Earned this Deer!

C

Cain R

New member
Well it finally snowed yesterday, almost 6" so far. So what better to do on a Sat, afternoon? Go deer hunting. For the last week I've been chasing a nice 4x4 Whitetail but the lack of snow made things difficult to track him in the heavy cover. But not today. :)
Spotted a nice three point right off and proceeded to trail him for about 2 hours. There I was on a ridge completely discombobilated with NO compass. Oops. Well the cut line should be this way. Nope, maybe over here, nope. Hmmm, whats that over there, a Muley doe, and whats that behind her a nice big 6x6 buck! :D
Whoa, the scopes fogged, flip up the scope covers, now my eyeglasses are fogged. Muley still there, quick clean the glasses, Muley still there. Bang, Muley disapears:mad: missed, better check. 75 yards later nice Muley on ground!:D
Hmm, still not sure where truck is. Oh well we'll just drag him along, right. Two hours later, right on, there's the cut line, the truck should be about 20 min away. Wait a minute, thats a road, oh man there shouldn't be any roads near here. Where the heck am I???
Well, we'll leave the buck here, get the truck and pick him up later. Sinking feeling in gut, if I'm were I think I'm at, gulp, its over 15 miles :eek: to my truck. Thankfully after three hours walking a great couple of guys found me and gave me a lift back to my truck. We checked the odometer and it was 26.5 km back to my truck on the lease roads. Of course they have a 4 wheel drive and some of the hills we pull to get out are real white knuckle affairs. Thankfully my chained up 2 wheel drive was enough to get me back to where I had left "Walley". So after getting Mr. Buck at Noon I picked him up at 6:00, full dark now, still snowing, and out in the middle of nowwhere. Three hours late I got home. Usually its a 45 min drive, the roads where really snowy and icy. The day wasn't perfect though, my Oilers lost to Colorado.:mad:
Monday its off to the butchers and Tuesday back out for Whitetail, I've got four days before the season ends.:D
 
The venison improves in direct proportion to how far you have to extract the beast! ( if you survive )

Did you use the 6.5 Tikka we have discussed elsewhere?
 
Wow, I've dragged some deer before but that beats all. That is a great story. Congratulations!
 
A mountain man was once asked if he'd ever been lost. "Naw," says he, "but I been a might confused fer a couple a days . . ."

Congrats on the deer. But let me suggest a compass as an invaluable part of your kit. :D
 
Congratulations on your deer. Don't feel too bad, I get temporarily lost in a forty acre woods sometimes. Running into a road is always a good thing, even if you don't know which one it is.
 
Folks don't like you navigation ? Ignore em. You perservered and produced. And had a whale of a good time.

Sam...follow me, I know a shortcut.
 
You know that morning I had the compass in my hand. Oh I don't need this afterall I'm going to just sit and wait for a deer. Afterall that area is simple to navigate, I'll just stick to the main trail. Yeaa righttt. Compass is now attached to my hunting pants along with my mini-mag flash light. Nothing like a cold piece of aluminum in your mouth when your putting chains on in the dark.;)

Oakleaf, no it was too miserable to take out that nice Tikka. So my old Savage 110 got the call. I know the reicever is cast out of cheese whiz that israpped out of the old jars at the recycle plant, but that .30-'06 never seems to let me down. While I'm not a big fan of Nosler Ballistic Tips, the 165gr load got the nod yesterday, got about 50 left to use up, no sense buying new stuff when you have loaded rounds on hand. Anyway, at 75 yards broadside, the bullet took the top of the heart off, blew out both lungs and knocked an egg size chunk to the offside hide, along with two ribs. The bullet completley penetrated, bits of lung and hide where blown out three feet from the exit wound, the internals looked like a handgrenade went off inside. Borrowed the neighbors scale before the Grey Cup and weighed old "Walley" 245lbs field dressed, not a bad body size.
And tonight coming home from the Grey Cup party, a big 6x6 Whitetail walked out in front of the truck not 100 yards from the front door.:D
 
I know how you felt!

Last January I hunted a spot where I hadn't been in a couple of years. Boat is the only way to get there, and I was alone. From the main bayou, took an old, man made, straight canal, down to where it ended at an old oil well location. Took off on foot before daylight, half hour walk to an oak ridge, near the northern boundary of the state reserve I was hunting. I didn't know exactly where I was going, only the general area I wanted to be in (the rut was at peak, and across the boundary was private land where they run dogs.) At 9:15 AM a doe and yearling ran by me. As soon as they passed, I heard the buck coming, nose to the ground, trailing her. I shot him, a six pointer, at 9:15 AM. Because I wasn't at a marked spot, or trail, I knew I had to drag the deer, and carry my climber stand, rifle, everything, until I reached a place I recognized. Then my plan was to leave the deer and go back to my boat, where I had a "wheel" assembly which I made to attach to one half of my climber, which could then be used as a sort of wheelbarrow to roll the deer out on. Until I reached a place I knew I could come back to, I had to carry everything. Well, my memory was a little off, and I took a slightly wrong compass heading, and missed the end of the canal where my boat was. I thought it was taking me long to reach the canal, but I figured it was because I was dragging a deer, slowing me down. After two hours on the same (wrong) compass heading, I came to a deep slough, about thigh deep. At this point I realized what had happened, but was too exhausted to turn and drag the deer to the canal. I knew this slough went back to the main bayou, but at an angle which would take me far from where I had left my boat. It was not too cold that day, so I floated the deer down the slough as far as I could. It was much easier than dragging. Two more hours passed, and I'm still hauling this deer over logs, or around log jams. When dragging on the ground, I can't even go fifteen yards without the deer pushing up a huge pile of leaves in front of it, which stops me dead. So I continue going in the slough, until I finally reach a boundary line, before the bayou, which I know leads straight back to the canal where my boat is. I left the deer on this line, walked to the canal, one half hour solid walking, then another twenty minutes one mile up to my boat. I drove the boat back to the boundary line, attached the wheel to my stand, and went back to the deer, another half hour. The carcass was completely stiff at this point, so I had a really hard time tying it to the cart. The platform part of the stand makes the carrying part, and the blade which goes around the tree makes the handle. The wheels, on a frame, attach to the bottom of the platform. Now I had two hours of daylight to get back to the boat. To lighten my load, I had left as much stuff back at the boat as I could, including my fanny pack with my flashlight in it. (When I had left the boat, to go back for the deer, there were three and a half hours of daylight left.) With the soft swampy ground, the cypress knees, roots, branches, etc. it took all of the two hours of light left in the day to reach the boat with my deer. It was 5:30, and dark when I got the deer into the boat, to head back to the landing, load the boat on the trailer, and drive one hour back home.

I learned a lot about myself that day. I especially learned to trust the compass, because it was one of those days, when there was no sun, gray and overcast all day long. I learned how out of shape I was, catching charlie horses in my calves, and front and back of my thighs, so bad I would holler out loud in pain. But no one could hear me, as I didn't see a soul all day. I never stopped, and I never considered leaving anything behind. I learned to never go out like this again without a roll of trail marking ribbon, which I could have used to flag my trail from where I killed the deer, to the boat. It got spooky out there , I didn't even hear a boat in the main bayou, which normally would be common, on this state reserve, or the train pass to the north, to assure me I was headed in the right direction. Have you ever been at the point when you start doubting the compass? Your mind begins to play tricks on you.

I've since considered what could have happened, if it had gotten really cold that afternoon, with me being soaking wet, from walking in the slough, floating the deer. Or what would I have done if this had been a really big deer (heavier). The best thing that came out of this experience, was all the sign I saw on my four mile excursion through the woods (I later checked it out on a map.) I walked through areas where no one else hunted, virgin territory, for a public reserve. I saw awsome buck sign, scrapes, rubs, and more deer droppings, on the ridges I crossed than I ever remember seeing before. I know just the area I want to hunt this year. But I think I'm going to hunt with a partner, if I can, or at least have marking ribbon, or a GPS with me.
 
You guys need a nice, light, waterproof GPS!!!

I never go deer hunting without mine.

Kilgor
 
Whoa, the scopes fogged, flip up the scope covers, now my eyeglasses are fogged. Muley still there, quick clean the glasses, Muley still there.
Click to expand...

I had the same experience recently, on a nice 3x4 muley at 0-dark-30 dusk. And a 125 yd offhand shot after dragging the boat ashore and stoop running to stalk the critter. But, he was getting ready to bolt, so I turned to my friend, and said "If you've got the shot, take it" Bang! Then, I did the drag back to the boat, across the lake in the pitch dark, and out of the boat onto the top of the truck. I earned part of that critter! It was my first time hunting a lake from a boat, to otherwise nearly inaccessable areas. Fun... even in MT in Nov. It was an unseasonably warm 55 in the daytime.

BTW, I 2nd the GPS motion, especially for you flatland woods and bayou boys. Here in MT, you can usually find a peak to climb and find your bearings. I wouldn't want to get lost in the swamp, no way no how ;)
 
I WASN'T LOST! You sound like my wife.:D
Actually, maybe I did kinda-sorta get lost. No, I knew where I was, I just didn't know where the boat was.:)
 
Cain et al,

In lieu of a GPS, I just picked up the slickest gadget. It's a Suunto Vector "wrist-top computer" (they call it). It's just a digital wristwatch . . . with an attitude. In addition to all the normal watch functions, it includes an altimeter (which will also track your rate of ascent/descent while hiking or climbing), barometer/thermometer (which tracks air pressure and shows a trend line for guesstimating weather changes), and (drumroll, please), a COMPASS! Normally run around $200, but I got mine on sale for $144! Too cool, if you ask me.
 
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