2 More But 1 The Hard Way

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Big58cal
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:56 pm
Location: The Hills of Kentucky

2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by Big58cal »

Our late muzzleloading season opened this morning, so I got everything loaded up last night and ready to go. Heading down this morning, I had a deer run out in front of me and I ended up hitting the thing. :x The freaking thing just kept running down the road in my lane. I had slammed on the brakes and got slowed down to about 25-30 mph, but the trailer and 4 wheeler behind me were pushing me, so I couldn't get slowed down enough. The deer went under the truck, 2 of the tires ran over it and then the trailer ran over it as well. Got stopped, and went back to pull the deer out of the road. Figured between it bouncing around under the truck and trailer both and getting run over with 3 wheels, it was pretty much road pizza. :roll: It was. It was looking pretty rough, otherwise I would have loaded it in the truck. Wasn't in too good of a mood though. :x Luckily (if you can say that), it looks like only the front spoiler and one of the fog lights is all that was damaged. Gonna call the insurance company Monday............

So anyway, got down there this morning and got all my heavy clothes on. It was freaking cold this morning! Image It was about 20 degrees with a pretty good breeze. Granted, it's not Canadian, Iowa, or Montana weather, but that was the coldest it's been so far this year. The 6 tom turkeys I saw during gun season came back in a little after daylight this morning and pecked around on the corn for a little while. They left and I had a fox squirrel come in and start chowing down.

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He left after a while and then another came in and started grubbing. About 11:30 this morning I looked up from my magazine and saw a deer butt going behind a tree on down the hill. :D Grabbed the .54 cal Knight MK-85, pulled a knee up and got ready. Waiting..... Waiting..... Waiting..... Waiting..... What the crap! :? I can see a tail flip every so often, but the deer isn't coming. All the sudden she breaked out and starts at a slow lope coming up the hill to the bench, but angling away from me. She must have seen me grab the gun. :x So she's coming up the hill, I see it's a doe, and I see about where she's going to hit the bench at and there's a big opening there. :twisted: She hits the bench, stops and looks my way. About the time she stopped, the crosshairs were settling on her shoulder. BOOM! and off she goes. She had about a 3-4 second run and took a dirt nap. Image The shot was about 70 yards, which is a pretty good shot up there because I usually can't get that kind of distance up there. Between where she was and no leaves on the trees, I had a pretty good opening though.

The funny thing though was that before I shot, the fox squirrel had been in eating at the corn. When I shot, it was straight in the direction of the squirrel (over his head about 15' or so). After I watched the deer go down and watched to make sure she wasn't going to get up again, I looked back down at where the squirrel had been. He was still there! :lol: He had a look on his face though that said, "WTF Was THAT!" Image

Swabbed the barrel out, got my stuff together and headed down toward the deer. I get down to where she had been standing when I shot and what do I see? (You can click on the pictures and they'll get bigger)

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Now THAT'S the kind of blood trail I like to see! Kept on going in the direction she had gone and it kept getting better! I think Masboy could have even followed this one! :lol:

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And then there she be. Image

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Got back up here and weighed and aged her. 1 year 5 months old (surprised me) and 105 lbs. Not bad for a 1 1/2 year old doe. She must have been a late fawn when she was born because it's unusual for one to still have the teeth she did this late in the year. On the bottom jaw, the very back tooth determines if they're 2.5 years or younger. The back tooth wasn't fully erupted, so that meant she wasn't 2.5. After that you look at the 3rd tooth back. If it has 3 cusps, the deer is 1 year 5 months, if it's 2 cusps but not all the way up with the others, the deer is 1 year 6 months. If it's 2 cusps and all the way up (but the back tooth isn't fully erupted), the deer is 1 year 7 months old. Since she still had the 3 cusped tooth, she was 1 year 5 months. That would put her being born in July, which is pretty late around here. Most of the time they're born in May.

When I shot, I forgot to take the 70 yds into account and hit a little low. She was angling toward me pretty hard, so I hit her in the point of the right shoulder, taking out the top of the heart and both lungs. Total, she went probably 50 yds, which as pretty good considering the damage that had been done! The stock of the gun is covering the exit hole in the picture above.

Entrance hole in the skin
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Exit hole in the skin
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So I got her skinned out and in a cooler soaking out.

So the day started out pretty crappy at about 5:30 AM this morning, but it got better. :wink: I was hoping to get another with the Excal, but Oh Well..... I do still have my fall archery turkey tags though. :twisted:
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bucknbill
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by bucknbill »

the day did,nt start real good but it ended just fine, congrats, good pics too
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VixChix
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by VixChix »

Congrats on the doe!!!!!!

Can't believe that squirrel was still there! :shock: Thing must have been deaf! :lol:

Sucks about the roadkill though. Glad there wasn't more damage to your rig!
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wabi
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by wabi »

Congratulations on the doe!

Good to hear the other one didn't do too much damage.
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liketoshoot
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by liketoshoot »

the 54 is an awesome caliber...

what bullet are you using?

great pictures and story by the way....
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j.krug
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by j.krug »

Great tale of the hunt. Congrats on a real nice doe! :)

Good to hear the first one didn't mess up your truck too much.
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muskyman454
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by muskyman454 »

congrats and thanks for the pics. :D
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by vixenmaster »

Congrats on the deer, the one you shot wid yer ML. Sorry to hear the other one actually thought its self was armor plated & got a 3 wheel run over
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ElmerFudd
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by ElmerFudd »

Congrats on your deer. Sorry to hear of the bad luck on the way to your hunting area.
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by masboy »

congrats on your deer !! your right I think I could follow that blood trail.sounds like a good hunt all but the truck part. got too take the good with the bad .that's life!
Big58cal
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by Big58cal »

Thanks folks! :D I'm tickled with her. I think the majority of the meat I'm going to just grind up. We've been using quite a bit of ground meat from the 2 I already got, so from the looks of it I need to replenish the supply. :wink: Besides, I want to try making some of Wabi's summer sausage. :D

VixChix wrote:Can't believe that squirrel was still there! :shock: Thing must have been deaf! :lol:
If he wasn't deaf before, his ears are definitely ringing now! :lol: Our fox squirrrels aren't know to be the smartest things around. :roll: I don't know if they're just that brazen or just total morons though. :mrgreen:
liketoshoot wrote:the 54 is an awesome caliber...

what bullet are you using?
I shoot 100 grains of FFg black powder behind a 325 grain Barnes Expander MZ hollow point bullet. I love those things! :D (Knock on wood....) I've yet to loose a deer that I've hit with those things. I hit one a few years ago that was looking at me, right under the chin in the neck. The exit hole was almost the size of a Coke can. :shock:

That dang deer I hit, I first saw it running down the road in my lane. I was only going about 55-60 mph, but I was going down a hill and had the trailer and 4 wheeler behind me. I started standing on the brakes and started steering toward the left to get away. Dang thing moved toward the left. I started going right, and it moved right! :x Finally just decided to stay straight and hope it would move one way or the other. It didn't. :evil:
The Only Purpose Of Bread Is To Hold Meat!

Common Sense Isn't Common Any More..........

"Salad isn't food. Salad is what food eats." --- Ellwoodjake

I'm a second-hand vegetarian. Deer eat vegetables, I eat deer.
Crispy
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by Crispy »

Congrats on your doe! Nice pics.
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by Crossbow225lb »

Nice doe!!!
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by georgiaboy »

Congrats on your doe!! :D :D
Great pics...sorry about the road kill :(
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one shot scott
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Re: 2 More But 1 The Hard Way

Post by one shot scott »

Congratulations 58!

Thanks for posting the teeth aging tips.
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