Got a buck this deer season!

Saturday was the first day of deer season and I managed to get up and out before the sun was up. I found a nice tree to sit against along a fence line and sat comfortably with a soda and my neoprene gloves.

First I saw a very small deer at a long distance it was almost the size of a large to medium dog. At first I thought my dog was loose. I watched it for quite a while as it was sniffing and wandering through the field.

Later after a couple of hours of sitting a buck came out of the woods at a distance. He seemed to have a good rack and was moving fairly fast. I managed to lay down and get a shot in. He bolted through the woods and I thought I might of hit him. After waiting about 10 minutes or so I walked up to this spot and could not find any blood or anything. I walked through the woods for about 30 minutes or more looking for any sign that I might of hit the deer. A lot of the time if you shoot a deer it will go a few hundred feet and lay down. I came to the conclusion that I did not hit this deer and went home.

That evening I thought I would go back out and went to a spot in between where I shot that morning, where I could watch at a high traffic area towards the tree i was sitting at. On my way to this spot I jumped up a big doe. She ran up the hill and I thought that this could be a bad omen, but sat anyway. After about 30 or 40 minutes of sitting here comes another buck. He was walking fast and working his way up the hill.

I took a shot from a sitting position and he bolted towards the tree that I was at that morning. I managed to take another shot while he was running. I sat for about 5 minutes and then started heading towards where I shot. I could not find any traces of blood or that I had hit the deer. I walked through the field towards the tree where he ran and saw nothing. When I got to the tree I was suprised to see the deer about 30 feet from the tree along the fence line. He was still alive, as I could see his ears moving and could tell by the way he was laying.

After about 5 minutes of watching him respond to other gunshots and distant noises I thought that I better shoot him again. Regretfully I did not bring my pistol, so I had to shoot him with my rifle 4 more times. He was a fighter, as he got up and tried running away and managed to cross the creek before he fell down again. Once I was out of bullets and thought he was not going anywhere I walked home.

I got my dad, truck, rope, and the flashlight. Gutted the deer and got him accross the creek. We then brought it home, rinsed it out, and hung it from a tree for the night.

Sunday morning I took some pictures and brought it to the meat processor. I got one ham made into jerky, 9 pounds of summer sausage, the better back steaks, and the rest ground with pork. They said that it will be ready the following Saturday. I always feel a little bad after shooting an animal, but will feel a bit better knowing it will be eaten and serve a purpose.

On a side note I managed to lose one of my neoprene gloves in all the excitement. After looking for it more than once I finally managed to find it. I'm glad that I found it as it costs about $17 for a pair of those gloves and they are brand new.

I still have an anterless deer tag, but one deer is enough for me. I will probably try to go hang some no trespassing signs or spray some posting purple on trees next weekend. I will post some pictures of the deer here in the near future.

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