bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
So... I recently shared news of a decent 10 point harvest for our Florida neck of the woods... but I'd be less than honest not sharing the rest of the story.
The harvest of the 10 came on the heels of a loss of a 12 pointer, and BOY did it impart a PAINFUL lesson... all the more painful because as the old saying goes, "I KNEW BETTER!"
So why the loss of the 12?
Because I was using a setup I've used for the past few years -- a 6.5 Creedmoor with a day/night Sightmark scope on it so that I was able to hunt deer during daylight hours and use the same rifle for hogs, with shots at the hogs often coming at night. Like many things in life though, trying to marry a tool for too many things comes with compromises and I found a number with the day/night scope. First, the image screen was WAY harder to see during the day and as a few forum members might recall I even once partially disrobed to use my shirt as a sunscreen so that I could get a decent view to make a buck harvest. What actually happened with the 12 point, though, is the electronic scope lost and / or was cleared of the dope settings I'd made on it. And I honestly (hurts me to share this) somewhat questioned if it might be off after having hit a hog a few days earlier... but later seeing it had a broken femur on camera figured my shot just failed to kill it and I didn't take the few seconds to check the internal scope settings.
The 12 point in the trail cam picture below walked out into one of my plots during a cold front spell around mid-Nov and stood completely still giving me a PERFECT broadside statue pose. Aim for a near center-mass double lung shot... BAM!!! Buck looks shocked and alerted but doesn't run, then after about 10 seconds starts feeding again! SHOULD have just held on taking a second shot at that point, as I KNEW the aim on my first shot was true... but... line up a second PERFECT shot... BAM!!! This time buck takes off as if lightning hit it... but... without any fall, arching jump, or other obvious sign of being hit. I wait 15 minutes or so in the stand as I've got two hours of good daylight left, climb down, go to the spot I shot... and NOTHING. Not even the smallest particle of blood or hair. But with the mad post-shot sprint I'm determined to ensure it isn't hit so I search for blood for a few hundred yards in the direction it ran. NOTHING. Sick, I go back to the house as it gets dark, cut the scope on, go to the dope setting menu and it's showing zeros for both elevation and windage. Re-enter the dope settings I'd written down back when I zeroed it in and using a laser sight beamed across my house estimate that the zero rest had the shot missing dramatically high-and right at 125 yards (I actually had to max out the elevation settings on the scope to even reach zero when originally sighting it in -- far from an ideal scenario).
Didn't step as much as a foot beyond my inside-yard gate for a week to see if buck might show back up, feeling sick at the prospect of ***possibly*** having clipped / maimed it, but BLESSEDLY the first time I pulled camera cards I found that after staying clear of the area a few days it did start making nocturnal visits again / KNEW it wasn't fatally injured at all.
But I had the diliema of finding time to either reset my rifle and check zero or switching to another rifle, still with the need to check for zero, and with a crazy busy work schedule before I could do so neighbor sent me this pic...
Already having decided to give the "core area" bucks (few might remember from prior posts) "Split Ear" a pass for a broken G4, and "Lucky" for being improved over prior year but still just a bit too wonky to want to harvest, I decided to wait to hunt until something promising showed up. Blessedly, fairly quickly the 10 point below showed up out of the blue and made enough camera hits to justify me seeing if our paths could cross.
The 10 point just so happened to enter the plot in the EXACT same spot and struck the EXACT same statue broadside pose -- won't lie it made for such strong "deja vu" that the nerves REALLY kicked in and I had to take a few deep breaths to feel good with the shot being steady.
This time, when the shot rang out the buck sprinted only about 10 yards before making an arching jump that let me know my shot was true. That leap did result in a 45 degree angle change of direction that I didn't pick up from the stand and failed to notice when I tried finding the solid blood trail beyond the initial 10 yards, but after losing it and scratching my head a while, I went back and took time to find the change of direction and the hunt then proved quick and easy though completed just as dark was falling.
Though our gun season lasts through mid-January, the freezer is relatively full thanks to regular hog harvests so that's likely it for this year... unless a really old grizzled warrior shows up.
The harvest of the 10 came on the heels of a loss of a 12 pointer, and BOY did it impart a PAINFUL lesson... all the more painful because as the old saying goes, "I KNEW BETTER!"
So why the loss of the 12?
Because I was using a setup I've used for the past few years -- a 6.5 Creedmoor with a day/night Sightmark scope on it so that I was able to hunt deer during daylight hours and use the same rifle for hogs, with shots at the hogs often coming at night. Like many things in life though, trying to marry a tool for too many things comes with compromises and I found a number with the day/night scope. First, the image screen was WAY harder to see during the day and as a few forum members might recall I even once partially disrobed to use my shirt as a sunscreen so that I could get a decent view to make a buck harvest. What actually happened with the 12 point, though, is the electronic scope lost and / or was cleared of the dope settings I'd made on it. And I honestly (hurts me to share this) somewhat questioned if it might be off after having hit a hog a few days earlier... but later seeing it had a broken femur on camera figured my shot just failed to kill it and I didn't take the few seconds to check the internal scope settings.
The 12 point in the trail cam picture below walked out into one of my plots during a cold front spell around mid-Nov and stood completely still giving me a PERFECT broadside statue pose. Aim for a near center-mass double lung shot... BAM!!! Buck looks shocked and alerted but doesn't run, then after about 10 seconds starts feeding again! SHOULD have just held on taking a second shot at that point, as I KNEW the aim on my first shot was true... but... line up a second PERFECT shot... BAM!!! This time buck takes off as if lightning hit it... but... without any fall, arching jump, or other obvious sign of being hit. I wait 15 minutes or so in the stand as I've got two hours of good daylight left, climb down, go to the spot I shot... and NOTHING. Not even the smallest particle of blood or hair. But with the mad post-shot sprint I'm determined to ensure it isn't hit so I search for blood for a few hundred yards in the direction it ran. NOTHING. Sick, I go back to the house as it gets dark, cut the scope on, go to the dope setting menu and it's showing zeros for both elevation and windage. Re-enter the dope settings I'd written down back when I zeroed it in and using a laser sight beamed across my house estimate that the zero rest had the shot missing dramatically high-and right at 125 yards (I actually had to max out the elevation settings on the scope to even reach zero when originally sighting it in -- far from an ideal scenario).
Didn't step as much as a foot beyond my inside-yard gate for a week to see if buck might show back up, feeling sick at the prospect of ***possibly*** having clipped / maimed it, but BLESSEDLY the first time I pulled camera cards I found that after staying clear of the area a few days it did start making nocturnal visits again / KNEW it wasn't fatally injured at all.
But I had the diliema of finding time to either reset my rifle and check zero or switching to another rifle, still with the need to check for zero, and with a crazy busy work schedule before I could do so neighbor sent me this pic...
Already having decided to give the "core area" bucks (few might remember from prior posts) "Split Ear" a pass for a broken G4, and "Lucky" for being improved over prior year but still just a bit too wonky to want to harvest, I decided to wait to hunt until something promising showed up. Blessedly, fairly quickly the 10 point below showed up out of the blue and made enough camera hits to justify me seeing if our paths could cross.
The 10 point just so happened to enter the plot in the EXACT same spot and struck the EXACT same statue broadside pose -- won't lie it made for such strong "deja vu" that the nerves REALLY kicked in and I had to take a few deep breaths to feel good with the shot being steady.
This time, when the shot rang out the buck sprinted only about 10 yards before making an arching jump that let me know my shot was true. That leap did result in a 45 degree angle change of direction that I didn't pick up from the stand and failed to notice when I tried finding the solid blood trail beyond the initial 10 yards, but after losing it and scratching my head a while, I went back and took time to find the change of direction and the hunt then proved quick and easy though completed just as dark was falling.
Though our gun season lasts through mid-January, the freezer is relatively full thanks to regular hog harvests so that's likely it for this year... unless a really old grizzled warrior shows up.
