Having a great deer blasting season 2 with my bow and now one with the gun! Opening day for gun started Saturday in upstate NY and just after sunrise I had a nice buck come into my stand area.
I was about 15 feet up in the hardwoods on the center of double dip gully with a commanding view of 2 southern hill inclines.
There was plenty of cover behind me and to my far left was a nice rub line about 75 yards out. I scanned the gully perpendicular to my "Lone Wolf" Alpha tree stand and directly to my left on the dimly lit northern slope a nice sized 7 pointer meandered in. He decided to turn just enough to give me a clean shot at about 50 yards.
The little custom 20 bore Ithaca 37 Deerslayer spit out a Winchester Partition Gold sabot slug and the deer crashed where it stood.
I have to comment on the new scope I screwed on too. An E-bay scored “like new in the box” Bushnell 1-4x Elite 4200. The scope is an unbelievable value as it was half the price of the VX3 Leupold 1-5x that I normally would have bought. The German #4 reticle has a red dot center and makes a world of difference for low light shooting with my aging eyes.
So now I climb down and walk over to the deer and start to get ready to field dress my latest trophy.
Now the fun begins...I had packed all my deer blasting toys a couple nights back because my oldest has 4 close college friends camping at the house. I put everything in my backpack and staged my gear as not to wake any of the girls up when I headed out at 5:30am. The bottom line is that after I search through all my clothes and the backpack. I have no knife!
Lucky for me I live close to where I hunt and I have a great wife. I promptly call the better half…a few rings later she wakes up. I tell her I shot a nice buck and that I forgot my knife and she says “Where is it I’ll bring it to you!”...Really? I thought I was gonna pass out.
Some of you know my wife and are already shocked…those that don’t will be entertained by the fact that she hates the cold and rarely ventures outside for more than a few minutes between November and April. It was 28 degrees.
Lucky for both of us I was hunting some new property and had previously showed her on a map where I’d be and since I was going there in the dark I had the walk, including turns all paced off. After describing where I am, where she needs to park, which way to walk including turns and number of steps she says I’ll see you in a half hour and I’ll call you if I get lost.
Half an hour goes by and my phone rings….”hey where are you…I'm”…Just then I see a doe bust out around 150 yards out. I say “keep walking you’re getting close”. Sure enough about 5 minutes later I see the better half trudging along the edge of the woods a couple hundred yards away. She has on her snow gear and is carrying my knife. Jody crosses where the doe busted out...doesn't she kick out another buck!
Now I have a tough decision to make shoot the 2nd buck and risk the wife….It was a tough call but she did have my knife so I passed on the shot...;-)
Seriously though...I was very grateful for her consideration Saturday morning. And I was pleasantly surprised when she walked up to me and said "Nice deer"...She paused for a moment and said “I never realized how beautiful it was out here in the woods just after sunrise”...Score that a win!
I didn't want to ruin the morning; So I sent her home with some excess gear. I knew her opinion would have changed if she hung out for the field dressing part of the program and then assisted dragging the heavy mother out.
All good.
PS – Yes the up...down, up again...down again double gully through the woods and 1/2 mile to the car drag was a pain in my ass. It took me an hour and a half. I was gasping for air and sweating like a pig...I'm not in bad shape either! YOu know something...It was worth every step...Back straps on the grill! Wahoooooooooo....
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