Post by armyscuba on Feb 9, 2007 19:14:28 GMT -5
My season fell short this year. Working weekends, plans falling through, not being able to scout out any areas. The list goes on and on. But on Dec 2nd and 3rd I was invited to a Wounded Warrior hunt in Trousdale County, TN. I went with a couple other guys from Ft.Campbell, KY who were also wounded. The first day of the event started off with meeting all the people that were helping out with the event and some of the sponsors. We ate a huge meal before going out and around 3 pm we headed out to the ladder stands that they had placed about 2 weeks prior to the hunt. I was set up on the edge of a wheat field and walnut orchard. The temperature was in the low 30's high 20's with the wind blowing directly in my face. After being in the stand about an hour I noticed some movement in front of me about 400 yards. The deer was way out of range for me so I just watched it disappear into the hardwoods that lined the back of the walnut orchard. I sat there waiting for another 30 minutes before i could hear some crashing through the leaves to my left. I pulled out my rangefinder and started looking to see what was coming. A doe popped out in front of the stand about 100 yards directly in front of me being chased by a 6 point. I was loosing daylight so I decided to take a shot at the buck. The buck came up behind the doe and was going to mount her when I pulled the trigger on the 7mm. I don't know if it dropped him in place or he ran because i never saw it. I was watching the doe run. She stopped 30 yards from where she had started to run and stopped looking around for something. As soon as she stopped it fired again and she dropped in place. I was astonished at what had just happened. But deer do get stupid during the rut. I glassed the area to see if I had hit the buck but couldn't see anything. While I was glassing the area another spike was trying to sneak in. He was heading through some thick vegitation and I was getting really nervous. I had never taken 2 deer in one day let alone 3. I took a deep breath, exhaled and fired just as he cleared the thick stuff. I watched him crash through the bushes and drop by a tree. I sat in the tree stand for another 2 hours before I was picked up by the TWRA to get us back to our deer camp. After getting back to camp and showing off the deer we dressed them. The doe dressed at 130lbs, the buck at 120lbs and the spike at 100lbs. The next day I went to another stand in a field next to a pond. We sat there for 5 hours and saw one deer that was behind us toward some houses. He was a monster. He was at least 10 points. He was chasing a doe across the field with a coyote in tow. I couldn't bring myself to shoot toward the houses and just watched as the biggest deer I have ever seen disappered into a draw and across a field. By the end of the hunt the 5 of us had taken 10 deer. It was the best hunting experience that I have ever had.