I made the quick trip to the game lands on the west side of town. I was abandoning my traditional spots in favor of a new location. To the north was private land across the railroad tracks. To the south, some 5000 acres of game lands and hopeful hunters. The private land belongs to a great friend. I had postioned my self in a location that any other hunters coming on the game land would push deer to me.
I had my night vision binos and I scanned the field in front me, some 270 degrees of fields. I could see, as the dawn approached, vehicles parking along the road in the distant south. The wind was in my face and I sat within the embrace of tree branches, on the ground, with my back against a brush line. I sat and pondered the creation spread out before me. A beautiful dawn was beginning to be painted in the sky by the master creator. The story of the hunt written in the black skies above: the seven sisters watch, as the taurus the bull is pursued by orion with his bow, his faithful dog Sirius at his heel, the never ending hunting displayed this am for my pleasure as I waited for the 646 shooting time.
Shooting time came and went and the night vision binos were set aside for my predator Steiner binos. I started to glass the field and before long, I spotted a doe making her way across my field of view, left to right on your screen, south to north by compass. I could just see her head and back line as she made her way though the field. I cocked the flintlock and stood waiting. She was well over 150 yards away but I felt she just might come my way. She exited the field and was at the brush line that paralled the rail road tracks. I knew from my scouting that in that brush line were many scrapes and rubs. I was after a doe during this early season, no bucks could be taken by muzzleloaders. She stood at the end of the field and then turned right, towards me.
As she made her way along the brush line, she would jog a bit, then stop and sniff, then walk, then stick her head into the brush. Several times I thought she was going to cross that line and be lost to me but she kept coming. She was heading for the area where the two brush lines met in the corner of the field, the main exit point off the game lanes in this area and across the rail road tracks. It was 705 at this time and I had my rifle up and I was trying to hold steady and I was having difficulty seeing the front sight. My glasses were beside my seat and with her coming closer, I couldn't move. 75 yards, 60, 55 and she stopped. She was looking around and was curious about me though I don't think she saw me. She turned a bit and I felt she was going to bolt so I settled the sight and pulled the trigger. She was obscurred by the cloud of smoke at first but she was running away, along the brush line and turned right, exactly where she had stood before and lept into the woods. Gone ...
I sat to reload and while I was doing that, a small forky, and then a much bigger 6 point came running out of the field, exactly where the doe had come through earlier. The larger buck led and he serviced his rubs and scrapes, coming in and out of the woods. The smaller buck bedded at the end of the field and watched. For the next hour my thoughts were replaying the shot and I was trying to convince myself I could not have missed that shot but she sure looked like she was moving unhurt when I last saw her. I didn't want to spook the bucks and I watched them be bucks for the hour, wishing they would vacate the area so I could go check on my shot.
Finally the smaller buck went through the brush line and eventually the bigger one did too so I got up and went looking for sign of blood. In the area I thought she was standing when I shot, I managed to find hair, a clump about the size of a quarter on the ground. No Blood. ???? Did I shoot high and clip hair off? (the hair was dark, not white) Did I really miss her at that range? I started walking towards where she had gone into the woods some 75 yards away. I zig zagged across the path looking for blood but could find none. About 30 yards into this, the bigger buck came back out of the Brush. I froze on my knee and waited. Another doe stood up in the field near him. I was pinned down for 10 mins. Two hunters could be seen moving through the corn field in the distance. The Buck saw them too and he exited back through the brush, taking the doe with him.
I still could not find any blood but I kept moving back and forth towards her exit point and just as I got within 5 yards of that spot, I found her laying there, piled up. There was not one drop of blood anywhere near her except that which pooled from out of her mouth where she lay. I approached, gave her some grass, gave thanks and praise to my Lord and Creator for this blessing and prepared the tag.
The long drought is over for whitetail and as I examined the shot, I can see where the .54 cal round ball went in at the point of the right shoulder and passed through the shoulder and quartered all the way through her body to come to rest on the far side, left hind quarter. Not a pass through. How she covered the distance she did running, I have no idea. They are amazing animals for sure. I am honered to have taken her. A mature female, exactly what I was looking for and had prayed for.
