Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

After the evening hunt, Ryan and I made a plan to go back to where I was for the evening sit for a few reasons. One, the area was big enough that we could spread out and cover A LOT between us. From that perch we could probably see 1/4 of the unit. Not shoot to all of it obviously, you could really see a lot! The other reason being the amount of deer seen the day before.

Sunday morning didn’t disappoint. The weather was more what I was used to. Clear, high skies, temps in the low 20’s and about 10 mph wind.

Once the deer started to head to their bedding areas it was a parade of deer. At one point I texted Ryan saying “they’re everywhere!”

The first group of deer was a gimpy forkie, a few does and 3 spikes. None of them interested me. After about 40 minutes of the parade I saw a buck walking out of a draw that had my attention quick. He was way too far for me to shoot so I just watched him as he closed the distance to Ryan’s set up about 150 hundred yards from me. I fully expected to hear a shot. None came. He was on the move pretty quick. When he stopped at the point of a draw I glassed him and caught him just right to see 5 points on one side, decent main beams and nice tines. That was all the glance I needed. But, he was still too far for me to shoot. I’m pretty confident with this set up to 350. 400 would have to be perfect, and past that would have to be somebody else. After a minute or so I figured if they weren’t going to shoot him, I was!

I ranged a few spots in his direction of travel in case he stopped. The problem is, he didn’t stop! He covered probably 400 yards in just a few minutes. Clearly searching for a girlfriend. I set up my sticks hoping for a chance. He got within range and just before I was going to yell “STOP” he did!

Crap! I couldn’t find him in the scope. I moved my head off the scope and saw he was walking. I readjusted and when he walked into the crosshairs I shot. Losing sight of his reaction in the recoil, I saw him jump a fence and head into the brush. I wasn’t sure what to think. The shot felt good, but I didn’t like his reaction. The best thing I saw was his tail was tucked down and he wasn’t moving fast.
After a bit I talked with Ryan and he assured me I hit him hard. It took about 1/2 hr for the parade to slow down. When Cale popped the doe, they got the hint.

It was really cool to watch that through binos. He’s cool as a cucumber when deer are around. And he’s a fine, polite young man to boot!

By the time we got down to where the deer were it was about 1.5hrs after my shot.

Cale’s doe and my buck were both standing in the flat area at the upper left of the pic.