Deer Opening Day for Firearms 12 NOV 2022

 Me, Nick, Alex, and Myers met here at the Ranch at 6:30 and drove to the golf course.  We walked in at 6:45.  It was 35 oF with strong winds out of the W-NW, sometimes from due N, sometimes from straight W.  We saw a doe on the road driving to the course, so already it was a good day.  And as we pulled in, we could see the snow just starting.

Alex headed for overwatch on Hole #5.  Nick went into the woods on Hole #16.  Eric dropped into the bowl on Hole #15 and I headed off to the tee box on Hole #14.  Before the boys could even split up, there were deer standing on Hole #5's green.  Close enough for a shot, but it was up at about 45 degrees with no idea what lay beyond.  Not knowing what was behind their target, no shots were fired (wisely)!

Walking up the #9 driveway, looking up to #5's green.
Two doe standing up there.

Here's the same picture zoomed in so you can see the deer.

I stood behind a tree the best I could to get out of the wind, but that was not happening.  And now, the snow was coming down - kinda looked like fog in the distance - but it never stopped.  I heard Nick shoot sometime around 7:30-ish, don't recall exactly, but he shortly texted and said there was a doe down.  Not too long after, I saw a deer run across the fairway to the N, off property.  I decided I would go block the N end since no one was hunting that side.

The snow as it begins to fall.  Only supposed to get 1/4"
Picture faces E.  Right is #14's fairway.  Left is #13's green.

The same photo, less than one hour later.

I've moved now.  Picture facing S from #12's tee box.
There is over 1" of snow on the ground now and it's not even 9 o'clock yet.


Good thing I did too because a deer came up to the top and ran into me, turned out to be a small buck that I thought was a big doe through the snow in my scope.  Oh well, meat on the table.

Come about 9 o'clock, I can no longer feel my hands, my face is all red from being wind-burnt and I have warm coffee in the truck.  I walked out.  I texted the boys my new location:

Warming up in the truck!  Drinking warm coffee with my red, wind-burnt face.

Next thing I know, Nick sends a text that just said "Eric?"  Eric was shaking too hard to text right back, but it turns out that a nice 8-pt buck walked right up on Eric at about 20 yds and he shot it.  So, I got a golf cart out to go retrieve our three deer.  But, you remember the snow right?  The cart would not make it to the deer and so we ended up dragging deer and then pushing a cart.  It was still better than dragging the deer all the way out!

Low and behold, while we are taking a break from dragging deer, all four of us huffing and puffing, three more doe show up running S to N - and conveniently stop to check us out.  Curiosity killed the cat, or the deer in this case.  Put four in the truck!

Eric's 8-pt buck

Deer back at the truck with our deer hauler on the right.
Shout out to our sponsors:

Leinenkugal Octoberfest, Sun King WeeMac, and Mt. Dew
Look at the depth of the snow on the back of the truck!

So while we are taking a break before loading deer and washing a golf cart, the boys all tell me that in their locations, there was no wind!  They even considered taking off a layer of clothing as it was too warm.  Rotten little sh@ts!  I'm still cold!!!



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....
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 int...
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 ...
Read more