2019 Deer Hunt

[sakorick]

Scruggs Farm, Linn County , Missouri. Eric, Evan and Owen picked up Paul and his .338 at the Kansas City Airport at 1445, 14 October and headed North. They almost made it to the farm but the water pump on Eric's Truck flamed out with 25 miles to go. I immediately called my friend Terry Milford who owns Millford's Garage in Laclede who jumped in his tow truck and was heading West on US36 when I passed him in my pickup. I knew exactly where the boys were and by the time the wrecker arrived we had already transferred guns and clothes into my truck. Eric's truck was repaired the next morning......a possible bad deal turned into a good deal. DAY 1. Season opened today at 30 minutes before sunrise with lots of shooting around but not from our rifles! We saw one 6 point scrub all morning. We are going back out in about an hour to finish off day 1. Continued.

[Paul Hoskins]

Well, that sucks BUT when things start out bad the usually wind up good. Good luck to all of you. One of my "girlfriends" just called 10 minutes ago to tell me she's bringing me a small doe tomorrow. No wonder I love that kid. .......Paul H

[sakorick]

Day 1 Sat Evening. We saw lots of deer lots of does and scrub bucks, no does in heat and no big boys = no shots fired.

Day 2 Sunday morning. at 0705 I saw a small doe go by me at full speed. No buck chasing and I have no idea where she came from. Paul saw 2 scrubs and a decent 8 point which he passed on and the neighbors killed. I retired at 0815 to go to church and it was worth the effort as Pastor Buck was on fire! After lunch Eric reported no bucks at the East. We call Eric and his boys as the East, Paul is the West and I'm the North.

[sakorick]

Day 3. No big ones yet. We all saw nothing but scrubs and does.

Day 4, morning Eric and Owen hunted in their regular blind in the morning and went through an episode of buck fever. The big stud got away un-shot at. Eric and the boys left for home and school at noon. The boys still have a late youth season to hunt for 2 more days after Thanksgiving. Paul and I hunted over at John's place which was some different scenery. I had a small 10 point and a doe out in front of me for about 30 minutes but other than that about the same scrubs as at my place.
Evening. Paul scores a monster buck.  Take a look at this 12 point.

[gitano]

We rough-scored it at 171and 6/8ths inches. Main beams were 24 inches long, and the bases we're a little over 6" in circumference.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Wow, I almost missed this edit!
Nice Buck Paul, congrats on the "tall" rack.








PS,...  So, what did you do to your ankle Rick?

[sakorick]

Wow, I almost missed this edit!
Nice Buck Paul, congrats on the "tall" rack.

PS,...  So, what did you do to your ankle Rick?

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall......broken Fibula.

[Jamie.270]

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall......broken Fibula.

GAH!


Dayum, get well soon sir!

[recoil junky]

Nice except for Rick's broken ankle!!

RJ

[Paul Hoskins]

Well, congratulations, Paul. Glad you got a beautiful wall hanger. Big bodied beast too. Looks fat & sleek too. Rick, this getting  old & careless just don't go together very well. Take care of that ankle. You only have two of them.  .......Paul H

[Paul Hoskins]

Odd that this didn't show up on my screen till today.   ......Paul H

[Jamie.270]

We rough-scored it at 171and 6/8ths inches. Main beams were 24 inches long, and the bases we're a little over 6" in diameter.

 Paul

I just noticed this, and I think you meant to say circumference.




Either that or the camera you used for the photos really distorts the subject's proportions.  

[gitano]

I just noticed this, and I think you meant to say circumference.




Either that or the camera you used for the photos really distorts the subject's proportions.  

You're absolutely right, Jamie.270! Circumference!

Paul

[sakorick]

It is now Friday the 22d. The rut is nearly over. We are now in Doe mode as I need one for the freezer. I sent Paul to the "salad bar" which is my blind in the SW Crp field with about 1/2 acre of Rape Radishes and Turnups in the bottom. Lots of Does are feeding here. Tomorrow we head to KC to drop off the big boy at the taxidermist  and spend the night with Eric & family. We need to be at the airport at NLT than 0500 on Sunday. Paul flies home and I spend the night as I has a appointment at the VA at 0930 on Monday for leg inspection. Then I will hunt Monday afternoon and Tuesday as it's the last day. I'll report on Paul's doe hunt later this evening.

Cont. 11-23. No deer since Paul's big boy. I'll be back out Mon evening and Tuesday. We are off to Kansas City now.

[Hunterbug]

That is a stud! Great job.

[Nelsdou]

Very nice buck. Well done!

[Paul Hoskins]

I'm anxious to hear the details from  Paul on killing the big bruiser after he gets home & gets rested up. :D    I like good hunting stories with the details. ......Paul H

[sakorick]

He made a perfect shot at 175 yards uphill. The Buck was dead when it hit the ground. The .338 is deadly!

[gitano]

I'm having trouble with my computer connecting to the internet. I'll tell the tale as soon as I get it fixed.

Paul

[Paul Hoskins]

Bullet placement is everything when hunting bigger game. .......Paul H

[farmboy]

Nice buck!!! And we'll wishes get better and heal quickly!

[davidlt89]

Nice buck Paul!!! God Bless.

[gitano]

Ok... Still having problems with my primary computer's ability to connect to the internet, but I do have a 'suitable substitute', so I'll add my 2-cents-worth to what Rick has posted.

The first thing I'd like to do is acknowledge that I couldn't have taken such an extraordinary animal without the very gracious hospitality (in all its connotations) of my friends; Sakorick, his son Fire717, and our mutual friend, John McKenzie. Rick put me up at his place and treated me like royalty. Fire717 cooked absolutely scrumptious meals, and John - among other things - let me hunt on his property where this buck was taken. I am truly blessed to have such great friends!

Rick outlined the 'goings on' of the first few days and the lay of the land is clearly shown in the image in post #3. We saw plenty of deer from Saturday morning (opening day) until Fir717 and his boys left on Tuesday morning. It was just that with one exception, none were of a size any of us wanted to shoot.


As I mentioned earlier, I had 'committed' to restricting myself to a "wall-hanger". That's actually something I have never done before. Up until "The Great Bison Hunt of 2019", I have been primarily a "meat hunter". As some of you well know, I have plenty of animals hanging on my walls, and some of them are actually very nice as 'trophies' go. Nevertheless, those animals were taken within the constraints of my meat-hunting philosophy. Namely: "The most meat comes from the biggest animals." Therefore, I always shoot the biggest animals I see, and don't wait very long in a given hunt before I choose "the one in front of me". Keeping in mind that I am all but 70 years old, I have, over the decades, been fortunate enough to collect meat as well as horns. What helped me make the "trophy" commitment was the fact that I have 600+ lbs of bison meat in my freezer! Furthermore, transporting meat back to Alaska, while not impossible, is really a royal pain in the butt. So, for what was really the first time in my life, I set myself to a 'trophy hunt', and Rick's Place was just the place to allow me to have a realistic expectation of achieving that outcome.

Up through Tuesday, I had raised my rifle on only one buck. I did so because he was the biggest I had seen to that point and a very 'pretty' buck. An 8-pointer, and very symmetrical. However, when I put the scope on him I knew that if I shot him, I would NOT have a shoulder mount made. There really wasn't any difficulty in lowering my rifle. (How much a 'full belly' influences decisions like that cannot be overstated.)

We hunted each morning from about 6 to 10am, and from about 2 to 5:30pm. While there was some probability that deer were moving during that middle of the day from 10 to 2, we needed some respite from sitting in the blinds as still and quiet as possible plus 4 hours of looking through binos and the middle of the day was the least likely time that a deer would be out. As the days wore on, it became clear that after the early morning movement, the deer were hardly moving at all again before 4pm. Shooting light was officially over at 5:30, and it was too dark to shoot then even if it wasn't officially prohibited.

Monday evening 'planning' was called for as Fire717 and his two boys had to leave the following day for him to go to back work and the boys to go back to school. Since the boys were willing to shoot something smaller than a 'wall-hanger', (but not too small), and I was seeing the most deer from my stand, we decided that Tuesday would be a good day for me to head over to John's place, and Fire717 and the eldest boy to sit in my stand in the morning. Rick and I went over and spoke with John and he was fine with me and Rick coming over to sit in a couple of his stands on Tuesday. Since Rick was gimped-up, he would use a "ground" stand John had built for his father-in-law. That way Rick wouldn't have to negotiate a ladder to squeeze into an elevated stand (Hochsitz).

Tuesday morning found Rick and I on our way to John's early enough to be in our stands by first shooting light. When we arrived at John's, he showed us a aerial photo of his place with the location of all of his various stands marked. He gave us the pick of the place:bowdown:but Rick was essentially confined to the "handicapped accessible" blind. I chose one that was about 3-400 yds from Rick's, and from which we could actually see each other. We headed out to the stands.

Come first shooting light, I immediately saw a buck coming down a hill to the southeast of my blind. Honestly, I was a little surprised to see one so soon after we had been dropped off. Certainly less than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, while he was an OK-sized buck he wasn't a wall-hanger. He walked down the hill and past my blind, headed for Rick's. I let Rick know there was a buck coming his way.

Over the course of the next 4 hours, we saw 4 or 5 more bucks, (none big enough), several does, and a flock of turkeys. The location we had chosen seemed like a 'good' one. Just needed a buck of the right age to wander by. We knew there were good bucks to be had on John's place because he had seen several on his trail cams. Here's a picture of one still in velvet, but promising to be a very nice buck:



John came and picked us up at about 10am and we discussed the morning's sightings. (Rick got to see the turkeys, and I got to watch a small flock of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) in addition to the deer we saw.) John then took us in a tour of his place to show us the other blind locations in case we thought we would like to be in one of the other blinds. Rick and I both decided we would keep to the blinds we had sat in that morning. We then took off to take care of some business, telling John that we would be back in time to be in the blinds by 2pm. And so we were.

I got settled in, and started 'scanning'. The blind was on a point of woods with a cut cornfield on my right, (Rick's blind was right in the center of that stubble-field), and the hill I mentioned before, on my left. It was a harvested soybean field. In front of me about 50 yards was a thin row of trees behind which was a large harvested soybean field. Bordering that field on the right, and 'running away' from me, were more woods. Most of the trees were oak: pin oaks (Quercus palustris), white oak (Q. alba), red oak (Q. rubra), with a few burr oak (Q. macrocarpa), and swamp oak (Q. bicolor) scattered around the farm. Of course there were also hickory (Carya tomentosa), walnut (Juglans nigra), an occasional Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and a few sycamores (Plantanus occidentalis).Here are some pictures of pin oak leaves and acorns on Rick's farm. (I love oaks. :D)









John had radioed that his brother had arrived, and he and his brother were going to go out and set on a couple of the other stands. About 3:30 or so, he sent me a text telling me that he had seen a decent buck chasing a doe, and the odds were good that I might get a shot at it. "Did I want to move over to that blind?" I thought about it, the logistics of it, and the fact that a big buck can show up ANYWHERE, and declined his offer.



As the hour approached 4pm - the 'magic' hour when the deer seemed to come out - the sun was starting to get low in the sky. In fact, it was right at the top of the trees that rimmed the top of the hill to my left. Looking up that hill was staring straight into the sun. I'd been in the stand for a couple of hours at that time, and 'nature' was calling. I stood to relieve myself in a container provided for that purpose. A few minutes before, Rick had radioed that he saw a buck of indeterminate size headed my way, but I hadn't seen hide-nor-hair of him yet. When I sat back down, I looked up the hill. OY! There was a buck sky-lined, perfectly broadside, at the top of the hill! I could see his antlers, but the sun was directly behind him, and I couldn't see any detail. He was staring directly at me. Given the layout of the blind and its windows, I was kind of 'outlined' by the window behind me and concerned that he had seen my movement of sitting down. Even though I couldn't count points, I could see from the main beams, (all I could discern against the sun), that he was "good enough"! I raised the .338 MAI to the open window as slowly as I could, knowing that he was staring directly at me.

There wasn't any way to laser the range to "the top of the hill", so I didn't have an exact range, but experience suggested that he was approaching 200 yd. With this load - 200-grain Accubond doing ~2650f/s at the muzzle and ~1.5" high at 100 - I figured a "dead on" aim was the best choice. I had no intention of shooting at his heart at that range, so I calmed the cross-hairs 'midline' on his shoulder and squoze the trigger. (The rifle has a "single-set" trigger. Using it "set" didn't even cross my mind.) At the shot, he dropped like a stone. Didn't take one step. He hit the ground as if he had been hit in the spine. I radioed Rick, "Big buck down", climbed out of the stand and headed up the hill.

I hadn't had a good look at his antlers; the sun right behind him and him staring straight at me demanded a fairly quick (10 to 15 seconds) decision and shot. As I walked up the hill, I could see his antlers, but I still couldn't see any points. The closer I got, the more I got concerned that he didn't have any 'points'; just two main beams with maybe a point or two on each side. I was beginning to question my snap decision to shoot. Then I got up on him. WOW!:grin: and !
He was a MONSTER! I was PUMPED! Certainly the biggest whitetail I had ever shot; certainly worthy of Rick's "wall" or John's. (I should have taken a picture of John's trophy wall. ) You've already seen the pictures of him, but here are a few more.










You can't imagine how much I HATE that stupid hat!

















I sent John a text telling him of the buck and asking him to come over to pick up Rick and help getting the deer 'taken care of'. Here's a picture taken from the site of where the buck dropped, back down the hill to the blind I was in. The lights are John's truck right at the blind.



I lasered the range (from the deer back to the stand), at exactly 175.0 yd. Impact velocity should have been about 2325f/s, and impact energy 2725 ft-lb. Clearly, that's a thumper for a 250-ish pound whitetail.  The bullet went in the leftt side just below the shoulder blade and exited the rightt side straight across. Impressive, to me, that he dropped 'like a stone', with no major bones struck. As usual, the entrance and exit holed are relatively small, but the damage in between was massive. Here are some pics taken before and after taking the cape off, showing the entrance and exit wounds.

Entrance:


Exit:


Entrance:


Exit:



Here's one to show the size of his neck:



Since I have a freezer (and refrigerator) full of game meat, I gave the meat to John. (Actually, his daughter.)

There's more to the 'story', but this is long enough for now. I'll add the rest later.

Paul

[Paul Hoskins]

Paul, that's truly a good buck and a good account of the story leading up to the results. That buck IS a bull. Look at the muscle mass  in him. Obviously well fed & been eating his oatmeal for breakfast. Acorns are really little balls of vitamins. His food source was just what it takes to  produce big deer with muscle mass & minerals for big antlers. .......I always had a problem with shooting uphill and especially facing the setting or rising sun. Great job on your  part. Almost all the big game I've killed stayed right where they were shot. I just don't like the idea of chasing down wounded varmints of any sort. Especially deer or bear. They can cover a lot of real estate in a short time. I can't. Great story with details & a great trophy. Again, congratulations and thanks for taking us along on the hunt. .....Paul H

[gitano]

So as I said, there's more to the story.

I had purchased a doe tag at the same time I purchased the "buck" tag. (Buck in quotes, because the official name of the tag is "any deer", but everyone knows it's a tag for bucks. Like my bison tag was an "either secks" tag.) Since neither Rick nor any of his descendants had yet scored, I thought I could provide some extra meat AND get another deer hide by shooting a doe. Rick and I sat on our respective blinds for a couple days, but, for the first time, I saw NO deer from my stand - for TWO DAYS. Finally, on Friday evening, the last night I had to hunt before returning to Alaska, I sat in a blind overlooking the "salad bar": A 'feed lot' Rick had planted with a variety of food stuff for the deer including turnips. The deer loved the place.

With open windows, the blind was a bit more primitive than the others, but the big problem for me was that I couldn't adjust the seat so that I could get a proper sight picture with the rifle sitting on the window sill. I was sure I could 'make do' when necessary.


Sure enough, right about 4pm, I see deer ears in the woods just beyond the end of the field. Upon closer examination, it's a buck. No shooting that one. He was VERY cautious, and never actually stepped out into the field. However, when he moved, a doe traipsed right across the bottom of the 'salad bowl', and right behind her, two of this year's fawns. Nope. Even though it was 'legal', I was not going to shoot a doe with a fawn - or two. They got a pass.

Time passed, and I thought I wasn't going to see any more deer when of course, one shows up. A nice doe at the edge of the woods. Soon enough, there were five deer standing in the wide open munching away. Four does and one fawn. Three of the does were clearly without fawns, and all three were mature, full-bodied does. I had also decided that since this was going to be a "meat" deer, AND there were no 'trophies' involved except the hide, I would take a head shot. Misses are "clean" (if you are using a large caliber like the .338), and hits are instantaneous death. I lined the crosshairs on her head. Or rather I tried to. I could not do that while sitting in the chair. I pushed the chair out of the way and got in sort of a crouch. I couldn't hold the crosshairs steady from that position. I pulled the chair back and sat down. I kept repositioning the rifle until I could get the crosshairs on her head. The final shooting position had the butt of the rifle ON TOP of my shoulder. Still very unsteady, but I decided to shoot anyway.

At the shot, the deer jumped, but none of them bolted away. Especially the one I had been aiming at. She hardly moved. However, blood was running down the bridge of my nose from "scope nose". Seeing as how I am taking a blood thinner, it wasn't going to be ready to stop any time soon. The deer, spooked as they were, started walking off. I let them go. I COULD have taken a body shot and connected, I'm sure. However, to tell the truth, my heart really wasn't in it. I just let them walk off, and kept some 'constant pressure' on the bridge of my nose, which had already swelled up pretty good.

There was still at least half an hour of shooting light, but as I said, my heart really wasn't in it. I climbed out of the blind and headed back to the house.

It's just today, the 5th of December, that the scab has come off my nose and the swelling completely gone. Funny, to me, that I was worried a little about 'scope-eye' with the .416 and the bison, and in the end I end up with scope-nose from shooting at a doe with the .338 MAI. :laugh:


Paul

[sakorick]

The Doe season is this weekend. I saw a forked horn and 3 small yearlings last evening. I am handcuffed with this cast on my foot and unable to climb into anything without hand rails. So the good seats go unused. If I don't get a doe it won't be the end of the world as there is a bunch of venison in the freezer and Evan's buck is at the processor.:smiley: