lerch
<strong>SPONSOR</strong>
Over the last 3-4 years me and BJ have been doing a lot of hunting together and I have gotten a little picky about what i take, a little too picky. Because of this i have passed on several nice deer and always waited until the end of season to shoot a doe and by then we cant find any. Well this year i decided to remedy my 3 year dry spell and draw some blood.
Me and midget (BJ) headed out sunday evening in the 80deg heat and high wind to do a little muzzleloader hunting. I dropped BJ off at a ground blind with his savage smokeless powder muzzleloader and i headed to my ladder stand with my Encore 209x50. I got into my stand and immediatly began eating the 35mph wind directly in my face, at least they wouldnt smell me!!!! I was overlooking a large slough that still had plenty of water in it despite our drought.
The slough was full of 5ft buck brush and willows so spotting anything would be tough but it was a nice little bottle neck area and I felt confident in it. 3hrs go by with only wind and mosquitios but at least the temp had dropped to 60deg. I was just about to get down when i saw the reflection of antlers in the water directly infront of me!!! This buck had snuck to within 60yds of me and the only way i saw him was the reflection of his rack in the sky, kinda made me feel stupid but i didnt dwell on it.
I quickly grabbed my bino's and studied the rack, good but nothing special but he had some character. He was not overly wide but a little outside his ears, pretty tall on his G1's with a little palmation. Still i wasnt for sure if i wanted to take him since i was dead set on getting a wall mount buck and this wasnt quite big enough for that but he would look great as a skull mount. The buck began tearing up a small tree and i decided to see how agressive the ol' boy was feeling. I gave him a couple of grunts and he spun around in my direction, flared up his back hair and grunted back at me. Since he had fighting on his mind I decided to land the first punch. I steadied the encore and let the remington 209-4 primer start the party. I was shooting 100grs of AMerican Pioneer powder, they make the new Shockeys gold powder, and a TC 300gr Shockwave bullet.
I had been wanting to try the high shoulder shot so I settled on his top shoulder and let her burn. I saw the impact and the buck was taken off his feet and to the ground. All he did was give a little wave with his onside hoof and then all was still, no tracking needed. I was pretty happy until i thought about where the buck was. I had not thought about his location but the deer was in the middle of the slough on a small island surrounded by water!!!
I hooked up with BJ and told him the work begins now, his smile quickly faded as i told him where the buck was. We entered the bush at 6:00 and the fight began. We had to cover 70yds and it took us right at 20mins. We found the buck where he dropped and planned our route, it was obvious we were gonna get wet. We dragged the buck through 4 different bodies of black bog water and watched the deer sink twice. The water was up to my belt line most of the time so BJ was near death constantly!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
After dragging the deer through water, mud, bugs, and plum thickets razor sharp we finally made it to the truck. We found the bullet on the offside hide , it broke both shoulder blades and expanded to .905", weight was 226grs. I guess the dressed wieght of the buck at 150lbs which is big for OK deer, and he was in full rut with a swollen neck and a god awful musk stink coming off him, kinda surprising since our rut is still about 3 weeks away. Anyway here are some pics
Here is a pic of me and the deer, forgive the dipsh!t look on my face I just farted or something /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Here are a couple of the side of the buck, he had pretty long G1's with a little palmation on them.
here is a front view of the buck
Here is a pic of me and my neice, Kaidance, she got a kick out of the deer and didnt seem to mind the blood.
And here is the recovered bullet
And last here is me and BJ, you can see that BJ is still wet and we have been out of the water for a long time.
Well thats it, now its time to hold out for a true wall hanger,
take it easy
steve
Me and midget (BJ) headed out sunday evening in the 80deg heat and high wind to do a little muzzleloader hunting. I dropped BJ off at a ground blind with his savage smokeless powder muzzleloader and i headed to my ladder stand with my Encore 209x50. I got into my stand and immediatly began eating the 35mph wind directly in my face, at least they wouldnt smell me!!!! I was overlooking a large slough that still had plenty of water in it despite our drought.
The slough was full of 5ft buck brush and willows so spotting anything would be tough but it was a nice little bottle neck area and I felt confident in it. 3hrs go by with only wind and mosquitios but at least the temp had dropped to 60deg. I was just about to get down when i saw the reflection of antlers in the water directly infront of me!!! This buck had snuck to within 60yds of me and the only way i saw him was the reflection of his rack in the sky, kinda made me feel stupid but i didnt dwell on it.
I quickly grabbed my bino's and studied the rack, good but nothing special but he had some character. He was not overly wide but a little outside his ears, pretty tall on his G1's with a little palmation. Still i wasnt for sure if i wanted to take him since i was dead set on getting a wall mount buck and this wasnt quite big enough for that but he would look great as a skull mount. The buck began tearing up a small tree and i decided to see how agressive the ol' boy was feeling. I gave him a couple of grunts and he spun around in my direction, flared up his back hair and grunted back at me. Since he had fighting on his mind I decided to land the first punch. I steadied the encore and let the remington 209-4 primer start the party. I was shooting 100grs of AMerican Pioneer powder, they make the new Shockeys gold powder, and a TC 300gr Shockwave bullet.
I had been wanting to try the high shoulder shot so I settled on his top shoulder and let her burn. I saw the impact and the buck was taken off his feet and to the ground. All he did was give a little wave with his onside hoof and then all was still, no tracking needed. I was pretty happy until i thought about where the buck was. I had not thought about his location but the deer was in the middle of the slough on a small island surrounded by water!!!
I hooked up with BJ and told him the work begins now, his smile quickly faded as i told him where the buck was. We entered the bush at 6:00 and the fight began. We had to cover 70yds and it took us right at 20mins. We found the buck where he dropped and planned our route, it was obvious we were gonna get wet. We dragged the buck through 4 different bodies of black bog water and watched the deer sink twice. The water was up to my belt line most of the time so BJ was near death constantly!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
After dragging the deer through water, mud, bugs, and plum thickets razor sharp we finally made it to the truck. We found the bullet on the offside hide , it broke both shoulder blades and expanded to .905", weight was 226grs. I guess the dressed wieght of the buck at 150lbs which is big for OK deer, and he was in full rut with a swollen neck and a god awful musk stink coming off him, kinda surprising since our rut is still about 3 weeks away. Anyway here are some pics
Here is a pic of me and the deer, forgive the dipsh!t look on my face I just farted or something /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Here are a couple of the side of the buck, he had pretty long G1's with a little palmation on them.
here is a front view of the buck
Here is a pic of me and my neice, Kaidance, she got a kick out of the deer and didnt seem to mind the blood.
And here is the recovered bullet
And last here is me and BJ, you can see that BJ is still wet and we have been out of the water for a long time.
Well thats it, now its time to hold out for a true wall hanger,
take it easy
steve
