Deer Slayer

From Matt

As Cori posted last night, I went hunting with Dad this weekend and managed to "bag and tag" three deer. I got two on Saturday morning and the third on Sunday morning. Here are my Deer Stories:

On Saturday morning I got in the deer stand around 6:00. It was really quiet and still until 9:20 when in the clearing on my left and saw a deer standing in a small thicket about 45 yards away. It was a small doe, but I could tell she wasn't a yearling. So I quietly and slowly pulled my 30-30 up and put the crosshairs just behind her right shoulder. I pulled the trigger and... I knew immediately that she was hit. She half stumbled, half ran straight toward me and then veered off to run straight away in front of me. I chambered another round, found her in the scope, and pulled the trigger again. As she disappeared into the woods in front of me, I chambered another round and looked to my left. Much to my surprise, there was another doe standing in the same clearing about 55 yards away. Her back was to me and she was looking over her right shoulder in my direction. So... with my adrenaline pumping, I put the crosshairs on her spine just in front of her hips and squeezed the trigger again... And again, I immediately knew she was hit. She stumbled off into the woods. She had no more than disappeared when ANOTHER deer stepped out into the clearing. So I pulled my gun up and put the crosshairs on it... It, however, was a yearling, so I took my finger off the trigger and just sat there and watched it for a few minutes until it turned around and wandered off in the direction from which it had come.

Once Dad got there about 45 minutes later, we found both deer exactly where I thought they should be based on the last place I saw them... The first was hit in her right shoulder (about 6 inches from where I was aiming), and the second was hit in the left hip (again, about 6 inches from where I was aiming). We dragged them to the truck, took them home, and cleaned them (with Cori and Mom's help, of course!). I was really glad to have ended my ten-year no-deer streak, and Dad was really proud of me. So - based on Saturday morning alone, the weekend was a success. But Sunday topped it off!

I got in the stand at 5:50 Sunday morning. At 7:30, a small doe and yearling walked out in the clearing to my left, but I let them walk (after watching them through the scope for about 4 minutes). And it was worth it... At 8:50, I saw movement - again, in the clearing to my left. About 100 yards away, a deer stepped out. I pulled the scope up and watched it as it walked straight toward me. When it got to a spot about 80 yards from my stand, it stopped and lifted its head to eat briar leaves above it. That was my chance! I put the crosshairs in the center of its chest and pulled the trigger. And... It fell down! Then it got up and stumbled away... I heard it fall down in the woods twice. When I got down about an hour later to go find it, I saw a decent blood trail leading from the clearing into the woods. Following the blood trail about 30 yards, I found the deer--a 5-point buck. I had hit it square in the middle of the chest. When Dad got there, he helped me drag it to the truck. We took it home and cleaned it. Cori, Mom, Dad, and I had a lot of fun cleaning the deer - Cori is really good at skinning deer and stripping their tenderloins! Now, between my deer and the ones Dad has gotten, we will have plenty of deer meat for the next year... And, I feel great about succeeding at something that I have, historically, not been very good at... And, the best of all, Dad was proud of me for killing three deer in two days with four bullets. So... those are my Deer Stories. Anybody want to come over for deer chili? :)