Well, dear blogfans, MDB and I took another opportunity to travel up to God's country and take care of a little "deer business." We picked up the meat from the first one and then I took an opportunity to go out and fire my new rifle, a Remington 770 30-06.
We went out the first evening (Friday) and saw a really nice buck. It's hard to tell from so far away, but the height and width of his antlers makes me believe he was at least a 10-point. He was large in the body and well-defined, so I squeezed off a shot! Well, having not sighted in the gun, I missed by a substantial amount on the low side. Amazingly, when he stopped running, he turned on the hillside and looked back, leaving me a second shot! Well, that one missed low as well, so we spent the rest of that trip honing the scope on the new rifle.
Saturday morning at dawn, I saw a nice 8-point, so I squeezed of a shot and he dropped right in his tracks! The wind was blowing at probably 30+ mph, so I aimed a little left of his front shoulder. Having sighted the gun in a little high (probably 4-6"), I figured to hit the deer high on the neck or torso. The bullet actually struck him in the front of the neck, severing one or more of his carotids. At any rate, we loaded him up and prepared to take him to the field-dressing area when WWH's phone rang. It was his step-son, reporting that he had also shot a buck and needed help with it, so we took off for his location.
WWH's ss shoots a .243, which is a small caliber for deer hunting, but he did knock down a nice 10-point. When we rolled up to his location, he had his foot on the deer's neck and the deer, clearly upset, wasn't real pleased with his situation. Not wishing it to get up and run off, WWH shot it again, but it still wasn't dead. It rather reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know the part where the guy with the cart rolls by hollering "Bring out your dead" and the people throw a corpse onto the pile who promptly screams "I'm not dead, yet!"
This poor buck hadn't quite figured it out; he was dead, he just didn't know it!
So young ss pulled out a knife and attempted to cut it's throat, but he barely scratched it, so I think it was more of a torture than an attempt to put the deer out of its misery!
Regardless, we loaded it up and took it to the cleaning rack as well.
I field-dressed mine first, being careful to save the liver and heart (the heart for dissection purposes in my science classes), then we started on the finally-dead 10-point. A fine deer, to be sure.
Well, I'm out of buck stamps (it's a two-buck county), so when we go back to pick up the meat from this last one, I hope to get a doe or two just for the meat. We'll field-dress and skin those and do the processing ourselves.
Anyway, two 8-points is a pretty good first season if I say so myself! The best part was Saturday; I got mine so early, that I got to spend the rest of the day with MDB and SHE'S the only dear I care that much about anyway!
We went out the first evening (Friday) and saw a really nice buck. It's hard to tell from so far away, but the height and width of his antlers makes me believe he was at least a 10-point. He was large in the body and well-defined, so I squeezed off a shot! Well, having not sighted in the gun, I missed by a substantial amount on the low side. Amazingly, when he stopped running, he turned on the hillside and looked back, leaving me a second shot! Well, that one missed low as well, so we spent the rest of that trip honing the scope on the new rifle.
Saturday morning at dawn, I saw a nice 8-point, so I squeezed of a shot and he dropped right in his tracks! The wind was blowing at probably 30+ mph, so I aimed a little left of his front shoulder. Having sighted the gun in a little high (probably 4-6"), I figured to hit the deer high on the neck or torso. The bullet actually struck him in the front of the neck, severing one or more of his carotids. At any rate, we loaded him up and prepared to take him to the field-dressing area when WWH's phone rang. It was his step-son, reporting that he had also shot a buck and needed help with it, so we took off for his location.
WWH's ss shoots a .243, which is a small caliber for deer hunting, but he did knock down a nice 10-point. When we rolled up to his location, he had his foot on the deer's neck and the deer, clearly upset, wasn't real pleased with his situation. Not wishing it to get up and run off, WWH shot it again, but it still wasn't dead. It rather reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know the part where the guy with the cart rolls by hollering "Bring out your dead" and the people throw a corpse onto the pile who promptly screams "I'm not dead, yet!"
This poor buck hadn't quite figured it out; he was dead, he just didn't know it!
So young ss pulled out a knife and attempted to cut it's throat, but he barely scratched it, so I think it was more of a torture than an attempt to put the deer out of its misery!
Regardless, we loaded it up and took it to the cleaning rack as well.
I field-dressed mine first, being careful to save the liver and heart (the heart for dissection purposes in my science classes), then we started on the finally-dead 10-point. A fine deer, to be sure.
Well, I'm out of buck stamps (it's a two-buck county), so when we go back to pick up the meat from this last one, I hope to get a doe or two just for the meat. We'll field-dress and skin those and do the processing ourselves.
Anyway, two 8-points is a pretty good first season if I say so myself! The best part was Saturday; I got mine so early, that I got to spend the rest of the day with MDB and SHE'S the only dear I care that much about anyway!
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