The following is a letter I wrote to my hunting partners after returning from a family Thanksgiving trip in October on the island where our cabin is.
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Well, I just got back
yesterday from spending 3 days on the island. It was really a Thanksgiving trip with the family but I was able to sneak in 2 hunting forays.
My dad and I went for a 4 hour walk when we first got there and came across over 20 deer while we were walking (all on the logging road side of the island). All were does as far as I could tell (some were spotted too far away for me to tell with my naked eye). Still, it boded well for my next morning's hunting trip.
I got up a 6am the next morning and headed out. I was up at the cliff area I wanted to be at before first light. As dawn broke I spotted a doe only 50m in front of me. I sat there for another 45min and saw 4 more does. I decided to try a different area along some logging roads. No dice. I then tried to take a high ground path and came across 5 does - but no bucks. I kept looping around and by the time 10:30 rolled around I had seen 20 deer of which I could positively identify 17 of them as does (3 others I only saw their tails as they bounded away). My turn around time had been reached, so I unloaded my rifle and made my way back to the cabin. What was interesting was that my extended family, who I was not exactly sure how they honestly felt about my hunting, was disappointed that I came back empty-handed. Not in a bad way, they just wished that I had been successful. I had assumed that they would have been secretly on the deer's 'side'.
My dad and I went for a 4 hour walk when we first got there and came across over 20 deer while we were walking (all on the logging road side of the island). All were does as far as I could tell (some were spotted too far away for me to tell with my naked eye). Still, it boded well for my next morning's hunting trip.
I got up a 6am the next morning and headed out. I was up at the cliff area I wanted to be at before first light. As dawn broke I spotted a doe only 50m in front of me. I sat there for another 45min and saw 4 more does. I decided to try a different area along some logging roads. No dice. I then tried to take a high ground path and came across 5 does - but no bucks. I kept looping around and by the time 10:30 rolled around I had seen 20 deer of which I could positively identify 17 of them as does (3 others I only saw their tails as they bounded away). My turn around time had been reached, so I unloaded my rifle and made my way back to the cabin. What was interesting was that my extended family, who I was not exactly sure how they honestly felt about my hunting, was disappointed that I came back empty-handed. Not in a bad way, they just wished that I had been successful. I had assumed that they would have been secretly on the deer's 'side'.
The next morning dawned and my plan was only to go out for 2 hours (turn around time 9am). Again, this trip on the island was meant to be a family trip - not a hunting trip.
At 6am, as I was walking up the hill, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be funny if the only deer I saw that day would be the buck that I would shoot. Well, by 8:45am I hadn't seen a single deer. The rain had come down very heavily over night and was lightly coming down as I was hunting. I began to
deduce that they deer must have moved into the heavy bush to get out of the rain. I was at the very far side of the cliff area and was within 5 minutes of turning around when I looked down below me and saw a deer looking back up at me with what appeared to be a reasonable sized rack on him.
I hate to admit it, but my binoculars were broken so I used my scope to confirm whether the deer was a doe or a buck (finger off the trigger area). He was indeed a full-sized 2x2 buck about 70m away and about 10-12m below my position. He was facing about 2/3rds away from me looking over his left shoulder at me. Immediately, I dropped to one knee. I looked just ahead of my position to see what would be a great rest for my rifle. But, I thought about all the shots I had practiced from my kneeling position over the summer and decided that I was very comfortable from this shooting position. Besides, I couldn't be sure how long he would stay still in his position before leaping away. I aimed just below his left shoulder blade, and slowly squeezed the trigger. Boom - the buck dropped without taking a single step.
I got down to him, checked that he was dead, unloaded my rifle and took off my pack. I picked up some grasses and put them into his mouth and then took out my tag and clipped it. It took me the better part of about 30-40min to gut him and then began the long process of dragging him out of the cutblock and all the way to the cabin (about 2km). I am awfully glad for the P90X workouts I have been doing as that was a hell of a grunt (he would have weighed about 140-150lbs).
I hung him and it wasn't until I skinned him that I realized how much damage my 6.5 x 55 SE bullet did. The bullet entered just below his left shoulder blade, but it must have hit bone and deflected upwards just under his right shoulder socket area. The damage to the area was complete. I ended up having to cut out a large area of shot damage which is a little ironic considering that part of the reason I switched to a 6.5 X 55 SE was to ease up on the damage that my 7mm Rem. Magnum was doing.
He was skinned and hanging in the rain and wind by about 12:00, but unfortunately, I had to take him down and halve him to get him into a big fish cooler as we heading off by 2pm. When I got home I put him in my neighbour's fridge that he wasn't using and aged him for a few days. I then butchered him by myself on my kitchen counter over the space of a few hours.
Without a doubt, this was the most powerful, and complete, hunting experience I have had to date.
Cheers,
BB
I hate to admit it, but my binoculars were broken so I used my scope to confirm whether the deer was a doe or a buck (finger off the trigger area). He was indeed a full-sized 2x2 buck about 70m away and about 10-12m below my position. He was facing about 2/3rds away from me looking over his left shoulder at me. Immediately, I dropped to one knee. I looked just ahead of my position to see what would be a great rest for my rifle. But, I thought about all the shots I had practiced from my kneeling position over the summer and decided that I was very comfortable from this shooting position. Besides, I couldn't be sure how long he would stay still in his position before leaping away. I aimed just below his left shoulder blade, and slowly squeezed the trigger. Boom - the buck dropped without taking a single step.
I got down to him, checked that he was dead, unloaded my rifle and took off my pack. I picked up some grasses and put them into his mouth and then took out my tag and clipped it. It took me the better part of about 30-40min to gut him and then began the long process of dragging him out of the cutblock and all the way to the cabin (about 2km). I am awfully glad for the P90X workouts I have been doing as that was a hell of a grunt (he would have weighed about 140-150lbs).
I hung him and it wasn't until I skinned him that I realized how much damage my 6.5 x 55 SE bullet did. The bullet entered just below his left shoulder blade, but it must have hit bone and deflected upwards just under his right shoulder socket area. The damage to the area was complete. I ended up having to cut out a large area of shot damage which is a little ironic considering that part of the reason I switched to a 6.5 X 55 SE was to ease up on the damage that my 7mm Rem. Magnum was doing.
He was skinned and hanging in the rain and wind by about 12:00, but unfortunately, I had to take him down and halve him to get him into a big fish cooler as we heading off by 2pm. When I got home I put him in my neighbour's fridge that he wasn't using and aged him for a few days. I then butchered him by myself on my kitchen counter over the space of a few hours.
Without a doubt, this was the most powerful, and complete, hunting experience I have had to date.
Cheers,
BB
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