This past weekend was the first part of our "Firearm Deer Season" here in Illinois. We have to use shotgun, handgun or muzzle-loader of appropriate caliber/configuration. I chose to use my Savage 12 gauge bolt action.
This gun is zeroed at 150 yards with the Hornady SST slugs and will keep 3 shots on a small paper plate at that distance. The gun has a 3x-9x Nikon scope and my deer stand has a platform to rest the gun on.
The weather Saturday morning was going to be brutal! Temps were projected to be in the 30's-40's and winds were going to be 30 to 40 m.p.h. as well! I nearly decided to skip going out in such nasty conditions and wait for the winds to die down. But, I decided to see how long I could take the elements before returning home. My deer stand is about half a mile up the lane from my house. If it got too bad, I'd just hike back to the house.
I have two game cameras that I've been monitoring since the beginning of November and several nice deer have showed up in captured images. My 81 year old neighbor got a nice 10 pt. buck Friday and I helped him load it up on his trailer for a trip to the processor. That gave me an incentive to go out and brave the cold on Saturday.
Half an hour in my stand and I saw a doe scamper across the horizon with a nice buck following. They were not in view for very long but reappeared a few minutes later and were headed in my direction. The buck finally stopped moving at about 80 yards and I took the shot. I normally try to hit the point of the shoulder to drop it on the spot. I'm color blind and cannot find a blood trail unless snow is on the ground.
At the shot, the buck bolted and made a dash for the timber to my left. I was confident of the shot, but it didn't drop! Having seen a "Death Dash" before, I was still confident that I'd find it piled up in the "thick stuff". Twenty yards into the timber was my buck, laying in the creek!!!
I think the attached stealth cam pic is of my buck.
This gun is zeroed at 150 yards with the Hornady SST slugs and will keep 3 shots on a small paper plate at that distance. The gun has a 3x-9x Nikon scope and my deer stand has a platform to rest the gun on.
The weather Saturday morning was going to be brutal! Temps were projected to be in the 30's-40's and winds were going to be 30 to 40 m.p.h. as well! I nearly decided to skip going out in such nasty conditions and wait for the winds to die down. But, I decided to see how long I could take the elements before returning home. My deer stand is about half a mile up the lane from my house. If it got too bad, I'd just hike back to the house.
I have two game cameras that I've been monitoring since the beginning of November and several nice deer have showed up in captured images. My 81 year old neighbor got a nice 10 pt. buck Friday and I helped him load it up on his trailer for a trip to the processor. That gave me an incentive to go out and brave the cold on Saturday.
Half an hour in my stand and I saw a doe scamper across the horizon with a nice buck following. They were not in view for very long but reappeared a few minutes later and were headed in my direction. The buck finally stopped moving at about 80 yards and I took the shot. I normally try to hit the point of the shoulder to drop it on the spot. I'm color blind and cannot find a blood trail unless snow is on the ground.
At the shot, the buck bolted and made a dash for the timber to my left. I was confident of the shot, but it didn't drop! Having seen a "Death Dash" before, I was still confident that I'd find it piled up in the "thick stuff". Twenty yards into the timber was my buck, laying in the creek!!!
I think the attached stealth cam pic is of my buck.
Attachments
Last edited:
