Hunting Story for Mid November

From Richard

(... since Bonnie asked if he had another hunting story)

It was an interesting day.  We drive into the hunting area at 7am, and by 8:15am I'm dragging a mulie doe out through shin high snow.  See picture.  It's the first time that I've shot hill top to hill top and got something.  Maybe unrepresented in that picture but there is a big valley up the hill and I was shooting from valley top to valley top.  Maybe 350 yards.  Which is a pretty significant shot.

We drove in at 6 am talking about strategy, and I decided that I was going to climb the hill to the right and look down into the valley instead of sitting in the bottom of it waiting for something to walk by.  The climb is steep enough that you need to climb while placing your hands on the ground in front of you.  By the time I'd make the peak chris was still walking in and waved to me from the gulley.

Ten minutes later after laying in the snow I look across and darned if Chris hadn't walked past two mulies on his way through.  I had already shot my mulie but chris had his tag still.  I tried to call on the walkie but my batteries were dead.    I stared at the doe through my scope for 10 minutes waiting for them to walk away.   Temptation really is worse when it's convenient and available.  I planned to shoot it and rush down the hill in fear that chris would hear the shot, walk down and shoot the second mulie.  Then we'd find ourselves in a bunch of trouble.

It was so windy that I was concerned about bullet drift from the gusts, so I waited for pauses in the wind before shooting.  I need about 10 seconds before I can take a really clean shot so I waited until one lull in the wind lasted long enough and took the shot.  The doe kicked like a bucking horse, back legs shooting high in the sky, it ran down the hill 10 feet, walked back up the hill 10 feet, and lay down in the snow for a little rest.  I knew it wouldn't be long before it expired.

I went up to Chris's spot and asked for forgiveness and assistance.  I got forgivness.  He gave me his drag so that I could more easily drag the deer out but alas he wasn't going to help with the drag/gutting.  Once I got the deer 50 feet from the truck and 50 feet out of the trees I remembered that it was windy and I would freeze my hands off trying to gut in the open.  I turned and tried to drag uphill but 200 lbs is much easier downhill then up.  So I finished dragging to the truck and hid behind the rear bumper for a wind break and began to field dress.  At this point I realized I took out my pouch containing knives when I was about to shoot and all of my knives were on the mountain still.  So I left the deer by the truck, shed all of my equipment, and walked back up on my hands and feet.  When I got back it was maybe the best field dress I've ever done, everything went well and there was little internal damage that would cause stomach contents or intestinal contents to contaminate the animal.

I finished, got into the truck and played candy crush until Chris came out of the woods.

I shot a second deer later on in the day, but it was a very plain story.  Driving, STOP STOP STOP, jump out of the truck, lay down, aim, pull the trigger, and throw the deer over the fence and into the truck.

Richard