Took a friend hunting this weekend that just got back from Iraq in April. Had to find him a landowner voucher since he didn't apply while in Iraq so he had a doe tag to go along with my buck. This was his first successful big game hunt that he ever had. Prior to going to Iraq he went on a deer hunt and never saw one deer.
The first day was kind of disappointing for him as he missed a couple of easy shots on does both right around 200 yard shots. He was getting really discouraged and saying that his gear wasn't good enough or that he hadn't spent enough time on the range. I just chalked it up to buck fever, plus me helping a total of 11 hunters on opening day really limited my time to help him.
By the end of opening day most of my guys had filled their tags or had plans and couldn't come out on Sunday to hunt. The rest that hadn't filled their tags that were hunting were experienced enough I just turned them loose and let them fend for themselves so I could devote my time to helping my friend.
Some friend I turned out to be as I found a decent buck with a really wide spread on his horns and I had a buck tag. So I put a stalk on him and had a my tag filled by 7:30 on the second day. My friend was happy that I got my buck but he really wanted to fill his tag. Luckily a cold front had moved in so after field dressing my buck we could continue to hunt for his doe.
After about 3 hours of searching and one failed stalk we found 2 does grazing an old wheat field. We had to back out of one stalk and try a different angle because we would have been shooting directly at some house about a half a mile away if we had taken an shot at these does. The new stalk we put on had us crossing some pretty open terrain with very little cover to hide us.
We had one small hill between us and the does which we used to full advantage over this stalk. We had drove around to the houses that were in our line of fire and so that we had them to our back the whole time we crept up on these does. We were able to cover about 400 yards before the hill wouldn't hide us anymore, so we had to crawl thought the grass for about another 60. The lead doe had spotted us but got a little curious as to what we were so she started moving towards us with the other one in tow.
They got a bout 260 yards from us when they decided they were close enough and started moving away from us. I told my friend to set up for the shot and to watch the trail doe as she was presenting the best shot. I told him to aim half way up the rib cage and behind the shoulder and when that doe stopped moving to squeeze the trigger.
When the doe stopped my friend fired and the doe went down hard. I asked where he shot her and he said he aimed just where I told him too. I said she wouldn't have gone down that hard or fast if he hit where I told him to aim, so he finally admitted to aiming for a high shoulder shot. He also admitted that he didn't have bad gear and his first day blunders were do to buck fever.
When we dressed out his doe she had two broken shoulders and a shattered spine. Plus my friend had the biggest smile on his face and it lasted all day. Sometimes helping someone get their game is more fun than if I had shot it myself.
The first day was kind of disappointing for him as he missed a couple of easy shots on does both right around 200 yard shots. He was getting really discouraged and saying that his gear wasn't good enough or that he hadn't spent enough time on the range. I just chalked it up to buck fever, plus me helping a total of 11 hunters on opening day really limited my time to help him.
By the end of opening day most of my guys had filled their tags or had plans and couldn't come out on Sunday to hunt. The rest that hadn't filled their tags that were hunting were experienced enough I just turned them loose and let them fend for themselves so I could devote my time to helping my friend.
Some friend I turned out to be as I found a decent buck with a really wide spread on his horns and I had a buck tag. So I put a stalk on him and had a my tag filled by 7:30 on the second day. My friend was happy that I got my buck but he really wanted to fill his tag. Luckily a cold front had moved in so after field dressing my buck we could continue to hunt for his doe.
After about 3 hours of searching and one failed stalk we found 2 does grazing an old wheat field. We had to back out of one stalk and try a different angle because we would have been shooting directly at some house about a half a mile away if we had taken an shot at these does. The new stalk we put on had us crossing some pretty open terrain with very little cover to hide us.
We had one small hill between us and the does which we used to full advantage over this stalk. We had drove around to the houses that were in our line of fire and so that we had them to our back the whole time we crept up on these does. We were able to cover about 400 yards before the hill wouldn't hide us anymore, so we had to crawl thought the grass for about another 60. The lead doe had spotted us but got a little curious as to what we were so she started moving towards us with the other one in tow.
They got a bout 260 yards from us when they decided they were close enough and started moving away from us. I told my friend to set up for the shot and to watch the trail doe as she was presenting the best shot. I told him to aim half way up the rib cage and behind the shoulder and when that doe stopped moving to squeeze the trigger.
When the doe stopped my friend fired and the doe went down hard. I asked where he shot her and he said he aimed just where I told him too. I said she wouldn't have gone down that hard or fast if he hit where I told him to aim, so he finally admitted to aiming for a high shoulder shot. He also admitted that he didn't have bad gear and his first day blunders were do to buck fever.
When we dressed out his doe she had two broken shoulders and a shattered spine. Plus my friend had the biggest smile on his face and it lasted all day. Sometimes helping someone get their game is more fun than if I had shot it myself.
