had a great "meat hunt" yesterday

[csterner]

I went out this morning to hunt opening day gun season in Frederick Co. MD. I was standing on the hood of an old dozer in a brushpile this morning about 8 AM with the 7 mag bipod on the roof, surfing on my phone. It was dead. Nothing was going on...until I looked up and saw deer. They were on the neighbor's property, but working my way. After checking for horns and seeing none I decided today was a meat hunt. I have had a very poor archery season. No deer in MD or even shot opportunities, and passed a couple does and small bucks in PA.

The first big doe jumped the fence and ran up the fencerow. I let the second clear and she stopped, about 125 yards. I got on her and just as the sear released she took a step. Hit looked a little back and she took about ten steps and stopped. The first ran back to her and stopped. I drilled her with a 162 AMAX at about 150. Three steps and she tipped over. The first one I shot then took off. Dangit!

She got through the fencerow and took off. I found a gap in the trees and waited. As she hit the crosshairs I touched another off at about 200 yards. Looked like a hit but she kept truckin'. At some point a third doe joined her. I kept on the first deer and swung through another gap...BANG! Another hit at 200+, I think, but she's still on her feet. I reloaded.

The two deer got into the woods and I couldn't tell which was which. Then I could see only one at about 175 yards, through the trees, standing...bad move. But wait...Is this the one that was hit or the third one? Didn't matter. Maryland has unlimitted doe tags and I still had ammo. I couldn't take a chance of a wounded deer getting away if that was her.

I had a clear view of her neck but couldn't get steady. I slid the gun forward and climbed atop the dozer roof and got proned out. The 700 spit fire, muzzle brake blowing the dusting of snow off the roof, and she disappeared. Then nothing.

I got the binoculars out and saw a deer down kicking. I got down and went to look for blood on the snow where they ran and found nothing as I walked to the last deer. Still no blood. I got her drug out and checked her over. No gut shot here, but the 162 AMAX nearly took her head off. Uh, oh...There's still a deer unaccounted for.

(NOTE...The 162 AMAX is not a very good deer bullet. They grenade inside, but left very poor blood trails and a lot of bloodshot meat. But...they are extremely accurate out of my dad's old Rem 700SS, factory brake, Burris 4.5-14 BDC, 63.5 gr H4831SC, Fed 215M. )

I had to check again for the first one. I went back to where I shot the last one and she laid not 10 feet away in briars. She must have fallen over and the other one stopped. Got them all drug out to the same spot to gut and checked things over. First one was hit back through the guts, but had two in the ribs from the running shots I made. Tiny exits. Found one bullet in the off-side brisket when skinning. Second was quartering away thru the ribs perfectly thru and thru, nickel sized exit. Last one, neck shot was obvious carnage.:eek: Five shots, five hits. Three big does down.

Called my boy for help dragging. I got the truck within 400 yards, but it still was a lot of work. Got all three home and skinned out. Remind me not to do THAT again. Gonna be busy here the next few days. This was a first for me. In a hundred or so deer, this was my first "multiple" deer day. Was kinda cool, but I don't think I'll do it again soon.

Here's the deer. Biggest on left, was 110 dressed. Sure felt heavier.

http://i1162.photobucket.com/albums/q533/LillieMichele/Mobile%20Uploads/20141129_092531.jpg

Here's my "blind". It's been there quite awhile.

http://i1162.photobucket.com/albums/q533/LillieMichele/Mobile%20Uploads/20141129_095238.jpg

[Alan in GA]

And I thought TWO deer was a lot of work! Brother in law helped me drag them out and skin and quarter then all the way to iced in coolers so I had 'half' the work. And of course I have him half the meat. We both love venison and deer are plenty so that's how we used to do it when our jobs allowed us a good bit of time to hunt together.

[thekriebles]

Charlie...congrats on the tri-fecta! Looks like you had a memorable time...no doubt about it!

[csterner]

Thanks. Don, as you probably know, PA doesn't allow multiples, so this is sort of a rare thing for me. I was really only trying for two, but when I knew I had one wounded, I had to take the chance on that last one, in case it was the wounded one that had stopped. The meat surely isn't going to waste, and farmers sure were happy I got three corn eaters off the property. :)

Alan, it was nice my boy was available to help get them out. My cousin came and helped skin them so I gave him one. Started butchering today. Got four front shoulders and loins processed. Only the four hams remain. Backstraps are history.:D

[montdoug]

It's all about the food C. all about the food! Congrats on what must have been purty exciting there for a while what with bullets flying and white tails dying :D.
Good looking chuck'ns laying there!

[Alan in GA]

...might add that in south central Georgia it can get up to 80 something degrees about 10am,....bout the time you get them dragged back to my mother laws' farm house! Basically you got to beat the yellow jackets that seem to wake up and get active about then.
It was suggested that maybe 'one at a time' would be 'ok' next time : )

I've passed up easy venison thinking all about the fresh home made pecan pie and perked coffee back in my mother in law's kitchen, a scant 100 or so yards away!

A man's gotta make decisions.....

[Mntngoat]

charles id think a 20 cal could have handled them.
ML

[toolman47327]

Good work Charles, our season for firearms went out yesterday, will have a special antlerless hunt december 26 thru january 4th, hope to have luck similar to yours!
Tom

[Teancum1]

Congratulations on your hunt. Might be a good idea to focus on the wounded animal and put it down for keeps before putting a round in a second animal. Glad you got them both and picked up the bonus round as well.

[csterner]

I realized that as soon as she took off. :o Thought the initial hit was better. She was sure to fall over and then she took off. Like I said, never had the opportunity for a double, but that sure is sage advice. Lesson learned.

[Stan from Pa.]

Way to go Charlie, I haven't hunted whitetails in Maryland for a couple years but do have fond memories of doing so with my father in law and brother in laws. Our goal was to shoot respectable bucks of course and, always hoping to bag a trophy. We did shoot doe also for meat, 1 day in particular stands out, the farmer requested we shoot more deer, we brought 9 deer home between 4 guys. We was busy skinning for a short while that evening.
Stan

[csterner]

thanks Stan...yep, I bet you were. I still have 2 hams left to clean up. One is going for chipped (dried) deer, the other will be pressure canned with the remainder. Good bit of burger meat ready to grind. I should have it all wrapped/canned up by Saturday.