18 January 2016, 18:19
ghostbirdKelly's Buck
My daughter, Kelly, just graduated college and is moving back home. We went out this weekend, hunting whitetail on our farm here in north Alabama. Kelly made a great shot under pressure.
We were sitting in a pop-up blind I had set up a couple weeks ago in the corner of a pasture. The blind was brushed in good and had a good view of a couple of food plots. Deer had been feeding in the food plots and pasture most evenings.
It was overcast and hazy and at about 4:00 two does came out of the woods about 180 yards away and began feeding in the clover & chicory . Shortly they were followed by a buck. The does slowly fed out into the pasture making their way around a pond. The buck however stayed at the edge of the woods feeding and keeping an eye on the does facing us the whole time. The does were now 100+ yards away from the buck and had gone all the way around the near side of the pond.
I told Kelly, that as soon as the buck loses sight of the does he was liable to take off running toward them. She had her .243 on the shooting sticks and was ready. I told Kelly, if he ran, I would try to stop him with some type of vocalization. Sure enough, the does slip into the cover of a thicket and the buck bolts, trotting across in front of the pond. Kelly was on him as I bleated loudly with my mouth, then bleated louder, then whistled, and finally I just yelled, and the buck stopped, and the rifle cracked. It was a clean heart shot at 90 yards, breaking the near side shoulder. The buck ran to the edge of the thicket and tipped over in sight.
I great day of quality time with my lovely daughter. It will always be a highlight of my hunting memories.
