Last weekend was Ohio's muzzle loader season and Monday turned out to be a hunt my buddy and I will never forget. We hunted all morning and only saw five deer with no shots. On the last drive I set up next to a marsh by a beaver dam. On a drive during gun season the deer tore past my buddy in this spot.
About 20 minutes into the push I hear the unmistakable sounds of deer trotting through the woods. A few seconds later here they come straight at me until they turned and headed for the beaver dam. I gave a quick bleat and one of the big does stops at 25 yards and looks around. Well, that resulted in a 295gr Powerbelt through the ribs. (Yes, before I pulled the trigger I thought about shooting one of the does further back)
She spins and begins to go back where she came from but then decided that she really wanted to die running across the dam. She gets about 50 yards out and slips off the dam onto the "dry" side. BUT she decided that she really wanted to get one last bath before going home with me and climbed over the dam to start swimming. She made it about 15 feet out before dying in about 6' of water.
Of course the story doesn't end there because she got hung up on some shrubs in the water. I was figuring on going for a swim but my buddy kept telling me to just wait. I called the owner to see if he had a boat, nope. We drove around and looked for a boat to borrow, nope. We searched the farm for anything we could find but nothing. We tried with a 20' tow strap but it would simply slip off her. The property owner called the wildlife officer to see if they had a boat, nope in the shop. Finally my friend rigged up the tow strap and some rope to a length that I could get it around the deer and pull her free. You really had to see it to believe it.
The Wildlife Officer came out to help but we had her free just as he got there. I told him we had her but he said that he just had to see this. Big doe too, Wildlife Officer aged her at least 2.5 but he didn't cut her jaw to see further so she could be 3.5.
Great times with a great friend and another doe in the freezer. The only sad part is my daughter wasn't with me and she would have drilled this deer.
fv
About 20 minutes into the push I hear the unmistakable sounds of deer trotting through the woods. A few seconds later here they come straight at me until they turned and headed for the beaver dam. I gave a quick bleat and one of the big does stops at 25 yards and looks around. Well, that resulted in a 295gr Powerbelt through the ribs. (Yes, before I pulled the trigger I thought about shooting one of the does further back)
She spins and begins to go back where she came from but then decided that she really wanted to die running across the dam. She gets about 50 yards out and slips off the dam onto the "dry" side. BUT she decided that she really wanted to get one last bath before going home with me and climbed over the dam to start swimming. She made it about 15 feet out before dying in about 6' of water.
Of course the story doesn't end there because she got hung up on some shrubs in the water. I was figuring on going for a swim but my buddy kept telling me to just wait. I called the owner to see if he had a boat, nope. We drove around and looked for a boat to borrow, nope. We searched the farm for anything we could find but nothing. We tried with a 20' tow strap but it would simply slip off her. The property owner called the wildlife officer to see if they had a boat, nope in the shop. Finally my friend rigged up the tow strap and some rope to a length that I could get it around the deer and pull her free. You really had to see it to believe it.
The Wildlife Officer came out to help but we had her free just as he got there. I told him we had her but he said that he just had to see this. Big doe too, Wildlife Officer aged her at least 2.5 but he didn't cut her jaw to see further so she could be 3.5.
Great times with a great friend and another doe in the freezer. The only sad part is my daughter wasn't with me and she would have drilled this deer.
fv
Nice to hear about an officer helping a hunter out and not the other way around..
