Hunting AAR 1 November 2022 from my nuisance permit out east)
Camo screens were gone from a homemade blind found previously, but I added some sticks and branches and sat. 30 minutes pass after 2+ hours striking out on my first sit, and I see a spike to my right, 35 yards out maybe, but he is looking towards me. Instantly my heart and breath rate spiked. Waited what seemed like 5 minutes, probably just one, and he starts quartering away from me. Behind some trees, he gave me the opportunity to get off my stool, assume a kneeling position, and wait until he was exposed for Mr. Mossberg. Now at least 40 yards away but he offered about 1/3 of his body broadside. (Shotgun slug only on this permit.)
When I fired my ball cap flew off my head behind me and the deer took off at a zillion miles an hour. It was like a comedy routine but not funny at the time. Disappointed but calm, I retraced where I thought he had run and only found my sabot’s plastic. Now truly chagrined, realizing I missed, I exited those woods and started to go back to the truck to dump my stool and backpack. Walking back towards the gate, I suddenly saw bright red spots on the old blacktop! The buck had entered the “southern” woods shy of the gate and a 45 minute, no exaggeration, 11:15 to noon, tracking followed, with me putting t.p. on tree branches and laying “arrowheads” of two dead branches whenever I found more blood. Some major splashes, than a single drop ten feet away, and on and on like that for 45 minutes. Did I mention I tracked the blood trail for 45 minutes ? I was getting depressed and texted SWMBO and she texted me back with “Keep Looking !” Finally, the blood trail had really petered out but 30 feet into the bushes and briars lay the buck. Stiff and with flies already since it was in the mid 60s. Shot in the lower front chest, about 4 or 5 inches from where I thought my crosshairs were. However, I had no idea where I actually was, even with the compass on the phone, but spotted a clearing and I dragged him to it to get my bearings. I was actually 50 feet from the blind we had previously constructed to the south of the access road, but a full 200+ yards from the truck! I called in and got permission to run my truck on a dirt road to get closer. By 1PM, just as the rain started, I had finally gutted the deer (hadn’t done one since 2020) and loaded him up into the bed, bleeding from run-ins out in the woods tracking the blood, and totally exhausted. Those tiedown ratchet straps my buddy gave me from his Explorer are probably good for securing stuff on a roof rack but couldn’t take the weight and I basically had to dead lift it although they did help in getting one end off the ground. I called Cary our butcher and arranged to meet him in Centereach. Spikes are yummy and we are not allowed to pass up anything with four long legs on a nuisance permit anyway.
Camo screens were gone from a homemade blind found previously, but I added some sticks and branches and sat. 30 minutes pass after 2+ hours striking out on my first sit, and I see a spike to my right, 35 yards out maybe, but he is looking towards me. Instantly my heart and breath rate spiked. Waited what seemed like 5 minutes, probably just one, and he starts quartering away from me. Behind some trees, he gave me the opportunity to get off my stool, assume a kneeling position, and wait until he was exposed for Mr. Mossberg. Now at least 40 yards away but he offered about 1/3 of his body broadside. (Shotgun slug only on this permit.)
When I fired my ball cap flew off my head behind me and the deer took off at a zillion miles an hour. It was like a comedy routine but not funny at the time. Disappointed but calm, I retraced where I thought he had run and only found my sabot’s plastic. Now truly chagrined, realizing I missed, I exited those woods and started to go back to the truck to dump my stool and backpack. Walking back towards the gate, I suddenly saw bright red spots on the old blacktop! The buck had entered the “southern” woods shy of the gate and a 45 minute, no exaggeration, 11:15 to noon, tracking followed, with me putting t.p. on tree branches and laying “arrowheads” of two dead branches whenever I found more blood. Some major splashes, than a single drop ten feet away, and on and on like that for 45 minutes. Did I mention I tracked the blood trail for 45 minutes ? I was getting depressed and texted SWMBO and she texted me back with “Keep Looking !” Finally, the blood trail had really petered out but 30 feet into the bushes and briars lay the buck. Stiff and with flies already since it was in the mid 60s. Shot in the lower front chest, about 4 or 5 inches from where I thought my crosshairs were. However, I had no idea where I actually was, even with the compass on the phone, but spotted a clearing and I dragged him to it to get my bearings. I was actually 50 feet from the blind we had previously constructed to the south of the access road, but a full 200+ yards from the truck! I called in and got permission to run my truck on a dirt road to get closer. By 1PM, just as the rain started, I had finally gutted the deer (hadn’t done one since 2020) and loaded him up into the bed, bleeding from run-ins out in the woods tracking the blood, and totally exhausted. Those tiedown ratchet straps my buddy gave me from his Explorer are probably good for securing stuff on a roof rack but couldn’t take the weight and I basically had to dead lift it although they did help in getting one end off the ground. I called Cary our butcher and arranged to meet him in Centereach. Spikes are yummy and we are not allowed to pass up anything with four long legs on a nuisance permit anyway.
Last edited:
