Talehunter
New Member
I have enjoyed reading many of the posts here and decided submit my first post to share my most recent hunting tale. I took my 13-year-old daughter, Shay, out on the opening day of The 2006 Iowa Youth deer season. She harvested her first deer but it did not go as I expected. Instead it was a day filled with exciting twists and turns that made it the most memorable hunt I have had in 20 years of hunting. Here is the story:
We started the day at 6:30 AM in a tree stand in a small woodlot in a Madison country CRP field where I expected some does would be coming to bed down early AM. After sitting on stand for 2 1/2hours without seeing anything, we went walking through another woodlot in the same area. About 9 AM we saw deer 75 yards away coming quickly toward us, led by a buck followed by 5 does. We took a knee and prepared for a possible shot. The buck came up out of a ditch into a clearing at 25 yards but immediately spun around going back down the ditch before my daughter was able to get her shot. Shay looked at me in disappointment saying she had missed it. I said to follow him through the scope to be ready for another possible chance. When he came up the other side of the ditch at about 40 yds, he stopped to take a look back and presented a quick partially obstructed but good still shot. Shay said she had his vitals in the scope, so she took the shot. The buck immediately lunged forward and bolted out of the timber without breaking stride.
After looking extensively we found no blood in area so I thought we had missed him. Again disappointed, we walked around the edge of the woods toward the direction he had headed. In the CRP, Shay found saw some drops of blood, we found came from the direction where she shot at the buck, so we followed the trail for about 100 yards to another woodlot. I decided we should give him some time, so we left for about 2 hours. When we returned, we picked up the trail again but flushed the buck in some very thick woods once again without getting another shot. There is open pasture surrounding the CRP so I thought he may stay and bed down in the woodlot again if we let him. We then left and returned about 6 hours later with a friend. Once again we flushed the buck in the same woodlot without getting a shot but he was moving about 1/2 speed as he headed into a wooded ravine in the adjacent cattle pasture. While we were crossing the pasture toward a ridge, Shay saw the buck standing in a group of trees in a small pond in the bottom of the ravine. The buck was looking at us then back at my friend on the other side but just stood there by the trees in the pond. Shay got around to the open side of the pond and took another 50-yard shot, which brought the buck down in the pond. A towrope helped extract him from the pond and fortunately we were able to drive my truck to the pond avoiding a long drag on a heavy buck. The 20 g slug on her original shot had went in his neck, through the shoulder but did not exit, therefore the lack of blood at first.
The 9 pt buck has a 20 1/2 inch inside spread and field dressed at approx 185 lbs. We now have another deer hunter in my family and a wonderful memory of a successful day in the field together!
We started the day at 6:30 AM in a tree stand in a small woodlot in a Madison country CRP field where I expected some does would be coming to bed down early AM. After sitting on stand for 2 1/2hours without seeing anything, we went walking through another woodlot in the same area. About 9 AM we saw deer 75 yards away coming quickly toward us, led by a buck followed by 5 does. We took a knee and prepared for a possible shot. The buck came up out of a ditch into a clearing at 25 yards but immediately spun around going back down the ditch before my daughter was able to get her shot. Shay looked at me in disappointment saying she had missed it. I said to follow him through the scope to be ready for another possible chance. When he came up the other side of the ditch at about 40 yds, he stopped to take a look back and presented a quick partially obstructed but good still shot. Shay said she had his vitals in the scope, so she took the shot. The buck immediately lunged forward and bolted out of the timber without breaking stride.
After looking extensively we found no blood in area so I thought we had missed him. Again disappointed, we walked around the edge of the woods toward the direction he had headed. In the CRP, Shay found saw some drops of blood, we found came from the direction where she shot at the buck, so we followed the trail for about 100 yards to another woodlot. I decided we should give him some time, so we left for about 2 hours. When we returned, we picked up the trail again but flushed the buck in some very thick woods once again without getting another shot. There is open pasture surrounding the CRP so I thought he may stay and bed down in the woodlot again if we let him. We then left and returned about 6 hours later with a friend. Once again we flushed the buck in the same woodlot without getting a shot but he was moving about 1/2 speed as he headed into a wooded ravine in the adjacent cattle pasture. While we were crossing the pasture toward a ridge, Shay saw the buck standing in a group of trees in a small pond in the bottom of the ravine. The buck was looking at us then back at my friend on the other side but just stood there by the trees in the pond. Shay got around to the open side of the pond and took another 50-yard shot, which brought the buck down in the pond. A towrope helped extract him from the pond and fortunately we were able to drive my truck to the pond avoiding a long drag on a heavy buck. The 20 g slug on her original shot had went in his neck, through the shoulder but did not exit, therefore the lack of blood at first.
The 9 pt buck has a 20 1/2 inch inside spread and field dressed at approx 185 lbs. We now have another deer hunter in my family and a wonderful memory of a successful day in the field together!
