This thread will be long, but I will be making several posts about my entire weekend.
I started a new job in January. The company is owned by 2 individuals and there is an annual company hunt for management at one of the owner's property. Management is invited across 12 states, but most either don't hunt, or just hunt locally. This year only 5 of us traveled in. Property has just over 1,000 acres including 17 planted food plots, several hay fields, 2 ponds, a creek and 2 power lines that cut through the property all neatly divided by various wooded areas to allow separate hunting areas. There are 11 elevated, insulated Banks hunting blinds and another 6-8 homemade elevated hunting blinds. All of these will sit 2-4 people and have windows to keep you warm and dry. The Banks units are extremely nice. To add context, I've hunted from maybe 8-10 years old until my late 20s, then took 15+ years off. I've killed 1 doe in those 15-20 years of hunting. Before I agreed to drive several states away, I asked what the chances were of actually seeing anything and was simply told it was a "target rich environment". They have a very long hunting season (rifle is several months) and the owner is wanting to remove 30-50 does to help correct his doe/buck ratio.
Day 1:
The owner has asked all our hunting backgrounds. There are two of us that suck at hunting. The other guy has never shot a deer, but lives closer and will be staying more days than I will. So the owner takes me to his "best" feed plot. It's 1 P.M. There are several deer in the field when we arrive, like 5-6. These run off as we approach. We climb into this nice, Banks hunting blind that sits in a tree-line located about 5 o'clock on the perimeter. By 1:45, 2 does walk in from opposite directions. Good enough for me. Let the killing begin!
Nope. Owner tells me to wait for the party to show up. By 2:30, there are about a dozen deer in the middle of this field with at least 2 bucks. Still told to wait. For context, the furthest point on this field is about 125 yards away. Most of these deer are within 75 yards and there are 2 within 20 yards of the blind. We watch these deer eat.... forever. The owner just tells me he wants to give other hunters a chance to get their shots off in other fields because once we come down, we get in the truck and pick all of them up on the way back to the house.
So now it's 4 P.M. I count 18 deer. Owner counts 20 (he's right, I don't see the tree-line as good). There are 4 bucks out there including two 8 points or bigger. The two that were close to us, we lost the spike buck. We think he may be under the stand. We stand up to switch seats, the spike is under the front window (that I planned on shooting from). This deer is so close, I could fix a bayonet and spear him. Owner wants to wait until he walks out further.
4:15 - Spike is now 20 yards out. Owner says when he opens the window, they will likely get a scent so I will need to shoot fairly quickly. He picks out a couple doe in a pile of about 8 and says either one of those will do. Distance is 40-50 yards. He's going to video the shot.
Window opens, rifle out, bang. Deer scatter with most of the herd exiting the field at 11:30 location to a trail. Owner asks which one I shot. Hell, I don't know. The brown one???? Nothing is down. We go look in the area of the shot, we find no blood. We review the video. There are 3 deer that exit at 8 o'clock, but these 3 were not part of the group I shot into. There is a lone deer that exits at 3 o'clock. The other 15+ exit at 11:30. The video also shows clearly a broadside deer jump with all 4 legs off the ground. Every other deer react differently. Really looks like I hit, but no blood. We walked the field, follow the trail a ways. Never see a thing.
I just shot sub-50 yards with a rifle that grouped sub-MOA at 200 yards about a month ago. WTF just happened? I also left my phone in the truck. No pics. That won't happen again.
I started a new job in January. The company is owned by 2 individuals and there is an annual company hunt for management at one of the owner's property. Management is invited across 12 states, but most either don't hunt, or just hunt locally. This year only 5 of us traveled in. Property has just over 1,000 acres including 17 planted food plots, several hay fields, 2 ponds, a creek and 2 power lines that cut through the property all neatly divided by various wooded areas to allow separate hunting areas. There are 11 elevated, insulated Banks hunting blinds and another 6-8 homemade elevated hunting blinds. All of these will sit 2-4 people and have windows to keep you warm and dry. The Banks units are extremely nice. To add context, I've hunted from maybe 8-10 years old until my late 20s, then took 15+ years off. I've killed 1 doe in those 15-20 years of hunting. Before I agreed to drive several states away, I asked what the chances were of actually seeing anything and was simply told it was a "target rich environment". They have a very long hunting season (rifle is several months) and the owner is wanting to remove 30-50 does to help correct his doe/buck ratio.
Day 1:
The owner has asked all our hunting backgrounds. There are two of us that suck at hunting. The other guy has never shot a deer, but lives closer and will be staying more days than I will. So the owner takes me to his "best" feed plot. It's 1 P.M. There are several deer in the field when we arrive, like 5-6. These run off as we approach. We climb into this nice, Banks hunting blind that sits in a tree-line located about 5 o'clock on the perimeter. By 1:45, 2 does walk in from opposite directions. Good enough for me. Let the killing begin!
Nope. Owner tells me to wait for the party to show up. By 2:30, there are about a dozen deer in the middle of this field with at least 2 bucks. Still told to wait. For context, the furthest point on this field is about 125 yards away. Most of these deer are within 75 yards and there are 2 within 20 yards of the blind. We watch these deer eat.... forever. The owner just tells me he wants to give other hunters a chance to get their shots off in other fields because once we come down, we get in the truck and pick all of them up on the way back to the house.
So now it's 4 P.M. I count 18 deer. Owner counts 20 (he's right, I don't see the tree-line as good). There are 4 bucks out there including two 8 points or bigger. The two that were close to us, we lost the spike buck. We think he may be under the stand. We stand up to switch seats, the spike is under the front window (that I planned on shooting from). This deer is so close, I could fix a bayonet and spear him. Owner wants to wait until he walks out further.
4:15 - Spike is now 20 yards out. Owner says when he opens the window, they will likely get a scent so I will need to shoot fairly quickly. He picks out a couple doe in a pile of about 8 and says either one of those will do. Distance is 40-50 yards. He's going to video the shot.
Window opens, rifle out, bang. Deer scatter with most of the herd exiting the field at 11:30 location to a trail. Owner asks which one I shot. Hell, I don't know. The brown one???? Nothing is down. We go look in the area of the shot, we find no blood. We review the video. There are 3 deer that exit at 8 o'clock, but these 3 were not part of the group I shot into. There is a lone deer that exits at 3 o'clock. The other 15+ exit at 11:30. The video also shows clearly a broadside deer jump with all 4 legs off the ground. Every other deer react differently. Really looks like I hit, but no blood. We walked the field, follow the trail a ways. Never see a thing.
I just shot sub-50 yards with a rifle that grouped sub-MOA at 200 yards about a month ago. WTF just happened? I also left my phone in the truck. No pics. That won't happen again.
