Success In The Field

In spite of all of my mistakes.

I only had an antlerless tag left and have been looking for a mature doe. Unfortunately all I have been seeing is bucks. This morning, two spikes came into my stand, followed by two does. One of the “girls“ looked like a good one. She got got close and I had the S&W M657 cocked and ready. One of the spikes turned and ran the big doe off. I lowered the hammer and figured it was over. About five minutes after the bucks left, the does came back. Hey, maybe this is going to work after all.

The big doe weaved her way toward me and finally presented a broadside shot at a close 20 yards. This was a slam dunk! I settled the dot on my Leupold DP Pro right behind the shoulder and took the shot. As she ran off I was certain of a hit, but she went a lot farther than I expected and got out of sight.

I climbed down and found hair but no blood at the spot where she was standing. Looked for blood following the path she used for her exit, not finding a drop. I knew at that point I should leave for a bit, but for some reason I kept following. The shot was so easy I just knew I would find that deer right where I lost sight of her.

While following, never seeing blood, I saw the smaller doe flag and run off. I’ve had that before where a “healthy“ deer stays near one that is hurt. Walked that direction and found her dead. Whew!

When I walked up on the deer I saw the exit hole was farther back than I expected. Rolled her over, and the entrance hole was also too far back. I had obviously forgot anything to do with trigger squeeze and pushed that “slam dunk shot” about 4” to the left. My bullet barely caught the on side lung and destroyed the liver. Lucky, considering how far off my shot had gone. Also lucky the deer was dead since I didn’t wait to go after it. A shot that far back could’ve easily resulted in a wounded deer jumping and running.

So in spite of my poor shooting and bad decision not to wait it out, I recovered my deer. This was my first animal with the Sierra 210 JHC. I was not happy with the lack of blood trail until I saw where I hit the deer. The damage that bullet did internally is probably why I recovered her after all of my shortcomings.

Wrapping this up, I haven’t used an optic on a handgun since 1984. I made a horrible shot on that one too. I either need to practice more with the DP or stick with open sights.

Dan