I went out the Sunday after the opener and saw lots of movement. Several doe groups came through, but no bucks early. Around 9am a small 4ptr and a nice 9ptr came through pushing some does around. I sat until 10:30 and didn't see any more deer and got down and headed to church.
I was debating going out in the afternoon because the temp was rising and rain was heading in. Both of my buddies that had been hunting different areas of the farm decided to sit out Sunday afternoon. I sat around for a bit after lunch and decided to go anyway. My wife was going shopping and taking the kids so I figured the woods would be better than the house. I got in the stand around 2:30. I saw 0 deer for the next 2 hours. Around 4:30 I heard running behind me and spun around to look. A doe was moving quickly down the mountain and stopped about 80 yards behind me. She milled around for a bit and didn't have any deer with her. I turned back around and quit paying attention to her. Bad mistake...about 10 minutes later she started blowing at me. She would run off a bit and blow...run a little farther and blow again. It felt like forever, but was probably only about 5 minutes. I figured the hunt was over, but decided to wait until dark.
About a half an hour later I heard something else coming down the mountain. I spun around and took a look and it was a deer coming down the exact same trail the doe used. I got the scope on it to see what it was and it was a buck. I got the scope on its head and saw the bases and immediately quit looking at the rack
. I got the cross hairs on his shoulder. He was heading for the only opening I had and was moving quickly. I was afraid he would get through it and then head the direction the doe went. As soon as he hit the opening, I pulled the trigger. No reaction to the shot because he was already moving pretty fast. It sounded like a small truck drove into the thicket, but I couldn't see a thing. Then silence....
I felt like the shot was good, but wasn't sure because he was moving so fast. I rushed out of the stand and circled below the thicket he headed into. Nothing...
Finally gathered my composure and headed back to the stand...climbed up...and figured out where he was when I shot. Got down and went to the shot location and looked. Zero blood, but I could plainly see the direction he headed. Took three more steps in that direction and saw him laying there. He only went about 30 yards. The 300 win mag went through his shoulder, jellied a lung and took out the top half of his heart.
