Deer Day 12 - Opening Day of Shotgun - Sat 15 NOV

First off, to all of my loyal followers, I apologize for the delay in updating our progress this week.  It's been busy.  So here you go....a week's worth of updates.....enjoy.....

For those of you in the know, Opening Day for Shotgun is like Christmas to Hunters.  In some states it's actually a holiday - because so many people are going to miss work and school that it just makes sense to call everything off.  Here in Indiana, we don't get the day off because Opening Day falls on a Saturday.

So, on this Saturday, 15 NOV 2014, Nick, Kathy, Alex, and I met RePhil at the golf course at 6:20 am.  It was cold, like 19F.  RePhil walked to Jenkins, Alex sat on #15, Nick took the bottoms on #16, Kathy sat on #4, and I originally thought I would sit on #18, but Nick suggested I overwatch #5 - so I did.

Kathy fired first at a buck that was crossing S at 7:20 am.  It never stopped and she got buck fever.  She called it a 6-point, but later said it was HUGE.  The buck was dancing in her scope due to the adrenaline rush.  Clean miss, and the buck continued S, off property.  Now I'm not afraid to admit that this shot woke me right up.  It's all nice and quiet, calm, nothing is happening, and BOOM.  Yeah, I'm awake now.

Kathy texted that she missed.  But I heard a very loud thump, thump, thump coming through the woods.  My best guess is that it's the buck Kathy just shot at, wounded, and it's coming to me.  I thought this because deer are not usually that loud in the woods unless they are injured.  A HUGE buck come across my path at 40 yards.  I attempted (please note the verb) to cock my muzzle loader.  No go.  It was not fully closed (Encore).  I had to open it, close it, and cock.  I got to the close bit before the buck spun and wheeled off to the E.  The sound was too loud.  No shot taken.  My bad.

Next shot fired was RePhil.  Said he shot a large doe at about 8:30 am.  Turns out he shot a small spike buck, but the antlers were so small (shorter than his ears) that Phil did not see them.  Phil turned it in as antlerless.

As Phil and Alex walked out, they jumped 4 doe and sent them toward Nick.  Nick fired and missed, as these deer had no intent on stopping.

All in all, we saw 7 deer that morning, missed 2, misfired on one, and got one down.  Not the best success rate.

Upon cleaning RePhil's deer, we were joined by Apollo.  He was imitating the deer.
And yes, unfortunately, RePhil gut shot the deer.  It was stinky.  I almost puked.

We went back out Saturday night, but no shots taken.

NOTE:  Graphic Picture Follows.  Not for the faint of heart.  Scroll down only if you can take it.









Cleaning RePhil's deer and Apollo matches its pose.



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