Finally Connected On A Deer

This has been an unusual deer season thus far with numerous opportunities on some small bucks and a couple of misses and an unrecovered doe. Saturday I hadn’t seen any deer until around 4pm when another small buck stepped out. We have been letting small bucks walk and focusing on more mature bucks. Additionally we need to take some does off this property as well.
Moments after the little buck came out I saw movement in the brush at the end of the field where the buck had come from and I saw another deer working it’s way to the field. Her yearling hit the field first but she stepped out offering a broadside shop. My Browning 30′06 barked and she dropped right where she stood. The yearling bolted back into the brush but at the distance I couldn’t tell if the yearling was a doe or a button buck besides it was still early that maybe a big buck might step out.

Once the end of shooting light came I got down out of the stand walking to the end of the field to recover my deer. It was a nice fat doe and will give us many good meals. I notched my big game report card and took a moment to reflect on this season so far.

I had already had one case of buck fever when earlier on the season I had an 8 point buck trot across the field and I brushed one of the window supports in my deer stand as I swung and shot causing me to miss.
Another day I shot a doe but I knew it was a less then ideal hit so I waited an hour to start tracking her. I found a chunk of bone that I believe was part of the leg. In the woods I picked up a good blood trail and found numerous beds. Towards the end of the trail I was only finding blood in the beds and the trail was much harder to follow. She had run down on a creek bottom and I trailed her along there for a while till I came to an area with probably 50 or so blown down trees. I looked around for a while but just couldn’t find her or any sign of where she went. It had been over 20 years since I lost a deer like that so it was kind of tough.

Bone from unrecovered doe