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This year my group opened hunting gun season on a friend’s property just outside Belmont, NY. Belmont is located in Allegheny County, one of the two counties in Western New York/the Southern Tier that legally allow deer hunting with rifles (elsewhere only shotguns are allowed). While I’d hunted both here and another town where rifle hunting is legal (Perrysburg, NY) the year prior, this was the first season I hunted with a rifle – the .243 Remington bolt action rifle that I’d won during the previous year.

I shared a ride down to camp Friday night with another member of the hunting party. While I had never met him before, I was glad to have the company for the ride. The weather cooperated for us and we arrived just in time for the 7:30 puck drop for the Sabres game. Unfortunately, as everyone was getting ready to head to bed for the night, the weather forecast for Saturday looked dim. We woke at 5:30 Saturday morning and could immediately hear rain landing on the roof of the cabin. It didn’t sound good – peaking out the window, it didn’t look good either… Around 6:20, we mustered up enough courage to head outside and up the mountain. I’d kept the seat of my ATV in my truck the night prior to keep it from collecting dew/snow, but it made no difference – I was still soaked by the time I got to the top of the mountain.

The land we were hunting on had been logged the previous year, so the back side of the mountain contained quite a bit of downed tree tops – making seeing any distance difficult, especially from the ground. I had heard earlier in the week that I was going to be placed at the top of the mountain, in a porta-potty shaped ground blind. It wasn’t my first preference for where to sit – no work had been done to clear shooting lanes through the downed tree tops near this one. I had been hoping to sit in a metal ladder stand on the side of the mountain that I’d hung earlier that summer – I’d propped it against a tree with a great view of an area well I’d seen two deer the year previous and had cleared a couple nice shooting lanes for this summer. Having been fortunate enough to take a spike two weeks prior during archery season, I wasn’t all that concerned. During the discussion Friday night, the land owner mentioned it was too bad we couldn’t find a blind covered with tree tops in the area near the stand. I mentioned the ladder stand I hung was in that area, which surprised him, so he told me to hunt there instead. However, the pouring rain opening morning quickly ruined any desire to sit uncovered in the rain in the ladder stand – when we got outside, I decided to hunt the (covered) blind I was originally supposed to. At that point, I didn’t care about seeing deer, and figured I would both stay dry and be able to sleep.

At the top of the mountain, I quickly dismounted my ATV & headed towards the blind. I normally spray myself down with a scent eliminating spray, but wanted to get out of the rain, so I skipped it. I struggled for a couple minutes to find the blind, but eventually stumbled upon it. Without tree tops, the best shots out of this blind are normally down the mountain behind it. When I looked out the back of the stand in this direction, I wasn’t surprised that I could only see about 15 feet to 30 yards before my view was obstructed, so I decided to face away from this direction. To my right were two ~30 yard shots. Straight out the front of the blind was a ~20 yard shot. To my left was a opening window of ~80 yards.

I settled into the blind. While it was raining outside, I stayed completed dry inside. The temperature was around 50, with no wind. I didn’t even need to wear gloves. The blind had a plastic patio chair inside, which was very comfortable. I spent the beginning of the morning relaxing, browsing the web on my iPhone and listening to the various conversations on the very busy walkie-talkie.

While the walkie-talkie picked up a plethora of chit-chat from surrounding areas, our group saw no deer for the first couple hours. The rain never relented. At one point, a thick fog even passed through the woods.

Around 10am, one of the group radioed in that he’d headed back to camp and that another of the group was already down there. Thoughts of leaving crossed my mind, but I was comfortable in the blind and heading down to camp would have required heading out into the rain, so I stayed put.

Not long afterward, I heard a close shot. Based the direction it came from, I knew it was one of our group, but was surprised to hear the guy I rode in with (Dave) on the walkie-talkie almost immediately say “I shot one & it’s down in front of me”. Dave had been hunting a couple times years back, but this was the first deer he’d ever seen in the woods. He shot it once at ~35 yards with the 12 Gauge Mossberg 835 he’d borrowed from another of the group and just sighted in the week prior. It ended up weighing in at 125 lbs at the processors and being a four point buck with a very interesting rack. I asked Dave if he wanted me to give him a hand with it & was getting ready to head his way when Mark (Squirrel) radioed up from camp that he’d take care of it – so I stayed in the blind.

An hour later around 11, Ed (who owns the land), radioed in that he was making his way up the mountain and that I should stay alert in case he kicked anything toward me. Shortly thereafter, I glanced out the side of the blind and was shocked to spot a set of antlers around 50 yards to my left, just over the top of the mountain. Between their size and the contrast of the white of the antlers against the dark brown of the tree tops, I thought I was watching a trophy hunt on TV. The antlers appeared to float above the downed trees, moving at a very casual pace.

I quickly grabbed my rifle. In doing so, I squeaked the floorboards of the blind, tipped up the plastic lawn chair off it’s feet & banged up against the side of the blind – yet the deer never noticed. At this point, I still hadn’t seen the body of the deer, but the antlers made their way toward me at a 45 degree angle. I was excited – if it continued on the path it was heading, it would have popped out in the clearing in front of me around 30 yards. I dropped to a knee, braced my body against the side of the blind & rested the bottom of the rifle on the top of the half door in front of me. The deer continued. But then the deer turned away from me & was suddenly heading away at a 45 degree angle. It continued to casually move through the woods & even though it was no longer heading toward me, it was still on target to pop out in the path in front of me.

As it approached the top of the mountain, I picked a spot in the lane where I would shoot. The spot was about 10 feet wide. To the left of it were some trees, but the area was open enough that I’d be able to see the body of the deer there for the first time. When the deer passed through this area, I could not get over the size of it’s body – I was looking at it with my bare eyes from around 75 yards away and it looked huge.

It continued forward to the spot I decided I’d shoot if it passed through. I would have preferred a shorter shot and/or the deer not moving, but the rifle was shooting well & I told myself I’d be mad at myself for the rest of my life if I didn’t shoot at it. It stepped into the opening. I peered through the scope. I centered my sights on just behind it’s shoulder. Bang – I’d squeezed the trigger. I saw the bullet strike. It hit a little bit further back on the lungs than I would have liked, but the deer bucked up regardless. It trotted forward and was out of my sight almost immediately. I pulled the bolt back on the rifle. The spent cartridge ejected and pinged around the inside of the blind.

I grabbed the radio. I excitedly spoke into it “I shot a monster”. I could hear the the tremble in my own voice. Ed said to stay put & that he’d be there shortly. I acknowledged. At this point, I began to wonder how effective the shot was. I knew it hit back on the body. The deer was moving. The distance of the shot was father than any other I’d taken before. Staying put & not knowing what happened with the deer was difficult. Fortunately, Ed soon popped into sight right around where the deer headed to after I shot it. I got out of the blind and headed toward him & where I hit the deer. We looked around the ground for blood. There was none. My heart began to sink. He sent me back to the blind to steer him toward the point of impact. I moved him slightly off of where we had just been looking for blood, but still wasn’t confident it was the correct spot. We looked for blood here, but again saw none. Since the leaves were matted down from the rain all morning, it was extremely difficult to see the footprints from where the deer had walked, but eventually at this second spot we found the prints from where he bucked up. While we knew where he bucked up & the direction he headed, there were no additional foot prints top be found, much less any blood. I didn’t think we’d stand a chance of tracking the deer.

I started to worry again. Ed told me he didn’t see any hair and started to ask me where on it’s body I thought I hit it & how it behaved after the shot rang out. At this point, I was down on my knees looking for anything. Finally I found some hair – a whopping whole 7 or 8 strands. Fortunately they were brown hairs & Ed agreed that I’d hit the deer. Squirrel had made his way up to the top of the mountain at this point & was walking towards us. Ed sent him in the direction the deer headed, but around the path I suspected he took – the idea was that if the deer was still alive in the area, Squirrel could would go around him & shoot if we then kicked him up while looking.

Squirrel didn’t get very far from us when he yelled something to the effect of “It’s down over here, you have to come and look at this!”. Exhilaration filled me again. We walked approximately 75 yards from where I’d shot it to Squirrel, where he stood over the deer. The deer looked even bigger than I expected when up close.

Even right where the deer lied, there was still no blood. In fact, there wasn’t even an exit wound hole. Flipping the deer over, we discovered the bullet had struck exactly where I thought it had, back in the ribs. The deer was quartering away when it struck, so it traveled through a lung & buried itself in the far shoulder.

Ed volunteered to gut the deer, which took him all of an impressive three or four minutes. We dragged the deer by the antlers down a steep part of the mountain to the ATVs below.

Getting it on the back rack of one was a chore.

ATV picture here to right.

By the time we got the deer back down to camp, it was around noon. Most everyone grabbed lunch & headed back out to hunt the afternoon. Dave and I stayed to drink Genny Lights and hang our deer in the trees outside the cabin. Hanging the deer turned out to be quite a task for the two of us, but was worth it as everyone who drove past the cabin stopped to take a look. After struggling to pull my deer up by rope, we decided to use my ATV to pull him over the tree and anchor him.

I didn’t hear any shots while outdoors, so I was quite surprised to see Ed make his way down the hill on his ATV, with a deer strapped to the front of it. He had the third buck of the day, a five pointer with a very red set of antlers.

Three deer down meant half of the opening day crew had deer. Yet the day wasn’t over quite yet… Around 4, Squirrel radioed in that he dropped another deer, a small button buck. He’d shot it on the side of the mountain, from a hang-on stand he’d hung during the summer in a nice looking location. Although we’d cleared lanes here, he squeezed his shot between a bunch of branches, hitting the deer in the ribs & exiting the shot through the front of the chest. He was using a 30.06, which he said dropped the deer so hard onto the slope in front of it, that it bounced back up and rolled over.

That night we headed to a local restaurant for dinner.

After many, many hours in the woods this season, I finally took a deer with my bow this past Tuesday, Election day. I’d taken off from work for all of the opening week of the season, hoping to shoot a deer early on and enjoy the rest of my time off. While I hunted all but one day of my vacation, the weather was miserable, I saw a mere five deer and didn’t get a shot the entire time.

Due to the Marine Corps Marathon, I wasn’t able to to hunt the second weekend of bow season, but did get out to the woods for the third. That first Saturday back, I saw five deer in one day. I thought things were starting to look better, but the Sunday of the same weekend I only saw one. Of the deer I did see, they were all too far to shoot. Between the lack of a shot, the amount of time I’d spent in the woods & the fact that my buddy shot one early the first day after sitting in a stand I’d done the scouting work to place, I began to get frustrated.

This year I moved one of the stands at the hunting grounds towards the rear of the property, where I’d seen some deer come from last year & spotted four doe from during scouting this fall. The stand was located at the top of the hill, giving me a great view of the woods below. (I may move it back for rifle season.) I spent the majority of my time this fall there, but much to my disappointment, the deer I saw all seemed to cross in the flat below the bottom of the hill. While I stuck it out at the top of the hill, I finally decided the Sunday before election day to move the stand half way down the hill – three days later was when this deer walked past me.

The shot to the left here was taken from the spot where I hit the deer. Just to the left of center, you can see a black bag – this is the top of my tree stand, where I shot from. The distance is approximately 20 yards. With daylight’s saving time, sun-up was getting pretty close to 7AM. Officially, it wasn’t up until 6:52 this day, so I took my time & got into the woods around 6:45. When I sat down in my stand, I realized there was already plenty of ambient light & was a little angry at myself for not having gotten up earlier. Fortunately, the deer came through shortly thereafter at 7:15, sneaking up behind me. When it came through, I first heard the distinctive sound of leaves crunching from about 15 yards behind me. I was playing solitaire on my iPod Nano at the time – since the tree my stand was propped against was only about 8 inches in diameter, I didn’t dare turn around to look (for fear of spooking the deer). I carefully put the iPod in my cargo pants pocket & peaked out of the corner of my eye toward the direction of the crunch, confirming it was a deer.

The deer continued forward, but I suspect it either saw or smelled me, because it veered slightly off the path under my stand it’d been heading on & continued 5 yards up the hill. When it came into my full view, it was about 15 yards away. I waited until its body was even with me, then slowly began to stand up & raise my bow. For some reason when I drew my bow back, I did it across my body – and struggled to get the arrow back. Thinking I was going to miss my opportunity, I nearly panicked, but fortunately came to my senses, realized what I was doing, put the bow in front of me & then was able to pull straight back without any issue.

I waited for the deer to step foot on the old logging road my stand was just off of and then let out a soft bleating sound. The deer stopped still ~20 yards out, quartering away, so I let my arrow fly. I knew right away when I released it I’d taken a good shot & watched the arrow hit the “driver’s side” back of the lungs. The deer bucked up & bolted forward, following the path I’d seen a couple take prior to moving my stand. 15 yards from where it stood when I shot at it, it disappeared out of my site through a thicker part of the woods.

I tried to relax & stay in the stand – I sent my hunting buddies a text message saying I thought I’d hit a doe & posted a message to Twitter. I waited a little longer. A couple more minutes in the stand I couldn’t take not knowing for sure if I’d hit the deer, so I climbed down.

When I got to the spot where the deer was, I found my arrow sticking out of the ground. Unlike previous shots where the arrow had been covered in blood, this one contained a limited amount on the feathers only. There wasn’t any blood in the area immediately surrounding the arrow. My heart sunk a little & I began to doubt what I thought was a solid shot.

I marked the spot of the arrow with some sticks & took a couple steps forward. Ten feet down the path the deer headed I saw blood. Lots of blood. I had no problem following it to the thick part of the woods where I lost site of the deer. At that point, the blood was on trees, three feet off the ground. All doubts about the quality of the shot disappeared from my mind.

The tracking was very easy for the next 30 yards, but because of the hills it went through, it was difficult to see far. ~75 yards total from where I hit the deer, I saw it down. As I approached, I thought to myself “wow, that’s a big doe”. When I circled to the head of the deer, I was shocked to see antlers and discover it was a spike buck.

While I’d shot a button buck two years back, this was actually my first “real” buck. I was glad to get the monkey off my back, but a little disappointed that I had to use my buck tag on it, knowing from deer I’d seen in person and my trailcam pictures that there were a fair amout of bucks with large sized racks in the woods. That disappointment was shortlived when I realized how little of bow season was left & that I stood a good chance of catching one during the rut with my rifle.

After processing, I ended up with 43.5 lbs of venison, in various cuts. I have the head back at my house and plan to do a European mount with it. While I’d love to take one with the rifle, I can’t complain on bit about getting three in three years with the bow.

The trailcam did well this week – nabbing the tail end of an 8 point buck and three gobblers, in the same day!