TDawgNOk
12-04-2007, 11:09 PM
I went out again on Sunday. Got to my tent stand about 5:30 in the morning. It was sprinkling and the temp was about 63 degrees. I was wearing a pair of jeans, with sweats pants over them, a long sleeve T-Shirt and a sweat shirt over it. I sat there waiting for the sun to come up. About 6:30 it started getting a little breezy and the bottom dropped out of the thermometer. I put on my gloves and a stocking cap, and sat and waited. It was very nice and peaceful. About 7:30 it got light enough to see, and I heard a shot off in the distance. Good I thought, that meant that the deer might be moving. I started getting chilled because the wind started picking up, but I continued to sit there and wait. About 8:00 I heard another shot, this one a little closer. At about 8:45 it was 40 degrees and the wind was blowing at least 20mph and gusting up higher than that. I decided to give it until 9:30 and then call it a day. I was getting miserably cold.
At 9:00 I saw movement out of the tent window to my left. Ahhhh, here we go, 2 deer. No antlers, ok, which one is bigger. Ok, I turned in the folding camp chair I was sitting in and raised my 303 to my shoulder, ok, good shot, but, not what I wanted. The deer needed to turn just a little more. Dang, it turned the wrong way, if I shot now, I'd shoot it in the butt. I waited a few more seconds and it turned again and moved about 10 ft further to the left. I had to lean and turn to be able to aim and shoot it. Clear shot, deep breath, let half of it out, pull trigger...just as I pulled the trigger the chair slipped. I looked up and deer down, floppin around like a fish outta water. I quickly stepped out of the tent, ejected the spent shell and loaded another one. Took aim directly at the head, and fired. Ok, deer down and not moving.
Walked over to take a look, uh roh. Scott's gonna be mad *(scott is the guy who's land I was hunting on)* Turns out what I thought was a doe, was a button buck. I didn't even know how to tell the difference, *(I do now)*. I dragged deer, backpack and gun back to where Scott had dropped me off, and he came to pick me up. Luckily he wasn't too mad, just disappointed. Turns out the buck was a yearling that he had on trailcam video several times. It was 68 lbs dressed out which I did by myself. When I took the deer to the processor, I asked how I did on dressing out my 2nd deer and the skinner looked at me and said "Son, I wish everyone dressed one out this good. It'd make my job much easier." He then started showing me some of the basics of skinning one so that I can save that $10 next time.
At 9:00 I saw movement out of the tent window to my left. Ahhhh, here we go, 2 deer. No antlers, ok, which one is bigger. Ok, I turned in the folding camp chair I was sitting in and raised my 303 to my shoulder, ok, good shot, but, not what I wanted. The deer needed to turn just a little more. Dang, it turned the wrong way, if I shot now, I'd shoot it in the butt. I waited a few more seconds and it turned again and moved about 10 ft further to the left. I had to lean and turn to be able to aim and shoot it. Clear shot, deep breath, let half of it out, pull trigger...just as I pulled the trigger the chair slipped. I looked up and deer down, floppin around like a fish outta water. I quickly stepped out of the tent, ejected the spent shell and loaded another one. Took aim directly at the head, and fired. Ok, deer down and not moving.
Walked over to take a look, uh roh. Scott's gonna be mad *(scott is the guy who's land I was hunting on)* Turns out what I thought was a doe, was a button buck. I didn't even know how to tell the difference, *(I do now)*. I dragged deer, backpack and gun back to where Scott had dropped me off, and he came to pick me up. Luckily he wasn't too mad, just disappointed. Turns out the buck was a yearling that he had on trailcam video several times. It was 68 lbs dressed out which I did by myself. When I took the deer to the processor, I asked how I did on dressing out my 2nd deer and the skinner looked at me and said "Son, I wish everyone dressed one out this good. It'd make my job much easier." He then started showing me some of the basics of skinning one so that I can save that $10 next time.