This past Saturday morning was the KY opener for modern gun and I was all snug in my ladder stand well before fist light. I placed it on the very top of an oak ridge that overlooks a valley below sown in winter wheat and has a great view of an old logging trail used heavily by deer. Not long after official sunrise and hearing several shots in the distance a big bodied spike appeared and browsed his way to the bottom of my stand. Despite looking right at me he never alarmed at all. He soon got bored and left my area but just then a huge barred owl glided through the woods and landed just off to my right in another tree. Man I love just being out in God's creation! About an hour passed in peaceful joy broken only by the distant shots of other hunters when I looked up through sleep deprived eyes to see this guy slowly gobbling acorns and walking basically the same path I took to my stand.
He was stopped behind my 50 yd. tree such that all I could see was his head & neck but at that distance I could tell I wanted to not let him get by. When hunting in the woods I usually range a few trees around my area and then put the rangefinder away. Another mouthful and he stepped clear of the tree headed over towards the property line fence that runs the center of the ridge line. A soft mouth bleat stopped him and his 9 pts. in his tracks and I sent my home cast 350 gr. bullet on its way from my White Super 91/.451 pushed by 80 gr. of Pyro P. The entry was just behind the left front elbow, but it hit a rib and turned upwards cutting off the top of the heart and destroying the lungs. Exit was the size of a 50 cent piece high behind the right shoulder blade. At the shot he jumped the property line fence (crap!) and stumbled full speed down the steepest, thickest hollow you can think of and died at the bottom. Tracking was not hard with plenty of blood to follow but my hunting buddy and I had a 100 yd drag almost straight up from the bottom of that tangled mess. On our hands and knees we crawled 3 feet at a time until we finally got him back to the ridge top logging trail.
Now, as Paul Harvey used to say; the rest of the story. That evening, I set up in a field edge blind overlooking winter wheat about 8" tall & tender. With only two minutes of legal shooting light remaining a very large buck appeared under a sycamore tree, worked a scrape, urinated and worked the licking branch. He then headed straight back up the trail out of sight. KY has a one buck rule so I just enjoyed the show. Last night (Sunday), I decided to try that field again to put a doe in the freezer too. With 12 min. light remaining (how do they know?) out stepped two does. I slipped my rifle up onto my shooting stick and started trying to decide which one to shoot when my eye shifted focus and picked out that big buck right behind them! He was pushing them right down the barrel of my rifle and fast too. They all stopped at about 80 yds and goofed off awhile. The does bounced around and around the buck, a VERY nice symmetrical 10 pointer, like middle school girls. He just kept feeding towards me. Finally the does stopped at 20 yds from my muzzle broadside and standing side by side. I started thinking of Cayuga and his two for one shot. Now the buck was at 35 yds and oblivious to my presence. I was faced with a decision. I can't shoot the buck and if I shoot one (or both) does we'll likely never see this buck in our county again. So I let them continue to play until they got bored and left. What a show!!
He was stopped behind my 50 yd. tree such that all I could see was his head & neck but at that distance I could tell I wanted to not let him get by. When hunting in the woods I usually range a few trees around my area and then put the rangefinder away. Another mouthful and he stepped clear of the tree headed over towards the property line fence that runs the center of the ridge line. A soft mouth bleat stopped him and his 9 pts. in his tracks and I sent my home cast 350 gr. bullet on its way from my White Super 91/.451 pushed by 80 gr. of Pyro P. The entry was just behind the left front elbow, but it hit a rib and turned upwards cutting off the top of the heart and destroying the lungs. Exit was the size of a 50 cent piece high behind the right shoulder blade. At the shot he jumped the property line fence (crap!) and stumbled full speed down the steepest, thickest hollow you can think of and died at the bottom. Tracking was not hard with plenty of blood to follow but my hunting buddy and I had a 100 yd drag almost straight up from the bottom of that tangled mess. On our hands and knees we crawled 3 feet at a time until we finally got him back to the ridge top logging trail.
Now, as Paul Harvey used to say; the rest of the story. That evening, I set up in a field edge blind overlooking winter wheat about 8" tall & tender. With only two minutes of legal shooting light remaining a very large buck appeared under a sycamore tree, worked a scrape, urinated and worked the licking branch. He then headed straight back up the trail out of sight. KY has a one buck rule so I just enjoyed the show. Last night (Sunday), I decided to try that field again to put a doe in the freezer too. With 12 min. light remaining (how do they know?) out stepped two does. I slipped my rifle up onto my shooting stick and started trying to decide which one to shoot when my eye shifted focus and picked out that big buck right behind them! He was pushing them right down the barrel of my rifle and fast too. They all stopped at about 80 yds and goofed off awhile. The does bounced around and around the buck, a VERY nice symmetrical 10 pointer, like middle school girls. He just kept feeding towards me. Finally the does stopped at 20 yds from my muzzle broadside and standing side by side. I started thinking of Cayuga and his two for one shot. Now the buck was at 35 yds and oblivious to my presence. I was faced with a decision. I can't shoot the buck and if I shoot one (or both) does we'll likely never see this buck in our county again. So I let them continue to play until they got bored and left. What a show!!
