So, opening day in Manitoba was on Monday. Me & my hunting partner hunted on Monday and 1/2 of yesterday (Tues). Lots of deer in the Southeast corner of the province. We were hunting fairly thick bush, with assorted logging cutouts spread here and there, and 2 track roads connecting them to the main gravel road. We saw 5 before noon on Monday, but all were either at a too far a distance and/or gone before a shot could be taken...
Then my pard' had a nice looking buck standing almost broadside (quartering on a bit) in a ~ 5 year old cut at about 125 yds. My pard's a reasonably good shot and shoots a remington bolt in 6mm remington. He took the shot... and the deer bounded away! I didn't see 'em until he was moving, and couldn't get a shot off because of he ducked behind a bush stand in the cut. I thought he was movin' a bit slower than I'd expect a spooked buck to move, which made me think he was hit. But, his tail was up on the bounce or two I saw... I think often the tail's down or moving funny if they're hit hard. Anyway, I thought that maybe he'd laid down in that little bush island ('cause he didn't come out on the other side). We gave 'em some time and then went to the spot where he was standing. We had 2-3" of 5 day old snow... No doubt about his tracks, but no blood... Hmmm, I figured that with the deer's sluggish bounces, and the wide open shot, it was unlikely to be a clean miss... We moved towards the island of bush (about 50 yds away)... as we moved, his tracks merged with mucho other tracks. There were tons of tracks in that cut out, going in every direction! We headed to the stand of trees, not convinced that we still had his tracks, and still without seeing a spot of blood. Nothing... We spread out a bit and were looking for, 1) blood, 2) tracks that we could believe were his, or 3) a dead deer. We found none of the above.
I doubled back to the original spot and started tracking more carefully... found what I was convinced was his trail. He had angled away and made for the back of the cut with the bush island between us and him. I followed the tracks for about 200 yards, getting in thicker bush all the time. I had to double back 4 or 5 times when his tracks merged with others, and it was tough to tell which way he went. In the bush on the backside, probably about 300 or so yards from the place where he was first standing, I saw a spot of blood.
There wasn't alot of it... about silver dollar size. But at least it told us that he was hit, and that we were on his tracks. We followed them around the cutout and then they curved back and across the 2 track road leading to the cutout. Not another spot of blood in that whole distance, which was probably another 300 or so yards. It was amazing how many other tracks he followed and crossed, yet we were still about 80% confident that the tracks we were on were his. The bush was thicker on the other side of road, so we figured he might go and bed down in there. So we gave him some time before going in. After waiting ~35 minutes, we started tracking again. After a couple hundred yards in nasty bush, with losing his tracks a couple times, but able to find them after doubling back, we came to a spot where he had laid down... he was gone but there was another blood spot, this time about the size of an orange. So, he was hurt enough to wanna lie down, but still able to get up and move. We kept on his trail, and he had started circling around behind where we had been. After another 200 or so yards, with me looking for tracks in pretty thick bush, he jumped up about 5 yards in front of me... I finished him with what was supposed to be a neck shot, but ended up being through his ribs along his back. My variable weaver was backed down to 2.75x, but he was real close, and in mid-leap. Anyway, I was just happy not to have pulverized a hind quarter.
He was a nice, medium-sized 4x4 buck. Not what we�d call �big� around here, but definately in the �nice� category. Definitely nothing wrong with that. As we had guessed by then, my pard�s the first shot was below the diaphram. No exit hole. The buck was quartering on a bit, and the shot must�ve been pulled to the right a bit. We had about a 300 yard drag out to the road, which wasn�t bad with 2 of us, but would�ve been bad news if we were hunting solo.
Anyway, my partner felt bad about the poor shot, but in general we felt pretty good that we hadn�t given up on the buck, and eventually got him tagged. We were pretty lucky. The snow allowed us to track without any blood trail (2 spots in about 1 kilometer). It was about 3 hours from the initial shot to getting the buck dragged out to the road. It was luck that we had enough daylight to play this out. It wasn�t how you�d like to imagine your hunt going, but it turned out OK. In the hour of daylight after this, we saw one more buck. But I didn�t get a shot. Saw 1 buck and 2 does the following morning, but none shootable.
I learned a lot from the experience... like:
1) how far a deer can go if you don�t torpedo the �boiler room�
2) how easily you can get turned around if you have your eyes/head in a tracking game. Once we got him dressed we played �which way to the road� before I checked my compass. I was off by exactly 180 degrees. The direction of my instincts, led to miles and miles of bush. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
3) that a poorly placed 6mm round makes squat for a blood trail
and;
4) that the �wood� saw blade of a swiss army knife is awesome for splitting the pelvis!
5) for a long drag, cut a piece of branch to use as a handle for your rope.. Makes pulling much easier.
So I�ve still got my tag. I�m not sure if I�ll be able to get out again... If not we�ll split the �tag teamed� buck so I�ll still get some venison...
Anyway, I thought I�d tell the story of our hunt (so far). It seemed like an event at the time!
Brent
