A wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this year was the best ever for several reasons this year.
First and foremost, and likely the most momentous thing I have ever posted here, GFWTR and I are expecting our first child. We announced it at Thanksgiving to our families’ to much excitement and surprise. I am pretty sure both of our parents had given up on us ever having children.
I am presently somewhere between exhilaration and terror. This is going to be quite a life changing experience, and the more I tell people about it and think about it the more excited I get at the prospect. I think GFWTR is still taking it in a bit slower than I am. She is a bit more level headed than I am when it comes right down to it.
Needless to say the two mother-in-laws are beside themselves and have already had at least a few phone calls and one face to face meeting. I am sure the first few months of the new child’s life have already been planned out to the minute by them. Living this close to both parents is no doubt going to be both a blessing and a curse but I think (after much chastisement by my brother) is going to me a larger blessing than a curse.
I told my co-workers today and between telling them about the coming addition to our family and my weekend hunting I was very distracted at work. It was next to impossible to concentrate on the proposal I am suppose to be working on.
I am sure there will be many more posts on the baby as this progresses. I have created a tag just for posts on it.
The other thing that made Thanksgiving good was my brother coming up. I got to play lots with his two sons. One almost 4 years old and the other about 6 months old, they certainly fed the baby fever around the place. We had a good time having my whole immediate family together along with several of my parent's siblings and their kids and grandkids around for Thanksgiving. I think we only had about 26 show up for Thanksgiving dinner (we have had as many as 51). It was good times all around and GFWTR was somewhat the focus being the one with the "announcement". It's a tradition in my family that baby announcements happen at Thanksgiving and ours was a nice surprise to most. I think, despite her likely denial, she is enjoying the attention.
Finally to top all this family goodness off with an excellent deer hunting experience. I took a very nice 10 point buck opening morning of Ohio’s modern gun season. It was nice enough that it will be my first deer to be mounted, to be hung in the house down at the farm.
So after Thanksgiving my brother and father and I stuck around to do some deer hunting. The girls all took off back up here to the Cleveland area. My brother bought a use cross bow earlier this year and the two of them twisted my arm and got me out bow hunting. I had not bow hunted in over 15 years. I was big into archery for awhile while in Boy Scouts but sort of lost interest in it. We didn’t hunt Saturday morning as the brother youngest had a bad night and we all slept in, (the girls left Sunday afternoon) but we went out Saturday afternoon. Sitting is a deer stand down by the swamp I had a small 6 point buck and a doe come just outside of my limited range. A crossbow is a horribly inelegant weapon, clumsy to carry, hard to cock and noisy for what it is. It was fun to watch them in the woods though. I got my doe bleat call out and messed with the buck’s head a bit. He got pretty pissed and snorted a lot at me and headed off as the last light failed.
The moon was so full and the sky clear enough you could walk around in the deep woods with no light and see just fine. Sunday we were back out both morning and afternoon and saw a few more deer but nothing within shooting range
Now these first two day the weather was cold, light snow, and temps down to low 20’s on Saturday but Sunday the temp rose and by the evening we were in the 40’s, but the warm front brought rain. So Monday morning, open day of modern gun season was moderate temperatures but a steady down pour of rain. We were back in the woods an hour before sunup and in our stands. I moved from the swamp stand to a stand off the power-line right-of-way and this was my first time in this stand. All of our older stands are 16ft ladder stands. My brother and father added two new stands early this fall that were 20fts stand. So Monday morning I am sitting in a 20 tree stand (damn, if that doesn't seems high when your in it) on the edge of large hickory and oak forest in a steady down pour of rain. The best part is dad found these cool umbrellas made for deer stands. They have a notch in the canopy for the tree, are camo, and have a very slick and easy mounting system to hold them to the tree.
So I am sitting bundled up in my bad weather hunting gear under a camo umbrella in a steady but windless pouring rain. I was as snug as a bug in a rug but I had an extraordinarily sweet view. I probably could have sat there all day if the seat was just a touch more comfortable. It was as close to heaven as I have had in the woods in several years.
Well about 9:00am my brother wanders over to my stand. He did not put up his umbrella and was soaked and had decided to head in, getting dad on the way, and go back to the house for dry gear. I had already made plans to stay out all day rain or shine, I had packed extra gloves, hat, a light lunch and some water in my day pack along with my usually gear. He looked at me funny when I said I am staying out in the rain but I was determined to make the most of opening day. Just as he was about to head out my uncle came by on his new Polaris 4-wheelier. We chatted for a minute and then bro headed off to find dad, my uncle headed down the right-of-way to look for trespassers and I headed south into the heart of the big woods on my uncle’s farm.
It took me about 40-45 minutes of still hunting (walk several yards, stop, look and listen for a minute or two and repeat) to cross the wide creek hollow and was about 60 yards short of the next ridge where I had stopped again to look and listen. As I scanned the ridge a doe trots into view skylined on the top of the ridge. Now this hillside I am climbing is above the larger hardwood tress in the hollow transitioning to a large thicket of smaller crab apple trees. So it's a fairly close environment such that as the doe stops I do not have a clear shot due to a larger number of small tree between us. But I cock and shoulder my Winchester 9410.
I have been using my Winchester 9410 410 shotgun for several years now for just about all my hunting, I took a modest 8 point buck back in 2003 with it but since that hunt I have found a much better slug (Brenneke 410 slugs) for it and had yet to take a deer using these new slugs so I was determined to shoot pretty much any deer I could except a very small buck or a yearling.
Now the excitement happens, I’m standing there, shotgun shouldered, waiting for the doe to step into the clear so I can take the shot when I catch motion out of the right edge of my vision. I turn my head, look and the follow thoughts flash through my head:
Deer.
Antlers!
Coming right for me!!!
HOLY SHIT IS HE CLOSE!!!
Well by this time, and no doubt my head motion clued him in, that buck realizes I was another critter, a critter he did not wants to be around and he puts the breaks on. He was moving very fast when he slams the breaks on, front feet spread, rear end down low with his hind legs sliding up between his front legs pushing up a pile of wet leaves. (later I paced it out he stopped about nine paces, 18 steps, or a bit less the 14 yards from where I was standing)
The next is just a series of images in my head. Having swung my gun and body around and I distinctly remember seeing the bright green fiber optic front sight right in the middle of his chest. A moment later he’s gone bounding to his left (my right) down the hill I had just come up. The only thing I thought at this point was “I am going to shoot him on the run.” I remember seeing the front sight on his shoulder as he is streaking to my right. Now this was not those big lazy arching leaps you see on TV this was ass to the ground putting ever effort into a maximizing a scrambling and desperate sprint. I fire two shots, bang, bang, I do not remember pulling the trigger or cycling the lever action. Everything was in full automatic mode; all I remember is watching the front sight on the deer and then that big deer crashing to the ground, sliding into a fallen tree.
Now I don’t know for sure which slug hit where but I am pretty sure the first shot went just below his chest and hit the far side (left) front leg at what would be the elbow and came out just above the wrist. Somehow that did not break the leg. What I assume was the second shot hit him about where the diaphragm would be front to back but high and it broke his back. He was down at that hit and could not move anything from that point back and the spine hit pretty much dazed him. I move forward and down hill several yards and put a final slug in his side. He was rolled towards me so the slug went in just below the shoulder blade and went through the right lung, heart and clipped the bottom edge of the left lung. Death was almost immediate after that shot.
All of the above from first sighting of the doe to that final finishing shot took maybe twenty seconds at the most. The adrenaline was flowing like I have rarely experienced. It took me a minute or two just to decide what to do next. At that point I thought to cycle my gun one last time to eject that last empty hull and realize I was empty (Ohio limits deer guns to three shots). It took me another moment to convince myself I had actually fired three times. I reloaded, engage the safety and looked him over. He was a very nice deer. Counting points showed him to be a very nicely symmetrical 10 point. Not a record breaker but a very solid example of a mature deer.
I finally remember that I had to put my tag on him, I also realize I was so hot I was about to catch on fire. They don't call it buck fever for a reason. I pull my pack off and put up my umbrella to make a small shelter threw my gun, pack, and heavy coat under it. Tagged the deer and then called dad on the cell phone. They had just got back to the house but turned right around, despite being cold and wet, to help me get the deer out of the woods. While waiting for them I tried to move the deer. He was heavy, I had to wait for them to help me field dress him. I have field dress two deer on my own before but both of them were much smaller deer.
Well to wrap this up. Dad and bro showed up and we got it field dressed and dragged up to the trail where my uncle was able to get to us with the 4-wheelie and hauled that deer out for me. There’s nothing like strapping a nice 10pt buck on a brand new 4-wheeler to christen it right. We weighed it back at the house and it field dressed out to 140 lbs so it was probably close to 180lbs live weight. I got two coolers of meat from the processor.
I am not sure I have done the experience just here but it was truly one of my most intense hunting experiences I have ever had.
Here’s the pictures:
First one is where he laid after I tagged him.
Next is a few closeups of is head.
Finally a picture of the deer, my Winchester 9410 and myself.
ETA: I fixed a for a few typos and bad grammar, don't worry I'm sure I left a few in there.
First and foremost, and likely the most momentous thing I have ever posted here, GFWTR and I are expecting our first child. We announced it at Thanksgiving to our families’ to much excitement and surprise. I am pretty sure both of our parents had given up on us ever having children.
I am presently somewhere between exhilaration and terror. This is going to be quite a life changing experience, and the more I tell people about it and think about it the more excited I get at the prospect. I think GFWTR is still taking it in a bit slower than I am. She is a bit more level headed than I am when it comes right down to it.
Needless to say the two mother-in-laws are beside themselves and have already had at least a few phone calls and one face to face meeting. I am sure the first few months of the new child’s life have already been planned out to the minute by them. Living this close to both parents is no doubt going to be both a blessing and a curse but I think (after much chastisement by my brother) is going to me a larger blessing than a curse.
I told my co-workers today and between telling them about the coming addition to our family and my weekend hunting I was very distracted at work. It was next to impossible to concentrate on the proposal I am suppose to be working on.
I am sure there will be many more posts on the baby as this progresses. I have created a tag just for posts on it.
The other thing that made Thanksgiving good was my brother coming up. I got to play lots with his two sons. One almost 4 years old and the other about 6 months old, they certainly fed the baby fever around the place. We had a good time having my whole immediate family together along with several of my parent's siblings and their kids and grandkids around for Thanksgiving. I think we only had about 26 show up for Thanksgiving dinner (we have had as many as 51). It was good times all around and GFWTR was somewhat the focus being the one with the "announcement". It's a tradition in my family that baby announcements happen at Thanksgiving and ours was a nice surprise to most. I think, despite her likely denial, she is enjoying the attention.
Finally to top all this family goodness off with an excellent deer hunting experience. I took a very nice 10 point buck opening morning of Ohio’s modern gun season. It was nice enough that it will be my first deer to be mounted, to be hung in the house down at the farm.
So after Thanksgiving my brother and father and I stuck around to do some deer hunting. The girls all took off back up here to the Cleveland area. My brother bought a use cross bow earlier this year and the two of them twisted my arm and got me out bow hunting. I had not bow hunted in over 15 years. I was big into archery for awhile while in Boy Scouts but sort of lost interest in it. We didn’t hunt Saturday morning as the brother youngest had a bad night and we all slept in, (the girls left Sunday afternoon) but we went out Saturday afternoon. Sitting is a deer stand down by the swamp I had a small 6 point buck and a doe come just outside of my limited range. A crossbow is a horribly inelegant weapon, clumsy to carry, hard to cock and noisy for what it is. It was fun to watch them in the woods though. I got my doe bleat call out and messed with the buck’s head a bit. He got pretty pissed and snorted a lot at me and headed off as the last light failed.
The moon was so full and the sky clear enough you could walk around in the deep woods with no light and see just fine. Sunday we were back out both morning and afternoon and saw a few more deer but nothing within shooting range
Now these first two day the weather was cold, light snow, and temps down to low 20’s on Saturday but Sunday the temp rose and by the evening we were in the 40’s, but the warm front brought rain. So Monday morning, open day of modern gun season was moderate temperatures but a steady down pour of rain. We were back in the woods an hour before sunup and in our stands. I moved from the swamp stand to a stand off the power-line right-of-way and this was my first time in this stand. All of our older stands are 16ft ladder stands. My brother and father added two new stands early this fall that were 20fts stand. So Monday morning I am sitting in a 20 tree stand (damn, if that doesn't seems high when your in it) on the edge of large hickory and oak forest in a steady down pour of rain. The best part is dad found these cool umbrellas made for deer stands. They have a notch in the canopy for the tree, are camo, and have a very slick and easy mounting system to hold them to the tree.
So I am sitting bundled up in my bad weather hunting gear under a camo umbrella in a steady but windless pouring rain. I was as snug as a bug in a rug but I had an extraordinarily sweet view. I probably could have sat there all day if the seat was just a touch more comfortable. It was as close to heaven as I have had in the woods in several years.
Well about 9:00am my brother wanders over to my stand. He did not put up his umbrella and was soaked and had decided to head in, getting dad on the way, and go back to the house for dry gear. I had already made plans to stay out all day rain or shine, I had packed extra gloves, hat, a light lunch and some water in my day pack along with my usually gear. He looked at me funny when I said I am staying out in the rain but I was determined to make the most of opening day. Just as he was about to head out my uncle came by on his new Polaris 4-wheelier. We chatted for a minute and then bro headed off to find dad, my uncle headed down the right-of-way to look for trespassers and I headed south into the heart of the big woods on my uncle’s farm.
It took me about 40-45 minutes of still hunting (walk several yards, stop, look and listen for a minute or two and repeat) to cross the wide creek hollow and was about 60 yards short of the next ridge where I had stopped again to look and listen. As I scanned the ridge a doe trots into view skylined on the top of the ridge. Now this hillside I am climbing is above the larger hardwood tress in the hollow transitioning to a large thicket of smaller crab apple trees. So it's a fairly close environment such that as the doe stops I do not have a clear shot due to a larger number of small tree between us. But I cock and shoulder my Winchester 9410.
I have been using my Winchester 9410 410 shotgun for several years now for just about all my hunting, I took a modest 8 point buck back in 2003 with it but since that hunt I have found a much better slug (Brenneke 410 slugs) for it and had yet to take a deer using these new slugs so I was determined to shoot pretty much any deer I could except a very small buck or a yearling.
Now the excitement happens, I’m standing there, shotgun shouldered, waiting for the doe to step into the clear so I can take the shot when I catch motion out of the right edge of my vision. I turn my head, look and the follow thoughts flash through my head:
Deer.
Antlers!
Coming right for me!!!
HOLY SHIT IS HE CLOSE!!!
Well by this time, and no doubt my head motion clued him in, that buck realizes I was another critter, a critter he did not wants to be around and he puts the breaks on. He was moving very fast when he slams the breaks on, front feet spread, rear end down low with his hind legs sliding up between his front legs pushing up a pile of wet leaves. (later I paced it out he stopped about nine paces, 18 steps, or a bit less the 14 yards from where I was standing)
The next is just a series of images in my head. Having swung my gun and body around and I distinctly remember seeing the bright green fiber optic front sight right in the middle of his chest. A moment later he’s gone bounding to his left (my right) down the hill I had just come up. The only thing I thought at this point was “I am going to shoot him on the run.” I remember seeing the front sight on his shoulder as he is streaking to my right. Now this was not those big lazy arching leaps you see on TV this was ass to the ground putting ever effort into a maximizing a scrambling and desperate sprint. I fire two shots, bang, bang, I do not remember pulling the trigger or cycling the lever action. Everything was in full automatic mode; all I remember is watching the front sight on the deer and then that big deer crashing to the ground, sliding into a fallen tree.
Now I don’t know for sure which slug hit where but I am pretty sure the first shot went just below his chest and hit the far side (left) front leg at what would be the elbow and came out just above the wrist. Somehow that did not break the leg. What I assume was the second shot hit him about where the diaphragm would be front to back but high and it broke his back. He was down at that hit and could not move anything from that point back and the spine hit pretty much dazed him. I move forward and down hill several yards and put a final slug in his side. He was rolled towards me so the slug went in just below the shoulder blade and went through the right lung, heart and clipped the bottom edge of the left lung. Death was almost immediate after that shot.
All of the above from first sighting of the doe to that final finishing shot took maybe twenty seconds at the most. The adrenaline was flowing like I have rarely experienced. It took me a minute or two just to decide what to do next. At that point I thought to cycle my gun one last time to eject that last empty hull and realize I was empty (Ohio limits deer guns to three shots). It took me another moment to convince myself I had actually fired three times. I reloaded, engage the safety and looked him over. He was a very nice deer. Counting points showed him to be a very nicely symmetrical 10 point. Not a record breaker but a very solid example of a mature deer.
I finally remember that I had to put my tag on him, I also realize I was so hot I was about to catch on fire. They don't call it buck fever for a reason. I pull my pack off and put up my umbrella to make a small shelter threw my gun, pack, and heavy coat under it. Tagged the deer and then called dad on the cell phone. They had just got back to the house but turned right around, despite being cold and wet, to help me get the deer out of the woods. While waiting for them I tried to move the deer. He was heavy, I had to wait for them to help me field dress him. I have field dress two deer on my own before but both of them were much smaller deer.
Well to wrap this up. Dad and bro showed up and we got it field dressed and dragged up to the trail where my uncle was able to get to us with the 4-wheelie and hauled that deer out for me. There’s nothing like strapping a nice 10pt buck on a brand new 4-wheeler to christen it right. We weighed it back at the house and it field dressed out to 140 lbs so it was probably close to 180lbs live weight. I got two coolers of meat from the processor.
I am not sure I have done the experience just here but it was truly one of my most intense hunting experiences I have ever had.
Here’s the pictures:
First one is where he laid after I tagged him.
Next is a few closeups of is head.
Finally a picture of the deer, my Winchester 9410 and myself.
ETA: I fixed a for a few typos and bad grammar, don't worry I'm sure I left a few in there.