Thumbcocker
12-07-2008, 12:37 PM
Yesterday was a good day. I was hunting on our land and it had snowed some during the night. Just enough to cover the leaves good. I took the climbing stand up a tree on one side of the small creek (glorified ditch) that winds around the edge of the woods. I was down from a major thicket of small maples and was hoping to catch a doe coming out. The wind was from the west so it was in my face. I got settled in and waited for it to get good and light. The snow stopped and the wind shifted to the southwest.
Around 8:00 a doe came in behind me and started into the woods. She stoped down wind and I was hoping she would step down into the creek bottom before she winded me. It didn't work out that way and she took off across the field. A few minutes later a tall racked buck came to the samd spot and took off. I was still hoping some deer would move in from the west.
Around 8:30 six does came in from the west and stopped on the other side of the creek bottom. They hung up and the lead doe was getting hinkey so I took a quartering to shot and she ran off gimping a little on one leg. Apparently the .44 shot did not spook them as much as the slug guns being used in the area because the other does hesitated. The second doe turned broadside so I held for a heart shot on her and squeezed one off. She did the classic high kick and took off with the rest of them.
Tracking was easy because when the leaves turned over it knocked the snow off and left a trail even I could follow.
The first doe was down in around 50 yards. I drug her up to a log and then went looking for the second doe. She was bedded behind a tree. A finisher throug the lungs put her down. When I was field dressing her I found that the first shot had taken part of the front of the heart off. I don't know how she was still alive.
The load was a 429421hp cast from 50/50 ww and pure lead sized .431 and lubed with 50/50 beeswax and lithum car grease over 22.0 of IMR 4227.
Neither doe bled much until the last 20 yards or so. It is really importatnt to follow up shots. With winter hair and the hide moving back and forth over the entrance and exit holes a deer can cover a bunch of ground before you get blood.
My wife and daughter came up and helped me drag.
Here are some pictures of the does and the Bisley.
Around 8:00 a doe came in behind me and started into the woods. She stoped down wind and I was hoping she would step down into the creek bottom before she winded me. It didn't work out that way and she took off across the field. A few minutes later a tall racked buck came to the samd spot and took off. I was still hoping some deer would move in from the west.
Around 8:30 six does came in from the west and stopped on the other side of the creek bottom. They hung up and the lead doe was getting hinkey so I took a quartering to shot and she ran off gimping a little on one leg. Apparently the .44 shot did not spook them as much as the slug guns being used in the area because the other does hesitated. The second doe turned broadside so I held for a heart shot on her and squeezed one off. She did the classic high kick and took off with the rest of them.
Tracking was easy because when the leaves turned over it knocked the snow off and left a trail even I could follow.
The first doe was down in around 50 yards. I drug her up to a log and then went looking for the second doe. She was bedded behind a tree. A finisher throug the lungs put her down. When I was field dressing her I found that the first shot had taken part of the front of the heart off. I don't know how she was still alive.
The load was a 429421hp cast from 50/50 ww and pure lead sized .431 and lubed with 50/50 beeswax and lithum car grease over 22.0 of IMR 4227.
Neither doe bled much until the last 20 yards or so. It is really importatnt to follow up shots. With winter hair and the hide moving back and forth over the entrance and exit holes a deer can cover a bunch of ground before you get blood.
My wife and daughter came up and helped me drag.
Here are some pictures of the does and the Bisley.