{"id":2573,"date":"2020-11-23T17:45:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T21:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2020-11-23T18:01:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T22:01:44","slug":"a-successful-venison-harvest-at-the-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/2573","title":{"rendered":"A successful venison harvest at the farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

I arrived at the Valley on Saturday, opening day of modern gun, but one thing led to another, including a satisfying visit with old chum \u201cBilbo,\u201d and I was still puzzling my way through scope adjustments into Sunday. With the help of a spare box of factory .44 magnum from James, I didn\u2019t finish getting Dadbo\u2019s Marlin sighted in to a level of satisfaction until late Monday morning. I admit to feeling like I had already botched the whole process to some degree. I went out in the afternoon to a couple of different spots that had concealed observation points facing hay fields, including Joan\u2019s expanse where we had held our \u201csafari<\/a>.\u201d No luck with either one before sundown. Did not see a single deer. For me, it seemed like being \u201cin the right place at the right time\u201d would rule my hunting time, because I gave up tree stands a while ago to adopt a more primitive, admittedly random approach.<\/p>\n

The next morning I had the success for which I\u2019d hoped. I went back to the same area before daybreak and chose a high point underneath a bushy cedar tree. By around 9:30am, I was stiff and a bit numb in the ankles and feet. I was ready to give up that location, find another for a spell, or try to flush something from cover. It was sunny now, but cold and breezy. I was standing up from my hiding place, getting ready to sling my rifle over my shoulder, and a medium-size buck came out of the brush near Robin Lick. I was right out in the open, but he didn\u2019t spook. I couldn\u2019t tell if he saw me. He was moving slowly across the field, left to right, up toward the road and wooded knob. It was about as slowly as a deer moves with any kind of deliberateness. For some reason, I was immediately convinced he wasn\u2019t going to pause, so I got iron sights on him and shifted up to the telescopic cross-hairs. He was moving gently enough that my instinct was to take a shot, even though I had a corresponding doubt about it being wrong, or in bad form. All of this without really thinking. Ka-pow. <\/p>\n

I had matched my motion to his pace, aiming just a bit in front of his fore-shoulder. He bolted for the road and leaped into the woods. A voice in my head cried, \u201cBlew it. You blew it! Why weren\u2019t you more patient?\u201d Instantly dejected, I knew I\u2019d better check the area at least. It was 75 to 80 yards away. I levered another cartridge and took a moment to pick up and pocket the empty one, putting everything back into safe status. I found what might have been a few spots of blood in the field. When I got up to the road, I saw more clearly a blood trail across the crushed stone. Needless to say, my attitude was transformed. And then I saw him in the woods, looking at me. There were multiple limbs and saplings between us, but the deer wasn\u2019t that far away, certainly less than 50 yards. I had no idea how wounded he was. Should I try to shoot again or finally be patient?<\/p>\n

For a second time I had the hammer back, safety off, and trigger in contact. He snorted loudly and took off up the knob, still apparently strong. <\/a>I lost sight of him. There was significant blood when I examined his standing ground. Well, I had no choice but to begin tracking now. \u201cDadburnit, the Sweeneys have their dwelling site up there\u201d was the next thing in my mind. I set off up the hillside, looking for more sign. I didn\u2019t find it. I was pretty far up when I heard some thrashing behind me, off to my left side. There he was, less than the distance I had seen him climb. He must have collapsed and slid downhill, before or after I made the decision to follow up the knob. Or perhaps I just hadn\u2019t heard it when I made my own noise clambering up off the road through the dried leaves. At any rate, I\u2019d misjudged the trajectory. When I descended to his location, the rib cage was still heaving, with a bullet entry past the shoulder and heart zone, but it was now evident that the blood had come from the mouth and nose, not the body. <\/a>Presently, the animal expired before I needed to end it for him. It seemed like barely a minute since practically giving up on the outing, but now I was looking down during the customary prayerful moment. Ever so quickly, the next two days were unfolding in my mind. I had pulled it off. My hunt was over for the season.
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I arrived at the Valley on Saturday, opening day of modern gun, but one thing led to another, including a satisfying visit with old chum \u201cBilbo,\u201d and I was still puzzling my way through scope adjustments into Sunday. With the help of a spare box of factory .44 magnum from James, I didn\u2019t finish getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,68,18,9,8,57,62,40,25,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2604,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}