what deer we had on the cameras and the 6year old 8 pt he missed that evening. During the conversation my wife and I found out he was unexpectedly at the ranch by himself (my inlaws live on their ranch and there are usually at least 3-5 people there at all times). Well after a short conversation with my wife and me finishing my cold canned drink, saying my goodbyes to my buddies, and letting them know that clean up the next day was on them, the family and I left the festival and headed home to get the kids ready to go to the ranch. Since we were heading over there I may as well grab my rifle and gear bag to go hunting in the morning, right?
We get to the ranch around 11pm and get the kids in bed for the night. I finally get a good scrubbing to get all the mesquite smoke off of me. My father-in-law and I make a plan for who will hunt where in the morning and find out what time we actually need to wake up at because of the time change.
5am came way too soon. We get everything together and get ready to go. I grab a mag out of my gear back and see it's one of my 5.56 poly mags and so I put it to the side and reach for a mag full of 6.8 ammo... NOTHING! In my haste to get out the door I grabbed everything I needed and forgotten that I had taken the 6.8 mags out to a week or so before to make room for more 5.56 ammo in hopes of shooting some pigs from a helicopter after doing deer surveys! Good thing we had left my wife's bolt gun at the ranch earler this year. I really dislike hunting with a rifle that is not mine and I only have limited trigger time behind my wife's rifle but we both have bolt guns in 7-08 and so I was comfortable enough to use it.
We were able to get to our respective hunting spots with plenty of time and we both saw quite a few deer. The only deer I saw that morning that was on our kill list (yes, we have a kill list eavery year) was at 300+ yards with about 5-6 other deer between me and him. That was definately not a shot I was willing to take with a rifle I am not used to shooting. Lickily he was in the road headed my direction and getting a lot closer to the rest of the deer out in front of me. He finally came in right at 200 yards and started milling around sniffing the other deer and watching the young bucks sparr. By that time I figured I had it made and could wait for my shot, and I did. He nevergot any closer than maybe 190 yards or gave me a good broadside shot, but he did pause long enough while quartering towards me that I was able to put one right in his shoulder and have it come out mid ribcage on the other end without punching through the stomach. He pretty much dropped right there in the middle of the road and kicked maybe 3 times. It turns out that according to his teeth, we had aged him correctly from game cam photos at 4.5 years old and I was only about 3 inches off from my guess of 128". He actully scored 131 1/8".
The best part of the whole thing was that after I started processing him, my oldest daughter who would only get within 15 yards of a deer on the rack last season was now taking pictures with the caped skull and getting blood up to her elbows "helping daddy" get the meat off of the bones while her younger sister now took the 15yard out position and just watched intently.
To make a long story short... dead deer, happy and curious kids no longer scared of dead deer, happier daddy, and a lot more deer to shoot before the end of February.
The County I live in has one of thier festivals on the first weekend of November every year and so I always try to save that weekend to BBQ and hang out with friends. Well this year was no different, we planned on staying in town and enjoying the festival. Friday consisted of work in the morning and setting up the BBQ pit, canopies, tables, cooking supplies and everything else that goes into a cookoff. Saturday was the big day where the main part of the competition is and by 8pm everything is pretty much done and it was time to enjoy cold drinks, BBQ, croud watching, and live music.
At around 9pm I got a call from my father-in-law asking some questions about what deer we had on the cameras and the 6year old 8 pt he missed that evening. During the conversation my wife and I found out he was unexpectedly at the ranch by himself (my inlaws live on their ranch and there are usually at least 3-5 people there at all times). Well after a short conversation with my wife and me finishing my cold canned drink, saying my goodbyes to my buddies, and letting them know that clean up the next day was on them, the family and I left the festival and headed home to get the kids ready to go to the ranch. Since we were heading over there I may as well grab my rifle and gear bag to go hunting in the morning, right?
We get to the ranch around 11pm and get the kids in bed for the night. I finally get a good scrubbing to get all the mesquite smoke off of me. My father-in-law and I make a plan for who will hunt where in the morning and find out what time we actually need to wake up at because of the time change.
5am came way too soon. We get everything together and get ready to go. I grab a mag out of my gear back and see it's one of my 5.56 poly mags and so I put it to the side and reach for a mag full of 6.8 ammo... NOTHING! In my haste to get out the door I grabbed everything I needed and forgotten that I had taken the 6.8 mags out to a week or so before to make room for more 5.56 ammo in hopes of shooting some pigs from a helicopter after doing deer surveys! Good thing we had left my wife's bolt gun at the ranch earler this year. I really dislike hunting with a rifle that is not mine and I only have limited trigger time behind my wife's rifle but we both have bolt guns in 7-08 and so I was comfortable enough to use it.
We were able to get to our respective hunting spots with plenty of time and we both saw quite a few deer. The only deer I saw that morning that was on our kill list (yes, we have a kill list eavery year) was at 300+ yards with about 5-6 other deer between me and him. That was definately not a shot I was willing to take with a rifle I am not used to shooting. Lickily he was in the road headed my direction and getting a lot closer to the rest of the deer out in front of me. He finally came in right at 200 yards and started milling around sniffing the other deer and watching the young bucks sparr. By that time I figured I had it made and could wait for my shot, and I did. He nevergot any closer than maybe 190 yards or gave me a good broadside shot, but he did pause long enough while quartering towards me that I was able to put one right in his shoulder and have it come out mid ribcage on the other end without punching through the stomach. He pretty much dropped right there in the middle of the road and kicked maybe 3 times. It turns out that according to his teeth, we had aged him correctly from game cam photos at 4.5 years old and I was only about 3 inches off from my guess of 128". He actully scored 131 1/8".
The best part of the whole thing was that after I started processing him, my oldest daughter who would only get within 15 yards of a deer on the rack last season was now taking pictures with the caped skull and getting blood up to her elbows "helping daddy" get the meat off of the bones while her younger sister now took the 15yard out position and just watched intently.
To make a long story short... dead deer, happy and curious kids no longer scared of dead deer, happier daddy, and a lot more deer to shoot before the end of February.
), he dressed 130 lbs and was in very good body condition. Lots of rump and kidney fat. They have definately not started rutting yet. He will hopefully be the first of about 20 or more bucks this season. We have pictures of at least 15 bucks that need to go and have seen a few more past shooting distance that meet the "need to go" criteria, many of which will be in the low 130's. Hopefully yours truly will have time to get down there and shoot some more of them.
