Beware- Long post.
Backstory first- Last weekend was bear rifle season and of all weekends for N.G duty that was the weekend it fell upon.rats I finished up drill and got to camp Sunday a little after dark. A few family members and a friend of my father were there. During and after dinner I got to hear about deer sightings, lack of bears and sign along with hardly any shots in hearing distance the first 2 days.
Amongst the good food, stories and the warmth of a wood fired stove I heard one occurrence that peaked my interest. The friend of my father said he saw a nice buck bounding across the overgrown pipeline towards the power line on Saturday when he was returning to camp for a warmup and some lunch. We don’t invest a lot of time hunting at camp due to smaller deer numbers and the acorn crop has been less than desirable more than it’s been good. The gypsy moths are terrible on hard woods, they’re now known as the spongy moth... only guess is politically correct¿ Good time at camp, we all left mid day on Tuesday due to heavy rain.
Early the 25th my father and I arrived to camp for deer rifle opener shortly after 6:00 in the morning. We had discussed primary plans and touched on secondary plans on the possibility of pressure from a lot of hunters/deer drives. Fortunately there was only a few vehicles, they were a mile before the cabin. My father left camp 10 minutes prior to me, he walked down the pipeline to cut midway into the woods and sit watching the ridge while I was going to sneak and slowly make my way out the ridge top. It took me an hour and a half to finish my walk, no deer seen by either. We communicated a plan, he was going to finish walking the low side of the ridge out to the old camp road and watch a point while I slow/still hunted to the end of the ridge top. Lunch time was getting close and he was walking up the pipeline and I was making my way back 100 yards inside the wood line. I caught a glimpse of his orange vest through the woods, shortly after I swore I heard leaves rustle like an animal but couldn’t pinpoint direction and then it disappeared. I made it back to camp and he had told me that he seen antlers 300 yards before the cabin running across the high grass on the pipeline. Lunch was a turkey sandwich from our thanksgiving turkey. We chatted about our afternoon and evening plans. As much as I know you can’t hunt them if you’re not out in the woods I feel that it’s best not to pressure areas and push them too much. I ended up walking to the point on the other end of the pipe/power line and watched for about 2 hours, nothing doin. It was getting time for me to make my way to my evening sit spot, my father would be 4-600 yards down from me. That general area seems to be a corridor for later evening feeding and travel.
I got setup at my evening spot and about 20 minutes of 4:00 I hear rustling leaves. The noise was coming from behind my right shoulder and I had to turn my neck uncomfortably far and twist my body to see what was coming. First glimpse at less than 70 yards I saw it was a deer, it made a few steps more I noticed bright antlers and a respectable rack. It’s coming out onto the power line at angle and at my 4 o’clock. I’m now regretting my choice of direction that I’m facing along with how the heck I’m going to get turned around without making too much noise “I’m sitting on the ground back resting against a stump.” I had what seemed to be 8-10 heavy breathes “mild buck fever” hah! It subsided once I got turned around, I’m composed and contorted now
I bring the rifle to my shoulder, take a short look at the rack “good for me” and get onto the deer. The crosshairs are angled approximately 20-30 degrees right due to my position, I’m steady and ready, I pulled the trigger, the buck collapsed. I didn’t take my eye out of the scope at first, I questioned myself “did it fall” I panned down with the scope and saw him there. WOOOBefore standing up I picked up my .280 Rem brass, walked up to the deer verifying it was dead and texted my father “buck down”. Upon gutting the buck I noticed a rub “pictured” on a striped maple only 16 feet from where he laid to rest. A nice bodied PA buck with a unique rack that reminds me of crab claws at the end of each beam. Fortunately the drag back to camp is only a quarter of a mile. Loaded the deer in the bed, had another turkey sandwich, a beer and reflected on the day.
It was skinned and quartered last night. We butchered it today and I cooked up the heart after all was done.
