THE NOT SO STORY BOOK ENDING
Show_Me_Your_Rack
10/31/09 1:20pm
OK well first off this was my first rifle deer hunt. I love to bow and hunt black powder but since i got off my lds mission on october 8th of this year i didnt really have that option.I hunted hard and was holding out for a 170+ buck. the day before the opener me and my buddie and his wife back-packed into an area we had seen some good bucks in the past and one the weekend before the hunt
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Opening morning i saw some good bucks that i tried to make a move on but it never worked out. I was not to worried because i had the rest of the hunt.
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Once monday came around i headed off to a new area where i spent the rest of my hunt i was seeing arund 75-100 deer a day with only 2-6 of them being bucks and little dinks at that. My dad was with me from monday to the end of the hunt which was good to spend a lot of time with him.
On wednesday evening i was back in some country with my dad and cousin and we had about 1/2 hour left of light and my dad headed back down to the truck and me and my cousin headed down the side of a huge wash hoping to jump out a buck from the trees!!! about 10 minutes into our hike that did happen! At about 80 yards the buck started booking it up the hill in front of us and i had a good look at him through my binos and saw he had decent width and highth and good mass. so i sat on my butt and found the deer in my scope about 100 yards away and i pulled the trigger and to my supprise the gun didnt go off so i took the safety off and did the same thing still nothing happened. Believe it or not if there is not bullet in the chamber your gun will not shoot!! so in no time i jacked a shell in and as the deer topped the ridge i found him in my scope at about 125 yards and with the deer running quartering away to my left i held the cross hairs at the base of his neck and pulled the trigger and all i saw was ha huge flame out of my 7MM-08s barrel. And i didnt see the buck so with light fading i started up the hill to see if i could see anything.As i got to where i last seen the deer there he was on his back with hir right front leg twithching a little. so i yelled to my cousin i got it!! I then pulled out my camera and started to take pictures. Now this is where my story turns bad. as i took a picture the camera flashed 3 times so it wouldnt have any red eyes as it did that the deer leaned forward just in time to get a almost perfect mug shot!!
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then in no time the deer got up and started to book it down the hill with my gun on 9 power i couldnt find it right off and the deer ran out of view!! with the light fading we hurried and got on its blood trail and started to follow with the flashlights after about 115 yards I decided that i didnt want to bump the deer at all and get on him first thing on thursday. With the sun coming over the hills on thursday morning found me and my dad hot on the deers tracks!!! the deer had good blood for the 1st 200 yards but then the blood started to slow down but his tracks were pretty easy to follow in the dirt with a drop of blood every 20-50 yards i started to loose hope but kept at it!!! my dad and i lost tracks at around 8-900 yards and we started to glass the hill sides and the washes for the most part he stayed in the bottom!!! while glassing i spotted a skull and for a 3 point he is pretty good
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But anyways back to the deer i hit i would be on its tracks then it would go into some rocks and i would loose its tracks theni would luck into them then i would loose them. For all of you that have hit a deer and things were not looking up in finding it i am sure you had a simular feeling that i did and i dont wish that upon anyone. Around 3:00pm we went to the truck to get a bite to eat and i pulled out a good old muley crazy magazine the july/august 2009 and i gained a little hope after reading the story by Jeremy Houston "The Road To RECOVERY" I stuck to it and pounded the hills around where i last was on its tracks and over the next 2 days i found a few more blood drops and from where i hit the deer it made it well over 1 1/2 miles!!! In the end i didnt find my deer and i didnt shoot another. I pounded the hills as hard as i could in search of my buck i know its not a story book ending but I hope and pray that my deer is still out there alive and well!!! Over the next few weeks and months i will be out there searching and watching for crows and keeping my nose open!!! But thats my story now i am sure i am going to get some wonderful feedback from you all and i am ready for it!!!
Opening morning i saw some good bucks that i tried to make a move on but it never worked out. I was not to worried because i had the rest of the hunt.
Once monday came around i headed off to a new area where i spent the rest of my hunt i was seeing arund 75-100 deer a day with only 2-6 of them being bucks and little dinks at that. My dad was with me from monday to the end of the hunt which was good to spend a lot of time with him.
On wednesday evening i was back in some country with my dad and cousin and we had about 1/2 hour left of light and my dad headed back down to the truck and me and my cousin headed down the side of a huge wash hoping to jump out a buck from the trees!!! about 10 minutes into our hike that did happen! At about 80 yards the buck started booking it up the hill in front of us and i had a good look at him through my binos and saw he had decent width and highth and good mass. so i sat on my butt and found the deer in my scope about 100 yards away and i pulled the trigger and to my supprise the gun didnt go off so i took the safety off and did the same thing still nothing happened. Believe it or not if there is not bullet in the chamber your gun will not shoot!! so in no time i jacked a shell in and as the deer topped the ridge i found him in my scope at about 125 yards and with the deer running quartering away to my left i held the cross hairs at the base of his neck and pulled the trigger and all i saw was ha huge flame out of my 7MM-08s barrel. And i didnt see the buck so with light fading i started up the hill to see if i could see anything.As i got to where i last seen the deer there he was on his back with hir right front leg twithching a little. so i yelled to my cousin i got it!! I then pulled out my camera and started to take pictures. Now this is where my story turns bad. as i took a picture the camera flashed 3 times so it wouldnt have any red eyes as it did that the deer leaned forward just in time to get a almost perfect mug shot!!
then in no time the deer got up and started to book it down the hill with my gun on 9 power i couldnt find it right off and the deer ran out of view!! with the light fading we hurried and got on its blood trail and started to follow with the flashlights after about 115 yards I decided that i didnt want to bump the deer at all and get on him first thing on thursday. With the sun coming over the hills on thursday morning found me and my dad hot on the deers tracks!!! the deer had good blood for the 1st 200 yards but then the blood started to slow down but his tracks were pretty easy to follow in the dirt with a drop of blood every 20-50 yards i started to loose hope but kept at it!!! my dad and i lost tracks at around 8-900 yards and we started to glass the hill sides and the washes for the most part he stayed in the bottom!!! while glassing i spotted a skull and for a 3 point he is pretty good
But anyways back to the deer i hit i would be on its tracks then it would go into some rocks and i would loose its tracks theni would luck into them then i would loose them. For all of you that have hit a deer and things were not looking up in finding it i am sure you had a simular feeling that i did and i dont wish that upon anyone. Around 3:00pm we went to the truck to get a bite to eat and i pulled out a good old muley crazy magazine the july/august 2009 and i gained a little hope after reading the story by Jeremy Houston "The Road To RECOVERY" I stuck to it and pounded the hills around where i last was on its tracks and over the next 2 days i found a few more blood drops and from where i hit the deer it made it well over 1 1/2 miles!!! In the end i didnt find my deer and i didnt shoot another. I pounded the hills as hard as i could in search of my buck i know its not a story book ending but I hope and pray that my deer is still out there alive and well!!! Over the next few weeks and months i will be out there searching and watching for crows and keeping my nose open!!! But thats my story now i am sure i am going to get some wonderful feedback from you all and i am ready for it!!!
12,167
That is one of the most bizarre stories of the year FOR SURE. Not because of the story, but the PHOTO is crazy. Good luck topping this hunting story. :)
Obviously lesson learned for sure. As for the buck being dead/alive. My first thoughts were he wouldn't make it from the amount of blood at the scene also. However I think it's purely speculation for sure. But I tend to think you grazed his vertebrae somewhere and obviously stunned him and 'knocked' him out of if you will.
Jeremy's story is certainly a good one and glad you search for him long/hard. I tend to think he might be okay and possibly made it out okay, but just my guess??
To bad you couldn't find him, I know the feeling as many do and it STINKS.
I just wanted to thank you for being brave enough to post this even though you knew you might get some flack. I have thought about your story all day, and I think alot of folks stand to learn from what happened to you. In the heat of the moment it's easy to lose track of what we are doing and it could happen to any of us. I know that thanks to you, dozens of MM readers will be a little slower to start celebration ensuring that the animal has been cleanly and completely dispatched. I hope that your luck improves next year and we can see some nice pics with you and a dead buck. I too would like to welcome you home and congratulate you on your two years of service.----shooter
Good luck finding him...
Brandon
This was a good story about a wierd knockout shot and your twisting into a speculation of a explosive bullet, and talking down to the guy telling him to get back out there after he is obviously beating himself up over it and he spent days looking, Thats not cool to do Nonya.
oh well keep it up the good work :thumb :))
I brought up the ballistic tip thing as a joke with Nonya without even knowing that Show-me was actually using BT bullets. Didn't mean any harm, but you gotta admit that a lot of experience might suggest that these bullets might be less than ideal in modern magnums. I bet show_me might be shooting a different bullet next year. I personally would not trust these bullets to perform worry free in any cartridge "hotter" than the 308win-----shooter
if you know so much u should have the specs. I dont care about your snide remarks I'm mature enough and logical enough and yes educated enough to figure it out unlike somebody I know. Oh shoot I just came down to your level.
To bad things did not go your way on the hunt hope you end up finding him.
Agreed. No need to turn every other thread into a dead horse beating party.
Welcome home Show me, hard to believe it's been 2 years already, but it's good to see you back! EVERYONE gets overly excited at times and EVERYONE makes decisions that they look back on and wish they had done things differently. Thats the beautiful thing about life, it's all about living and learning. It's too bad you werent able to find him, but you did the right thing and kept after him and still havent given up.