Old warrior
I gave him 20 minutes before I texted him so he would have time to climb down and check things out. When I did text it was simple, “That you?”
He didn’t text back but called almost immediately, “Yeah, that was me. I’ve looked but I can’t find any blood. Can you help me? Thanks, I'll come get you”
I packed up, climbed down and met him on the road because he had the truck.
Dad hates looking for deer especially his own but he didn’t neck shoot this old thing and was having trouble dealing with the consequences. The story he told while turning the 15-year-old truck around on a dirt road was that the buck caught him first and they had a brief staring contest. He knew he had only a second so he went for the high shoulder. I’ve never known him to do that. The deer bolted like he wasn’t hit. Dad was disgusted.
The only thing I bothered to take out of my pack was my glasses. We got to where the deer was when he shot and started, stooped over like two cavemen, looking for blood. No good.
I asked again where he aimed…point of the shoulder.
How’d you feel about the shot…felt it was good; didn’t flinch.
I suggested we quit looking for blood and just look for the deer. We straightened ourselves up, at least to the Cro-Magnon era, and looked for less than 5 minutes before Dad hollered that he had found him.
I’ve only recently even considered myself a deer hunter but I’ve shot deer my whole life. Since becoming interested in being a better deer hunter the plateau I wanted reach was to kill a super old deer. I wouldn’t mind killing one that makes the books but a 3½ year old can make the books. The final plateau, to me anyways, would be to kill a deer that survived the years when he was young, good-looking and when everybody wanted him. I want to kill a deer that's wise to the wisest of deer hunters. I want to be like Dad.
You can see the point of the shoulder...not a bad 120-yard shot for an 82-year-old fighting cataracts. He's getting surgery after the season...
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Originally Posted by 2thDoc
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