LA_MERC_Wetzny
December 4th, 2008, 10:16 PM
Being in the woods does something for me I can't really explain. I walk slower, I speak softer, I'm calm. Whether I'm working, riding a horse, setting up a tree stand and imagining the wildlife I will see from it, it doesn't matter I feel happy and at home.
As a lifelong bow hunter I never imagined rifle hunting whitetail deer. Until this evening I had never even fired a rifle more powerful than my AR-15 .223. But this is the first season in Kansas where you didn't have to declare your weapon of choice to take a whitetail buck. As long you fired a legal weapon in the legal season a bow tag was as good as a rifle tag and vice-versa.
2008 Deer season as been a good one for me, I've been fortunate to spend countless days afield and have seen a number of deer and other game on my little spot of nature. For the most part, they alluded me. I've past on any number of fine deer in; waiting for just the right one to come by. I was looking for a mature deer one that was four or so years old. Heavy in the chest, with the stubby 'Roman' nose which older deer exhibit. Really it's been a number of years since one has been close enough for a clean bow shot, 5 to be exact.
The last couple of days I've been out in the field, and again the wind blew. Harder yesterday than I can remember, harder than the miserable first week of November when the wind blew for 6 straight days over 30! Anyone will tell you the one thing that shuts down deer is high wind. They just hole up and won't move. Yesterday it blew steady at 35-40 with gusts to 55!! Man did I feel snake bit!
This morning the wind calmed the air was cold, but I was in town having to cover the car-pool after my neighbor was called out on business late last night. Again snake bit... So I got a late start back out to the farm and arrived in time to see my good friend Mike and our guest Jerry (Mike's boss) coming in from a morning hunt. I fixed some eggs and bacon and listened to them recount the morning hunt and the great number of deer they saw moving. I suggested we head right out and try a mid day deer drive, Mike and I would drive around the section and head to the southern most part of the property and push toward Jerry, so off we went. After getting to our spot we started to walk the draws and waist high native buffalo grass and it wasn't long before we heard the report of Jerry's .270. We stopped and soon after Jerry was calling to tell us he had dropped a nice eight-pointer. We headed back to Jerry and started to the work of recovering the deer and getting him cleaned.
Around 3 o'clock or so Jerry and I headed back out this time to the far south west part of my ground for the evening hunt. I was reasonably confident we would see deer. I always do down there. But alas, I was wrong. After getting Jerry in his stand, I headed to mine excited that now it was my turn at a Kansas buck. NADA... ZIP... ZILCH... nothing was moving. The birds were pretty as they thrashed in the brush below me, the geese and ducks circled almost endlessly between my water-sheds and freshly cut milo, but ZERO deer. Three o'clock became four, then five..nothing. I was having fun, but felt a little snake bit, another day afield was going to end with nothing on the ground to my credit.
As the the last light started to fall, I caught a glimpse of a deer emerging from a thicket of brush, cottonwoods and grass to my north. I knew it was a buck before I raised my binoculars to see it, when I did get the glasses on him I knew it was my deer. I grabbed my borrowed .270 and found him in the scope, he was going the wrong way. He was quartering away from me and not getting any closer when I dropped the cross hairs of the Nikon on that special spot right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. It was dark enough now that I could see the muzzle flash as I sent the bullet flying. From my perch at what I estimated to be about 175 yards away from my target I saw my buck jump and duck his head then run tail up about 40 yards up a grassed over terrace. I lost sight of him then and I wondered if I would ever see him again. I knew Jerry wasn't far the spot where I'd last saw my buck so I climbed down, chambered another round and dialed my phone. I asked Jerry if he'd seen my deer, "what deer?" was the reply, the buck I just shot was my retort. Did you hear him crash near you? (nearly frantic now thinking I'd just wounded a good deer, at last light, in thick cover) "No I didn't hear or see anything other than your shot" Now I'm seriously thinking I whiffed or worse, put a poor shot on a quartering away buck, with a rifle I'd never shot, and I'll never find this animal. So I tell Jerry to sit tight and I'll make my way over towards him, knowing that with the light fading finding blood was going to be tough. So I headed to the last spot I saw the deer, and there he was not more than another 15 feet buried in grass and dead.
The woods rock, and when you take a great animal, with great friends around the time, effort and hard work are all worth it.
Here he is, a big bodied bastage and pretty nice rack to boot!!
As a lifelong bow hunter I never imagined rifle hunting whitetail deer. Until this evening I had never even fired a rifle more powerful than my AR-15 .223. But this is the first season in Kansas where you didn't have to declare your weapon of choice to take a whitetail buck. As long you fired a legal weapon in the legal season a bow tag was as good as a rifle tag and vice-versa.
2008 Deer season as been a good one for me, I've been fortunate to spend countless days afield and have seen a number of deer and other game on my little spot of nature. For the most part, they alluded me. I've past on any number of fine deer in; waiting for just the right one to come by. I was looking for a mature deer one that was four or so years old. Heavy in the chest, with the stubby 'Roman' nose which older deer exhibit. Really it's been a number of years since one has been close enough for a clean bow shot, 5 to be exact.
The last couple of days I've been out in the field, and again the wind blew. Harder yesterday than I can remember, harder than the miserable first week of November when the wind blew for 6 straight days over 30! Anyone will tell you the one thing that shuts down deer is high wind. They just hole up and won't move. Yesterday it blew steady at 35-40 with gusts to 55!! Man did I feel snake bit!
This morning the wind calmed the air was cold, but I was in town having to cover the car-pool after my neighbor was called out on business late last night. Again snake bit... So I got a late start back out to the farm and arrived in time to see my good friend Mike and our guest Jerry (Mike's boss) coming in from a morning hunt. I fixed some eggs and bacon and listened to them recount the morning hunt and the great number of deer they saw moving. I suggested we head right out and try a mid day deer drive, Mike and I would drive around the section and head to the southern most part of the property and push toward Jerry, so off we went. After getting to our spot we started to walk the draws and waist high native buffalo grass and it wasn't long before we heard the report of Jerry's .270. We stopped and soon after Jerry was calling to tell us he had dropped a nice eight-pointer. We headed back to Jerry and started to the work of recovering the deer and getting him cleaned.
Around 3 o'clock or so Jerry and I headed back out this time to the far south west part of my ground for the evening hunt. I was reasonably confident we would see deer. I always do down there. But alas, I was wrong. After getting Jerry in his stand, I headed to mine excited that now it was my turn at a Kansas buck. NADA... ZIP... ZILCH... nothing was moving. The birds were pretty as they thrashed in the brush below me, the geese and ducks circled almost endlessly between my water-sheds and freshly cut milo, but ZERO deer. Three o'clock became four, then five..nothing. I was having fun, but felt a little snake bit, another day afield was going to end with nothing on the ground to my credit.
As the the last light started to fall, I caught a glimpse of a deer emerging from a thicket of brush, cottonwoods and grass to my north. I knew it was a buck before I raised my binoculars to see it, when I did get the glasses on him I knew it was my deer. I grabbed my borrowed .270 and found him in the scope, he was going the wrong way. He was quartering away from me and not getting any closer when I dropped the cross hairs of the Nikon on that special spot right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. It was dark enough now that I could see the muzzle flash as I sent the bullet flying. From my perch at what I estimated to be about 175 yards away from my target I saw my buck jump and duck his head then run tail up about 40 yards up a grassed over terrace. I lost sight of him then and I wondered if I would ever see him again. I knew Jerry wasn't far the spot where I'd last saw my buck so I climbed down, chambered another round and dialed my phone. I asked Jerry if he'd seen my deer, "what deer?" was the reply, the buck I just shot was my retort. Did you hear him crash near you? (nearly frantic now thinking I'd just wounded a good deer, at last light, in thick cover) "No I didn't hear or see anything other than your shot" Now I'm seriously thinking I whiffed or worse, put a poor shot on a quartering away buck, with a rifle I'd never shot, and I'll never find this animal. So I tell Jerry to sit tight and I'll make my way over towards him, knowing that with the light fading finding blood was going to be tough. So I headed to the last spot I saw the deer, and there he was not more than another 15 feet buried in grass and dead.
The woods rock, and when you take a great animal, with great friends around the time, effort and hard work are all worth it.
Here he is, a big bodied bastage and pretty nice rack to boot!!