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Old November 23, 2012, 09:46 PM   #1
jlove1974
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Wife's first deer is an 8 point buck

My wife and I applied for the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge gun hunt, and we drew Gun Hunt #2 which fell on Nov 1-3 2012. This made me a happy guy, since that is just before the rut here in Central NC. She has been hunting with me for the past two years, and last year I got her into a climber with her own rifle - a Savage Axis youth .243. Her and my son share this one, and both of them shoot it well.

Anyhow, for the first 1.5 days of the hunt, it was pretty crowded as PDNWR is only a couple of thousand acres, but 250 hunters are allowed to draw.
I had the help of two friends who have been hunting there for years. My son and I had participated in the youth hunt in Oct and we were swatting mosquitos all day. Fortunately, early November was perfect deer hunting weather, with daytime highs in the low 60s and morning temps hovering around 36 degrees.

The second day I shot a small button buck that I mistook for a doe and we got some lunch. The first day only a half-dozen deer had been checked into the station. We started to feel a little disappointed since by this time in the youth hunt, my son and I had managed to jump a small 6pt buck and a turkey.

So we started to explore the refuge on our own a bit. I noticed that every time I had scouted, nobody had bothered to show me the actual area down by the river. My wife and I took the long dirt road past some fields that the US Fish and Game people flood after the deer hunts are over with. They manage cropland for waterfowl which makes this hunt an excellent opportunity to score a nice NC deer. So we scouted a bit and I noticed an area that had food, water, thickets, and some pine trees and I KNEW that this is where I would want to live if I were a mature whitetail buck.

That morning I got her situated in a pine tree between thickets near the edge of the river, and I walked about 300 yards down and setup in some hardwoods. We sat there for a couple of hours, and we each saw some does meandering in the woods but no shot opportunity arose for either of us. Finally, my wife asked me via text message if I was ready to go get some early lunch and I told her 30 more minutes. I waited 20 minutes, and got down
and started to walk back to her stand. I hear a SHOT! and I knew it was her. She started texting me saying she saw nothing but antlers and a big body that was quartering away, and knew it to be a good buck 'an 8 or a 10' lol.

And so after waiting about 30 minutes, and walking 30 yards from the spot of where the deer jumped into the woods, this is what we found:



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Old November 23, 2012, 09:57 PM   #2
taylorce1
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Awesome, and way to get the ladies out there. We need more of them involved in the sport as well. I want my daughter to see that there are better role models out there than Snookie and the Kardashians.

Have your wife check out Regis Giles blog, my daughter loves to check out the hunting page.
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Old November 24, 2012, 02:57 AM   #3
Hawg
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Cool beans! She sure looks happy.
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Old November 24, 2012, 02:39 PM   #4
Chowder
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Awesome! Will probably be delicious.
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Old November 24, 2012, 08:48 PM   #5
David13
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There are not enough hunters today. The deer are multiplying like crazy.
Every year 1,500,000 deer/vehicle accidents occur nationwide.
This is not good for us motorcycle riders.
On my recent rides thru' Colorado, Utah, northern California and Nevada I saw numerous dead deer by the side of the road, smashed cars, a totaled motorcycle (not mine) and heard stories of the property damage.
Therefore, if you guys and gals can get out there and hunt out more of these deer, it will help for the safety of us motorcyclists.
Thanks
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Old November 24, 2012, 09:00 PM   #6
misterE
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Awesome first deer! Good job scouting too! It's very hard to find those honey holes on public land.
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Old November 24, 2012, 10:49 PM   #7
Sure Shot Mc Gee
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Nice buck. May just have to get a trophy board for those antlers Mrs._
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Old November 26, 2012, 01:01 PM   #8
The Big Game Hunter
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Very nice! Congratulations to your wife.
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Old November 26, 2012, 02:01 PM   #9
JimDandy
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Congratulations!

And as the resident old guy in me can't seem to let this pass (so my apologies) But for the youngsters who browse the forum, that second picture shows how the excitement can interfere with fully paying attention. Taking those pictures of her first deer, the muzzle ends up pointing at the hunter.
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Old November 26, 2012, 08:43 PM   #10
12GaugeShuggoth
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Quote:
the muzzle ends up pointing at the hunter.
Excellent safety-catch. We all forget things in the excitement sometimes. Very nice deer and congrats!
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Old November 26, 2012, 09:21 PM   #11
ripnbst
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Is that hole near the back leg the exit?
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