Dr. Vette
Handloader
- Apr 16, 2012
- 1,509
- 419
This year was my 15 yo daughter Bethany's second for the youth deer hunt this past weekend here in MI. My older daughter and my son have aged out of it.
Thanks to a friend who has land next door to the "mother lode" we hunted the last 3 years - which was sold - we had a great spot with high odds. I put out a blind a few days earlier and hoped the deer would acclimate to it.
We snuck into the woods late Saturday afternoon, and bumped 2 doe from near the blind. The next deer we saw were a pair around 6:30, but they never were in a position for a shot. At 7:30 it was getting dark when 2 doe again wandered into the area. One seemed to know something was not quite right with our blind but the other payed no attention. The one wandered away a bit nervous while the other was behind trees for quite a while. It finally stepped out and my daughter made a great shot at 40 yards. I don't recall ever seeing a whitetail go DRT except on TV, but this one did. It went down where it stood and didn't move one bit.
Of note, Bethany shoots a Savage Axis in .223 Rem using Barnes TSX factory ammo. It took out both upper lungs and also grazed the backbone - thus the immediate fall. While the entrance and exit wounds were small, the damage inside was impressive, blowing out ribs on both sides as well as the bottom half of a vertebrae. It definitely did the job.
Thanks to a friend who has land next door to the "mother lode" we hunted the last 3 years - which was sold - we had a great spot with high odds. I put out a blind a few days earlier and hoped the deer would acclimate to it.
We snuck into the woods late Saturday afternoon, and bumped 2 doe from near the blind. The next deer we saw were a pair around 6:30, but they never were in a position for a shot. At 7:30 it was getting dark when 2 doe again wandered into the area. One seemed to know something was not quite right with our blind but the other payed no attention. The one wandered away a bit nervous while the other was behind trees for quite a while. It finally stepped out and my daughter made a great shot at 40 yards. I don't recall ever seeing a whitetail go DRT except on TV, but this one did. It went down where it stood and didn't move one bit.
Of note, Bethany shoots a Savage Axis in .223 Rem using Barnes TSX factory ammo. It took out both upper lungs and also grazed the backbone - thus the immediate fall. While the entrance and exit wounds were small, the damage inside was impressive, blowing out ribs on both sides as well as the bottom half of a vertebrae. It definitely did the job.
