This yr I’ve hunted much less than I ever have before for various reasons.
I shot 2 bucks in the beginning of the season in Oct from the fam rm door. Then shot another one a cpl wks later - from the same location lol.
I hung my self climber close to the property to make getting the deer out easier on me. Well it’s really easy on me when I don’t see any deer or don’t see any legal deer to shoot. Which was the case. I finally got fed up, wised up, and moved my stand location to much farther away.
With 7 days left in my season & still needing 2 more deer in my freezer for the yr, I went into full hunting mode - regardless of how my body & spirit felt.
On Monday I saw the first buck I’d seen since early Nov. it wasn’t anything close to impressive, and it was a good 150yds away in tall weeds & just next to some thick woods. I had a lung shot at it before it got out of sight & I took it. It dropped. Yay! Then I reload, and in a min there was now 2 deer standing there. I was dumbfounded. I fire another shot at the young buck & I missed. They took off. I get down & go see what was up. There’s bright red blood evvverywhere. I start following the blood trail & quickly see 2 blood trails. It seems there was a doe standing right beside the buck & I never saw it. They went 75yds to the property line & barbed wire fence, jumped that, ran another 125yds & the last 20-25yds was super thick belly high stuff I could barely get thru inches at a time. Fortunately the deer nosed in on the last hop & the white butt was sticking up in the air or I’d have never found it even with the steady blood trail. The buck made it farther into that stuff than that. I was not able to recover it. I could barely get to the deer I got & getting it out took everything I had, and the real work hadn’t even started yet. I now had a long way to get back across 2 different properties.
That took a while & totally kicked my butt.
I recuperate for the next 2 days. I had no choice in the matter, my body was DONE.
I headed back out yesterday morn, late as hell (daybreak) but I made it to my stand.
Shortly after daybreak I see a halfway decent buck at 100+yds & something spooked it & it ran to where I shot the deer on Monday at 150yds just before it got out of sight I fired a shot. I missed it. About 20 min later another young buck ( hatrack 4pt ) came in on the same trail, at first I thought it may be the same deer as earlier, it got to 80yds & stopped broadside with the front shoulders forward hidden behind a thick bush. I took the dbl lung shot again.
It turned & ran to my left, and I didn’t see it anymore. I thought I missed that one too. Now I’m mad & cornfused. I stay in my stand & I had more deer come within 10yds of me but not legal deer. I call it a day at 11:40 bc I still have a deer that needs processing & pkging. I walked to where it was when I shot. Low & behold there was bright red blood spray & tiny chunks of lung on the ground. I headed in the direction it ran & found it about 90-100yds away from where I shot it.
It’s pretty cool to relocate my hunting area so late in the season & go all that time without seeing a buck, to shooting 3 deer the last wk of the season with 3 days to spare.
I now have the wonderful feeling of having my freezer full of fresh deer meat & putting a whole deer in brother Anonymouscowherd’s freezer too.
The first pic is the deer I recovered Monday. It’s the second deer the 195g Barnes went completely through at 150yds. Entrance side first, then exit side. Same with the deer from yesterday in pics 3 & 4
