Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of rifle hunting I've ever had. The snow was a couple inches deep, the temperatures not too hot, not too bone chilling, all in all - perfect.
Me and dad jumped in the Mule around 6:20AM and were ready to go our separate ways, when 4 does came barrelling over the horizon and stopped withing 50yds of both of us and the Mule. Soon I could see the truck that spooked them driving through the open field, and we both decided it would be worth spooking these four does to hurry up and get in our stands, as the truck was an omen that soon the woods would be filled up.
Right at first light, I had a real nice shooter, followed by a smaller buck move behind me towards the populated area to my left, unfortunately for me, by the time I saw them - houses in the background made shooting simply not a safe idea. Fairly angry, I figured it was only 7:05 AM, which left the whole day ahead of me. Well about every :25 min after that deer appeared from all directions. A group of 12-15 does got things kicking, and the boys in the truck from earlier knocked a few down before they hit my stretch of woods. The three that trotted past me looked like yearlings, so I decided to pass all three - which paid off in spades later. I saw more groups of 5+ does than ever, and had a wounded small buck limp by around the housing again.
At 9:00 AM it was all good though, as three bucks popped over the green briers above me, and beelined it right into my wheelhouse. The 30-.06 laid some smack down on this weird 4 x 2, and he only ran 30 yards.
He was a big deer though and I got some serious steaks, and ground, not to mention summer sausage and stick in the oven now, and a big fat hind quarter ham soaking in brine for this weekends smoking. This is my second rifle buck in three years, and fourth overall with a gun. I had a really good time in the woods, and am looking forward to the challenges of muzzleloader after Christmas.
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