Deer Season 2008

Opening morning was miserable to try and sit through. The wind would just not let up. I headed back to the travel trailer for a second time about 10AM. In route I eased up to the top edge of a bowl shaped recess in a hillside and peered in only to find a "doe" peering back at me. When I went to field dress her, she turned out to be a he. A nice little button buck.

That afternoon about 4:45 a spike buck walked into view at 150 yards from my stand. As I reached for my camera he looked over his shoulder as if waiting on a traveling partner. Sure enough, a rather large buck was following him. I grabbed my new Ruger Compact 243 and sent an 80 Speer bullet his way. He humped up as if hit and headed straight for me. Then he made a sharp right and stopped about 60 yards away. Anticipating his crash, I paused. When he didn't fall, I closed the bolt on the second round and squeezed the trigger. That time he dropped.

A nice 9 point and the biggest rack that I've taken to date. It wasn't until I skinned him that I figured out what had happened. The first shot drilled a nice clean "non fatal" hole right through his tenderloin. I have no explanation. The second shot drilled a quarter size hole straight through the boiler room.

But wait, there's more !

When I butchered him, I found a 3rd bullet hole. I only fired 2 shots. This 3rd shot was discovered when I started working on the front legs. Both shoulders had been drilled straight through. As it was nearly dark when I field dressed the buck, I did not play around inside to see what had taken place. However, I do know that either the shoulder shot or the rib cage shot would have been fatal within a minute or two. This leads me to the conclusion that the "tenderloin shot" was not mine but some un-lucky soul who won't have this guy hanging over the fireplace. And based on the condition of the tenderloin, it had to have happend earlier that day maybe even within 2 or 3 hours of my shots.

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My brother shot a 10 pointer on Monday and I know that he probably counted points before he pulled the trigger just to make sure it had at least 1 point more than my deer. :)

Here he is "on the hoof" about 3 weeks earlier.

My brothers boy shot a nice 5 point during youth season and I have been told that it was a terrific shot. Of course that's what I would expect from the kid. He shoots 22's and HMR's like a sniper. He got this one with a Ruger Compact in 7mm-08.

My daughter hunted with me opening weekend but did not get a shot. Hopefully the second weekend she will get the opportunity.

Tim, a buddy of ours killed a nice 8 point on Sunday morning.

The second weekend was not very exciting. Saturday I didn't see anything. Sunday was un-eventfull until nearly dark when 3 does ran past me at 200 yards. Not even a chance for a shot. My daughter didn't get to go at all the second weekend 7 of us hunted the second weekend and a grand total of 1 doe was shot.