| DEER HUNTING REPORTS 2005 page 3 of 5 |
| Nov. 28-29, 2005
Piff and I went down to Adams Co., near Winchester, and hunted the first two days of the Ohio Shotgun Season. Each morning, just after sunup, we heard turkeys yelping and gobbling all up and down the creek that runs north of the properties that we hunt. Monday morning was slow with little or no deer sightings. I hunted on some new property that we had just acquired permission. I sat down under a cedar tree near a deer crossing where a couple of small hills came together. At 7:45 I heard footsteps off to my right. I grabbed my gun and got into position to fire. Soon a coyote appeared about 15 yards from me. When it turned and offered a broadside shot I fired and dropped it. |
| I left the coyote lay and around 9:30 a small high-racked six-point buck came across the hill to my left and walked right by the dead coyote. He continued on and then bedded down on the hillside about 40 yards off to my right. The young buck laid there until I spooked him when I got up at noon to meet Piff for lunch.
Piff said that he didn’t see anything all morning. We both noticed that there was not a whole lot of shooting going on around the surrounding properties. It was getting warmer with the temps in the upper sixties and the wind blowing 20-30 mph. In the afternoon Piff went downwind of the woodlot behind the owner’s house while I walked into the woods at the upwind side. Not long after I entered the woods I heard Piff shoot. When I met up with him he said that a big doe caught him by surprise and that he shot too quickly. I looked for signs of a hit but could not find any. Piff is color-blind and can’t see blood, so I have to do the tracking! We then split up with Piff heading north down the hill in the pasture to his stand at the bottom while I went to the east end of the property. When I was about two-thirds of the way to my destination I caught a glimpse of a big buck jumping the fence at the northeast corner of the property. Just then another good-size deer came out of a brushy draw in the pasture and walked about 40 yards in front of me. It kept looking at its backtrail not even aware that I was standing there in my t-shirt with my orange vest flapping in the strong, warm breeze. The second deer makes its way to the fence and jumps it at a point where another fence joins. It then looks back again and eventually puts its head down and relaxes. At this point I decided to shoot. I was about 60 yards away and I raised my shotgun and took an offhand shot. The deer jumped over a dead limb and took off into a wooded draw at the sound of the shot. I waited a while and went to check for signs of a hit. Again I found no blood or hair as I followed its trail for a few hundred yards. I then sat down at the fence junction for the rest of the evening. Shortly before 5:00 I heard Piff shoot. About the same time a few deer came from the neighbor's pasture and they disappeared into one of the many brushy draws. Soon down below me a doe and two yearlings came into view about 100 yards away. I was just about to call it quits and find Piff to see if he needed any help tracking the deer he shot at. Just then a nice 8-point buck came out of the draw near the doe and walks my way and stops broadside about 60 yards away. I had my shotgun resting on a sturdy strand of barbwire and took aim and fired. BLAM, the buck jumps like a bucking bronco and lands into one of the thick draws. He then fights his way through the tangled mess and quickly runs up the hill into a group of cedars. I sat there awhile and contemplated what to do next. It was getting dark quick, with a storm brewing; it could start raining any minute. I gathered my gear and climbed the fence and went to a spot where the deer ran past a certain cedar tree. There I found blood! It was getting darker by the minute. I frantically started to track the deer with the blood trail leading in the cedar thicket. By now Piff joins up with me and tells me that he shot at a buck and couldn’t tell if he hit it or not. I continued to follow the blood trail and when I get to the cedars the buck snorted at me and ran over the top of the hill onto the next property below. I then walked into the cedar grove and found a dark spot the size of a dinner plate on the ground. It was dark by now and I put my finger down and felt the dark spot, it was blood. I then went to the fence at the top of the hill and when I got there the deer snorted again and took off down the hill and to the left. It was too dark and the rain had started. I knew by morning that all signs of blood would be washed out. I had no choice but to give up and hope that I could find him dead somewhere on the hillside tomorrow. It rained off and on all night. |
| On Tuesday morning I hunted out of a stand in the woodlot behind the house. I heard Piff shoot around 7:30 down in the pasture bottom below me. After an uneventful couple of hours I went to check out if Piff had any luck. He told me that he had seen a coyote out of range and also that a doe came from behind him and walked right by his stand. When the doe was about 20 yards away from him he shot at it. He said that at the sound of the shot it took off and ran onto a hillside dotted with cedars.
He showed me where it ran and I searched for blood but I didn’t find any. We then proceeded to search the hillside for any sign or hopefully a dead deer. About 100 yards along the hillside I spotted a deer standing by a cedar. I tucked in beside a tree and waited. Shortly a small 6-pointer runs right at me and comes to a halt when he sees me. It turns and runs back to the area where the drainage ditch goes under the fence; I think it was the same one that was bedded next to me yesterday. We continued searching that hillside and another for his deer and the buck that I shot last night but we didn’t find any. I went back to the cedar grove and looked for the pool of blood that was under the trees but the rain had washed it out. Piff then went and circled a thick hillside while I positioned myself ahead of him. I was near the head of one of the many draws in the pasture when I saw a coyote run across the pasture then stop and look behind him and then run down into the draw. I waited about ten minutes and repositioned myself nearer the draw. Just then a doe appears below me in the draw. It suddenly turns and runs up through the brush and runs right at me. When it gets to the top of the draw it stops when it sees me and then I fired. It ran back down into the thick stuff and stopped at the head of the draw. It was broadside and I shot again. This time the deer runs out of the draw and across the pasture for about 150 yards and then jumps the fence. It then runs up the grassy field and disappears over the top |
| A minute or two later Piff joins me and said that he saw the deer run over the hill and said that I must have missed it. I went to the spot where the deer came out of the draw and found blood. We then went to the fence where it crossed and picked up the blood trail. When the blood trail petered out in the taller grass Piff stayed on the higher ground to keep a lookout ahead in case the doe would jump up while I tried to pick up the blood trail. After a few minutes Piff gets my attention and motions that he spotted the deer up ahead in the taller weeds. We stood still for about ten minutes and then we crept closer to the spot where he had seen her last. Soon Piff spotted her about 15 yards away from him and said that it is laying there dead. After running about 400 yards the dear had finally died. She had two shots in her, one in the lungs, and she ran that far! |
| That afternoon Piff took position on the downwind side of the woodlot behind the pond and I walked through it at the upwind side. Eventually a few deer snuck out and ran down the hill in the pasture. Piff then went down to his stand to hunt the rest of the day while I decided to head to the corner where I had seen deer cross yesterday.
I walked up to the corner post at the fence and leaned my gun on the post and stood there contemplating where to set up for the rest of the evening. I was standing there for about 5 minutes while looking down the hill towards the creek when out of the corner of my right eye I saw a silhouette of a buck standing just above me over my right shoulder about 30 yards away at the fence crossing. He must have come out of the cedar grove where I lost my buck the night before. I slowly reached for my gun and turned all the way around to my left to get in position for a shot. I managed to turn without spooking the buck and saw that he was standing broadside to me and that he was a respectable size deer and that I would try to shoot him. Just then he leaped over the fence and walked about 20 yards and put his nose to the ground. He was quartering away and standing behind a small tree. I took a few steps to get a better view and fired. At the sound of the shot he took off down the hill and crashed down the 15-foot- steep brush-and-vine covered bank and crossed the drainage ditch and then ran through a hole in the fence to the adjoining property. I wasn’t sure if I hit the buck or not so I decided to stay put for awhile and give him time to bleed out and die if I indeed hit him. After about 30 minutes I saw a buck easing along the wooded hillside across from me. Then about 10 minutes later I again saw him slipping along. I then decided to go down to the creek to check and see if I could find any sign of a blood trail. I looked along the creek and at the fence crossing and the trail that went up the hill and I didn’t find any. I then walked back to the spot where the buck was standing when I shot to see if I could find any sign there. While I was searching for sign of a hit I looked up at the fence crossing and saw yet another buck approaching the fence. It saw me about the same time that I saw him and turned and ran into the cedars. He was a small 8-pointer. I couldn’t believe that these bucks were moving around that time of day. One thing for sure, that fence crossing seems to be a hot spot. I’ll be paying close attention to that area on future trips. We didn’t see any more deer there rest of the day. |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
| Click on the right arrow below for Page 4 of 5 |