PB210237 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153108294@N08/, on FlickrToday I was hunting a spot I found just this year. The many miles of "speed hunting" I did prior to the second week of November showed me that I could expect to find lots of deer activity on large hilltops where live timber bordered about a 5 year old burn. Using that I found this particular spot using a topographical map and satellite imaging, and then hiking in after some fresh snow to verify.
In this particular spot an overgrown pipeline runs over the hill, just shy of the burn and not quite at the top. In one particular spot a finger of trees, about 5 acres in size juts up the hill and out into the burn. Along the hilltop there are lots of trails crossing the pipeline, but the area downhill of "the finger" is by far the hot spot. So today I was going to spend the morning hunting up the pipeline, then I planned to head down the hill and hunt some ridges mid-day, then hunt up the line again in the evening.
The walk to the hill top is about 1.5 km and its steep, plus the snow is deep so by the time I'd made the hill top I was pretty warm. I was standing on a knoll, just cooling down before I started hunting when I heard a crash in the bush nearby, I turned to look and saw one of the most bizarre spectacles I've ever seen while hunting. It looked like there were deer running everywhere, zig zagging back and forth but moving in my general direction. They sorted themselves out into a line and then ran across the line, about 5 yards from me, I paced it off. There were 2 does a, 4x4 buck, and two fawns and they ran right by me, didn't even look at me or flag. I got ready, thinking that either another buck was coming or maybe some wolves but after 15 minuets of silence I figured that buck must have been chasing the does and the fawns were just trying to keep up.
So I made my way slowly down the overgrown pipeline, walking slowly across the open spots, then stopping next to clusters of willow and spending a long time looking around, then another move. I much prefer hunting within the timber to hunting the line, but a smart hunter rotates his spots, and with this spot the smart bet is on catching deer crossing the line by the finger. I reached the far end of the finger by 11:30 without seeing anything, I decided that instead of going back the way I had come to get the wind in my favor again to hunt a ridge further down I would take some old trails that looped around the finger through the burn. So here I was in the middle of the day, hunting downwind, and on a relative scale out in the open (the burn is pretty overgrown). I wanted to get the loop over fairly quickly, but I've shot all kinds of deer in the middle of the day, and I've shot plenty of deer in bad wind too. I was trying to balance moving quickly with getting a good look at everything and not missing an opportunity.
PB210241 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153108294@N08/, on FlickrAbout the time I rounded the tip of the finger I was warming up again, so I knew I was moving too fast. I stopped, cooled down, and told myself to get back in the game... the next step I took I heard a tremendous snort to my left and saw a big brown body disappear into some willows about 20 yards away, so much for getting my head back in the game! I stood still and watched for a long time, then moved a little and watched some more, eventually I saw a doe about 40 yards away. She didn't seem to be in the right spot to have been the deer I saw first, but she started huffing and puffing and making a stink so I decided to move along. I rounded a big cluster of willows and a nice buck took off, the doe in the lead.
I've shouted at a deer plenty of times to stop them, it will stop a cruising deer, it will stop a sneaking deer, sometimes it will stop a trotting deer. I've never had much luck once a buck has bolted though, but with nothing to lose I had to try. I once saw a running deer stop at the sound of a gunshot so I decided to make it loud... like really loud.... HEYYYY!!!! The sound was ridiculous, half bellow and half scream but with a really bizarre yodelling quality to it, sort of like Johnathan Davis crossed with Kurt Cobain. And darned if it didn't work this time!!! Both deer pulled up to a stop, obviously perturbed and confused by my crazed holler. My buck's nose was sticking out from behind a big dead tree about 80 yards away, his neck and shoulder completely hidden, but I could see enough of his flank to know that I could sneak a bullet into his lungs. I got the crosshairs as close to the tree as I dared and fired a shot, I could actually see the shot rock his body when it hit him... but he didn't drop and he didn't bolt. So I put another shot into his lungs, he humped his back up but still didn't drop or run!! I was pretty confident I'd hit him in the lungs, but as long as he was going to just stand there I figured I may as well shoot him again, at the third shot he dropped. When I skinned him out all three bullets had gone through his lungs, I've seen moose take shots like that but never a deer, they drop or they run... crazy!!
It was about 1:00 and I was about 3 KM from the truck at that point, and for that big old brute I decided to go back to the truck and get my toboggan. Getting him out of that burn took some doing but once I made it back to the pipeline all I had to do was give the sled a kick and chase it down the hill, still a pretty long day!
