Ol' Ugly and the Second Chance Spike

[TXGunNut]

Just got back from my Bee County cull deer/hog hunt. Ol' Ugly finally got to make meat but it wasn't pretty, wasn't easy. Friday morning I was sitting in a stand watching some senderos when a nice young buck stepped out. I quickly determined he was an adult spike and he was an excellent candidate for culling. I decided to take the shot and Ol' Ugly seemed willing, at least she raised no objections. ;-) Apparently one of us was a little excited and at the shot the spike ran off into some thick S TX brush. :oops: I gave him the 15 minute window to bleed out and came down to track him. Found blood and tufts of white hair where he was standing so I marked that spot and headed into the thick brush. It was 20 yds before the next spot of blood but it was pretty substantial, even looked like some lung material. It took me 20 minutes to find the second spot, by this time my brother had joined me to help track. We tracked him about a hundred yards under pretty tough conditions, we both learned to recognize his tracks as one hoof was pushing dirt and we found a nice spot of blood now and then. We had to backtrack a number of times in the thick nasty brush and pretty soon I was leaving a blood trail of my own. After a little over 30 minutes we found him down but still alive. Only shot presented was a Texas heart shot but I figured he was bleeding out so we quietly waited about 30 feet from him. After about 15 minutes his breathing showed no sign of abating so I quietly flanked him hoping for a head shot from another angle. Unfortunately the only workable angle happened to be upwind of him and before I could find an opening to fire thru he was up and gone.
I didn't know where or how badly he was hit so we listened to him crash thru the brush and got an audible fix on his location when he stopped. We waited again to let him bleed out and resumed tracking him. When we got to his assumed location we stopped and tried to spot him in the brush. We were almost on top of him and after he decided we were too close he again bolted off into the brush without offering a shot. Again we waited a little while and resumed our tracking job. It was good to have my brother along, between us we were able to spot his tracks and occasional blood spots but it wasn't easy. We jumped him two more times until we arrived in the area of another stand about 600 yds from where this party started. It was warm and I was thirsty (and more than a little hungover from the night before) and I briefly considered going back to camp for a bit of water and maybe a little break. I was in a sendero and was pretty sure he was holed up to my right but I couldn't see him. Each time he ran off he made a strange flopping sound so he was pretty easy to recognize.
It turns out he was on the other side of the sendero and he bolted practcally from underfoot again. I quickly backed off to watch the next sendero but he had already crossed it by the time I got to it and was headed for a third, this one contained a feeder. He stopped beyond a fenced-in feeder behind a thin screen of brush to look back at me. I could barely see him thru the brush, had to look thru the scope a second time to see him. He stopped for a moment and I dropped to one knee to take the broadside shot he offered for just a moment too long. He dropped at the shot and stayed down, this time.
We'd tracked this little scrapper for about 600 yards over two hours thru very thick brush and it was one of the toughest tracking jobs I've ever had. My brother congratulated me on a good neck shot but I had to admit I was holding behind his shoulder for the shot that finally anchored him Can only guess that the RD 359-190 was deflected by brush or possibly the feeder fencing. He was 10 yds past the feeder so I'm pretty sure it was some brush that pushed the boolit into his neck.
While I waited for my brother to go get the truck I figured out that my first shot was low, it shattered the rt foreleg at about the elbow and apparently bone fragments and the bullet grazed his sternum and that's why I found white tufts of hair where he was standing at the first shot. He had several other injuries from crashing wildly thru the brush.
I think I need to find a new name for Ol' Ugly. Suggestions?

123900

[Uncle Jimbo]

It will make a great story over some good venison dinners. Congratulations on the kill.
Ol' Ugly is still a good name, but if you must, try "Ol' Reliable".

[35 shooter]

Wow! That was an adventure. Congrats on staying with the trail like that and getting the job done. Chalk one up for "Ol Ugly"!!!

[ammohead]

A fellow I knew called his unhansome rifle BUD for Butt Ugly Death.

[Thumbcocker]

Congratulations on teh tracking and recovery. Many would have left him for coyonte feed. You done good.

[NoAngel]

I have to wonder why you wait 15 minutes after locating the animal? Why let it suffer? It only serves to torture the animal and allow adrenaline, lactic acid and who knows what all endorphins to pass through the body.

I just dont get that.

[MT Gianni]

I find if you are sure he will stay on the property you are hunting 30 minutes is better than 15. 15 minutes does not give an animal time to stiffen up. It still knows that something has happened to it but may not associate you with the shot if left to stiffen more. Adrenaline can push an animal beyond what seems normal and pushing it too soon gets the adrenaline rates accelerated. If hit well it will not matter, if not hit well the animal will stop and rest it's body if not pushed too soon. If pushed too early the tendency is to get out of there and you may never recover the animal.

[w5pv]

How bout Ole Tuffy?

[histed]

I'd suggest Lucifer - since you had the devil's own luck with that one. OTOH, maybe best not call on the power of darkness. Great story

[TXGunNut]

I have to wonder why you wait 15 minutes after locating the animal? Why let it suffer? It only serves to torture the animal and allow adrenaline, lactic acid and who knows what all endorphins to pass through the body.

I just dont get that.


With a good hit an animal will lay down nearby and bleed out. I didn't know my hit wasn't a good one so I assumed it was a good hit and followed that line of thinking. Pressure even a mortally wounded big game animal and you'll find out how far a "dead" critter can go.

[Idaho Mule]

Good job TXGunNut!! I enjoyed the story. As someone earlier said if we hunt long enough we will face a similar situation. The follow through is what separates the men from the boys. As far as the rifle goes, call it what you want, it does it's job. JW

[TXGunNut]

I've killed a truckload of critters with Ol' Ugly, like most rifles she does her part if I do mine. As some of you know Ol' Ugly is my first hunting rifle, I've had her for over 30 years. She's an old Winchester 670 and somewhere along the line I put an ugly, cheap, black composite stock on her and a friend glass bedded her, another did a trigger job on her. I learned to load centerfire rifle cartridges using her for a test rifle, took a few years before I found something she liked better than RP Core-Lokt. She was ugly but my "sight-in" routine for years was to put up a business card @ 100 yards, put a round thru it and go hunting.
A few years back a bit of rifling let go a few inches from the muzzle and I retired her after thousands of rounds of excellent performance. Spent thousands trying to replace a $250 rifle and never did find one to truly replace her. I did stumble across her sister, another 670, bur she'd had a rough life. I called her "Even Uglier" until I put her in the birch stock I took off Ol' Ugly awhile back, stuck a decent scope on her and discovered she was quite a shooter. Touched up the stock a bit and now I call her Annie. Awhile back I heard about JES reboring and Ol' Ugly came off the back row of my safe and went to Oregon for a little while. During that quick trip I ordered a stock from Boyd's and a Leupold VX-3 from Midway. After Jesse did his magic Ol' Ugly came back as a 35 Whelen. After putting her back together I discovered the Boyd stock needed glass-bedding so I picked up a kit from Cabelas and soon Ol' Ugly was a shooter again. Still haven't found a load she truly likes but there's a new mould on my bench that I'm looking forward to introducing to her.
I don't name all my rifles, my Guide Gun's name is Thumper and my 336 in 35 Rem has earned the moniker "Scopekiller". My bad weather gun is named after an old girlfriend because both like to be cold and a little dirty.
I dunno, I'll probably always call her Ol' Ugly but I'd like to call her something that makes sense.

[TXGunNut]

Wow! Just put the last of 44 pounds of venison into the freezer from that "little" spike. I generally figure about 30 lbs of meat for S TX white tail but that guy was above average, actually bigger than I thought. Just put 87 lbs of meat (including a hog) in the freezer, Ol' Ugly won't get to go hunting again until maybe next year.
Time to clean her up and see how she likes the new boolit mould I got her. :bigsmyl2:

[Uncle Jimbo]

Look like good eating for you this winter. Enjoy.

Do they have winter in Texas? :confused:

[Treetop]

My hat is off to you, TxGunNut. For those of you who have never hunted S. Texas, the terrain down there is as inhospitable as any terrain anywhere I've been. The first time I hunted down there, my guide told me, "Remember Treetop, everything down here will stick, stab, sting, or bite you." He wasn't kidding either, I don't see how deer or any other soft skinned creatures can live in that stuff.

Where I hunted was a solid wall of impenetrable thorny brush and cactus with a generous population of rattlers (year around), there were senderos (usually man made but, could be natural lanes) cut through it occasionally so humans and vehicles could navigate.

I can't imagine anyone tracking a wounded animal through that stuff, as far as you did. That tells me alot about your sportsmanship and obligation toward harvesting a wounded animal. Once again, a tip of the hat to you, TxGunNut! Tt.

[TXGunNut]

Thanks, Treetop. It's the way I was taught and every now and then we get a little woodcraft test. This time we passed. :-) That poor buck was shredded by his fight thru the brush, in another picture you can see how tough he really was. Found out last night a bone or boolit fragment passed thru his other foreleg, he lead us on that merry chase on 2 1/2 legs!
Wish I hadn't left my compass in my pack (with my dragging strap!), tho. Was tough keeping a heading in that stuff at times. All in all it was worth every bit of it, I'd do it again.....but hopefully next time I won't blow the first shot.
Headed down there again this weekend, leaving the big cooler at home this trip. Was hoping for the position of camp cook but there will be six others and four are accomplished camp cooks. Maybe they'll let me guard the coffeepot.

[taco650]

I think "Old Reliable" or "Trusted Friend" would be better names just because the rifle has served you so well all these years. Congrats on a freezer full of meat too. Maybe this buck thought he was destined to be one of the trophy bucks on the lease you hunt and that's why he was so hard to put down.

[TXGunNut]

I'm leaning toward "Ellie" for Ol' Ugly's new moniker. Spike may very well have had delusions of future greatness but IMHO a spike needs to be culled from a lease managed for trophies. A mature spike will arguably always be a spike. Most deer his age on this lease are six or eight points. Glad he's in my freezer instead of passing on his genes.

[joatmon]

"Ole Second Lease" Sounded good in my head anyway!
Aaron

[Treetop]

A mature spike will arguably always be a spike. Most deer his age on this lease are six or eight points. Glad he's in my freezer instead of passing on his genes.

I agree, TxGunNut. Even before the "Antler Law" we now have in Burleson Co. I was shooting nothing but mature spikes 'cause I'm primarily a meat hunter. But since the "Antler Law" was introduced 6-8 years ago, we have seen some monster bucks on our trail cameras, at least monster for central Texas!

For those of you who don't know what the "Antler Law" is, I'll give you the Cliif Notes version:

Legal bucks are defined as spikes and bucks with an inside spread of 13" (roughly the same as the ear spread on a deer, so you can use the ears as a field measure, through your scope or binoculars). IOW, you can't shoot anything with less than a 13" spread, unless it's a spike. There are a few exceptions, but this is the gist of the law.

Here is an example of what the law did for us, this is a trail cam picture, but Mrs. Treetop harvested this buck on opening morning 2011. It was, by far, the biggest buck ever taken off our family ranch since deer season was re-started in 1961.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o146/RMAJR/CDY_0186.jpg

Here are some other examples

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o146/RMAJR/CDY_0148.jpg

[TXGunNut]

Nice bucks, only issue I have is that the antler law doesn't let you take the high & narrow or "basket rack" bucks that should be taken off as well when trying to breed the low wide racks that folks want to see on the wall.

[TXGunNut]

"Ole Second Lease" Sounded good in my head anyway!
Aaron

I understand where you're coming from, maybe "Double R" for "recycled rifle".

[pls1911]

TxGN Thanks for setting the good example of what good men do when bad things happen. Most folks would have followed your line of thinking....but how many would have exhibited the tenacity to be responsible and follow it through to the proper end?

Stuff happens sometimes, and we have to do our part to make the best of it.
Your tale also shows why my preferred placement is the junction point of both shoulders and spine.
put a slug there, and I save myself tracking beyond a critter length.

[TXGunNut]

Thanks for the kind words, pls1911. I'm a pretty decent rifle shot but as you pointed out things happen and every few years I get a chance to track a deer, sometimes for another hunter. Tracking isn't hard, I even did a grid search in the dark once for a deer that somehow stopped bleeding and made a hard left turn. Thank goodness we had plenty of flashlights, that was a two hour job as well. She was curled up under a juniper tree on the same ranch, facing away from us.
I'm stubborn and have too much respect for game to let it go if I or someone else blows a shot. One very experienced hunter on the lease lost a very nice deer shot just before dark a few weeks ago. It was found the next morning piled up about 35 yards from where he shot it but the coyotes found it first. He's a good tracker as well and he feels terrible about not finding this deer.
This has been a very good year for trophy bucks on this lease but also a bad year for critters not being recovered.

[CLAYPOOL]

Tuff-e nuff