An unexpected blessing!

[hex0rz]

Some may consider it, "Just another day." I consider it a day of blessing! Some may see it as work, I see it as security! There is nothing better to me than being able to, "live off the land!" It started out as anything but a hunt. I suppose I could not even call it that! A stroke of grace I should say!Working on my rifle, doing a bedding job, I stopped for a moment to look out the backdoor. There has been a nuisance cat in the area beating our cat up. I just so happened to look up and see it passing through our field. Ha! Well, instead of considering shooting it or a slingshot, I decided that maybe the dogs can have their turn this time.I rally them up and open the front door, pointing out into the field, I try and get them to pounce on the cat! Well, the dogs were not with it and they decided they would rather just fight each other! The cat sees us and jets off! I yell at the dogs to stop and start walking towards our chicken coop. Out at the edge of our field, here is a deer!Its deer season right now here in the 'tater state. I do not even give it a single hesitation and I'm in grabbing the rifle. Running back out, I see that its a buck! Snuck over to the chicken coop and started crawling over to a big ol' spool we have that was gonna be a table. Get behind it and the dogs are following me and they are fighting and the likes. I'm trying to shoo them away and my father in law is trying to call them back in. Man, all the commotion, I think the jig is up! Fortunately, he's too busy eating.I prop the rifle up over the spool and notice I'm too short to shoot on my knees. So I crouch up and get a stable hold. Hes got his head down and facing me. Still apparently in oblivion about me... At this point, the adrenaline is going good. I'm trying to be as patient as I can to wait for him to be broadside but he just does not give it to me. So I thought about it and how I could shoot him at a good spot with the angle he presented me....I think I'll go for a neck shot! Heads down, neck is good! That will put him into a dirt nap quick! I click the safety off and squeeze that trigger. BOOM! The deer looks up and starts to walk off fast. Okay, did I not just shoot him? He's not flagging me goodbye? What gives? He jumps over our fence, walks a little bit next to the train tracks, stops. I've got another round racked in the rifle and ready to go for a followup shot. Suddenly, I hear my father in law say, "No, don't shoot, hes done for."Okay? Expecting him to keel over by now, he jumps over the tracks and stops again. All I can see is his antlers then. Okay, now fall over! No? Where did he just go? I put the rifle back, and 4 of us go out and see if we can find him. There was tuffs of hair where I had shot him, but no blood!We trace the steps he took and there is still no blood to be seen anywhere! Me and my father in law lead the tracking and we were down the tracks about 20 yards when I heard some rustling in the brush. Stopped to listen and he was no more than another 20 from us. All I could see was his face and an antler. Then it disappears... Then there is a butt and tail flicker. Then nothing! I was worried I gut shot him and was pushing him more and more until I probably would not find him! :ahhh:So we wait a little bit or so. Maybe 10 min. And then we walk into the trees. I don't hear anymore rustling and we go into the trees about 40 yards or so. Crap! I pushed him, hes gone! I started to think that working sideways instead of in more may yield me better results. Suddenly, I felt a compelling push to just walk a little more in instead. EUREKA! There it is! A hind leg sticking out from behind a log! There he is in all his glory! A 4x4 buck with a good rack! I won't complain! Hes a trophy to me! Any meat is a trophy! The rack is just a fringe! Took two of us to drag him back out of the woods. When we got back to the tracks I went and grabbed the quad and got him back to the barn that way.Turns out, the rifle I was using was my wife's. Her scope is not what I'am used to. Its got a cross hair, but the vertical cross hair, the bottom 3/4 of it is a fatter line that comes to a point. Well, the top of that post is the 100 yard mark. I used the cross hair intersect point as my point of aim. So, instead of hitting him in the neck, I hit him on the top of his back, behind his left shoulder! It put a hole in him the size of an orange!I shot him with a 30.06, 150 grain soft point. Heres the kicker. The reason I did not see blood was because the hole was up high. None of the blood could drain out of him. But somehow, the bullet eviscerated about 1/4 of one of his lungs. So he bled out in his lung cavity and then probably drowned on his blood. I did NOT find any bullet fragments or even a bullet! I ALSO do not have an exit wound! Talk about a head scratcher!I barely destroyed any meat in the process too! Now, some may think it would not have been a good shot, or even an ethical one. I personally do not think a vitals shot is any different than a spine, neck, or headshot. Obviously, a vitals shot is a larger area and facilitates bleed out, but to each his own!Now, since I did not hit his neck like I planned. I'm happy I did not! For a deer, he has a stinking huge neck! We use the neck meat to make shredded meat for enchiladas and also make roasts! Hung him on a gambrel before we touched him with a knife and he weighed 190lbs. After skinning and gutting, he was about 160lbs. He certainly has alot of good fat on him for tallow and had a heart the size of an elk!This year, we are also focusing on being more resourceful with the things left over from our kills. We are going to harvest the heart, liver, urine, fat, hide, skull, maybe the brain for tanning, and legs to make a gun rack or coat rack!I have never had a desire to use the bones to make a stock, but I think my dad might want to. He has done it before... I can't really think of too much for to harvest for use. At any rate, this may be gross, savage like or just plain wrong to some people. But for an individual like me, it is just simply, a blessing! :thumbup2:Nothing more satisfying to know your freezer can be that much fuller with meat to get you through until next year!And as always, this would not be complete without pics!

[MnTom]

Nice looking buck! Deer season here in Mn too, but I didn't buy a license. Between my wife and son they can get a total of 10 deer of either sex, and if I had a license then mine would need to be a buck only, and I am only allowed one (they are registered Indian and I am not). Also their season lasts way longer than mine! However, I learned that if you allow the meat to sit in a cooler for a week or two it will be some of the most tender meat you can get! I have some moose that when cooked on the grill you can cut it with a fork!:drool: Oh, the last couple of deer my son got were in my back yard too......

[hex0rz]

Nice looking buck! Deer season here in Mn too, but I didn't buy a license. Between my wife and son they can get a total of 10 deer of either sex, and if I had a license then mine would need to be a buck only, and I am only allowed one (they are registered Indian and I am not). Also their season lasts way longer than mine! However, I learned that if you allow the meat to sit in a cooler for a week or two it will be some of the most tender meat you can get! I have some moose that when cooked on the grill you can cut it with a fork!:drool: Oh, the last couple of deer my son got were in my back yard too......

Heck! You can't beat that! Lets barter for some of that moose!

[MnTom]

Heck! You can't beat that! Lets barter for some of that moose!

Well, come get some!

[kicker212]

nice deer