I haven’t been able to hunt much this year, which seems to be the common theme the last few years. But, lack of pressure on our place seems to be the key to shooting mature deer.
Our state rifle season opened up this past Saturday and we had 5 people hunting in 4 stands, one being a father and son. The youth hunter chose to sit overlooking our 5 acre food plot. He shot a spike there last year and enjoys looking over a field more then being in the woods. He was fortunate enough to have a 4 pointer come out for a bite to eat around 8 am.
I only had until 10:30 am to be in the woods. I had a wedding to attend out of town for my wife’s Aunt.
I sit in the far back of our property, where no one goes all year. I take a climber in for the rut and may only hunt this 30 acre area 2-4 times a year. For rifle season I bump the stand down to the corner of our property, within this 30 acre area, looking up a ridge leading to thick scrub oak and down to my left where the ridge runs perpendicular to the ridge in front of me. I have shot a buck each of the last 5 years out of this area, 4 during rifle season and 1 during bow season. At 10:15 I saw a coyote out in front of me and figured I was getting down anyway so why not take a crack at it. I cranked my scope up to 9 and tried getting on him. But it was to no avail, he wasn’t running the ridge left to right but more of a 45 degree again away from me. As I was still following the coyote in my scope I hear a crack behind me and turned to see 3 doe trotting at a pretty good pace. I figured my wife would kill me if I was late because i shot a doe. So I didn’t even raise my rifle, until I saw a 4th body coming at 60 yards and realized it wasn’t a doe. I could tell he was big immediately and didn’t really care if I had him on camera before or what he actually was. I picked an opening and moved my rifle with him trotting and pulled the trigger, only to lead him to much while my scope was still on 9 power. I can picture the cross hairs right in front of his chest when I pulled the trigger. He kind of dropped/crouched down, jumped up and ran right at me for 20 yards or so. I chambered another round and as he was running out quartering away I picked another opening he would cross and as soon as he entered it I pulled the trigger. He ran 40 yards and piled up. I was late getting home and we were late getting to the wedding, but my wife understood.
He weighed in at 205 live weight. We never had him on camera, just like every buck I’ve killed in this area for the last 5 years.
Just before dark I got a text that my friend shot his first ever buck in 18 years of hunting. It was barely legal for our state 3 point on a side antler restriction. But we told him before the start of the day he was free to shoot any legal buck.
