USMA84DAB
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
- Messages
- 706
- Reaction score
- 1,411
- Location
- Kansas City, MO area
- Media
- 60
- Articles
- 1
- Member of
- CPT, Cavalry US Army, Retired
- Hunted
- South Africa, MO, CO, SD
Since communist Chinese flu has wrecked many safaris, I thought that I would share how deer season went here in MO.
We opened 14NOV20 for rifle season and it ran to the 24th. We have a doe only season this FRI - SAT.
The prior weeks we had no rain, as in 1" cracks in the ground dry.
A battle buddy from deployment in Djibouti asked me to show him how to hunt. He drove up from TX on THU. On the way north, 6 miles from the KS border on I-35, he tagged an 8 point buck with his car. Both sides lost - car totaled, buck deader than a rock. He got a 2500 Ram with cowcatcher the next day and finished driving up to MO.
Opening morning we sat on a plateau looking over a flood/creek valley. My buddy's son also tagged along, so I sat between them. All of us sat on 5 gallon plastic buckets. A 6 point buck waltzed by - MO has a 4 point on one side requirement, so we had to watch him walk by.
A couple of doe meandered in from the left, in front of the son. He raised the M-1 Garand with scout scope (Burris 2-7X) and learned that one should not leave the scope on 7X. After waving it around for 15 seconds, the does got the idea that they should find somewhere else to be. He never got a shot.
We got up to 40MPH winds, so the deer bedded down. My property is just a "gentleman's estate of 20 acres that butts up against a 700 acre wildlife area. Apparently all the deer were in the hollows over there. The wildlife area is huntable by archery or shot only, so we were stuck with waiting for the wind to die down and the deer to start moving again.
Nothing else was seen until MON morning. My buddy was still with me, but his son had to go to work. My buddy had a LARGE doe waddle by in front of us - west to east - he has a Savage 110 Tactical in .308WIN with a Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9x40 firedot. He could not get onto her before she moved behind foliage and he never got a shot. Another lesson on learning how to use a scope! He had to leave at noon with deer seen, but not taken.
I was on my back in bed now due to a missing disc from my time with our rich uncle. Seems raking the trail leading to the stands rocks my vertebrae in a way that crushes a nerve bundle. About FRI, I was back on my feet and ready to go.
We got a north wind, so I took up a ground stand, sitting on the concrete baseline of my 100 yard range looking into the wind. A deer trail crosses the range at about the 50 yard mark, so the plan was to sit for the first 1-2 hours, then still hunt north to the house, and then to the north boundary. I was set at 0645 and watched it turn light. About 0715 a doe walks onto the range at the 100 yard mark. I get the rifle up and start finding the aiming point and she steps behind my target board! As she fiddle farts around back there, I can occasionally catch an ear tip, her nose, but obviously can't shoot for lack of seeing her clearly. She eventually stepped out from behind the board heading back west/the way she came in. It seemed as if maybe the herd matriarch had alerted/summoned her? She was visibly more tense.
About three steps out from behind the board, I squeezed off a 270 grain Speer softpoint in .375 Ruger. I feared I had flubbed the shot as she seemed to be startled by the noise as opposed to taking a bullet. She ran back east behind brush and I had no second shot. I waited 10 minutes and walked down the range to the target area. At about the 25 yard line, the matriarch broke out in flight across the creek valley behind the range. I out the red dot on the leading edge of her brisket, but it seems that one of the trees or bushes that were rushing by in the scope turned the bullet. She stopped up the creek valley a hundred and 50 yards or so and snorted at me three times to put some salt in the wound.
When I got to the target board I began looking for blood. Foot by foot I searched the ground. About 6' behind the target board are some T stakes that I hang steel plates on. On the grass at the base of the two stakes were some spots of blood. Not enough to be very encouraging, given the cartridge I used. Then I found a 3" piece of rib to the right and breathed a sigh of relief. About 12' west, I found the next drops of blood, then another 10' some more, a bit heavier. And so it went for 30 yards. She was piled up on a little knoll. A softball-sized clump of intestines had leaked out of the exit wound. I clipped the bottoms of her lungs/didn't allow enough for her right to left movement. Lesson for me to do better on shot placement.
I will put the pics in the next piece.
We opened 14NOV20 for rifle season and it ran to the 24th. We have a doe only season this FRI - SAT.
The prior weeks we had no rain, as in 1" cracks in the ground dry.
A battle buddy from deployment in Djibouti asked me to show him how to hunt. He drove up from TX on THU. On the way north, 6 miles from the KS border on I-35, he tagged an 8 point buck with his car. Both sides lost - car totaled, buck deader than a rock. He got a 2500 Ram with cowcatcher the next day and finished driving up to MO.
Opening morning we sat on a plateau looking over a flood/creek valley. My buddy's son also tagged along, so I sat between them. All of us sat on 5 gallon plastic buckets. A 6 point buck waltzed by - MO has a 4 point on one side requirement, so we had to watch him walk by.
A couple of doe meandered in from the left, in front of the son. He raised the M-1 Garand with scout scope (Burris 2-7X) and learned that one should not leave the scope on 7X. After waving it around for 15 seconds, the does got the idea that they should find somewhere else to be. He never got a shot.
We got up to 40MPH winds, so the deer bedded down. My property is just a "gentleman's estate of 20 acres that butts up against a 700 acre wildlife area. Apparently all the deer were in the hollows over there. The wildlife area is huntable by archery or shot only, so we were stuck with waiting for the wind to die down and the deer to start moving again.
Nothing else was seen until MON morning. My buddy was still with me, but his son had to go to work. My buddy had a LARGE doe waddle by in front of us - west to east - he has a Savage 110 Tactical in .308WIN with a Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9x40 firedot. He could not get onto her before she moved behind foliage and he never got a shot. Another lesson on learning how to use a scope! He had to leave at noon with deer seen, but not taken.
I was on my back in bed now due to a missing disc from my time with our rich uncle. Seems raking the trail leading to the stands rocks my vertebrae in a way that crushes a nerve bundle. About FRI, I was back on my feet and ready to go.
We got a north wind, so I took up a ground stand, sitting on the concrete baseline of my 100 yard range looking into the wind. A deer trail crosses the range at about the 50 yard mark, so the plan was to sit for the first 1-2 hours, then still hunt north to the house, and then to the north boundary. I was set at 0645 and watched it turn light. About 0715 a doe walks onto the range at the 100 yard mark. I get the rifle up and start finding the aiming point and she steps behind my target board! As she fiddle farts around back there, I can occasionally catch an ear tip, her nose, but obviously can't shoot for lack of seeing her clearly. She eventually stepped out from behind the board heading back west/the way she came in. It seemed as if maybe the herd matriarch had alerted/summoned her? She was visibly more tense.
About three steps out from behind the board, I squeezed off a 270 grain Speer softpoint in .375 Ruger. I feared I had flubbed the shot as she seemed to be startled by the noise as opposed to taking a bullet. She ran back east behind brush and I had no second shot. I waited 10 minutes and walked down the range to the target area. At about the 25 yard line, the matriarch broke out in flight across the creek valley behind the range. I out the red dot on the leading edge of her brisket, but it seems that one of the trees or bushes that were rushing by in the scope turned the bullet. She stopped up the creek valley a hundred and 50 yards or so and snorted at me three times to put some salt in the wound.
When I got to the target board I began looking for blood. Foot by foot I searched the ground. About 6' behind the target board are some T stakes that I hang steel plates on. On the grass at the base of the two stakes were some spots of blood. Not enough to be very encouraging, given the cartridge I used. Then I found a 3" piece of rib to the right and breathed a sigh of relief. About 12' west, I found the next drops of blood, then another 10' some more, a bit heavier. And so it went for 30 yards. She was piled up on a little knoll. A softball-sized clump of intestines had leaked out of the exit wound. I clipped the bottoms of her lungs/didn't allow enough for her right to left movement. Lesson for me to do better on shot placement.
I will put the pics in the next piece.
Last edited by a moderator:
