The Big Eight

Let me just start by saying that 2013 has been my absolute worst hunting season so far. I've hunted anywhere from 1-4 evenings a week and almost every Saturday morning since September 16th. I've seen a total of five deer, and four of them were seen on November 23rd, which was also the craziest deer hunt of my life so far.

 

 

 

Everything about this hunt was just wrong from the beginning. We were hunting a high pressured area, with three other hunters within a twenty acre perimeter. It was mild, 55 degrees, foggy, no wind, and humid. It has been raining for three days straight, and more rain was supposed to come in that evening. The property we were hunting had been hunted by at least two others all week, and no one in the area had seen a deer. Rumors were that the rut was over in our neck of the woods, and the bucks were locked down and resting.

Brandon and I decided to sit together that morning, which we very rarely do. We sat in the stand that his brother had shot a giant eight point out of about a week ago, watching a huge power line that crossed the Saluda river, with a cow pasture directly in front of us and a thicket behind us. He sat his chair facing back towards the thicket where Bradley had shot his deer, and I sat my chair facing directly down the power line.

We cut up and joked, and were too busy laughing to really care about how this hunt was going. We had been hunting hard for nine, almost ten, weeks and we were done caring. We were in the middle of laughing at and quoting Earl Dibbles Jr. when Brandon spotted movement about 400 yards across a pasture in front of us. He pulled up his scope and I pulled up the binoculars to see a big mature doe walking along the wood line. About the time we locked in on her, she took off loping across the field.

"Wonder if there's a buck chasing her?" Brandon and I both asked each other.

"That was odd of her, just to bust out of there like that" Brandon said. We knew the doe was heading straight down towards one of the other stands, and we waited for the shot. We didn't hear anything, so we shrugged it off and went back to talking.

About thirty minutes later, I sat straight up to stretch my back and get a better view of the field. I saw the doe about the same time Brandon did. I grabbed my .243 and turned, leaned over Brandon's lap and very awkwardly found the her in the scope. She was trotting up the fence line in the pasture, and it was so thick that I could just see her silhouette as she made her way towards the thicket.

"Bah!" Brandon bleated. "Bah! BAH! HEY!" he finally yelled and she stopped, directly behind a tree.

"I cant shoot, she's behind that tree" I whispered.

"Crap I see it." Brandon sighed as she took back off into the thicket. "I doubt she'll come back out because I yelled, but who knows. Hurry up and turn your chair around so your facing the pasture. Don't take your eyes off of that corner and be ready."  I did as he said and watched the corner hard, steadying my breath.

I hadn't been situated in my new position more than a minute when I saw the second deer booking it up the fence line, nose to the ground.

"Holy crap Brandon that's a buck" I said as I found an opening

and settled in on it waiting on him to cross into it.

"Get ready. BAH! BAH! BAH! HEY!!!" Brandon yelled, and the buck stopped right in what I had thought was my "clearing". Turns out it wasn't much of a clearing just a weak spot in the thicket.
"I can't, Brandon, its too thick" I whispered.

"Shoot him, hurry up and shoot him now." Brandon urged me, and I took a deep breath and squeezed at the deer's silhouette. 

"You hit him. You hit him" Brandon said as we watched two does scatter out of the corner.

"Are you sure??" I asked, trying to regain my composure.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure. Go ahead and jerk another shell in there."

As soon as I slammed the new shell in the chamber, I saw horns busting out of the woods to my right.

"Holy crap Brandon there's a buck" I turned and got him in the scope. I watched him take three leaps when I heard Brandon's .270 Weatherby crack through the air, and then I watched him nose dive into the thicket.

"Oh my God Brandon you just shot a monster!!" I slapped his shoulder and could no longer contain my excitement.

"Are you sure? I didn't see him fall?"

"I'd bet my paycheck on it, I watched that deer nosedive!" I jumped up and down in my seat.

"Wouldn't that be funny if it was the same deer?" Brandon laughed as I shook my head.

"There's no way, that happened way to fast, what deer would be that stupid anyway?" I laughed.

After about ten minutes, we decided to get down, stretch our legs and look for our deer. Brandon's was an easy find, laying exactly where I told him he dropped.

"Sweet! Now lets go find yours." Brandon high fived me. It was hard to hide my doubt, I really didn't think that I hit that deer through the thicket. But I went anyway, and as soon as I hopped the gate I landed in the blood trail that headed towards the woods.

"Here's blood! Good blood too!" I showed Brandon one of the leaves, high fived him, and turned to start tracking. I walked ten feet and found where the deer had jumped the fence.

"No freaking way." I whispered as I looked up at Brandon.

"You're kidding." He said and started laughing. He went back to the deer and tracked in backwards as I followed the trail I was on. Sure enough, we met right at the edge of the woods.  We had shot the same exact deer.

Closer inspection showed there was a shot behind the shoulder, a little high, but still a lethal shot, and one right in the chest. We high fived, hugged, and Brandon said that he didn't do anything but save us from tracking him, that the deer was all mine.

This was a hunt full of firsts for me. It was my first eight point. My first time ever seeing a buck run a doe, much less shooting a buck running a doe. My fastest spot-to-shot I've ever taken. The hardest shot I've ever made. And most of all, the first time shooting a deer with my husband. This hunt means more to me than any hunt I've ever gone on. I'm so grateful for such a wonderful best friend, husband, teacher, coach, and hunting partner to experience hunts like this with. One things for sure, a couple that hunts together, stays together, and I might just have to start sitting with my husband a lot more!