Alright, alright, what's going on in here? I been away since thursday & I can't believe this poast is still floating on the first page... I just happen to have pictures of Jim's deer & Jim himself "smiling like heck" so I'll post em.

Well, it was a fantastic weekend in the woods, beautiful out there, ecpecially yesterday with the trace of snow hanging in the big pines.
We had a great time, hunted real hard saturday & sunday, then my uncle & the boy went home sunday night, me & my daughter stayed out there sunday night & we hunted yesterday but it was so windy it seemed like the deer just didn't want to move in that wind.

Sadly, the meat pole is still empty. I had an opportunity to remedy that situation on sun morning & I was certain that I did just that.
I had a decent shot opportunity on a young 8 pointer... had to decide whether or not I wanted to burn my buck tag on yet another 8 pointer... but the meat pole was empty & we weren't doing so well up to that point so I decided to shoot him.

It went so well... and yet it went so badly.

I don't understand what happened, broadside 50 yds, hit him right in the front shoulder, .308 fusion fact loads... I watched him hunch up, tail went down & did that rapid flicker thing & he took off carrying his left shoulder tight where I aimed. I knew it was over... I cycled another round in the old Win model 88 for a follow up shot if needed but he got himself behind some thich cover & just stood there. I swore I heard him lay down or fall down... I waited about a half an hour & I was confident that I had a dead deer laying there... well, I really don't even like talking about what happened next but long story short. he took off, I went back to the shack & gave him a couple of hours then me & the boy went after him. we found a chunk of lung at one point on our blood trail... after about 3 miles the blood dried up & he got onto a fresh loggong clear cut where it looked like a artillary impact zone & we lost his track completely.

We lost him, first deer I've ever lost & I just can't for the life of me understand what went wrong.

I'll shoot that .308 tonight when I get home to see if there is something wrong there..

here's rooster's dandy of a buck, way to go Jim!!

[Linked Image]

Something clever here.