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...and just like that, I'm tagged out.
It took some thinking to decide if I would buy another deer permit with under a week left in the Ohio archery season. It's been a good year and I already had an antelope, a mule deer and three whitetails down. While the antelope meat is gone, there's still plenty of venison for the year, especially after this past Monday's kill. However, I decided that I could make this opportunity more than just another chance to hunt. This hunt would be a genuine humanitarian mission.
Tonight started in a different stand than the one I shot my shed buck in the other night. This is a hang-on stand that's a solid 150 yards from that really good spot since I handed that area off to my buddy who has yet to score this season. He was actually hunting that stand tonight at the same time I was in my new one. This newer place I was hunting had far fewer trails and traffic indications, but had been corn baited by another hunter before I got out here. I decided to re-stock it for good measure. I was on a mission, after all.
Up to this point, I didn't have a single deer show up the few times I had put bait out on my other hunts. Tonight was a different story. Very early in the evening, at 5:25PM (less than 20 minutes after I got into the stand) a button buck showed up about 400 yards away and came charging to my corn pile on a dead run. He stopped to eat at the pile - 21 yards away - and I promptly ventilated him. This is the first time I've had an arrow-struck deer drop to the shot. He went straight down at the corn pile, rolled a few times, and stayed down for good.
This was the view from my stand moments after he went down:
I texted my buddy in the other stand and told him I had a deer down, but that I would stay in it until he was out of legal daylight so that I wouldn't spoil his hunt. When I got down and did the gut work, it was immediately clear that I put a good, hard shot through the lungs. Wounds don't lie - a broadhead to the boiler room is gonna be fatal in a hurry. This one wouldn't have gone far even if he did run:
That was it. Another button buck down and I was completely tagged out for my county. I went from a nightmare Ohio deer season to having two deer down in 3 nights (and a 3rd down two weeks back) thanks to the base's controlled archery hunt. I reported the kill via email to the base wildlife manager and thanked him for the incredible hunting that the combined 2-week hunt provided.
Now, why would I choose to go on this hunt and hastily shoot another button buck when I have plenty of meat in the freezer and have until Sunday to finish out the season? A couple on months ago, I met a really friendly guy at the local shooting range. He was very easy-going and even took me on private land he had access to for a fox hunt. Recently, I found out that he had been out of work for a while and just got a new job, but him and his wife were literally down to their last few dollars. He privately expressed the fact that he was actively looking to shoot a deer - legally or otherwise - to keep food on the table. As a Christian man who would never want to see someone resort to poaching, I didn't want it to come to that. I bought my 3rd tag with the specific intent to give him the meat from whatever I shot, and do so as quickly as possible. I am happy to say that this mission was a success. He was in disbelief when I told him what he had coming and extremely thankful. He's coming by tomorrow to help process his deer.
Tonight started in a different stand than the one I shot my shed buck in the other night. This is a hang-on stand that's a solid 150 yards from that really good spot since I handed that area off to my buddy who has yet to score this season. He was actually hunting that stand tonight at the same time I was in my new one. This newer place I was hunting had far fewer trails and traffic indications, but had been corn baited by another hunter before I got out here. I decided to re-stock it for good measure. I was on a mission, after all.
Up to this point, I didn't have a single deer show up the few times I had put bait out on my other hunts. Tonight was a different story. Very early in the evening, at 5:25PM (less than 20 minutes after I got into the stand) a button buck showed up about 400 yards away and came charging to my corn pile on a dead run. He stopped to eat at the pile - 21 yards away - and I promptly ventilated him. This is the first time I've had an arrow-struck deer drop to the shot. He went straight down at the corn pile, rolled a few times, and stayed down for good.
This was the view from my stand moments after he went down:
I texted my buddy in the other stand and told him I had a deer down, but that I would stay in it until he was out of legal daylight so that I wouldn't spoil his hunt. When I got down and did the gut work, it was immediately clear that I put a good, hard shot through the lungs. Wounds don't lie - a broadhead to the boiler room is gonna be fatal in a hurry. This one wouldn't have gone far even if he did run:
That was it. Another button buck down and I was completely tagged out for my county. I went from a nightmare Ohio deer season to having two deer down in 3 nights (and a 3rd down two weeks back) thanks to the base's controlled archery hunt. I reported the kill via email to the base wildlife manager and thanked him for the incredible hunting that the combined 2-week hunt provided.
Now, why would I choose to go on this hunt and hastily shoot another button buck when I have plenty of meat in the freezer and have until Sunday to finish out the season? A couple on months ago, I met a really friendly guy at the local shooting range. He was very easy-going and even took me on private land he had access to for a fox hunt. Recently, I found out that he had been out of work for a while and just got a new job, but him and his wife were literally down to their last few dollars. He privately expressed the fact that he was actively looking to shoot a deer - legally or otherwise - to keep food on the table. As a Christian man who would never want to see someone resort to poaching, I didn't want it to come to that. I bought my 3rd tag with the specific intent to give him the meat from whatever I shot, and do so as quickly as possible. I am happy to say that this mission was a success. He was in disbelief when I told him what he had coming and extremely thankful. He's coming by tomorrow to help process his deer.
Accuracy: because white space between bullet holes drives me insane.
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Replies
Well done my friend.
Thank you for being generous.
Jerry
ASK-HOLE Someone who asks for advice and always does something opposite
The only bad part of this otherwise extremely timely kill can be noted in my quiver, of all places. If you look carefully, you'll note that one of the arrows is noticeably shorter than the others. That's because the deer managed to flinch ever so slightly at the shot, ducking just enough to make the arrow catch his shoulder blade. It didn't fully penetrate as a result, so when he rolled over a few times, he also managed to snap the arrow shaft. Unfortunately, that means I have to be diligent about cutting away a fair amount of the meat around the break point to remove the shattered carbon fiber shards. It's nasty stuff and you certainly don't want anyone cutting their guts open ingesting it.
Come to think of it, I'm extremely lucky that I didn't slice my hand open field dressing this deer. I'm fairly certain that the broadhead was swimming around in there somewhere!
Nebraska started a program under the same name and it has apparently grown a good bit since I left there. The only thing that chapped me when the thing first came online was the handful of people who were clearly trying to abuse it. Some of these folks were making some bold requests for specific and expensive "luxury" cuts like slab jerky and jalapeno summer sausage. The intent of the program is to give you a field dressed deer processed into basic cuts, not a $200 luxury eats package rivaling an Omaha Steaks Christmas sampler. The request starts to look pretty disingenuous when you start being silly like that. At least with this guy I am giving this deer to, I have seen his house and his lifestyle first hand: he's not a doper who pisses away his money and certainly humble enough to merit some legitimate help. Not only that, he came by my place to help skin that big shed buck the other night. That's the one big advantage I see to handling a gift giving operation like this personally: you know the precise situation that you're supporting.
Helping out someone in need may or maynot come back to you right away, but some day.....
congrats on a good hunt and doing something nice
Have a huge program like that here as well. Farmers welcome many around here to help with predation issues. Nothing really postworthy though about our "hunts".
Paddle faster!!! I hear banjos.
Reason for editing: correcting my auto correct
Also, I just checked my email and found a reply from the base game manager to my deer check-in email I sent him last night. This was a pretty cool/flattering feather in my cap:
He went on to state that shooting a button buck at this point in the season is still very beneficial to meeting his harvest objective and to not be concerned about it affecting the overall buck counts. By his night population surverys, they are counting 40 - 50 deer per square mile in this area!
Luis of all of us here you have your head and your heart right. I totally agree with Alec. This is great! Did your buddy score yet?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO
Thank you, sir. As for my buddy, not yet. That was the cruel irony of my success last night. He sat in the exact same stand where I got the previous deer, had 8 deer just 65 yards away right across the creek and not one of them crossed the creek to his spot. Me? I had just one deer come in, from 400 yards away and through a far less traveled corridor, right into my lap. More frustrating for my buddy is that warm weather and rain came through today, melting all of the snow. He's out there right now and I'm pulling for him, but movement is a lot slimmer when the deer can feed anywhere they want vs. having to cruise for small patches of open feed. Thankfully, there's an 80% chance of fresh snow on Sunday, the last day of the season. If all else fails, he'll have a great chance then.
Thanks for the kind words, Robin. Carbon fiber technology is definitely a mixed blessing in the arrow world. You are right about those short crossbow bolts being less likely to snap. They are more likely to penetrate fully from a speed perspective, are made from a heavier grade of carbon fiber to withstand the torque from the higher draw weight, and provide less leverage for the deer to snap them off with on account of their size even if they don't fully penetrate. I was extremly impressed with the performance of the Red Hot brand carbon fiber bolts on my first crossbow kill a couple weeks back.
In Florida, we can't donate wild meat. It's a shame really. We could fill several shelter freezers with pork in just a weekend.
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
More libtard BS control. What you can do though is if you know somebody that knows somebody hungry or more financially challenged, you can just give meat directly to people. I want the libtards to tell me I can't do that! I think I could find the backing to take that up the judicial ladder.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
This is the same 125 gr. Slick Trick Magnum I've been using for a few years now. Works great on regular compound bows and crossbows.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Slick-Trick-Magnum-Broadheads/745797.uts
FYI - we finished processing this deer last night. After initially tossing the busted shoulder blade in the trash, I decided I just had to remove the meat and see what the Slick Trick did to the bone - as that one guy on here says - for science.
As you can see in the wide view, the arrow struck above the center of the deer's right shoulder blade, penetrating it at a quartering angle. It punched through, catching the ridge in the center of the bone, as well:
At a closer view, you can see that the broadhead did more than just slice through. One of the blades actually cleaved about a 2.5" split in the bone to the left of the main hole. I continue to really like these suckers.