The only way that I can claim that I was prepared for Saturday, November 1st was to say that I was correctly dressed in warm clothes. I can't lay claim to anything else. Not the location, not the rifle or even the skills involved. I was completely reliant on the pre-season skills, hardware and the preparation efforts of others that invited me to hunt what I can only describe as the perfect location for whitetail deer.
I generally like to consider myself as reasonably prepared for whatever adventure might come my way especially since I am considered the resident gun-guy. I have exclusively only hunted woods, swamps and wetlands to date and never needed to take a shot beyond 100 yards that I know of. This was different and I was not prepared. I was not prepared to hunt a powerline.
I guess I could say the other claim I could make was to say that I needed help and that I will do what someone else suggested. I forced myself to sit back and have my guide pick my spot and to borrow a rifle for this hunt. The space was a high voltage powerline right of way that you can see for literal miles in one direction from my spot. The distances that I would be shooting were no more than 200 yards but the tone of the conversation lead me to leave my Winchester 94 in .30-30. Not long range by any imagination. I had been handed an older Savage 110 in .270 Winchester with an older Nikon 3-9x scope.
Heading In
We were walking in as the sun was creeping up so we were a little behind but that's fine as my party had my two nieces with us. I managed to climb the surprisingly steep hill and get into my tower a little after legal shooting time. In fact, it was just enough light out to see three deer near the edge of my shooting space. I attempted to use the rifle's scope to get a better look but the fog and made things a little difficult. At the time, I couldn't make out any racks. I couldn't really make out more than just silhouette. The small pack worked their way out of the opening shortly after spotting them. I spent the next 30 minutes making sure the lenses were clean and that I fully understood the rifle. I studied the space where I saw the deer and attempted to estimate the distance. I figured the area I was expecting to see deer would be around 120 to 180 yards away. That would be the case for both the right side of my stand and the left side. Both would be downward shots, something I had forgotten to take into account while I was there.
A singular deer did come up out of the woods not long after the first ones cleared out but I opted not to do anything about it. It was after that point I remembered that I actually had a scope and could dial up the magnification to have better positive identification. I suppose I have been using red dots a little too long.
By 8:45 AM, nothing else had shown up and a part of my party was about to head in as they were getting cold. I had even texted them back at 8:57 that I didn't expect anything else would show up. Then I put my phone down and saw a critter.
I pulled the rifle up and adjusted the magnification up to 9x for positive identification. There was a rack and it's a around 6 to 8 points. I committed to it. I got into a stable position and tried to calm myself. I waited for a better broadside shot. It took a little watching and I did try to observe and remember the immediate location details. What tree branches where hanging where and what the ground looked like. Any easily identifiable markers. I got a quartering broadside so I attempted to put the shot behind the front leg.
I watched as the buck take off left down the hill and into the woods. I knew we were in for a tracking session. I responded back to my party with a laugh-emoji to highlight my impatience. I really need to work on the Fruits of Spirit. They were about 300 yards to my left in a blind. We were able to see the blaze orange of each other.
I took a few moments to cool myself and work my way out of the tripod seat, making my way over to where I thought the buck had been.
I had to make a few passes over a 25 yard area of scanning before locating a blood trail. It was pretty poorly how much blood. In fact, it took both my eyes and my 8 year old niece's to establish the start of a good trail. The worst part is that the blood trail stopped around 10 feet away. My father-in-law worked his way into the woods downhill to see if we could find anything. I chose to stay higher up and see if I could work the track and pick up the blood trail. My niece chose to be much more spirited about pushing forward compared to my conservative approach. I let her have at it.
My father-in-law went back to get my brother-in-law since he's a better tracker and a vehicle to recover the animal if we could find it. Both my niece and I worked on following tracks that looked promising leading to a hill. By the time I had worked my way up the smaller hill, she had already made her way into a bottom with a meandering creek. Around the same time she shouts "I think I found it," I find a major blood trail. I had asked her to confirm which she was able to do so successfully. I bailed on the blood trail and found that she was indeed correct. She had been caviler on her tracking and it had paid off well. Color me impressed.
I took a look at my score and didn't find and exit wound. The entrance wasn't big nor obvious other than what looked like disturbance of the fir. The entrance had been behind the leg as planned but I suspect that I misread how much of a broadside I was given as the bullet looks to have entered at a much shallower angle. It had entered a little too far back behind the leg and likely transited the stomach. I didn't complete an autopsy. We found the Nosler bullet just in front of the right rear leg on the opposite side just inside the hide.
A devastating hit to be sure but I should have shot in front of the leg and not behind.
My buck did turn out to be an 8 point and I am very grateful for both the experience and blessing.
Lesson's Learned and Reflection
My hunt was essentially a re-visit of everything that's worth going over for what you need to do to be a good hunter. Patience, practice, staying humble, breath control, keeping calm and solid pre-season work. Also, gear, having good, reliable gear is very helpful. Just being a gun-nerd isn't enough to be a good hunter.
I'm not a fan of the phrase "bring enough gun" because you just don't need a big cartridge to get an exit wound in a broadside shot. I got a pass through with my .357 Mag rifle at 99 yards. What this hunt taught me is that you can think you're doing the right thing and still get it wrong or that things happen. Having a larger caliber can help with that situation. However, even in this case, the .270 didn't exit. This shouldn't be a velocity issue either as I estimate that this shot was around 160 yards which isn't very far inside the .270's window. Simply put, I may have needed to go much larger to have been able to get an exit in this case. Or I should have taken a better shot.
I am very grateful for the Lord my God's blessing and for my niece.
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