A long day...but worth it.

I'm sitting here watching Monday Nite Football (GO SAINTS!) and icing my knee after one very long day.

Up at 5:30 Am this morning and out at 6:45 after breakfast and a hot cup of coffee. The rain started at 6:30 causing me to change my attire at the last minute. With long johns, first layer of pants and shirt, second layer of warm coat and hat, then a rain pants and coat layer topped by a camo-orange vest. I felt like the Michelin Tire Man. slow walk up the hill in the early twilight carrying a backpack, a stool and my .270 took nearly half an hour. (I have got to work out more!)

I sat down in the rain at 7:00 AM and spent the next hour watching the fog blow in from the northwest. Up the slope and in my face. The fog lifted just after 8 AM and the wind shifted slightly so as to come out of the northwest. Still in my face but now and an angle. The rain continued, however, so that there would be no help hearing any approaching deer.

At 8:30 AM I caught a movement to my right directly under the white pine where I had hung my bow stand last year. A buck! But he was moving fast down the hill--not running like a thoroughbred, more like a trotter. He was going down that hill as if he had a date with destiny. It wasn't with me! I tried to get my rifle up and made a bleating sound to stop his progress just as I've seen them do on the Outdoor Channel's hunting shows. It worked! He stopped--behind a clump of trees. And that was all she wrote. Once he started moving again, he had no desire to slow down--or come out in the open. Five minutes later, on the hillside across the way, there was a single BOOM! and that buck may have met his destiny.

My first thought was, "Oh no! Not again." Last year I let one walk because it was a young spike and you need at least three points on one side for a buck to be legal. Moments later: BOOM! Then I missed two shots on a larger buck at just 70 yards only to hear: BOOM! along his projected path a few minutes later.

My second thought was, "Shoot! I did get to see a couple of deer last year and it's only 8:30! Plenty of time." So I took out my clippers and cleared a few small beech trees to better clear my shooting lanes before sitting down to watch and wait.

At 9:30, in exactly the same spot, cam a deer that could have been the first ones twin except that it was slightly lighter in color milk chocolate to the others dark chocolate. It looked to have the required points...barely. I flipped off the safety, and removed the caps from my scope. Managed to find the deer in the scope and watched as he went behind the same clump of trees as the 8:30 buck. Only, instead of going directly down the slope and into the thickest brush, this one veered to his left and began to traverse the slope 40 yards below me. I settled the scope on his shoulder as he stepped into a clear spot--now easily available because of my earlier clipping--and then bleated to stop him. And it worked again! I squeezed the trigger. The deer arched his back which told me he was hit. Then he bolted down the hillside. As I watched, he took two, three bounds and went ass over antlers! I found him laying two yards off the ATV/skidway that leads back to the Aerie in about 300 yards.

I checked his horns and was relieved to see that there were, in deed, three points on his left side and a broken off nub on the right that would have made him a five point if it were still intact. I don't know what this deer had been rubbing his antlers on, but it must have been oak, hickory or ironwood. None of the tips were pointed and, as I said, one was broked off close to the main beam.

My second thought, after elation that he was legal, centered around the hard work now ahead of me. First I had to field dress the deer. Then it had to be dragged out to the Aerie's yard. I would then skin and bone out the meat. Finally, the boned meat would be cut into steaks, roasts, fillets, tenderloins, stew meat and chop meat. Oy! What have I gotten myself into?

My first PA deer. There are three points on the
right antler (the deer's left). Trust me on that.

I worked from 11:30 until 5:30 to complete the butchering job. (I really need to take a class or something.) Okay, I still have to grind up the chunks to be used for chop meat...if I can't talk Terry into doing it.

I've been told I can't go out and shoot a doe. There's no room in the freezer with all the blue berries and string beans in there. I might agree with that considering the amount of work involved to butcher the deer. Then again, there are several butchers in the area who will do the hard work for a modest fee.

BTW: Thanks for all those who were wishing me luck. It worked!