Ben Long
Well-known member
My dad taught me to never waste a good mistake and since I made several dandies this season, I thought I would share them for your edification. You're welcome.
Background: I thought I was in fat city early on: two doe tags, one buck tag and a dump of early tracking snow. I had a week of vacation time to hunt the peak rut. Time to clear some wall space and stash some money aside for the taxidermist.
Buck 1) Hunting cross slope, I saw three deer 100 yards above me. The scope showed a forkhorn and two deer with heads behind bushes. I assumed, since it was still October, this was a doe, a fawn and last-year's fawn. So I lowered my rifle and look with binocs. Low and behold it was, instead, a big mature buck, a forkhorn, and a doe. Which busted when I tried to get my rifle back up.
Buck 2) Walking down a steep, open slope, a buck stuck his head up at me over the rise of the ridge. I had my crosshairs own his throatpatch at about 75 yards. But no backstop and no sure neck shot. So I let him go. Probably not a mistake. Probably.
Buck 3) Hunting a private ranch on a nasty, windy day. I gave up about a half hour before dark, having not seen a thing all day and figuring nothing would come out in this crappy weather. I opened the gate in the main fence and happened to look over my shoulder. There was a beefy 4x4 about 250 yards from me. I was close to the ranch house and wanted only a drop-dead shot, so I closed the gate, retraced my steps, and stalked within 100 yards. I knelt for the shot, found him in the scope ... and watched him step into the timber. Just a split second too late. Sometimes, being a conservative shooter hurts. That was one time it hurt. Still, probably just as well as who wants a deer to run off and die in the rancher's yard? Not me.
Buck 4) I came back to that same ranch a few days later. I was walking into a likely spot to set up an evening rattle. On my way in, I saw a lone deer skirting through the timber above me. I knelt, put the scope in a gap, and the deer stepped into the gap, broadside. I figured it for a lone doe. Happy happy! Time to fill the freezer. I did not want to hang my B-tag on a fawn, so I studied its head really closely to make sure it was not a fawn. Its face looked mature, so I shot it and it rolled half way down the hill to me. Alas, when I pulled its head out of the snow I found it crowned with 5-inch spikes. So there went my A-tag.
For the record, that is not the first time I have inadvertently put an A-tag on a spike. But when I make a mistake, I never do it once. I do it again and again to make really sure it's a mistake.
So no fancy head to show off on Facebook this year. But a freezer of tasty steaks and burger and that's what it's about anyway.
Background: I thought I was in fat city early on: two doe tags, one buck tag and a dump of early tracking snow. I had a week of vacation time to hunt the peak rut. Time to clear some wall space and stash some money aside for the taxidermist.
Buck 1) Hunting cross slope, I saw three deer 100 yards above me. The scope showed a forkhorn and two deer with heads behind bushes. I assumed, since it was still October, this was a doe, a fawn and last-year's fawn. So I lowered my rifle and look with binocs. Low and behold it was, instead, a big mature buck, a forkhorn, and a doe. Which busted when I tried to get my rifle back up.
Buck 2) Walking down a steep, open slope, a buck stuck his head up at me over the rise of the ridge. I had my crosshairs own his throatpatch at about 75 yards. But no backstop and no sure neck shot. So I let him go. Probably not a mistake. Probably.
Buck 3) Hunting a private ranch on a nasty, windy day. I gave up about a half hour before dark, having not seen a thing all day and figuring nothing would come out in this crappy weather. I opened the gate in the main fence and happened to look over my shoulder. There was a beefy 4x4 about 250 yards from me. I was close to the ranch house and wanted only a drop-dead shot, so I closed the gate, retraced my steps, and stalked within 100 yards. I knelt for the shot, found him in the scope ... and watched him step into the timber. Just a split second too late. Sometimes, being a conservative shooter hurts. That was one time it hurt. Still, probably just as well as who wants a deer to run off and die in the rancher's yard? Not me.
Buck 4) I came back to that same ranch a few days later. I was walking into a likely spot to set up an evening rattle. On my way in, I saw a lone deer skirting through the timber above me. I knelt, put the scope in a gap, and the deer stepped into the gap, broadside. I figured it for a lone doe. Happy happy! Time to fill the freezer. I did not want to hang my B-tag on a fawn, so I studied its head really closely to make sure it was not a fawn. Its face looked mature, so I shot it and it rolled half way down the hill to me. Alas, when I pulled its head out of the snow I found it crowned with 5-inch spikes. So there went my A-tag.
For the record, that is not the first time I have inadvertently put an A-tag on a spike. But when I make a mistake, I never do it once. I do it again and again to make really sure it's a mistake.
So no fancy head to show off on Facebook this year. But a freezer of tasty steaks and burger and that's what it's about anyway.
