lockedcj7
November 15, 2009, 06:43 PM
One of the things I love about deer hunting is that no two days are the same and today was no exception. I've been watching does and a fork-horn all season in the pasture behind the house and ultimately killed a very nice 8-pointer one evening last week. I was watching the same pasture this morning and noticed a clump of grass that got darker after first light. I raised the binoculars and spotted a decent buck bedded down. I ranged him to see that he was almost exactly 300 yards out. He wasn't as big as the first one this season and he wasn't presenting much of a shot. A few does came out and milled around and he didn't seem to notice them.
He wasn't in any hurry and I wanted to get a better look at him so I waited... for two hours. The sun finally got high enough that I got a good look at him and I decided that he wasn't a shooter. He didn't have much mass and his width was just inside his ears. I finally got bored, went in the house and made waffles.
After breakfast, I went out and worked around the shop for a while. Just before noon, I spotted a buck next to the pond at 150 yds. He was big enough to be a shooter and I started getting excited. Then I noticed that he was standing kinda funny. I moved to grab the rifle, he saw me and started trying to get up over the dam but wasn't making much progress. When I looked through the scope, I saw that he was dragging a front leg and hopping as best he could. I touched the trigger on the 30-06 and he went down like he'd been struck by lightning.
As I drove up to him he started looking better and better. Not a trophy but a very respectable 8, none the less. On closer inspection, he was skin-and-bone and covered with ticks. One leg was shot through and broken. The other was a through-and-through. Both wounds smelled like road-kill and it was obvious that he'd been like this for a while. It also quickly became apparent that I wouldn't be taking this one to the processor. At the end of the day, it's not worth my family's health to take a chance eating tainted meat. I know I did the right thing by putting him down but it was a bitter pill to see a nice deer go to waste.
He wasn't in any hurry and I wanted to get a better look at him so I waited... for two hours. The sun finally got high enough that I got a good look at him and I decided that he wasn't a shooter. He didn't have much mass and his width was just inside his ears. I finally got bored, went in the house and made waffles.
After breakfast, I went out and worked around the shop for a while. Just before noon, I spotted a buck next to the pond at 150 yds. He was big enough to be a shooter and I started getting excited. Then I noticed that he was standing kinda funny. I moved to grab the rifle, he saw me and started trying to get up over the dam but wasn't making much progress. When I looked through the scope, I saw that he was dragging a front leg and hopping as best he could. I touched the trigger on the 30-06 and he went down like he'd been struck by lightning.
As I drove up to him he started looking better and better. Not a trophy but a very respectable 8, none the less. On closer inspection, he was skin-and-bone and covered with ticks. One leg was shot through and broken. The other was a through-and-through. Both wounds smelled like road-kill and it was obvious that he'd been like this for a while. It also quickly became apparent that I wouldn't be taking this one to the processor. At the end of the day, it's not worth my family's health to take a chance eating tainted meat. I know I did the right thing by putting him down but it was a bitter pill to see a nice deer go to waste.