Deer Season 2009

One strange season !

Deer tracks and trails everywhere in the same wet soil that prevented a lot of the crops in the area from being combined. We just did not see the number of deer that we anticipated and overall it just wasn't a very productive season.

Opening weekend of regular firearms season I did manage to take a yearling late in the day with my older Ruger 243 with the Zytel stock. That round was a Nosler 95 grain partition.

The second weekend I missed a doe late in the evening with my new Ruger Compact 6.8MM. I had seen her an hour earlier but hated to take another yearling. With 5 minutes of shooting time left she showed up again at 150 yards. I promptly missed.

The third weekend a pair of does showed up at about 100 yards. I dropped one in it's tracks and missed the second one. I was shooting the Ruger Compact 243 pushing an 80 grain Speer bullet. I had also been watching 3 does at well over 400 yards and then they appeared again at about 350 yards so I switched guns to my old Remington 243 pushing a Nosler 85 grain Partition.The only reason I switched guns was because the Remington has a 6-18x40 scope and I needed more scope for this shot. It didn't help, I missed twice.

A buddy of mine was with me the next day and the only deer we saw were at over 400 yards. When no other options presented themselves we decided to try that shot. He was shooting a 300 win mag and it could surely make the distance so I watched with the binoculars. When the thunderstick roared the doe bounded a few steps into tall grass and was out of sight. When we got there the doe acted hit so we stayed with her until we got her down.

A few deer were taken in youth season and a couple of deer were taken by others during regular firearms season but no huge bucks.

The highlight of my season was the second day of opening weekend. My daughter and granddaughter were with me that weekend. The second morning my granddaughter Lilly sat with me alone for about an hour. We had a small non-legal buck come out of the woods at about 150 yards. Lilly had been watching for deer with a pair of compact binoculars and was able to find this buck in the binoculars. Then I told her to put down the binoculars because the buck was coming right at us. He got within 20 feet of the stand and turned to the south. We thought he was going to jump into our laps. Then my daughter joined us and shortly after another small buck came by. It was great to have deer that close and have Lilly able to witness it. This is the second buck and I was wishing I had had Lilly out there for youth season.

This is Lilly holding the chair down opening day. Luckily, she didn't have the camera when I dozed off.

Last Modified: Sunday, December 27, 2009 8:35 AM