Kansas 2007

I got in a bit of a hurry and ended up with a smaller buck than I hoped for. It was opening morning at 8 am when I first saw a deer. It was 450 yards and moving on the sky line, I never had time to set up for a shot. He was a good buck, about the size I end up shooting 2 hours later. I was hunting on Bill Rowe’s 280 acre parcel located a couple of miles east of Cedar Vale. We had looked at this property in the spring and I had selected a general area to sit. Below is the view from my stand. The open lane in the middle, angling slightly to the left, is an old pipeline.

I heard three shots behind me, the second shots of the day. I stepped off to my right about 10 feet to get a better look in the direction of the shooting. Glancing back in the direction I had been watching I spot a deer, the second one of the day, walking across my shooting lane. A quick look through the bino's confirmed he was a buck. I went back to where I had been sitting for the last two hours, picked up the forked stick I had been whittling on, and sat down for a 315 yard shot. (I had ranged to the location earlier) Time from seeing the deer to pulling the trigger was about 3 seconds. The sight picture looked good but it was a long poke and I had rushed the shot. In addition, we had 10-15 mph winds where I was sitting and the speed across the shooting lane was anyone’s guess. I lost sight of the deer at the shot.

The land owner was sitting in his truck above where I shot. He drove down to where I had shot from and we put together a plan. He drove back above the trees and when I saw him in position I hiked over to where I had shot. The buck had gone about 20 yards and was just inside the brush. Impact was exactly on the point of the shoulder.

The image below looks back to where I was sitting and image was taken about 20 yards above where the deer dropped. The red circle is where I was sitting. The open lane in the middle is the old pipeline.

This was a great area to hunt. In hindsight I should have sat on the opposite hillside looking back toward where I had sat. Looking north would have provided a better view and would have kept the sun out of my face. A view looking north from 20 yards above the kill spot is shown below. Bill’s property line is only 20 feet north of where I sat.

Later the same day I see two deer in Sarah’s folk’s backyard. They tell me they don’t see deer very often but have plenty of sign. The very next day I spot three deer in the yard and one is a bigger buck than the one I shot. They live inside the city limits, no shooting allowed.

I paid $100 to have the skull European mounted but the taxidermist, Kevin, does an awfully poor job. He does show me his 25th in the state whitetail, a 200+ buck plus two more exceptionally nice bucks on his wall. He also tells me the property across the street is public land and has a 200-class buck that no one is hunting.