Firearms Season Day 3 - Saturday 19 NOV

Yes, the wind was blowing at 20+ mph.  Yes, it was 35 degrees outside.  Yes, it snowed, and sleeted, and rained.  And yes, I was out there in the woods, hunting deer.

I went out alone as Nick was not feeling well.  I drove out to Marshall's and sat on the bottom ground, in hopes of getting out of the wind.  Vain hope.  I stood at the S end, near the road, until I thought it was CLOSE to legal light.  I check the time.  It was past legal light, but due to the fully overcast sky, it was still not light enough to shoot.

I ended up staying for about an hour, before starting a very slow and methodical stalk to the N.  I took a deer trail and walked past 3 scrapes and countless rubs.  I took the following picture of the freshest scrape.  It was visited sometime between last night and me passing.  How do I know this?  It rained last night.  If the rain had hit those prints, they would be washed out, not crisp.  Trust me, this one was fresh.

Fresh deer scrape on Marshall's tree farm.
I'm using my .458 SOCOM AR-type rifle, same as last year.

I continued N, and about 3/4 of the way to the end, I spotted a doe walking past the tree line.  Right?  The trees are planted in rows, so I saw a deer walk by the end of the row.  I stepped to the next row and watched two deer walk by.  I stepped into the next row and saw the deer walking to me.  I stepped back to remain hidden.  It appeared as though the last doe was the largest, so I kept my eye on her.  And then, two rows away and 50 yards out were three more deer.  I considered waiting on the large doe, but figured a deer in the freezer is worth two in the woods.  So I put the lead doe in my scope and pulled the trigger...

Nothing.  The deer looked up and around.  They could not tell where the shot came from due to all the wind previously mentioned.  And then they bolted.  I walked up to where there should have been a dead deer and there was nothing.  No blood, no bone, no hair.  Nada.  I tracked the printed where they bolted.  I backtracked in case they went E instead of how I watched them run W.  Nothing.  I went back to where I shot and looked for trees or branches that might have deflected my bullet.  Nothing.  Maybe my scope got knocked and is off?  Maybe...

I went to the range and the gun shot perfectly.  I guess that miss is on me.  Must have pulled the shot.  That, or the deer were protected by something more powerful than my bullet.

I saw deer and I even got a shot - although there were not many hunters out on such a blustery day - so I consider it a win, even though I do not have any venison in the freezer.  Oh well, that's why it's called hunting.

Following a deer trail on Marshall's tree farm.  Note the tree rows.
I was trying to get the sleet on camera.

Here's a picture of my coat.  That IS sleet gathering on my coat.
I'm wearing Under Armour's light weight gloves - they are fantastic for dexterity
but are not that good for keeping the cold out anywhere S of 40 degrees F.


As I came back through Mulberry, I saw these two sitting at Davey's house.
At least they had the sack to join the crazy hunters out in the terrible weather.
They didn't see or hear much either.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Winchester SX3 / SX4 Shotguns

Image
The Winchester SX4 is my Go To shotgun for everything - clays, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants, whatever.  It is an awesome firearm.  The drawback?  There are multiple moving parts and a few of them like to collect carbon.  And this carbon sticks as if it were put on those parts with super glue! Specifically, the magazine tube and the gas piston are the main carbon collectors.  Those parts come out more black than silver & gold. The inner components of an SX3 / SX4 with highlights where carbon will form So what is my trick for cleaning those bits?  I drop the gas piston into my Hornady sonic cleaner.  Inside the cleaner I put in about a cup of Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution for gun parts, add some DI water, a couple squirts of Dawn liquid dish soap, and then top it off with a dash or two of the citrus version of Dr. Bronner's pure castile liquid soap.  I have found that the citrus Dr. Bronner's is awesome at removing grease and oil.  All of that bakes in the son
Read more

Winchester SX4 Trigger Assembly Update

Image
First, you need to read the post immediately before this one to understand why I had to take my Winchester SX4 shotgun apart - all the way apart - specifically the trigger assembly. Second, my bad.  I had neglected to clean the gun after returning from last October's pheasant trip.  I had about one bale of grass seed inside that gun, which in the end, may have kept the #8 pellet from getting out on its own.  Shame. Finally, I did not give up.  I watched four different YouTube videos on how to disassemble and reassemble the trigger group.  Sadly, no one did the SX4, only the previous version, the SX3.  Close enough.  Why did it take 4 videos?  Because no one explained HOW the damn sear goes back in.  Everyone either ASSUMED we all know how OR in two cases, the reassembly process was out of the camera frame.  Aggravating! The key, and this is more for me to remember, was on the fourth video, the author said, "The sear kinda slides down into a channel in the housing."  Bam. 
Read more

Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

Image
It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer. First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart. Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up. Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that). Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so: The two little "
Read more