[SilverZuk]

The deer ran away :laughing:

We did some deer drives on Saturday. It was the last day of "muzzlehosing" season. We were all after mature bucks, but did have an order for a doe.
Actually, the guys said "I'll take as many as you get". One doe is all I am willing to fool with, and wanted to take off that property.

The first deer drive involved 5 people. Three on stands and me another guy as dogs. We don't dog hard, we hunt. We sneak in, and at times just walk normal to move deer. Chopper came around the bank below me and I didn't see a thing. I started to swing out in front of him and I could hear deer. They knew I was there, so I walked on past them never stopping. I closed the back door and chopper slid in above me and behind the deer to move them out. The driver yeilded 16 deer, two where bucks.

The big buck only gave a brief passing shot to Scotty, which he missed cleanly. The small buck gave Rick a fairly long shot, and he missed. Scotty shot at the small buck as he crossed the ridge.

The rest of us saw does.

 

[LiLBucket]

The deer ran away :laughing:

We did some deer drives on Saturday. It was the last day of "muzzlehosing" season. We were all after mature bucks, but did have an order for a doe.
Actually, the guys said "I'll take as many as you get". One doe is all I am willing to fool with, and wanted to take off that property.

The first deer drive involved 5 people. Three on stands and me another guy as dogs. We don't dog hard, we hunt. We sneak in, and at times just walk normal to move deer. Chopper came around the bank below me and I didn't see a thing. I started to swing out in front of him and I could hear deer. They knew I was there, so I walked on past them never stopping. I closed the back door and chopper slid in above me and behind the deer to move them out. The driver yeilded 16 deer, two where bucks.

The big buck only gave a brief passing shot to Scotty, which he missed cleanly. The small buck gave Rick a fairly long shot, and he missed. Scotty shot at the small buck as he crossed the ridge.

The rest of us saw does.

Where's that "Dispatching Injured Game" thread :laughing:


How much land are you doing a drive like that on? Good bit of processing ahead of you :smokin:

 

[SilverZuk]

The next drive I had Rick and Kevin on stands. I slipped in through a thicket that is about 6 or 8 acres. It is the head of a hollow, with rock cliffs around the bottom. Pasture one side and houses on the other. When you jump deer they generally run down either side of the hollow. I slipped in the middle before I heard deer leave out from under me. Probably 50 yards away and I never saw them. I heard Kevin shoot a minute later.

I saw a doe stopped looking back. So I pushed her on around to Rick. As I moved toward Kevin I hear his startled voice, "MATT! THERE IS A BIG BUCK COMING UP THE HOLLOW. HE'S BLEEDING BAD".

I was at good bottle neck, and there was no way a deer was getting past me without being seen. I heard deer coming, I got ready with my Hawken rifle. Two does came up the other side and stopped at 40 yards broad side. I stood there listening and heard nothing. I leveled off on the lead doe and squeezed. The smoke rolled, then cleared.
She and the other still stood there nervously looking around, but oblivious to the shot and smoke. I was , I know when I hit and when I miss. I knew I had hit her. I thought I could see a rough spot of fur right where I was aiming.

The does walked off up the hill, crossed through a fence and stood nervously.
I was loading my rifle when Kevin asked "Did you get him?"
I was responding, "No, I was shooting at a doe".
As I look over and see Kevin 70 yards away the big buck stood up between us and ran off. He was tall and looked like he had good mass. Neither of us got a shot.

I heard a flop, looked back saw the lead rolling down the hill through the fence.
I took off after the buck trying to cut him off to make sure he didn't cross the pasture. When I got there, I could see the cows looking up the hill. I knew deer just ran through there. I walked the fence and never found blood. That was a good thing, hopefully the buck laid down again. Kevin stayed off to my lead flank to get a shot if I jumped him.
No blood. We went back to the spot where we though he jumped the fence, we found blood where he jumped a side fence. Kevin tracked it down in the hollow and saw him laying in a creek. He didn't have an angle to shoot, so I started around the head of the hollow to cut him off if he jumped again. I heard a shot. I yelled to see if he got him. about 30 seconds later I heard another shot. When I got there, Kevin was on the bank with his rifle ready.

 

[SilverZuk]

That buck had rolled out of the thicket as soon as I started in. Kevin shot him while running off the hill (if you wait for them to stop, you'll never get a shot).

He said the buck slowed to a walk and stood there. Then walked off. When he went to look for blood, he saw the buck laying dead on the ground. He leaned his muzzleloader against at tree, walked over and grabbed the buck's antlers. The buck jumped up and ran off, Kevin was showing me his fingers saying, "That hurt, my fingers feel like they are stone bruised.".

I would have paid money to be standing there to see his face when that buck ran off.
The second shot he missed in the creek. The third shot finished the buck. He was still standing there loaded and ready for him to run. He wasn't taking any chances. :laughing:

 

[SilverZuk]

Where's that "Dispatching Injured Game" thread :laughing:


How much land are you doing a drive like that on? Good bit of processing ahead of you :smokin:

We have access to hunt a lot of properties. However, our drives are generally focused to thickets and hiding spots. We have one or two people hunt there way in. The goal is to get the deer to stand up and walk off, not run. However, once the shooting starts the deer are running.

 

[SilverZuk]

If you google 2192 Fisher Ridge, West Virginia. You will see the thicket.
I don't have any photo/pciture software on machine to do a screen capture.

At 2192 is a driveway going east-south east. That is where I entered. The pasture is to the south. I had Rick standing 100 yards from the house at the end of the driveway. Kevin was near the mouth of the deep hollow below the thicket.

You can't see my cows in the pic. I had the gate open to allow them go in the thicket and fallow field to eat. That image was taking in October last year. You can see my Dad's truck in the yard and him working on the driveway.

Some deer drives we do are big, and some very small and pointed. We might hunt around the side of a hill or through a big hollow to get deer moving. Generally, the guys dogging are hunting and slipping through the woods. The drivers generally let out an occasional "whoo", like a dog barks. That is let the others know where we are for safety sake.

Some drives are literally one guy pushing through a small thicket with another guy covering the exits from a distance. Some drives are never fruitful, however we do them to stage the drive we want. We will push deer out of several areas into an area that is good for driving. Then we will cover the exits and have a couple guys move through to scatter the deer. A normal drive is probably 1/2 mile. A big push might be a mile. By that far you have deer circling back behind you to their home territory.

 

[SilverZuk]

As far as processing. I killed 3 early this year and dad killed one.
I processed them at the house (about an hour per deer). I gave a small one to a widow that lives near me. I canned one, froze one, and chunked the other to make deer bologna. That is all I have room for. I am getting ready to butcher a hog next week, and put a beef in the freezer in Nov. I might have to can some beef and pork because my freezer may end up too full.

 

[LiLBucket]

Sounds like a good time!!

Week before last I had some of the most fun deer hunting that I've had in a while....

I was hunting new property and didn't get a chance to do any recon beforehand. I don't like doing that, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity as it's relatively exclusive land. It was a morning hunt so we showed up in the dark. I had decent idea of the property lines, topography, etc in my mind.

Anyhow, I spotted a doe on the edge of the field as I was stalking a pine thicket that jutted out into the field. My shot was about 150yds and would be parallel to the treeline. I was in a spot that I just wasn't quite comfortable with the shot though. I knew there were houses in that general direction and even though I was shooting down with a very large hill rise behind me, I was unsure of the muzzleblast.

I spent the next two hours sniper crawling in and out of the field through tall grass trying to get the angle I was most comfortable with. She'd come out a little then back into the Oak grove she was feeding in. When she'd go in, I'd crawl back to the berm edge of the woods looking over a boggy area waiting for her to pass. She'd never show so I'd slip back out in the field where I'd catch her going back in. Eventually I tried stalking the woods towards her and I think I pushed her across the field.

I got skunked that day, but it was the most fun I've had. Since then, I've been doing much less sitting in stands or on the ground and more stalking. May not yield as much alone, but WAYYYYY more fun!

 

[SilverZuk]

My doe was given to a co-worker. He didn't get to hunt much this year, and didn't kill any. All I did to this one was gut it, drag it, hang it up at the house until he arrived to pick it up.

 

[SilverZuk]

I hunt like a bobcat.
I slip, and I will wait.

If I am slipping into a spot. I generally find the most unlogical way to get into that spot. I walk below steep banks, and when I arrive I will slip over the crest to the stand. That way the deer don't see me going in an out.

I like hunting in dry leaves. I can hear deer, and everything else. I will stay out of site using my ears to keep track of them. Deer don't pay a whole lot of attention to the noise I make. I will take a few easy steps. If I break a branch, or slip, I stand there not making any noise for several minutes before moving again. I generally take 3 to 10 steps then stop and watch/listen for several minutes. Often deer have come to me to investigate the sound.

I don't ever chase deer. If I jump them, at their next spot they will be turned in the direction they came from watching to see if you are chasing. I back out of the area, and either try to push into another place or try to slip past the deer I jumped and intercept them where I think they are going. Sometimes I have run all the way to watch a location because I had a good idea where they were going to cross.

 

[Mudinyeri]

Couple of my buddies were up in South Dakota pheasant hunting a week or two ago. They had a huge buck run right between the two of them. It came "out of nowhere" and scared the crap out of them. :laughing:

 

[Texas97]

parts of that story are why I make guys wait 30-60 minutes before i even go look for blood and start to track.

glad you got your buck though, doesnt always work out like that.