We’re just in from the field with fuzzy windchimes hanging on the meatpole.
Both Angus and I bagged bucks this morning.

This was an average sort of Opener — average temperatures, an average number of shots. The weather was cool, but sunny.  Angus and Moose hunted together.  This is Angus’ last year hunting as a Yute. Moose decided not to buy a license this year and accompanied his younger brother unarmed. SuperCore went to the Jagendehutte.  I went to my usual stand at Campground.  Angust took his Mosin Nagant M44.  I went out with the Savage 99 in 308 WIN.

My sons and I  parted company at the Honey Hole.  Moose and Angus took off for Hammond North with the idea of watching the sun come up there and then heading down to Lazy boy, which is just across the field.  I got situated at Campground and immediately started hearing deer.  A small 4 pointer came out just as legal hunting began and browsed on acorns on my upwind side.  I normally have some slack time after sun-up to get a few extra warm things on like my boot blankets and mittens, but he stayed just close enough to keep me from moving much on my stand.  All the while, there was a shot or so a minute coming from the surrounding ridges.

About 0800 a larger buck crossed onto our land and started up towards the cedars where the small 4 pointer was hanging out. I think this larger buck saw me, but did not pay me much attention.  I tried to get my binoculars on him.  I did, but he was moving too much for me to get a good view of his rack.  He was a larger buck with a larger set of antlers than the first one.  I grunted a bit, and this sent the 4 pointed deep into the cedars.  The larger buck followed and soon there was a bit of commotion coming from the cedar thicket as they tried to settle their differences.

After about 10 minutes I saw a buck emerge from the cedar thicket.  He had what looked like a nice rack.  He was disappearing up the Left Leg Hollow, and I did not have a good chance to examine his antlers. He did have an interesting shape on one beam. I switched from the binoculars to the scope on my rifle and waited.  He came out from behind a tree and I had to make a decision quickly.

Look, I am not going to try and tell you that I am an expert on judging deer at a distance.  I know a doe.  I know when it has antlers and then there is “Quint, we’re going to need a bigger boat.” The nuances sometimes gets lost on me.  All I knew was that. It was a buck with antlers, it was a fairly big bodied deer and if I was going to get a look at that quirky rack, I was going to have to act.  He gave me one last broadside view angling a bit away.  I figured he was about 80 yards out.

Bang!

I got all my gear down to the ground, doffed the heavy stuff and took off. Despite marking the shot well from the stand, I had a devil of a time finding where I had actually connected with him.  80 yards became 100 became 120 — a long shot in the woods.  One cedar behind him became a line of cedars.  When I finally got everything triangulated, there was a disturbance in the leaves.  He had taken off down hill towards the head of Left Leg Hollow.  However, after three more marks in the leaves, I was looking at him.

Ground shinkage happens. I have had worse cases of it. I thought about it for a bit and realized I was being stupid.  This was a fairly big deer, and I had taken him on Opening Day and it meant my dry spell was over and that was that. I wanted Moose, Angus and SuperCore to continue to hunt so I marched out alone  to get the truck. I radioed to everyone to let them know about my success and to let them know to stay put. As I was passing Knollton’s Corner, there was a blast that came from Lazy Boy.  I was less than 100 yards out from my sons. They knew I was coming by them.  Still, I went low and hid behind a tree.  There was shortly another shot and then another.  I radioed to my sons.  Finally Moose came back and explained there was a buck down, but not dead.  Angus put a finisher into him and then I met them.

Campground to Lazy Boy is close to a quarter mile apart.  Campground is down at the mouth of Left Leg Hollow.  Lazy  Boy is near the head.  When all the shooting stopped and we all convened, I figured out what had happened.  My first buck of the morning, the one eating acorns at my stand as the sun came up had gotten scared off by the second buck and had run up Left Leg Hollow.  There, he met my sons, at about 20 yards distance.  Angus put a round into him, but only managed to take out 1 lung.  The deer had bedded, passed out, and then revived .  Moose and Angus had given chase, and Angus had made a few more shots at him.  By the time this deer had expired he was only 50 yards from where mine had run as he’d taken a short run up the hollow.

Moose went up and brought down the truck and we got both deer loaded in the back before heading back to the meat pole.  We found one of Angus’ 180 grain slugs in the hide.  At the meatpole, we enjoyed a first at camp: two bucks on the pole at the same time. Mine went 188 lbs.  Angus’ buck went 150 lbs life weight.

We got the two gutted and loaded back onto the truck and then headed off for B&B over towards Falmouth.  They had taken in very few deer until just before we arrived.  We had quite a line and waited for our heads.  SuperCore has gone back out to the Jagende Hutte.  Angus and Moose went out towards Garbage Pit with the gut buckets in hopes of getting the bead on some coyotes.

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