Summary
Eric Larsen posted this report:
We all met at the Nelson's as planned - met neighbor John Fell who was talking to the guys as I arrived. An interesting fellow with some great stories. The drive in to the cabin was uneventful, but hot and dusty. After taking some time to unpack and settle, after the usual "where do you want to goes", at 6:00 I headed over to David's blind on North Flat. Not much was happening and like I said, it was hot & the black flies were annoying.
At about 7:30 I spied my first deer of the evening. It came up from the Arroyo (or probably from the top of Oak Park - David) from about where the big pine tree (called David's Tree, as he climbed it as a kid - David) is behind the 100 yd target. This was an ugly, pig of a deer, with a freakish rack. Very wide and tall but with a tweaker, crab-claw of a fork at the end of each antler. I watched him as he ambled across the flat towards Doe Heaven, the deer stopping every once in a while to check out his surroundings. He paused for a long moment just below the tangle of brush at DH and provided a me good long look. I thought about shooting - at the 60-70 yard distance it would have been a chip shot - but it was only Friday, I had only 1 tag, and I wasn't too crazy about the freakish rack. I let him pass. Of course after doing so, I wondered if maybe I should have taken the shot - first, to take the freak out of the gene pool, and second, there's no guarantee that I'd have another opportunity to bag a deer. Oh well, to late to worry about it now. Craig and Ted saw him Saturday evening near Ronny's Swale so he's still out there.
At about 7:45 I watched a doe cross North Flat higher up and disappear in the trees beyond Doe Heaven. By this time it was pretty dusky and I was thinking about heading back to the cabin. Out of the fading gloom - there he was! He had crossed the road above the 100 yd target walking across the crest of the hill. He turned his head to focus on Craig and Ted's voices as they returned from their hunt from Prune Ridge Hook. I could tell he was at least a fork - nothing outstanding - but shootable. Maybe it was a gift from God, or good Karma for letting the earlier deer pass, so I decided I'd better take the shot. Light was rapidly fading, but the contrast between the deer and the background was good and provided and adequate target. I fired my '06...no reaction from the deer! He continued to slowly walk to the left towards DH so I fired again...still no reaction, so by this time I'm thinking WTF! I jack a 3rd round and just as I'm about to fire, the deer paused and slowly rocked back on his haunches, fell and tumble/slid down the hill towards me. WooHoo! Deer down! No further signs of movement but I waited a few minutes, rifle ready. By the time I got to the deer it was dead. I dragged him over to the road by the 100 yard target and walked back to the cabin to get some help. Craig, Glen, and I walked back to the deer.
Upon further inspection, the deer was actually quite a bit bigger than I first thought - a nice thick rack with heavy bases - 16" wide, 14" tall with tines of about 9" long. Bill arrived shortly with the Bronco and I commenced to field dress my deer. Glen had brought one of those "butt hole reamer" tools so we gave it a try - it worked OK but nothing to write home about. Of course, during the gutting, there were the usual comments, cajoling, fbombs, butt plug jokes and such - all in good fun. It was determined that my first shot was the killing blow as there was only 1 entrance/exit wound. The bullet entered just behind the left shoulder, exiting mid-deer taking out the liver and lungs. In my excitement I must have completely missed the second shot.
Bill had suggested that I should ride out Saturday evening so as to avoid any possible spoilage due to heat exposure (the deer carcass - not me). Bill figured I could drop it off at LG Meats 1st thing this morning. I gave them a call about 8:45 am but to my surprise, they weren't open for wild game drop-off until 4:00 pm. I supposed I could get some bagged ice and stuff the carcass but I thought I'd ask first if I could drop it off now because I was worried about spoilage and needed to get it into a cooler. He was just leaving to work the Italian Festival in Willow Glen and couldn't, but he did say that I could meet him at the Willow Glen Smokehouse and I could leave it there if I could get there in 15 minutes. No problem - in fact the Smokehouse is closer to me than LG Meats. Got there before he did (not sure who "he" was - not Johnny), but he arrived shortly. A couple of minutes later the deer was hanging in his cooler. I'll have to call them tomorrow to choose my cuts - all he had time for was to hang it and sign off the DFG tag. I wasn't going to argue. Disaster averted. Whew!
So boys and girls, remember. Los Gatos Meats normally does not accept wild game until 4:00 pm on Sundays.
Those who could not attend Old Timers' were definitely missed.
The turkeys came around to water frequently in the hot weather:
A little tweety bird came by for a drink as well:
Fall is just around the corner, as these bay leaves foretell:
