well, sometimes I just cant believe how murphy works.... brother in law and I went down to a local farm we have been hunting all season with our smoke poles.
area was river bottom land with about a 80 acre beanfield that was picked and thena patch of woods with a long high ridge running the lenngth of the field with deep ravines in 4 places along the ridge. Brother in law went up the first hill and i went up on top to the head of one of the deep ravines. about 1200 the wind changed and was bad for me so i moved across three beanfields and started into the woods at the top of the ridge. About then i heard a shot and just stopped. about 5 minutes later brother in law called me and said he had four bucks in a group come past him and he put a shot on a nice one. Said they were side hilling down toward where i was headed. i worked my way across the top of the ridge and started slipping down the hill a bit to get a vantage point for seeing all the way to the bottom. as i was looking down the hill i saw two bucks moving across the hill about 60 yards below me in the brush on the hillside. I raised the encore and put it on the second buck ( looked like a 8 or 10 with some tall tines but not a lot of mass.) the two bucks started down into a small ravine between my hill and the next one and I lost sight of them for a couple seconds. As I was waiting for them to come up the other side about 70 yards from me, I then saw another buck that had been behind the first two. That made snese to me since brother in law said he had 4 bucks come by him and he had shot one of them. I could see part of the deer's chesk and shoulder through the brush so I put the encore on it and squeezed the trigger. First time ever only the 209 primer sent off. I broke the encore and loaded another primer then looked up to see where the buck had gone. The first two were on around the other hill by now. I thought for sure the last buck had left but eventually I made out an antler when he moved his head. he was in some brush with a big tree in front of most of him. I waited and waited, not even sure if my gun would go off. finally he stretched his neck and head out a little bit looking for me i think. I thought its now or never so i put it on his neck about 6 inches down from his ear. Boom....and he disappeared. as i was standing there looking i saw some snow kicking around and I knew he was down. I walked down to him and was pleasantly surprised to see G2's about 11 inches and real nice mass on this 8 pointer. almost palmated between some of the points and one heck of a big body. sweet. bout then I saw my brother in law coming across the hillside right toward me. I asked where he came from and he said he was trailing his buck. Sure enough the blood trail lead right to the buck i just shot. After searching the deer over I finally found a hole through the shoulder but the strange thing was, you couldnt see it but i found it with my fingers. Sure as a good shot placement and I was amazed that that deer was still walking. I know that the one who puts the deer down can claim it but I wouldnt do that to my bro in law. I think the deer was lagging behind the others due to the wound and upon backtracking found where he had laid down about 40 yards back from where I shot him. bed was full of blood. we both laffed about it and I congratulated my bro in law on such a nice buck, then helped him gut it and drag it out to the truck. overall situation was kinda unbelievable to me. I could have shot one of the first two deer that were pretty nice but when i saw the third one I took it instead of wait for the other two to come up out of the draw. all were nice bucks and I had a one in three chance of murphy not getting me but ......oh well. gonna go out tomorrow after I have some furniture delivered I hope. gotta laugh about it as a whole I guess....
area was river bottom land with about a 80 acre beanfield that was picked and thena patch of woods with a long high ridge running the lenngth of the field with deep ravines in 4 places along the ridge. Brother in law went up the first hill and i went up on top to the head of one of the deep ravines. about 1200 the wind changed and was bad for me so i moved across three beanfields and started into the woods at the top of the ridge. About then i heard a shot and just stopped. about 5 minutes later brother in law called me and said he had four bucks in a group come past him and he put a shot on a nice one. Said they were side hilling down toward where i was headed. i worked my way across the top of the ridge and started slipping down the hill a bit to get a vantage point for seeing all the way to the bottom. as i was looking down the hill i saw two bucks moving across the hill about 60 yards below me in the brush on the hillside. I raised the encore and put it on the second buck ( looked like a 8 or 10 with some tall tines but not a lot of mass.) the two bucks started down into a small ravine between my hill and the next one and I lost sight of them for a couple seconds. As I was waiting for them to come up the other side about 70 yards from me, I then saw another buck that had been behind the first two. That made snese to me since brother in law said he had 4 bucks come by him and he had shot one of them. I could see part of the deer's chesk and shoulder through the brush so I put the encore on it and squeezed the trigger. First time ever only the 209 primer sent off. I broke the encore and loaded another primer then looked up to see where the buck had gone. The first two were on around the other hill by now. I thought for sure the last buck had left but eventually I made out an antler when he moved his head. he was in some brush with a big tree in front of most of him. I waited and waited, not even sure if my gun would go off. finally he stretched his neck and head out a little bit looking for me i think. I thought its now or never so i put it on his neck about 6 inches down from his ear. Boom....and he disappeared. as i was standing there looking i saw some snow kicking around and I knew he was down. I walked down to him and was pleasantly surprised to see G2's about 11 inches and real nice mass on this 8 pointer. almost palmated between some of the points and one heck of a big body. sweet. bout then I saw my brother in law coming across the hillside right toward me. I asked where he came from and he said he was trailing his buck. Sure enough the blood trail lead right to the buck i just shot. After searching the deer over I finally found a hole through the shoulder but the strange thing was, you couldnt see it but i found it with my fingers. Sure as a good shot placement and I was amazed that that deer was still walking. I know that the one who puts the deer down can claim it but I wouldnt do that to my bro in law. I think the deer was lagging behind the others due to the wound and upon backtracking found where he had laid down about 40 yards back from where I shot him. bed was full of blood. we both laffed about it and I congratulated my bro in law on such a nice buck, then helped him gut it and drag it out to the truck. overall situation was kinda unbelievable to me. I could have shot one of the first two deer that were pretty nice but when i saw the third one I took it instead of wait for the other two to come up out of the draw. all were nice bucks and I had a one in three chance of murphy not getting me but ......oh well. gonna go out tomorrow after I have some furniture delivered I hope. gotta laugh about it as a whole I guess....
