Well, the snow storm of 2022 rolled in and we have had snow squalls on and off, blowing and colder temps. My son has been in the blind but not seeing much. Certainly not the one that is posted in the video above. I think another hunter may have gotten that one already.
This morning about 8am my wife and I from in the house could see through a clearing a smaller buck wandering through a mowed area and stopping here and there to try to reach any remaining leaves on the bushes along the edge of the clearing. We knew our son was in the blind and could not imagine why he was not shooting it! It spent at least 15 minutes slowly moving across his line of sight. We imagined maybe he felt the shot was too long, or maybe he was hoping to shoot a bigger one??
Eventually the buck went into the woods where he couldn't get a shot and wandered off. He came in later and said he didn't want to shoot in the direction of the house and didn't trust the sighting on his scope at that range. I have to hand it to him to think about safety first. I'm pretty sure shooting from up in the blind down at an angle towards the ground with a 20 gauge rifled slug that would have gone through a wooded area before reaching our back yard that he would have been fine shooting it.
We figured that was the end of hunting today with so much snow and wind. But he went out with his buddy from school late afternoon. It was good he did since he was looking out one window to the east and his buddy spotted a buck coming out of the woods on the window that looks to the west. It was dusk and light was fading fast. The buck wandered along the edge but this time was moving more consistently and more rapidly. At least this time he was shooting away from the house. He got him in his sights (he told me he has a light up red reticle option in his scope) Then just waited for him to pause. He was shooting further than he had hoped and down into a depression. He said he just aimed a bit high to try to adjust for distance and squeezed the host. He could see the deer react and try to circle out into the woods but was running awkwardly as if hit in the spine. He and his buddy went after him and saw no blood trail. They could see him still trying to move away but unable to really make any forward progress. They came up on him and put a second shot in his neck.
A relative was happy to come over and assist in field dressing. Still very little blood. While dressing it showed possibly why. The shot must have hit just behind the lungs basically through the stomach, a gut shot. Blood must have stayed mostly inside. They dragged it through the snow back to the house and did the best they could to wash it out. It is quite cold and can't get processed till Monday. It will be frozen solid soon after tonight's cold and snow.
You can't tell much from the pictures but it has 3 large curved 'tines' on the rack (forgive my ignorance about these matters.) Both sides have about a 2" spike (4th tine) coming straight up which I guess makes it a 8 point with 4 on each side but the 2 spikes in the middle are small. One side that small spike actually looks a bit thicker at the base and was broken off.
We are going get it processed. First time for everything! My wife is not a big fan of plain venison, kind of a new taste to get used to. I don't think we really would value trying to make steaks or roasts from it. I would like to see how the backstraps or 'loin' meat would be but how do we prepare it? I guess that means most will go into ground venison. We do like summer sausage so probably will make several pounds of that and probably should try some jerky too right?
Other ideas on how to divide it up? WE didn't weight it but it isn't a big deer. Hopefully meat is suitable despite gut shot.
I'll try to post pictures if the picture manager allows me.
My son was pretty disappointed this morning and pretty geeked that the deer came back and gave him another chance despite the weather. Dad and Mom were glad that all the work that went into making the blind payed off!
I need advice on this. My nephew who helped hang it said this is how they do it. My brother in law saw the picture and chastised us for hanging it legs down. He said you don't want all that blood going in the meat!! He said you are supposed to hang it head down as you don't eat the head! It is done now and everything is still so we won't be switching it but if that is the best thing to do then we will certainly learn and do it differently next time!
Thanks to all for the encouragement! Really grateful we had the opportunity to shoot this on our own property and gain the experience in the process!
