2019 HuntingNY Gun Harvest Thread

[WNYBuckHunter]

2019 HuntingNY Gun Harvest Thread

Post up pics of your 2019 gun season deer here!
 
Only pictures with the associated story will be allowed in this thread. If you want to congratulate someone, please do it by clicking on the "like this" button for the post. There will be no exceptions.

Feel free to start a new thread if you wish to have comments in addition to posting the photo and story here.

[dinorocks]

Cool, first  gun harvest post on the thread!

Carly's first deer hunt (Youth Hunt)

A couple weeks ago, my daughter Carly (14 yrs old) successfully completed her hunter safety training.  She has a lifetime sportsman but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that we needed to submit her certificate to NYSDEC so they could mail her tags out to us.  As we would not have received them in time for the Youth Hunt (I was informed a 2 week mailing time), I had to buy replacement tags.

We borrowed a Savage 220 20 gauge bolt-action from a friend a few days ago as I thought that my 12 gauge would be a bit too much for her (thanks again TreeGuy (Andrew) for lending Carly your go-to deer gun) .  Carly shot the gun a couple times to get familiar with the feel of it…the gun shot great as expected, and hitting the bullseye boosted her confidence.

This morning around 6:45AM we headed out in 9F behind the house to my ground blind.  The forecasted rain held out for a bit and the wind direction was in our favor.  Around 7:30AM (sunrise at 7:24AM), Carly spotted a deer…I was not able to see it at first and thought she was looking at a squirrel.  The deer was approximately 25 yards away and starting to feed under some wild apple trees.  When the deer was broadside, my daughter sent it.  I saw the deer jump in the air and run out of sight.  She felt she made a good shot, as earlier, we spent a lot of time discussing shot placement.  After several minutes I took a quick look for blood as it was now starting to rain…no blood.  After a 20 yard walk in the direction the deer ran, I found one small drop of blood and then went back to the blind where we waited for another ~20 minutes.  I would have ideally liked to wait longer but the rain was starting and I wanted to find a little more blood so I had a better idea of which direction the deer ran.  No more blood was found.  We decided to quietly take a trail along the creek to see where/if the deer crossed the trail…nothing.  We then hiked up a ravine to re-group at the blood drop we first found…my daughter found the deer piled up under some wild rose bushes…about 75 yards from where the deer was shot…there was virtually no blood from where it ran when we back-tracked!  After gutting the deer and a drag (uphill) to the main trail, I was able to bring the deer up to the house on the tractor.  Carly was extremely happy and I was as proud!  Now time to butcher!

 

[mowin]

 Both grandnephews connected this youth season. 

We did some scouting during the week. Seen several nice bucks and formed a game plan. 

Dom was up to bat first, as his older brother took his first deer last yr. 

Dom decided to only shoot a buck the first morning, but would gladly take a doe from then on. 

We were running late, but it ended up being a good thing. As we topped a rise in the field, Dom spotted a deer off to our left prob 300 yrds out.  It was a buck. 

We quickly backtracked and got to the other side of the field and set up next to a large oak.  About 10 min later, the buck came into view. He fed by at 60 yrds. Dom made a perfect shot, and he only went 30 yards. 132lb 4pt.  

This morning Kayden and I went to a different field but didn't see a thing. Around 8 we took a walk and bumped several deer. We decided to sit tight and 10 min later we seen two deer walking along the field edge about 80 yards out. His first shot hit, but I couldn't tell exactly where. I told him to shoot again. The second shot hit also.  After 30 min we started tracking.  After about 80 yrds, we jumped her. I noticed that she was hit in the shoulder, and it was obvious that his second shot wasn't in the vitals.  We backed off for a couple hrs.  Jumped her again 200 yrds further, but she only went 50 yrds before bedding.  Snuck up and he finished her off.  

I think this doe meant more to him then his buck last yr. He had the emotions of highs and lows. Learned to read sign and follow a rather sparse blood trail. Learned to back off on a marginal hit.  

 

[Buckmaster7600]

Snow came and I capitalized today.

 

 

 

Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet.

 

On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack.

 

This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track.

 

At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.” After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds.

 

I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer.

 

I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground.

 

Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is.

 

He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks.

 

Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him.

 

I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal.

Cross country skier.

 

His weird loops

 

 

The spruce swamp

 

 

Although I knew he was a buck it’s always nice to get reassurance

 

 

After the first shots

 

 

 

[Lever action]

I didn't have to wait long for action this opening morning.At 6:45  I was watching the area behind my ladder stand expecting the deer to be coming from that direction when I heard something behind me.I turned and looked and there was a buck standing 25 yds away.I tried to reach for my rifle but with it being so cold this morning my ladder stand creaked and he was gone in a flash.An hour later I see 3 deer coming through the trees. When they got closer I see they were all does, so I shot the lead doe when she offered me a clear shot at 40 yds,I hit her right in the shoulder and she only ran 20yds.I dressed her out and dragged her to my stand and sat for another 5 hrs, saw another doe but that was all.I don't think I heard more than 20 shots in all that time and only one was close. I'm going to go back out in the morning with the hopes of seeing the 10 point.

[First-light]

Nice buck 9pt I took this morning at 9:30. Neighbor missed him twice but I didn't. Dropped in his tracks! Redish head and his bottom legs are piebald like even the claws. 

[Billdogge]

Broke the new gun in. Got a small 6 around 2:30. Going to eat well. 

[Zag]

Shot my first deer with the .300. The neighbor shot her in the left front leg. She came down using only 3 legs with a 6pt in tow hounding her. Surprisingly she ran about 10yrds. Glad I was able to harvest her as she would have had a really tough go. Brother shot a doe, passed up I think 3 or 4 bucks today between us. Pretty quiet day of shooting, once you take away the neighbors 8 shots.

[Nomad]

Ok I lied , I said any buck in gun would have to be substantially bigger then my bow buck . Zippo this morning and only heard two guys shoot . This afternoon deer everywhere , had a stare down with the big 11 I got on camera and that was on the walk in ! At least a dozen deer between 2:45 and 4:15 , in fields and all four  compass points around me in the woods . I owe that to my scent control program of Irish Spring soap and Mennen Speed stick .

So 4:15 a doe and this guy are behind me , I watch them for 4-5 minutes doesn’t have mass or tine  length, but he looks head on and looks wide, not sure. Then he clears some trees and I got a shot ,ok I take it. He runs ,doe runs ,deer I didn’t see in field runs , then he stops ,he showed zero sign of being hit !

I climb down walk 75 yards and there he lays. Guy behind comes over with his atv, takes it to his house,I drive over and he loads it into my truck with his tractor.

Feel somewhat bad, one less buck for my daughter , but I got plenty more on cam and saw three others tonight .

[Renegade Hunter]

I walked a ridge this morning looking for some fresh tracks to set up on. I found some coming out of a brush lot and into the hardwoods. I used my climber to set up on it and within five minutes I had a basket 8 dogging a little doe. He ran her around for a while then they both bedded 35 yards in front of me. They stayed there until 830 when I saw a good buck sneaking up behind them. They heard him sneaking but stayed put. He ended up giving me a 50 yard shot. The .270 crushed his shoulder, lung and heart. The other two deer sprang up at the shot. Looking around and at him. The little doe trotted off and the buck chased her around for another 20 minutes. Great hunt. Thankful for this buck. 

[ApexerER]

Slow morning on the lease today and less shots around than I ever remember hearing. Didn't hear the first shot this morning until after 7 which is for sure a record. 1 guy got a doe this morning. Most didn't even have any siteings including myself. I sat the stand this morning that I have shot every buck I have ever killed on the lease out of and saw nothing. Changed it up for the afternoon and went to the oak ridge that I spent a ton of time on during bow and saw alot of deer. At 4 o'clock or so I was just thinking that it is amazing that the deer know its gun season like a light switch and you just stop seeing them. As soon as I thought that I catch movement to my right and see a deer. He come almost under me and its a button buck. Just feeling happy to not be skunked and 2 minutes later this guy comes out of the brush 60 yds directly in front of me. He turns broadside, get the crosshairs on his shoulder...squeeze the trigger and click. Wth? Did I forget to chamber a round I think to myself for a second. I cycle the action on my BAR and a shell pops out. The deer starts to run from the sound and I yell and he stops as I again get the crosshairs on his shoulder and boom. He plows 5 feet and expired. Checked the ejected shell and the primer was dimpled on the Remington Corelok

[Steuben Jerry]

I babysat our cute granddaughter this morning so wife and daughter could go out, and I took the afternoon shift in the corner of our hidden field. Busted three does and a small buck out of the field getting to the stand, and then had three does slide in from the far corner just ten minutes after sitting down. Had a bald eagle looping around the woods. A few more does and a few more until nine are in the field. Spike comes out and starts to dog a pair of does, and then just romps around with them kind of playfully.

I watched that for over an hour, and then around 4:15 I heard some sticks snapping about 150 yds out. Every deer in the field picked their head up to look in that direction. Buck gallops into the field and is just showing all kinds of bad attitude and acting badass.  I get the scope on him and can only see side view, but looks good. He lowers his head and takes a dead charge at a couple of does. The does start to break off toward the far tree line with him picking one of them as the other doe veers off. I had the crosshairs on him the whole time, and before losing him in the far tree line I yelled to stop him. He hits the brakes slightly quartering away, 150 yds, crosshairs dead on the boiler room. Dropped in his tracks. I had about 5 seconds to get the scope on him, identify him with only a side view, stop him, and drop him.

He’s not among the top 6-7 I’ve had on cam, and I have to admit I was a little let down when I walked up to him, but he’s an adult buck, decent body, nine points, and I would guess 160-ish pounds. Wound up disconnecting the main pump from the manifold.
 

I’m a firm believer in shoot what makes you happy/be happy with what you shoot so I’m not unhappy with the deer, but a little miffed of my lack of restraint on the first day knowing what’s running around. Still have tags, still in the game for doe or bear which are around.
 

Looks like I’ll be baby sitting tomorrow (doesn’t break my heart in the least - she’s huge fun) and let the ladies bring in the bigger boys.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Steuben Jerry

[Swamp_bucks]

So after debating for 2 days on where to go i decided to hit up a spot on stateland in 7p  i scouted this summer.  Think i even made a post about it.  At 620 i finally get to the ridge i wanted to sit.  Its about 1.25 miles in finished getting dress and my area setup i hear something running and here comes 6 deer flying past me and up the hill.  I thought they had all moved past. Well at 730 i needed to readjust so i stand up slow and up jumps 2 deer under 50yrds away both does.  800 i saw one sneaking through the brush going the other way.  About 830 i hear a deer coming in finally get eyes on it and its a basket 6 more then willing to take it but he came down wind saw him run 200yrds and kaboom someone else killed him watched the deer fall.  

900 i decided i couldnt see enough so shifted up the hill.  By 10 didnt like my spot again so i get ready to move over 20yrds and i hear a deer coming ends up being a doe she walked within 10yrds of me.  Waited 20 mins to make sure a buck wasnt coming and moved over.  No more than 20 mins later i hear crashing here comes a doe flying past at 80yrds with a small buck trotting behind.  No shot on him then i saw a huge body buck running through with a decent rack.  That was it until 4. 

At 4 i got up to stretch and thought what i heard was a grey squirel running behind me so i didnt pay attention to it.  But it kept getting louder and finally see an ear flicker.  Its a doe at 50yrds feeding on something.  At this time i think i can hear 2 but couldnt tell.  So i slowly sneak down onto my knees and get ready well doe gets to an opening about the time i put my shooting stick in the snow and it crunched.  We got in a stare down for a couple minutes.  During this i finally tell there are 2.  Well she looks back and i glance over and all i see is a nose poking out behind a tree.  Then i hear a grunt she jumps away so i get saftey off and lock into the opening.   I see the buck enter my scope stop where she did and squeezed.  Didnt move an inch.  2nd biggest buck both stateland in 7p and both  since 2016.  

Had a friend 300yrds away who sprinted over to celebrate, brother showed up along with a hunting buddy who also filled his tag on a 6.(hunting together since we were 12 first time ever doubling on a buck).  Drage was about 1.4 miles phone died on way back to truck so dont no exact distance. Have a pic of them helping drag but wont load. Buddies buck is last picture.

[UpStateRedNeck]

Nothing too crazy :

Got in the stand and settled by 5am, and it was COLD and noisy.  Bumped a doe on the way in, but she settled and eventually resumed browsing, less than 10 yards from my stand.  She sauntered off just as the sky was starting to brighten, down towards some pines south of where I was sitting, which block the north wind but have a field to the south so they get sunlight first thing.  Around 8:40am I hear something coming on the other side of the swamp, in the thick stuff, south and east. 

Sunlight is behind him, thankfully, because it is THICK in the other side of the swamp.  Naturally he doesn't cross the swamp into my shooting lane like he's supposed to (and like I have him doing on camera) he continues north east in the thick stuff.  See some bone above his ears and a nice body, so off goes the safety.  Eventually he steps into a gap in the trees, and away we go!

Could tell he was hurt bad because he didn't run he just sort of trotted off.  But I was worried because of that brush and deflections.  It was about 65 yards.  After the minimum 30 minutes, get down, take off the insulation, and go check.  He was further into the woods than I thought, I started to panic until I did a 30 yard circle to pick up the blood trail, and it was a good one.  JUST as I pick up the trail I hear a big rifle go off about 200 yards away.  What sounds like the corner of the state land, our property, and the neighbors property.

Followed the trail, and sure enough, there he lay right where the rifle went off.  Blood was as clear as day, turns out the buck laid down right in front of this guy, nice old fella, and he put an -06 bullet in his shoulder just to make sure he didn't get up again.  My first shot absolutely shredded his liver and upper lungs, he didn't go more than 200 yards in 40 minutes, he was done.  

[Steuben Jerry]

My wife Doreen’s deer:

She went to the tower stand this morning and daughter went to where I took my buck yesterday afternoon. She only saw one doe before this guy dropped in from the north woodlot. She could see him going across the goldenrod and waited til he made it to the mowed lane. Buck stepped all the way into the lane but walked away from her. He eventually turned quartering away and she hit him at the base of the neck. Dropped him in place, never moved. 
 

260 yard shot, 7mm-08 from her Ruger. She was in what we call the redtail stand, the tower that’s over her shoulder in the background of the pic. By far her furthest kill shot.

I’m super happy for my sniper wife! Daughter is up next.

[rjmjr911]

I'm in my 8th season hunting public state land and watershed property.   Unsuccessful in 7 years.   Most days in the woods are time spent clearing my mind.   I sit from dawn to dusk without see any deer.   It gets very difficult to get into the woods season after season.   So onto season 8.  This year I put a trail camera up,  and I had tons of pictures of bicyclists and hikers.  So I abandoned that spot.   Now it's less than 2 weeks before regular season and I walk a new public property and set up my camera.   I check the camera 3 days before opening day.  Had some pictures of some does.   Saturday opening weekend, I shot my first deer at 830 at 15 yards.   He went 10 yards, deer down.   

[Hock3y24]

Was kinda hoping dad didn’t show up to my house to hunt this am cause it was cold and I’m tired. Glad he did, we head out at 5:30 and are in stands by 6:10. At 7:30 he shoots a small 4 point, I climbed down and do my business in the bushes, climb back up and see a deer across the field 200 yards away. I bino him and think it’s the 7pt I have on camera and decide to pass. This deer stands in the same spot looking the same direction for 45 minutes, later find out he had a doe. He feeds out into the clearing and I notice he’s not the 7 but a broken up 8 and he is HUGE body wise. I put the scope on 4 power and shoot him with the 6.5 Grendel at 200 yards, does a backflip and flops down into the woods. 

Went and help dad clean his deer (he’s only 150 yards up the hill) we then go over to my hit sight and find him 20 yards in woods. The Grendel outperformed my expectations out of a 16” barrel, in shoulder broke opposite leg in half and got caught by the hide.

In 12 years of hunting this is the first time ever my dad and I were able to shoot deer in the same sit. This is pretty much the reason I took him.

I didn’t weight him but he is all of 190-200lbs dressed. 
 

[New York Hillbilly]

After almost second guessing myself on where to sit, I purposely reminded myself not to do it. I decided to stick to the plan and climb back into the stand I was in last evening without seeing any deer. With all the tracks I figured it was just a matter of time, and with knowledge from so many past seasons here, I know well how bucks seem to like sneaking through this spot from feeding to bedding areas. They keep themselves under cover of goldenrod and brush as they follow the contour of the ground from a scrub apple orchard in a ravine on one side of the field to about 70 acres of much the same on the other side. The 70 acre side almost never smells of humans because I have kept it off limits even to myself as a sanctuary for them. 

This morning I also decided I would not make myself sit in the dark for so long waiting for sunrise. On mornings this cold it seemed pointless to sit and freeze while praying nothing comes by until its after official shooting time. I did not want to be frozen solid in the dark like yesterday, so I got on stand by 6:30. I drove my poor old 4 wheeler up to my stand and buried it head on into the about 1/4 acre brushy island that sits right in front of my stand at the field edge. I put the wheeler to the up hill side of the brush island so it would not be seen by deer if they followed the trails I expected. In the end it did not seem to matter. The four wheeler was in plain view to me from my stand being only about 20 yards from my ladder. 

Once in my stand I got things adjusted and in position. I  broke a couple branches to make sure my barrel wouldn't bump into one when I raised my rifle if a deer cam down the trails. One branch was too big and green to snap, so I gnawed at it with my knife until it looked beaver chewed, then I broke it off with a loud snap. Now my ball cap hung on one broken tree branch and my blaze orange hat on another branch, and yet another held my grunt tube. With all my clothing and paraphernalia hanging in the tree it looked like a hunters Christmas tree meets Charlie Brown. Now I was ready for action. Nothing was going to mess with this plan. The deer would come out of the corner, follow the trail, walk broadside to my right and into my natural swing. Lucy would not pull the deer football and have me land on my back this time. 

Ok. Somebody forgot to explain the play to the buck!

As I was all comfortable standing up against the tree, snug with rifle up, and pointed in the right direction, suddenly appears a buck. A nice rack buck by my standards! Big bodied and light colored rack that I thought was an eight pointer, I never had to ask myself if he was a shooter. This was destiny as far as I was concerned. I planned it this way and the pieces were going to fall into place. That is until he decided to screw with my plan.

Instead of walking straight down the trail to my right and into my shooting lane, he decides to turn and begin walking up the field placing the brushy island between me and him. I managed to keep my cool as I saw things starting to go a different direction, but I had to tell myself to get a grip. I pulled my rifle back from where it was rested, trying to avoid being seen or heard if the barrel bumped anything. He kept walking in my general direction but diagonally and to my left. Then instead of walking around the island he takes a short cut right through it and I'm certain at this time he is going to walk right into my 4 wheeler. As it happened he cut through the island and I briefly lost sight of him. Now I was getting nervous! 

Trying to not get frantic searching for him, knowing he can't be more than 30 yards from me, I saw him again. There he is basically broadside, about 10 yards from my  4 wheeler, head up alert but not necessarily alarmed yet. He just had that " hey something is up" look. I knew that was going to change quickly when he figured out what was up was me! 

With the scope at its lowest setting I quickly put the cross hairs on his head, followed his neck down to its base as far as I could where his body became engulfed in goldenrod, and touched off the shot. He immediately disappeared from my sight. I figured he dropped from the impact, but this is deer hunting and I know too well anything can happen. I ejected the spent shot and reloaded as soon as I fired. I stood with my rifle at the ready in case I caught any movement but there was none. After about a 1/2 hour I began to wonder if he was laying there dead, laying there wounded and ready to bolt if I got down, or if I somehow missed and he beat feet out of there. 

I was stunned how close he came to my 4 wheeler presenting for the shot, and if dead, what good fortune to have him expire basically next to it saving me any drag at all.  Unable to fight the curiosity any further I unloaded my rifle and quietly climbed down the ladder. Once on the ground I put 2 rounds back in the rifle and snuck as quiet as I could on the crunchy snow up the field edge, rifle up and in his direction, but off to the side in case he was alive and decided to head my way. 

It took me  just a few moments to peek down into the goldenrod and see him laying dead exactly where he was shot. I walked up to him, watched for breathing, poked his eye, and confirming he was dead, knelt down and rubbed his side giving thanks. I had to count his points twice to convince myself I had finally after all these years and all these deer actually taken a ten point buck. At 60 years old I actually felt like a kid again.

Edit: PS. To show the distance between deer and wheeler. If you enlarge the picture of the brush, to the left you can make out my 4 wheeler. And, further left, on the other side of the tree in the picture, and a bit higher in the frame than the wheeler you can see a yellow apple. The brush beyond  the apple is where the deer stood and dropped. 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by New York Hillbilly
additional info, spelling

[wolc123]

I shot this doe at 8:20 opening day morning.   This is the 1st doe for me on my grandpa's old farm in 38 seasons of hunting there.  I used his old Ithaca model 37 16 ga. to finally get it done.  She may be the same one that I messed up on over there last year, when my Marlin m512 froze up and failed to fire as two small bucks chased her right under my stand.  She looks to be about 3.5 years old and has a 37" chest girth. 

I got up in the stand on the edge of a swamp about 1/2 hour before legal sunrise.  At 8:00 I heard a twig snap behind me and turned to see three deer approaching about 50 yards away.  They were in some thick brush, but I could see that they all lacked antlers as they got closer.  I was seated in a cheap hang-on stand and they were on my right side.  They were too close for me to try and stand up, so I shouldered the gun on my left.  The biggest one was in front, the smallest in the middle, and a middle sized one in the rear.  I got the crosshairs on the last one, quartering away, at about 40 yards.  I was 99 percent sure it had no antlers, but only about 60 percent sure I could make the shot, since I had never shot left-handed and there was a bit of brush between me and the deer.   I elected to hold off, and just watched them walk out of sight. 

20 minutes later, they must have made a big circle and were now headed back to where they came from but were about 80 yards away on my left.   The last one stopped behind a downed tree.  The shot was on the far side for the old Ithaca with it's 1.5X Weaver scope (that seems to make the deer look smaller), but I was again 99 percent sure that the deer had no antlers and about 80 percent sure that I could make the kill shot, with the gun well-rested with my elbows on my knees, from the seated position.   

At my shot, the deer dropped straight down.  The other two ran forward a bit and stopped, facing towards me.  I contemplated trying for a "double" (I have (4) dmp tags), but the downed doe began to lift herself up from behind the tree.  I could only see her head and neck and I took a second shot at that and then she disappeared, as did the other two deer. 

When I climbed down and approached the downed tree, I heard a snort.  When I got around the tree I saw her dragging herself away with her front legs.  I finished her with a shot to the back of the head.   While gutting her, I noted that my first shot had struck a couple inches higher than I intended, and broke her spine, just behind the shoulder.   I was sorry that she had to suffer a bit longer than necessary.  Had I used the Marlin, I might have been able to place that shot a little better, but there is no guarantee it would have gone off in those cold temperature conditions.  

It was a good opening weekend.  With this doe added to the freezer which also contains my crossbow buck and some "leftovers" from last year, I am thankful that our family will have enough meat to make it thru another year.  My brother in law was given a couple of deer from others, so I don't need to worry about getting one for him this year.   I am slightly relieved to get thru the weekend and still have my buck tag.   Oddly enough, this was the first hunt, since crossbow season began, when all the deer that I saw lacked antlers.  Prior to Saturday, I can't say for sure that any that I saw in the Southern zone did not have antlers.    

[Lever action]

Well I did it! I got the 10 point , not the one I had on camera but I couldn't be happier! At 4:00 For some reason I turned and looked behind me just in time to see a deer walk through an open space between 2 pines about a 150 yds away.I kept watching and another deer crossed.So I turned around and watched that direction hoping they work their way to me.About 10 mins later I see a big doe  working her way to me and not far behind is the buck.I see he had a rack but I had no idea how big.So I took the shot while he was quartering towards me.I hit him at the base of the neck and it exited behind his right shoulder.He only ran about 20yds.I couldn't believe it when I walked up to him. then I had the long task of dragging him out.Thank God there was snow on the ground.When I got to the main highway and had cell service I called the wife and told her to have the grand kids at the house, especially our 9 yr old grandson who helped me put up the ladder stand.I owe him a big thank you.

[Billdogge]

Filled my 3C doe tag at 4pm. Still hunted. Shot her at 15 yards with just a hemlock between us. Dropped where she stood. Congrats to everyone filling tags. 

[Swamp_bucks]

On 11/16/2019 at 10:12 PM, Swamp_bucks said:

So after debating for 2 days on where to go i decided to hit up a spot on stateland in 7p  i scouted this summer.  Think i even made a post about it.  At 620 i finally get to the ridge i wanted to sit.  Its about 1.25 miles in finished getting dress and my area setup i hear something running and here comes 6 deer flying past me and up the hill.  I thought they had all moved past. Well at 730 i needed to readjust so i stand up slow and up jumps 2 deer under 50yrds away both does.  800 i saw one sneaking through the brush going the other way.  About 830 i hear a deer coming in finally get eyes on it and its a basket 6 more then willing to take it but he came down wind saw him run 200yrds and kaboom someone else killed him watched the deer fall.  

900 i decided i couldnt see enough so shifted up the hill.  By 10 didnt like my spot again so i get ready to move over 20yrds and i hear a deer coming ends up being a doe she walked within 10yrds of me.  Waited 20 mins to make sure a buck wasnt coming and moved over.  No more than 20 mins later i hear crashing here comes a doe flying past at 80yrds with a small buck trotting behind.  No shot on him then i saw a huge body buck running through with a decent rack.  That was it until 4. 

At 4 i got up to stretch and thought what i heard was a grey squirel running behind me so i didnt pay attention to it.  But it kept getting louder and finally see an ear flicker.  Its a doe at 50yrds feeding on something.  At this time i think i can hear 2 but couldnt tell.  So i slowly sneak down onto my knees and get ready well doe gets to an opening about the time i put my shooting stick in the snow and it crunched.  We got in a stare down for a couple minutes.  During this i finally tell there are 2.  Well she looks back and i glance over and all i see is a nose poking out behind a tree.  Then i hear a grunt she jumps away so i get saftey off and lock into the opening.   I see the buck enter my scope stop where she did and squeezed.  Didnt move an inch.  2nd biggest buck both stateland in 7p and both  since 2016.  

Had a friend 300yrds away who sprinted over to celebrate, brother showed up along with a hunting buddy who also filled his tag on a 6.(hunting together since we were 12 first time ever doubling on a buck).  Drage was about 1.4 miles phone died on way back to truck so dont no exact distance. Have a pic of them helping drag but wont load. Buddies buck is last picture.

Took a couple better pics to show the size of his body.  

[WNY Bowhunter]

First rifle doe that I've taken in several years...

 

[Steuben Jerry]

Daughter Stephanie’s buck;

This is Steph’s 7th year hunting. She travels from Delaware each year for the rifle opener aka deer week. She hunts harder than my wife and I and she earns her deer each year. She’s gotten six bucks in those seven years and has yet to shoot a doe.

She and I went out tonight, me in the tower stand for the first time, and she sat about 600 yds away watching our hidden field, where I took my buck Saturday afternoon. She had a doe and a fawn out feeding for a while, and this guy came sniffing around a little after 4:00 pm. She watched him for a while and took her opportunity. Double lung, but his death run was about 150 yds before he crashed. He left a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could find. Easy track job to say the least.

Red x is where she sat, yellow x is the shot. Deer went about 150 from the shot, 120 of it into the woods straight up.

We’re a happy deer camp! Mom, Dad, and daughter got bucks. And granddaughter Evie got to pet each one. 

 

[chrisw]

Filled my buck tag this morning. I could see him in the thick stuff but could never get a real good look at him, he crossed an opening about 90 yds away and I touched off a 25 WSSM. He made it about 30 yds. Good way to end a season for me.

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