Hedgelj 24-25
- Thread starter Hedgelj
- Start date
Excellent read. Congrats Doug. Good on you Adam for the assist
Congratulations again Doug and Adam! Great write up and day you both had.
Mallory’s Wildlife Studio
Member
@Hedgelj Congrats on a great archery buck and thanks for the shoutout! I’m looking forward to using my artistic creativity on this pack mount!
Wow, what a day. Didn't go out Saturday for multiple reasons, weather, other things going on, etc. Laney wanted to go out Sunday morning so we made plans.
Didn't get moving super quick. Dad forgot to get the rifle out of the gun safe. So we were glassing deer in the field he was eventually harvested in prior to moving out to the stand that had the best wind and was a 2 person stand.
The water proofing on her boots failed which led to wet feet and an early (due to cold) exit. The hot chocolate was good though. On our way out we saw a buck slowly trailing a doe at almost 400 yards across the fields. He looked decent enough to warrant a closer look.
We made a move on them and the doe slowly fed into the woods and then the buck came along behind her but on a path that would have him at under 75 yards (my preferred distance for her to shoot) if he cooperated. He was a solid looking mature 8pt and a great first buck so we were in to see what happened. He got within 200 yards and then something spooked him and he ran into the woods away from us. We sat and waited a bit until she got cold again and then walked out, we saw his tail and a few friends as they noticed us on our way out.
We agreed it had been a great morning and Laney asked to hunt that evening. I said sure. She was tired and took a nap for a bit. I had to wake her up to go help her uncle with turning on and off fences on the farm. He wanted to get it done so he didn't mess up her evening hunt. When she got back we talked about the best options we had and she chose the building (plastic blind) she had success in last season with her doe.
We gather our stuff and get prepared. She questions the ever calm "foot deodorant " until i explain it to her. It must have worked as the events would show.
About 4:30ish i look over and there is a young 6 point walking towards us from the left. I get her attention and we watch him walk directly in front of us with minimal alertness, right where we walked in. He then angles across the cut corn towards the small patch of woods we call the thicket. He is well blocked from my view by a tree, but Laney watches him. Then she said she lost him so i lean around and try to find him with my binoculars and instead i notice a bedded buck stand up and move towards the edge of the thicket. He's a young small 6/8 point and he and the other one smell one another and then begin to push each other around, sparring but not the stiff legged fighting you see in videos.
Laney is watching them with the binoculars and she says she can hear them. I tell her that's not something I've ever gotten to experience live before and that is a special moment for both of us. I also tell her to watch them because their sparring may bring in a bigger buck (and we know they're are a few wandering the farm) who wants to see what's going on. I told her to tell me if they stopped and started looking intently in a direction. I couldn't see them well from my seat and she was either in her seat or on my lap leaning around that pesky tree to watch them.
She then says "Dad, they stopped and are looking up the hill". I give her my rangefinder to look through and i start glassing up the hill. Unfortunately due to a tree line the views are limited. I watch them fight and stop a couple of times and look and then restart but they never look nervous, just different. Then i see the white of long antler tines at 150ish yards and well into the thicket moving downhill.
As soon as i saw the side view of the tines I had no doubt this was a shooter and a great buck. I really tried hard to not let my nerves show but i wanted it to go as perfect as it could for Laney. The building's windows were lowered but i had to attach a clamp on front rest as Laney struggles to shoot off hand and it just makes it better for her. I put the rifle on the rest and she had to sit on my lap to get the correct view.
We watch him move along the edge of the thicket and part the two smaller bucks. He then stands at about 130 yards at the edge of the woods/ cut corn and I'm praying he moves closer because I'm just not confidant in her shooting that far yet. Then he puts his head down and starts feeding and meandering our direction. He moves through some tall weeds and I had ranged them earlier and knew that he was inside of 80 yards. His angle and movements either gave him coming right to our lap or if he goes uphill we lose our shooting lanes in under ten yards.
He's alternating between facing us and quartering toward us. I tell Laney to find him in the scope (i had set it to 2.5x) and she's got him. As he's slowly moving i tell her to find his shoulder and put the crosshair middle of his chest, just inside towards his chest of the shoulder.
She says "I'm on it" but i can hear hesitation in her voice. I tell her that is her shot and let me know when she's on him and ready. She says "I'm ready". I tell her to take the safety off and i hear a loud click. I ask if she still has her shot (I'm watching through binoculars) and she said yes. I then trek her to gently squeeze the trigger and bang!
I watched him drop in the binoculars and then he ran into the woods and crashed in a big patch of briars. I said he's down! and then i thought i see a deer sprinting up above where i watched him drop and run up the hill. I'm mentally going how is it possible? He should be dead with that shot placement. We carefully climb out of the building and leave gear because I'm anticipating a dead deer and we have to be efficient because Laney has a softball lesson in an hour.
I take headlamps, binos and my thermal monocular. I scan the thicket and nothing. We walked to where she shot and nothing, no hair, nothing. I walk to the far side of the thicket and walk the entire edge and no blood nothing. I'm mentally berating myself and trying to keep her spirits up but she's saying it felt good but also not good when she squeezed the trigger. I have her go to the building and move me to where he was standing, virtually where i was searching and had already searched.
We walk up the hill, and i walk the edge and find no blood bit sign of a deer sprinting up into the woods. I follow it and am scanning with my thermal. I can't understand how he crashed and isn't bleeding out and how with that shot placement how he even made it his far. I cover almost the entire woods and there's no infrared signal i can see.
As we walk down the hill I'm trying to buoy her spirits but can tell she's second guessing herself and i DON'T want this to be a negative experience. I was going to give it one last effort going into the thick briars where i thought he crashed, if no blood there i didn't know what else to do but mark it up to buck fever.
I send her towards the building to gather stuff and I'm fighting my way through briars and all of the sudden there's a white long antler tine.
"Laney!!! he's down and he's incredible! "
The rest is history but that huge hug, her big eyes, and sharing the moment with her.... nothing better. Her shot placement was perfect, right in front of the shoulder, took out the lungs and the blood vessels at the top of the heart and just barely exited behind the far shoulder. The chest cavity was completely full of blood.
Didn't get moving super quick. Dad forgot to get the rifle out of the gun safe. So we were glassing deer in the field he was eventually harvested in prior to moving out to the stand that had the best wind and was a 2 person stand.
The water proofing on her boots failed which led to wet feet and an early (due to cold) exit. The hot chocolate was good though. On our way out we saw a buck slowly trailing a doe at almost 400 yards across the fields. He looked decent enough to warrant a closer look.
We made a move on them and the doe slowly fed into the woods and then the buck came along behind her but on a path that would have him at under 75 yards (my preferred distance for her to shoot) if he cooperated. He was a solid looking mature 8pt and a great first buck so we were in to see what happened. He got within 200 yards and then something spooked him and he ran into the woods away from us. We sat and waited a bit until she got cold again and then walked out, we saw his tail and a few friends as they noticed us on our way out.
We agreed it had been a great morning and Laney asked to hunt that evening. I said sure. She was tired and took a nap for a bit. I had to wake her up to go help her uncle with turning on and off fences on the farm. He wanted to get it done so he didn't mess up her evening hunt. When she got back we talked about the best options we had and she chose the building (plastic blind) she had success in last season with her doe.
We gather our stuff and get prepared. She questions the ever calm "foot deodorant " until i explain it to her. It must have worked as the events would show.
About 4:30ish i look over and there is a young 6 point walking towards us from the left. I get her attention and we watch him walk directly in front of us with minimal alertness, right where we walked in. He then angles across the cut corn towards the small patch of woods we call the thicket. He is well blocked from my view by a tree, but Laney watches him. Then she said she lost him so i lean around and try to find him with my binoculars and instead i notice a bedded buck stand up and move towards the edge of the thicket. He's a young small 6/8 point and he and the other one smell one another and then begin to push each other around, sparring but not the stiff legged fighting you see in videos.
Laney is watching them with the binoculars and she says she can hear them. I tell her that's not something I've ever gotten to experience live before and that is a special moment for both of us. I also tell her to watch them because their sparring may bring in a bigger buck (and we know they're are a few wandering the farm) who wants to see what's going on. I told her to tell me if they stopped and started looking intently in a direction. I couldn't see them well from my seat and she was either in her seat or on my lap leaning around that pesky tree to watch them.
She then says "Dad, they stopped and are looking up the hill". I give her my rangefinder to look through and i start glassing up the hill. Unfortunately due to a tree line the views are limited. I watch them fight and stop a couple of times and look and then restart but they never look nervous, just different. Then i see the white of long antler tines at 150ish yards and well into the thicket moving downhill.
As soon as i saw the side view of the tines I had no doubt this was a shooter and a great buck. I really tried hard to not let my nerves show but i wanted it to go as perfect as it could for Laney. The building's windows were lowered but i had to attach a clamp on front rest as Laney struggles to shoot off hand and it just makes it better for her. I put the rifle on the rest and she had to sit on my lap to get the correct view.
We watch him move along the edge of the thicket and part the two smaller bucks. He then stands at about 130 yards at the edge of the woods/ cut corn and I'm praying he moves closer because I'm just not confidant in her shooting that far yet. Then he puts his head down and starts feeding and meandering our direction. He moves through some tall weeds and I had ranged them earlier and knew that he was inside of 80 yards. His angle and movements either gave him coming right to our lap or if he goes uphill we lose our shooting lanes in under ten yards.
He's alternating between facing us and quartering toward us. I tell Laney to find him in the scope (i had set it to 2.5x) and she's got him. As he's slowly moving i tell her to find his shoulder and put the crosshair middle of his chest, just inside towards his chest of the shoulder.
She says "I'm on it" but i can hear hesitation in her voice. I tell her that is her shot and let me know when she's on him and ready. She says "I'm ready". I tell her to take the safety off and i hear a loud click. I ask if she still has her shot (I'm watching through binoculars) and she said yes. I then trek her to gently squeeze the trigger and bang!
I watched him drop in the binoculars and then he ran into the woods and crashed in a big patch of briars. I said he's down! and then i thought i see a deer sprinting up above where i watched him drop and run up the hill. I'm mentally going how is it possible? He should be dead with that shot placement. We carefully climb out of the building and leave gear because I'm anticipating a dead deer and we have to be efficient because Laney has a softball lesson in an hour.
I take headlamps, binos and my thermal monocular. I scan the thicket and nothing. We walked to where she shot and nothing, no hair, nothing. I walk to the far side of the thicket and walk the entire edge and no blood nothing. I'm mentally berating myself and trying to keep her spirits up but she's saying it felt good but also not good when she squeezed the trigger. I have her go to the building and move me to where he was standing, virtually where i was searching and had already searched.
We walk up the hill, and i walk the edge and find no blood bit sign of a deer sprinting up into the woods. I follow it and am scanning with my thermal. I can't understand how he crashed and isn't bleeding out and how with that shot placement how he even made it his far. I cover almost the entire woods and there's no infrared signal i can see.
As we walk down the hill I'm trying to buoy her spirits but can tell she's second guessing herself and i DON'T want this to be a negative experience. I was going to give it one last effort going into the thick briars where i thought he crashed, if no blood there i didn't know what else to do but mark it up to buck fever.
I send her towards the building to gather stuff and I'm fighting my way through briars and all of the sudden there's a white long antler tine.
"Laney!!! he's down and he's incredible! "
The rest is history but that huge hug, her big eyes, and sharing the moment with her.... nothing better. Her shot placement was perfect, right in front of the shoulder, took out the lungs and the blood vessels at the top of the heart and just barely exited behind the far shoulder. The chest cavity was completely full of blood.
Big_Holla
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ThatBuckeyeGuy
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Stressless
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