Megan and the first day of rifle season

tddeangelo · Dec 1, 2018

hunternyny":3spv21wk said:
Tom

That is so special. Congratulations to Megan, and to you, as I remember back when she first started hunting. You have done a wonderful job of teaching and she has obviously been a good student.

You were once headed to Alaska for Blacktail, did you go ? Did she go with you ?

I never went on that trip. It was...is...something I want to do. Just haven't gotten there yet. Yet.

I quartered/disassembled Megan's buck today and put it in my "deer fridge". Temps are edging just high enough that I want it in a fridge till it's ready to be cut. I made a rack out of 3/4" steel pipe to go in the fridge, which let me now get both deer in at once. My old system of drain buckets worked well for aging but I could only get in one deer at a time. This is working a bit better, I think.

Anyway, I generally don't go to the mess and effort of removing heart/lungs when in the field with a downed deer. Her buck was no exception. But in this case, I wanted to do a post-mortem to see what was what with her shot placement.

Her shot hit low and back in the ribs, as I said. When we gutted the deer, the liver had about 2-3" wide hole through it. The deer was quartering away at a pretty steep angle, so the placement looked good to me. I found the exit on the front edge of the far shoulder. Hole in the hide was about dime- to nickel-sized.

Today I looked it all over good. The angle was steep enough that it exited the rib cage underneath the shoulder and then the line took it forward of the shoulder to exit. The shoulder itself wasn't actually hit.

The liver clearly had the damage I noted when we dressed the deer.

Today I got at the heart and lungs.

The far side lung was drilled pretty good. Near side showed no specific hole, but was completely discolored.

The heart was nearly in 2 pieces. She hit it near the tip of the heart, going forward, which laid open the heart sort of like a book, or a butterflied steak. She didn't punch a hole in it....she basically cut it in half.

The exit in the rib cage itself was about quarter-sized in diameter.

The round is the 30-06, MV is right around 2700fps with a 165gr Partition.

Shot distance was 185 yards, maybe a bit more. Wouldn't have been more than 195 at the very most. The only thing her shot DIDN'T hit for vitals was the near side lung. And that was still plenty beat up.

The deer went 50 yards. Maybe 75, but I doubt it. Even in rain, there was tons of blood for the last 30 or so yards of the trail before he crashed.

The deer girthed 41" behind the shoulder. I didn't get to weigh it for several days. The girth chart said 195lbs live and 156 gutted. It laid gutted for several days till I could get it on the gambrel, and it weighed 140lbs dressed. Tape predicted 156lbs. I wouldn't be shocked if he was 150 before sitting opened up like that for a few days.

We went this morning, but no deer showed. Just as well, as I haven't learned my new fridge system well enough yet to wedge three deer into the fridge. Yet. This morning's sit was Megan's first full solo sit with me not there with her at all. Kinda sad she wasn't with me, but she's becoming independent, which has always been the goal.