Friday, January 19, 2007

Homegrown Trifecta.....Almost

Over the last five or so years, the family project has been developing the habitat for the benefit of the deer herd on the part of our farm that we refer to as "The Johnson Place." While I have been in the Metro area for the most of the last two plus years, Dad and Shelton have spearheaded the food plot efforts. Fittingly, the story begins with them. Going backwards to come forwards, the first several years were pretty bleak with minimal deer sightings at best. If any deer at all were seen, they were slickheads (does to those who aren't familiar with the term). However recently, the select cut timber has provided unpenetrable briar thickets complete with cane and palmettos. As a result, the deer have more food sources in the woods and much more cover to hide from predators (that's another story within itself). This has by far been the best year as we have struck a homegrown trifecta....almost. Dad was the first to strike with the .45/70 during the first muzzleloader season. We have complete footage on camera to support the facts that it took about eight bullets to finally take the 9 point down for good. It was very entertaining to see Dad and Shelton playing the Geronimo twins on this deer, which later happened to be so old that the teeth were completely worn. Thanks to deer management, this buck could expire in a humane manner without starvation. Shelton's deer (photos to be included at a later date) was a 7 point that we claimed putting a slip on one afternoon. We had been searching for one that he hit the day before on another one of our select locations. We had just enough light and the perfect wind direction to come within 75 yards of Shelton's victim. Finally, last sunday I had the opportunity to sit in our shooting house with my Dad. It gave me the opportunity to have the type of conversations that is a blessing for a son to have with his role model. It was a little warm so we both knew that it may not be our day for hunting. About ten minutes before dark, Dad noticed a good buck sneak down the edge of the field in my direction. There was a little nook where he was going to come out that would provide a car's width of shooting room before he would reenter the woods. Pops instructed me to have my gun out the window waiting since it was so close to dark and so little margin for error. Several seconds later, I saw a brown object emerge in the near darkness. Through the scope, I saw antlers so I placed the crosshairs on the shoulder and squeezed off. Water and back legs flew high behind the deer indicating a chest shot so we went after him. After fours hours of looking the next day in the freezing rain, no pictures yet. Maybe Jeff's bulldog can help us out. To be continued.........

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That poor, innocent deer. How can you kill Bambi? Where's the pictures of the car?

ava and brookie said...

Relatively easy....Bolt one in the Chamber, Aim, and Squeeze. Reload and Continue!