IKS and it’s got bone

[RedCloud]

It took a little time to find her in the dark but we got it done. Just glad I was able to kick them up and get them in the wheelhouse for you buddy.

 

[Gordo]

Hell yeah!!!! Congrats buddy! You were due!

 

[finelyshedded]

Doe recovered.thanks to Adam and my son Jesse. She was bleeding good for a while until she got back into the woods. Lost blood and couldn't distinguish her track from all the other deer and squirrel tracks. Lost blood 3 times and each of us found it again and picked up the trail. Took time, but she's hanging in the shed. Thanks for the assist Adam.

Good to hear Dave, congratulations buddy!

 

[Bigcountry40]

congrats Adam

 

[RedCloud]

The Story.....



I went out Saturday evening with wind chill around -15 or so. Got into my standing spot and was waiting to see if anything would move in the cold temps. I bet it was only 15-20 minutes after I got in place I hear something behind me. I had my fleece hat on and it was covering my ears so I couldn't hear real great. Just as I turned around I see a yote spin around and take off down the edge of the field and cut back into the woods to my left. Couldn't get a bead on him with him running down the woods. He makes it over a little hill and I lost sight of him. About 45 minutes later I see some movement to my right down the woods about 200 yards away. I keep watching and finally get a glimpse of a doe and her 2 young twin yearlings. I watch them head across the woods and vanish behind the same hill the yote went behind. Finally frozen and dark I start heading out of the woods and met up with Dante who had slipped in and was sitting on the tractor path watching the fields to see if anything moved. Got home and brought the gun in the house with me. As soon as I got in the house the gun frosted up. Didn't even think about it being an issue as this is the 1st late season and muzzy season I have ever done in my hunting days. Texted with Dante and setup to go out Sunday morning.

Sunday morning Dante gets to the house and grab all my stuff and head out the door. Get to the hunting spot shortly after. While walking back to the woods we decided where we would be standing. He was thinking of standing where I was standing Saturday because he thought I was actually further down into the woods. After finding out where I had stood Saturday he decided to head on to another spot we call groundhog hill and I would once again stand just inside the woods on an inside corner where I was Saturday. Just after 8:00am I see movement to my right down the woods. I figured it was that doe and her twin fawns again. I keep watching and see 3 doe and then 4 doe heading right to me. I see more movement and see 2 other doe just to the left of the other 4 doe. Then at the back of the line was a buck. Couldn't really tell how many points or how big but I could see antlers coming off it's head. I don't really want to shoot any doe off the property and at this time of year at the end of the main rut they could be pregnant so I would be killing the little one as well and further dropping deer numbers on the property. As I watched the buck come down the woods towards me and following the 2 doe I could see he was a decent buck. By this time the other 4 doe had worked their way down the woods and out into the field and was dead even with me. I pulled the muzzy up and got the aim point and squeezed the trigger...POP. I'm standing there in disbelief and expecting a BOOM not a POP. The 4 doe out in the field take off. I reach down into the hip pack I had all my gear in. I kept watching as the buck and 2 doe just kept moving as if nothing had happened. I found my speed loader and fished out another primer. Broke the muzzy open and picked out the dud primer and put in a new one and closed the gun back up. Once again I put the gun on target amazed the buck and 2 doe didn't take off and was still standing there at a distance of about 35 yards. He was facing me and had turned just enough I could see shoulder and had put the sight just behind his shoulder. I squeezed the trigger once again and...BOOM. In a blink of an eye the buck drops and I can see his back legs are just dead weight dragging behind him. He does the U and only makes it 10 yards and drops over dead. WTF!
At first I thought " Oh great, I spine shot him" and thought my aim was off. Then when he fell dead I was just standing there with my jaw on the ground as I had never seen a deer drop dead that quickly. I lost track of the 2 doe that he was with as they took off back towards the way they had come. I was hoping with 6 doe running around that I would soon hear Dante send a round down the woods. After not hearing any shots and keeping watch over the buck that was on the ground I see movement again. Those 2 doe circled down and was now working their way up the woods towards me again trying to get into the field where they originally wanted to go and to meet back up with the other 4 doe that had already made it across. I texted Dante and told him I had a buck down. As he was making his way to me he seen the 2 doe cutting across the neighbors field and had met up with one of the other doe from the first group.
I made my way to my buck and got the tag filled out and was looking him over. I couldn't see where I had hit him and no blood on the ground other then a little on a log he slid over while making his U run. I see Dante making his way over and so when he gets there he asked where I was standing and I pointed back at my muzzy setting against the tree. I told him I wasn't sure where I had him and to get to that shoulder we had to flip him over. After we get him turned over we look and still can't see a hole or blood. We work on getting him drug out of the woods and to the field edge. While dragging the buck slid over a branch that was under the snow, BAM I hit the ground from tripping over the branch lol. Dave asks if I'm OK and I told him I was fine. I bet it wasn't 10 yards later and BAM, Dave does the same thing and trips and goes down lmao. Finally we get him to the field edge and Dave asks if I want to go ahead and start gutting him. I told Dave I didn't want to start that process until we had some heat close by as my hands would be fine while I gutted the deer but as soon as I pulled my hands out of there the cold and wind would freeze quickly. Dave decided to make the 1/4 mile walk back to get the truck and rive it down the field. As soon as Dave got back we roll the buck over the start the work and we notice a blood spot just behind the shoulder I was aiming at. ALRIGHT, I wasn't off on my aim. Now I'm wondering what I had hit to drop him that quickly. Get the gut job done and the buck loaded into the truck. Took it to Dave's and hung him in his shed as he had a hoist already setup. While skinning the buck we see the entrance wound right behind the shoulder and we could see the exit just behind the offside back rib. After following the bullet path we find out that I hit at least 1 lung, middle of the liver had a huge hole, hit the bottom side of the spine, diaphragm, and exited just behind the offside ribs. Luckily I didn't hit stomach or guts and it was a good gut job.

 

[RedCloud]

Feeling bad about Dave not getting to stand where he thought he would and having to change his game plan I wanted to get back out in the afternoon and see if we could get him one of the doe that I had let slip past me. We took a break and got some lunch and decided to head back out a little later. Got back out there around 3 or so and had Dave drop me off on the other side of the property. I told him to text me as soon as he got setup and I would push the bedding area and hopefully get one up and headed his way. About 20-30 minutes later I get the text he is ready. I started my walk and walked the edge of the bedding area with my scent blowing right into the bedding hoping by doing this that I wouldn't have to physically go into it and my scent would be enough to get them up and moving but not so much that they would jump up and run like their ass was on fire. Just a nice light push. NOTHING moved. I was sure those 6 doe had gone in there that morning. Got to another area they like to hide in and started doing the same kind of push to get them up and moving. Kicked up about 6-7 turkey right off the bat. Shortly after I hear something take off and see another yote and thought it was heading to Dave but it must have turned again between us as he never seen it. Get about another 60-70 yards and 3 doe jump up. I STOP dead in my tracks and watch them run right to where Dave was going to be standing. I stand there and keep waiting and waiting for a shot to go off. Seemed like 10 minutes went past. BOOM! I started walking to where Dave is with a huge smile on my face and sayig YES as I walked across the field to him. I get just inside the woods and I can see Dave with his orange standing there and looking down the woods. I sent him a quick text not wanting to move any further just incase he missed and the doe was still standing in range and he could get another shot off. I sent " Did ya get it?" I get back a text saying " I think so" lol. I walk on over to where he is and we could see the deer standing just out of the other side of the woods in a cut corn field. We stand there and watch a little while longer and see 2 walk off and seen a 3rd doe just laying in the field like she was bedded down. Dave says " the one I hit took off with her tail down" and I'm thinking that was a good sign. We watch a little longer and see her stand back up and walk off a little. We lost sight of her and so we go over and start looking around where she was standing when he shot her. NO sign of a hit. No hair or blood at the spot of contact. SHIT. We look a little more and still can't find anything and her tracks were not easy to follow as the snow was so powdery that as soon as you stepped out of your track the snow would just crumble and fall back into your track. This made it hard to decide a fresh track from an older track and then toss in other critters tracks in the woods made it a nightmare. Dave decided to walk back up to the truck and drive back around to the back side of the property where we seen her heading to. As he was walking off I spotted some blood. Not a lot but enough to say she was hit. I walk out to the corner of the field and look towards the last place we seen her. That little shit had moved even further down the field and put herself in the middle of the field and was bedded out there just watching. As I stood there watching her I could see she was licking her wound and she wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere. I texted Dave and told him he may need to put another round in her to finish her off. Dave finally made the 1/2 mile track back to the truck and pulled up on the back side of the property. I see him get out of the truck and start walking out in the field to get closer and be able to shoot her again. He got to about 100 yards and the doe stood up. I thought for sure she would stand there for just a few seconds and give him a shot. NOPE. Off she went like her ass was on fire and she wanted nothing to do with any of it. She bounded off like she wasn't even hit. WTF! I start walking towards Dave and walking the path she had taken to the spot in the middle of the field. I noticed she had bedded in the cut corn about 3-4 times and left blood in each bed. I go to her last bed where she had spent about 30 minutes and there was pretty good blood. All the blood we had to this point was really dark red. We decided he must have hit her liver and it was going to take a little time before she would die. We backed out and came back to the house and got lights to find her. Dave's son Jesse was at Dave's house so he was with us for the track job. We all 3 get back out there and start where she was last bedded. He shot this doe at 4:45 and it was now just after 7 and dark. We followed her blood trail with each leap to the edge of the woods. Just like she vanished in the woods so did her blood. We took our time and finally found a couple drops. I figured she would go 50-60 yards and bed back down and we would find her pretty soon. We looked around and finally found another drop of blood. This little drop of blood went on for about 30-40 more minutes and went past my 50-60 yard mark without a bed. We all lost blood at one time or another and each of us picked up the trail again. We finally get about 100 yards in and still no bed but at least the blood was getting better now and we could now follow her tracks in the snow since she had made it past the million squirrel tracks out there lol. We cross a drainage crick and find a bed. Finally she laid back down. Wasn't even 20 feet from that bed and she bedded down again and was laying dead in that bed. She almost made it back to the spot I jumped her from. She had made a huge oval back track and covered a good half mile before she died. She wasn't dead very long at all by the time we found her because she was not stiff at all. Dave and his son Jesse drug her the 1/2 mile back tot he truck and by the time we got to the truck she was now getting cold and stiff. We found that Dave had hit liver and guts with the shot and must have flinched as he pulled the trigger. Dave got the nasty gut job on that one. After getting her in the truck we figured a trip to the local carwash was in order to get her washed out and get the gut content out the best we could. We had a couple people give funny looks as they washed their cars lmao. I'm sure the people watching the video from the camera in the bay had a good laugh and was a little pissed but hey, gotta do what ya gotta do lmao.

All in all it was a great day and a hunt to remember. I got lucky on so many things that morning it isn't funny and to top it off by getting deer to your hunting buddy and having them recover one as well was worth every minute of it.

I'll add some pics of my buck here in a few minutes. Still need to get them off my phone.

 

[giles]

Outstanding story! Congrats again

 

[RedCloud]

Thanks Dave.

It was a great day all around I must say.

Sucks I didn't make it down with you guys but I found my hydraulic clutch doesn't like cold weather lol. I couldn't get it to shift at all. I had to start off in 2nd gear and couldn't take it out of gear or put it into any other gear. Guess that will be next on the list to get fixed.

 

[Dustinb80]

Awesome write up Adam. Congrats

 

[Mike]

Excellent write up!

 

["J"]

Sounds like an awesome hunt for the both of you.... Congrats again Adam and Dave, and kudos to Jesse for pitching in as well...

 

[huntn2]

What a great weekend guys! Congrats to both of you.

 

[finelyshedded]

Good read Adam! Congratulations to you both. That was definitely a great hunt for you two to remember.:smiley_clap:

 

[RedCloud]

Here is the best pic of the shot I could get to show what happened and why he dropped so quickly.



Went in just behind his near side shoulder and clipped the under side of his spine and out just past the last rib on the off side.

I'll grab his antler pics here in a few and get those posted here as well as in the contest thread for my team.

 

[RedCloud]

Here are a few other pics. I'm going to leave it up to Ryan how he wants to count points. I only counted him as an 8pt only because the other 2 pts were just under an inch long.







I came up with 67.5 points Ryan?