So I snuck out for a solo rooster hunt this morning. I walked 5 paces, stoped for 5 beats, walked 5 paces, stopped 5 beats etc... I heard a few runners go and I put up one rooster, which I got on my second shot. I had an intersting experience though - here's the story:
I was trying to push birds back up the hill (away from the river) to make sure that I could get them if I shot them. This meant that I was pushing through the rough cover towards the pond at the base of the alder-covered hillside. As I got about 60 yards from the pond I saw some bushes move. It seemed like too much movement for a bird, so I figured that I'd put some slugs in the shotgun and try to sneak up on it to see if it might be a buck or a coyote. I did a long stalk, a foot at a time, until I got close enough to see a patch of brown in the alders. Looked closely, my heart in my throat, hoping to see some antlers. After several minutes of looking I realized that it was a beaver. Laughing at myself I cracked the gun, popped out the slugs and dropped in bird shot again. Just as I slammed the gun shut again I notice that the beaver is making this sound like someone out of breath. Weird, I think to myself, so I stay there, listening to it. Just like someone who just sprinted a couple hundred yards. Then I see the deerâ?¦
All that I can see is a nose and a tail, about a foot from each other. I'm trying to figure if it's two deer or one, and whether there might be antlers. Finally I figure out that it's ass is facing towards me and it's looking over its shoulder at me, caught red-handed trying to get across the pond away from me. Then I see antlersâ?¦ I raise the shotgun for a head shot and the whole animal dissapears behind the giant magnetic birdbuster site that I have on my over-under. I slowly lower the gun, take that off and raise the gun again. The deer does not move, but when I try to aim for the head I am way to shaky. I contemplate shooting him up the ass but don't know enough about slug ballistics to know if that makes any sense or if it will just ruin several quarters of meat. I decide to kneel and try the head-shot. When I do that he runs, so I try two fast shots as he crosses the pond. It is silent very soon, not crashing though the alders, so I wonder if I might have got lucky and hit him. So I sit down and wait 20 minutes, then wade across the pond slowly, looking for movement. When I get over there I hear it again, the same heavy breathingâ?¦ I see a bit grey rock on the ground about 20 yards away, but the alders are thick. I try to crawl to him, to get under the span of the alders, until I can see his head and his tail (again!). Dammit. He's looking right at me. Because he's down but definitely not dead I decide to sit there for a while and wait him out, just to see if he looks like he's bleeding out or what. We watch each other for a few minutes and then, of course, he jumps up quickly and is gone in a flash. I listen and hear him go quite a ways away, towards a non-hunter-friendly property. I followed slowly until the GPS told me that I was at 400 yards from the house (legal distance) and then want back to look for sign of blood/hair/gut/bile etc... at the shot site and at the spot where I found him laying. I go to the spot where he way lying (the frost is melted and it's easy to see where he was) and there is not a single sign of blood, hair, bile, etcâ?¦ Nothing. I look there for 10 minutes, then drop my hat and start making larger and larger circles. Nothing. I go back to where he was when I shot and I do the same, larger and larger circles. Nothing. The lack of any sign suggests to me that I didn't hit him, but the fact that he bedded down so close makes me think otherwiseâ?¦. In total I spent 2 hours looking for sign, but nothing.
I will go and have another stomp through the alders after work tonight if I can get away early enough to make it worthwhile. If not then tomorrow morning. I am NOT hopeful though.
Lessons learned (please comment):
-I should have taken the head shot. It's either hit or miss and in that situation that's pretty much what you want.
-I should have taken off the birdbuster as soon as I put the slugs in.
-Perhaps I should have shot it up the ass when I first saw him? I know that this is a legit shot with a rifle, but what about a slug?
-When a deer is frozen like that my options are:
1. take the shot that is presented
2. move EVER SO SLOWLY to get a better shot
3. wait for the deer to move on it's own (in this case, if it did that I think it was going to turn and walk straight away from me)
*I think that I moved too fast, hoping that the deer would move and present a better shot. What I learned (and should have known) was that when a deer is cornered like that and looking at you, his next move is likely to be a dramatic leap, not a minor adjustment of position.
-When the deer was lying down the second time, I should have just taken a shot (or two) right through the alders. At the range a slug might have gotten through. Trying to move to get a better shot only pretty much guaranteed that the deer would jump up and run, so no shot at all.
-When I heard the deer still there breathing heavily (like he had winded me but couldn't quite see me) after I shot I should have waited much longer before trying to find him. Maybe he would have been slower (if crippled) if I'd waited for another 20 minutes or so (which would have been a total of about an hour).
What a RUSH. I'm not really a deer hunter by nature. SHot my first deer last year over a bait pile. It really felt more like deer "harvesting" than deer "hunting". This morning sure felt a lot more like hunting and I'm still buzzing from it. I really hope I didn't hit him and lose him though. I'll go back tonight and give it a last search with my buddy who is an experienced big-game hunter. If I see any sign of injury I'll go up to the hunter-unfriendly house and see if common sense will prevail and they will let me walk through their backwoods to see if he's down there.
-Croc
