Mom shoots twice at nice 10 as I hug tree and watch!

[onthefly]

My dad passed last March. My mom hasn't been hunting with me since 7 years ago when I shot my first deer (220lb, 140" 10-pt.). We were sitting last night in my dad's spot - about 10 yards apart in treestands. My party saw one deer opening weekend and none Friday or Saturday morning.

It's 4:00 and I'm getting restless. I start to climb down, planning to walk a big circle to maybe kick up some bedded deer. I lower my gun to the ground and start to climb down. About 1/4 way down the tree, a very small doe comes barreling down a trail and stops at 5-yds. My mom has the gun on her but wasn't going to shoot that small of a doe. I look up and yell, "look behind her!" The BIG 10-pt. stops at 20 yds., mom fires and his front legs go weak, then he acts like nothing happened. She fires again and misses. I try to shimmy down the tree to my rifle but he ran off. Walk over to where he stood and see good, bright blood. Then we hear: BOOM! We're on state land, but across the road is private. The guy has a stand right where I knew these deer were heading.

He ended up dropping it right there with a .50 cal muzzleloader. We saw the deer and took a picture of it. But since it ran onto private property, I knew we couldn't so anything about it.

At any rate I feel good about it in lieu of it all. My uncles who we hunt with always claimed there weren't deer in the corner we sat in. My dad always saw deer, though. Plus, now I have a new hunting partner!

[delmuts]

cool story! to bad your mom didn't get to claim the deer though.

[Tippman]

Did she make a fatal shot on it??

[onthefly]

I think so. He was hot on the doe's trail so he wasn't going to slow up very quickly. The bullet hit high on the front leg and then passed through the brisket. The blood was bright and the trail was easy to follow.

I'm just kicking myself. I was looking at his side, slightly quartering away at 25 yards. If my rifle wasn't on the ground, I don't think he would've crossed the road, which was 250 yards away.

[lawdog]

Personally, I think that's your mom's buck and I would have given it to her. She made a good shot and you were able to easily trail good blood, that's a dead deer walking and he didn't kill it. In all parties I've hunted with that would have been her deer.

[onthefly]

I guess this is a great hunter ethics debate. I agree with you, lawdog. I don't want to call the guy out on it, though, because what if it turned out the initial wound wasn't fatal? I believe it would have been. If the tables were turned, I would have given the deer up. The only thing that irked me was he was sort of smug about the whole thing and a little cocky. First thing he did was throw it in the back of his truck and head to town to show it off!

The guy said he'd been watching it all summer. My dad saw deer close to that size every time he sat in that stand but never had a clear shot.

For reference, I think this deer would've dressed out well over 200 and scored maybe 140. My heart was pounding for a good 2 hours after that!

Two CO's even pulled up as the guy was dragging this. They said there really isn't anything they could do about it. If he wanted to give the deer up he could, obviously.

[Coach1310]

Kudos to you for not turning it into a selfish battle over who's deer it really was. I think Dad was looking down proud as he probably knew your Mom did the job, but was testing your hunter ethics. I have a feeling he raised a great hunter with impeccable hunting values. Kudos to you and I hope you enjoyed the time you spent with your Mother!!

[MinnesotaMuskie]

Interesting...we have always lived by the idea of "first blood" claims the deer.

In any case...my Mom passed away a couple seasons ago...you are a lucky hunter:)