Deer Season 2005 Aug 20-21
First posted August 14, 2009 Last updated August 18, 2009
Dear Ranch crew,
Bill and I were the only ones who made it up this past weekend and we missed you all, but we had a great time nonetheless. Bill scored big, with a 4x3 (the left was the 4 side) just over the lip of the hill from the gate, with his .41 pistol, again proving that he is a better than average hunter and shooter. One bullet, entered just at the lower edge of the spine, dropped like a rock.
His 4x3 had been jousting with a smaller buck, he could see them testing each other, but was partly blocked by a tree. When the 4x3 moved out from behind the tree, Bill was ready.
We knew he could beat the all the rest of us with shot placement, but he was able to sneak up within 60 yards and do the job with his pistol. Congrats to Bill. See his story, below.
Me, I was not hunting, but ran around with my pistol and my Nature Journal and had a very successful weekend. I searched Rocky Ridge and Fern Creek. I found several plants that were not previously found at the ranch: sword fern, elk clover, coffee fern, and a species of buckwheat. I found a third speciment of clematis, and verified that giant chain fern (I brought back a frond that was 7 feet long!) is growing in fern creek canyon. I have yet to identify several flowers, including the flower below. It is red and tubular, like Ca fuschia, but is a bush, not an annual.
As always, we ate well and slept poorly, playing cards until late at night and getting up at 5 am to go afield. We had a great time, wish you were there.
Bill's 4x3, with the 4 side on the right in the above photo.
The other side was imperfect and had not yet branched into a full fork on the front tine.
David
Nothing special about the weather. Days were only warm, nights oddly warm. Big, bright moon but theories pro and con are current.
David built nothing! He doesn't have a tag yet (!) so he just hunted plants. You'll hear no end of what he found.
The first 8 deer I saw were bucks. OK, 5 of them were on the other side, but still...
David spooked a threesome across the upper part of Ronnie's Swale. I got only a brief glimpse but one of them was a nice 3-ptr and another might not be bad. One on Black Mt. is a Hercules-class buck, perhaps better.
Sunday morning I parked where the chunk of tree is blocking the road and walked up, heading for the rock on top of Minnich's. When I reached the gate I peeped over the fence to my left and saw two bucks fighting. One seemed to be a nice 3-pt. I ranged the tree between us at 40 yards, drew my .41 and rested it on a handy post, and waited until they paused with the larger buck unhidden by the intervening branches. It took only one shot this time, 60 yards.
He dropped and slid another 50 along the steep, grassy gut that begins there. What I found when I reached him was a 3x4. I drove back to the cabin for my pack and returned.
He's not large; these dang 10x binocs continue to fool me. His third point is a little deformed, trying to make a fourth. Something is weird, as if he waited until his velvet had dried on the antlers before rubbing (more likely, in my opinion, is that he never bothered to strip it off, that it's being ripped up during random rubbing and fights such as this one).
Bullet entered higher than intended, though I'd held a touch low because I know it's hitting high (and the sight is as low as it can go), entering L-R perfectly, tight against the rear of the shoulder, perhaps 4 inches below back-top and resting under the skin 6 inches below back-top. It rootered a huge hole through the spine and the bullet (.6 diameter) had many bone particles impressed in the lead.
So, the pressure is off of me for the rest of the season.
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