I've been pretty quiet so far this
hunting season, and with good reason. Unless of course you wanted me
to re-tell the stories of Bryan and Andrews successful hunts from my
perspective which was from 90 yards away in another tree stand. I
had to watch a nice six walk in front of me during the early doe
season, and ever since then it's been almost nothing but bird
watching. The good part is that I have my 5 year old in my tree
stand with me this year so the time in the woods is well spent even
when the deer don't show.
Tonight I decided to give it a try
again after Elijah and I almost got to poke a little spike in the rain yesterday. (He is a
common visitor to the area, so I think we should give him a
name........Larry) This time I was going
solo, no Eli and no bro's as 90 yard spectators. (in case you haven't
figured out already, our tree stands are very close which provides
one of the best HD Hunting Shows possible.) I climbed in the stand
at 5:30 and took my hat off to say a little prayer. Within 20
minutes 4 deer were moving in. Spike (Larry) , Momma Doe, Baby
girl, and Button Brother. Larry was chasing the doe hoping for
an early score but Momma wasn't having any. Anyway, they made there
way in while I put my hat on and stood to grab my bow. Some how I
remained undetected, and was able to come to full draw.
This part of the story will only be
understood by bow hunters..... I had a PERFECT broadside 20 yard
shot. I took my sweet time finding all my anchor points. I had to
hit Momma Doe perfect so we could maintain our 100% recovery rate for
the year. Also it was Deer #1 for the new Destroyer Bow and I wanted
to make a good first impression with the Ottawa County deer
population. Anyway, I had already set in motion the steps leading
to the trigger pull. It all happened within that second...
Lustful Larry tried at Momma again, Once more she denied the man and
quickly wheeled around. At that exact moment my series of
“trigger pulling” steps had just completed and I watched my arrow
fly into the dirt where Momma was standing only a second before.
The deer scattered, but Momma held up
about 30 yards out in some thick cover and waited for her children to
reconvene. Then the most amazing thing happened, a dejected, sad,
defeated hunter made a last ditch effort. I grabbed for my trusty
deer call and gave it a most desperate grunt. I'm pretty sure the
doe just felt bad for me, because she turned around and walk right
back to me. I already had my number 2 arrow knocked, I was at
full draw for the second time in only a few minutes. She came it to 15 yards,
almost facing me I put my pin on her chest right along the
shoulder...................... Flashback. I've been here before.
The shoulder is hard and won't allow a pass through, the brisket is
thick and full of fat, the deer would probably die but it would
likely wander too far and would leave almost no blood trail. I could
see the look of disappointment on Bryans face after losing the blood
trail and having to admit that I stuck a deer in the chest again.
So I waited until she gave me a decent
quartering shot. It only took 10 seconds, but for me ten seconds of
holding a pin on a deer guarantees that the shaking has already
escalated to seriously bad level. I let #2 fly and it it ripped
through her upper shoulder through both lungs and didn't slow until
it was dripping blood and stuck in the mud. Momma ran about 60
yards, and left a blood trail that I could have followed with my eyes
closed.
I am very grateful for this deer! I
know some people aren't going to be happy to know that I shot a
mother doe. Just understand that I am not out there to kill for a
thrill. As George W. Bush would say “I'm putting food on my
family”. (pull up a youtube video of George's funny lines and this
will make more sense to you). Here are the details
80 Lb. Doe
Taken October 19 2012
Upper “Killer Stand”
Shot with Easton Axis Arrows and Montec
Broadhead
15 yards
double lung
recovery 60 yards
This should probably be a separate
post. But I just wanted to quickly show you my latest project.
It's a CVA Wolf for my kids. Hoping to get Elijah's first deer this
year. I cut down the barrel and the stock. It seems to fit him
really well. A 200 grain sabot and 50 grains of white hots should do
the trick.
If you don't believe me, watch last
weeks episode of Michigan Out of Doors.
8 comments:
Oh yeah! Chad got a deer. I was seriously starting to worry that the Destroyer was going to remain a virgin. I have to say your shot was as perfect as they can be when a deer is quartering toward you that hard, and it left the biggest blood trail I have ever seen. Nice work. Alright, Elijah it's your turn.
Congrats on the deer. Let me know how the shortened muzzleloader works. How much recoil does 50 gr of powder produce? What kind of range does it shoot accurately? Did you have to do anything special to de-burr the barrel after you cut it? Is that episode of Michigan out of Doors available online? Good luck.
-BK
I'm curious about the Muzzle Loaders performance as well. I'm headed out right now to see how it shoots. I actually took the barrel to a friend of mine who works at a machine shop. the work on the end of the barrel was the most tricky part. The rifling was countersunk about half an inch to make loading the sabot easier, so I had to buy a ream to match the original. I'll take some pics. But it does look identical. That Episode is available online.
Nice. I saw the episode on the web. I was wondering if you had the barrel countersunk like most modern muzzleloaders are these days. I've heard of people taking a ball bearing wrapped in oil soaked emery cloth, and polish the end of the muzzle with that to clean up the end of the rifling, but that is with barrels that are rifled all the way to the end. It may be difficult with the barrel countersunk. If this project works, I might have to rent that ream from you. Curious about the recoil -- Evan is 6 and a half, and he weighs 48 pounds. he shoots a red ryder pretty well, but that's a little different than a muzzleloader, ha ha.
I feel like I just read a book. No more family histories of deer that you shoot. It just makes it sad. Anyway, glad you finally got one.
Andrew your right, it didn't seem that sad when I wrote it. But when one of my kids started questioning me about what the little deer did after I shot there mom, I realized the story is a tear jerker. I'll leave the family aspect out next time.
What is this anonymous stuff? Afraid to relate yourselves to us? Or do you just not want to be a part of the system? Throw it on the ground! Some of you may not get that one... Search on youtube
sorry, just assume anonymous means "Brad Kraker" I tried to create an account once, but either my computer wouldn't let me, or I'm too incompetent on my computer to figure it out. I'm betting it was the computer's fault.
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