Hunting Reports Thread, D-16 Opening Day Kill in Hunting; Went out yesterday morning for the opening hunt in one of my secret spots that I've been scouting for the ...
Went out yesterday morning for the opening hunt in one of my secret spots that I've been scouting for the last couple weeks. Was excited because this area has a lot of sign and looked pretty promising. Started a slow hunt @ daylight and ended up on a ridge overlooking a big draw. Got to the ridge about 8:00 and laid down and glassed the whole area with my spotting scope. Figured I'd hang around for a bit, there was some cloud cover so I thought that might make the deer stay out a little longer than normal. About 9:30 I spotted a doe moving quickly in my direction. Not far behind her was another deer. The doe moved pretty quick under an oak tree, to feed on acorns I assume and the other deer was not far behind. The oak tree was about 320 yards out. I was looking for antlers on the 2nd deer and at first thought this little guy was a spike. I calmed myself down a little from the buck fever and spotted a fork on the antler. I grabbed my rifle, got it in my sights to watch it disappear under the oak. I waited for about 25 minutes until I saw the doe come out, in a fast walk back to where she had come from. Waited about another 10 minutes to see the buck come out a little further out from where he had gone in. This was a long shot, range finder said 349 yards. The first shot hit him in the front leg, a little low. He started running towards me and I knew he was injured. Shot again while he was running about 300 yards out and missed. He turner and ran right back under the oak. 5 minutes later he came out limping on the opposite side 252 yards out. I aimed carefully and took the kill shot, right through the boiler room, which shredded his heart. I hate to see the animal suffer for as long as he did, but at least I got him. I know he's small, but I meat hunt in San Diego. I leave the trophy hunting for out of State. It was tough getting him out, had to put him on my shoulders for about a mile up and down hills. Note these are the distances I took w/ my range finder after I had killed the deer, I couldn't have done it on the deer as I was shaking too much. Now it's time to cut him up and go fill the second tag, hopefully it's a larger one this time!!!!!!
These pictures aren't very good and the post won't let me download any of my other ones. My brother took a couple pics w/ his phone. I'll get them and try to post them later.
I think we saw that buck's twin yesterday. I was feeling generous so he's still out there.
Fresh One, that was more like 9:30 - 9:45 ish. It was 7:20 when I glassed those deer and almost 8:30 by the time we got down there. It was atleast an hour later when it all went down. nelarsen I do have a feeling we were in the same area. There's not much left that is open. Shoot me a PM if you'd like.
Nice job bro! Any deer in SD county is hard earned. Strong work.
It is what it is.
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