LAST EDITED ON Nov-29-04 AT 01:58PM (MST)[p]I came back yesterday from 9 days of hunting the Oklahoma deer season with my 14 year old son. I took a doe that field dressed 92 LBS opening morning. It was my son's first deer hunting trip, and he insisted that his first deer must be a buck so he got a buck only permit. I had a combination permit which allowed me to take both a doe and a buck. Neither of us saw a buck during the 9 days, so my son was skunked.
Opening morning, I placed my son and my niece at advantageous positions around a large pond that is known to draw deer. I climbed over the bowl of land that encloses the pond and sat on the far side of the hill, on the downward slope facing east, maybe 400 yards away. My niece saw a couple of does walk out of the woods to the edge of the pond about 30 yards away but missed her shot with a .30-30 Winchester 94 which, it turned out on later inspection, was missing the rear sight elevation ramp so who knows where that rifle was shooting! My son had fallen asleep and was quickly awakened by the rifle shot. About 5 minutes later a cautious doe walks out of the woods in front of me. She looks straight at me so I avert my eyes and freeze. When she drops her head to the ground, I begin to raise my gun. But she immediately raises her head and looks at me again. Again, I freeze and avert my eyes. We play this patty cake routine a couple of times -- maybe a total of 1 minute -- and she freaks out and runs forward. I raise my gun, think I see her in my scope, but figure I better not shoot. I am about 25 yards away from a deer trail that runs right against a fence at the edge of the property above a road. I'm thinking to myself that my spot is pretty poor, that the deer are forced to be very close to my spot and that consequently I'll have this problem of getting the gun on the deer every time. Woe is me! This was about 8:05 AM. About 9:15 AM another doe appears out of the woods from the opposite direction. This doe proceeds on her way with no particular caution. I am able to raise my gun to my shoulder and even adjust my right boot heel for firmer placement before I take my shot. She went down about 10 yards further up the trail. I hit her low, in front of her on-side front leg, but the bullet went through and broke her off-side front leg. I now wish I had hit her further back, behind the legs, because I lost considerable shoulder meat from both sides. I used a .243 100 grain Winchester Power Point cartridge. I suppose anything would do the job at the 25-30 yards of this shot. I drove my truck up to the road and had to carry her only about 10 yards!!!
In the middle of the nine days I placed my son in a clump of bushes beside a long grassy path -- looks like a road but is not -- that leads to the edge of a small pond back in the woods. The pond is about 75 yards away from the clump of bushes. The idea was to get a shot at deer using the grassy path in either direction and also deer going to or coming from the pond. Well, about 11 AM three does popped out of the woods where the pond is located and walked right up the grassy path to where my son was located. They walked calmly right past him and never nosed him, never bolted. He says he could have reached out and touched one of them. However, because of my son's "It has to be a buck!" philosophy, he had only a buck permit and could not shoot!
It was fun and the weather wasn't too bad. We had a couple of days of rain, but the temperatures were pretty moderate. I'm glad to not have to listen to the alarm clock going off at 4:30 AM any more though. I don't have any particularly pretty pictures to post so won't post what I have.
Opening morning, I placed my son and my niece at advantageous positions around a large pond that is known to draw deer. I climbed over the bowl of land that encloses the pond and sat on the far side of the hill, on the downward slope facing east, maybe 400 yards away. My niece saw a couple of does walk out of the woods to the edge of the pond about 30 yards away but missed her shot with a .30-30 Winchester 94 which, it turned out on later inspection, was missing the rear sight elevation ramp so who knows where that rifle was shooting! My son had fallen asleep and was quickly awakened by the rifle shot. About 5 minutes later a cautious doe walks out of the woods in front of me. She looks straight at me so I avert my eyes and freeze. When she drops her head to the ground, I begin to raise my gun. But she immediately raises her head and looks at me again. Again, I freeze and avert my eyes. We play this patty cake routine a couple of times -- maybe a total of 1 minute -- and she freaks out and runs forward. I raise my gun, think I see her in my scope, but figure I better not shoot. I am about 25 yards away from a deer trail that runs right against a fence at the edge of the property above a road. I'm thinking to myself that my spot is pretty poor, that the deer are forced to be very close to my spot and that consequently I'll have this problem of getting the gun on the deer every time. Woe is me! This was about 8:05 AM. About 9:15 AM another doe appears out of the woods from the opposite direction. This doe proceeds on her way with no particular caution. I am able to raise my gun to my shoulder and even adjust my right boot heel for firmer placement before I take my shot. She went down about 10 yards further up the trail. I hit her low, in front of her on-side front leg, but the bullet went through and broke her off-side front leg. I now wish I had hit her further back, behind the legs, because I lost considerable shoulder meat from both sides. I used a .243 100 grain Winchester Power Point cartridge. I suppose anything would do the job at the 25-30 yards of this shot. I drove my truck up to the road and had to carry her only about 10 yards!!!
In the middle of the nine days I placed my son in a clump of bushes beside a long grassy path -- looks like a road but is not -- that leads to the edge of a small pond back in the woods. The pond is about 75 yards away from the clump of bushes. The idea was to get a shot at deer using the grassy path in either direction and also deer going to or coming from the pond. Well, about 11 AM three does popped out of the woods where the pond is located and walked right up the grassy path to where my son was located. They walked calmly right past him and never nosed him, never bolted. He says he could have reached out and touched one of them. However, because of my son's "It has to be a buck!" philosophy, he had only a buck permit and could not shoot!
It was fun and the weather wasn't too bad. We had a couple of days of rain, but the temperatures were pretty moderate. I'm glad to not have to listen to the alarm clock going off at 4:30 AM any more though. I don't have any particularly pretty pictures to post so won't post what I have.
