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Best Opening Day since...well a LONG time

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  m77user 
#1 ·
You guys know my stories, and I usually come back about this time every year to tell one, but...I have been gone a LONG time since I have been shut out TWO years in a row....I haven't been shut out TWO years in a row in more than 30 years!

But I have been waiting for today with anticipation worse than waiting for Christmas when I was 12 when I just KNEW Santa was bringing me a .22 rifle (He did, a $39.99 Kmart special Glenfield Model 25 with a Tasco scope, and I still have it....as accurate as EVER except now it has a Bushnell on it....)

But anyway, the last few years I have been looking to retire the inherited 100 year old 1897 Winchester, even though it was still accurate as heck and had killed for me at least 30 deer for me including my monster wallhanger in 2010.

I have been looking at rifles since Indiana allowed them, but the "pistol caliber"ones they allowed at first wouldn't give me much more than my tRusty '97, but two years ago they allowed REAL rifles with exceptions, .357 minimum caliber, 1.1" to 1.8" case length, and I was leaning towards a .458 SOCOM upper for my AR or else a .454 Casull Rossi since I ALWAYS wanted to hunt with a lever....

But I ALMOST settled on a custom BA in .358 Hoosier, but besides the $400 rebarreling I'd have to invest in the case forming dies and then custom dies....:(

And then a friend "discovered" the .35 Remington "Short" for me. Turns out you can trim a .35 Rem case to 1.8" which makes it legal. And load LeverRevolution powder behind a 200gr FTX bullet to Factory specs just seating out 1/8"...

SO I bought my lever, an older Marlin 336 in great shape, and put a Nikon Omega 1.65-5x BDC scope on it, and shortened 30 cases, and worked up loads all summer, 2060 fps, factory is 2100, dead on at 25, which is dead on at 125, about 5 low at 200, I have to hold over at 300 about what I held over on my Monster buck at 190 with my 97....

And with a COLD barrel it will shoot MOA with my handloads...;)

PLUS the last two years I SAW many deer, but never less than 150yds (I think they were getting used to me in that stand...;) I killed a LOT of deer out of it over the past 10 years....)

So this year I had the RIFLE, and a NEW stand I put up on the other side of my ravine, just to give the other one a rest for a while...

I haven't looked forward to Opening Day like this one in, well, DECADES...

BUT....when I put up my stand, I had to struggle through standing corn...my farmer had to replant that field, and he told me it would be the last crop he pulled, and had no idea when. As of last week, I would have been lucky if I had a shot over 40 yds in either stand with standing corn right up to the stands.

I get out there today, and notice new combine tracks in the two track and get hopeful...in the dark, I get all my crap together and start walking towards the fenceline and YES....he took the end rows out like he did in 2009 when we had the cold summer, to "check for moisture"" but also to give me a shot...he made two combine passes so now at least I have a shot up the fenceline and along the ravine to my right of my new stand...

I'm up in the stand about 6:15, legal shoot is 6:54 so I'm good, bring it on...wind is neglible, and from the South, and I am looking DUE south....18 degrees, cold as heck, but NO wind...a little fog, but looking good!

About 6:45 I thumb 5 rounds of my .35 Short handloads into the magazine...right at 6:54 I quietly work the lever...

And CRAP it's STUCK! I haul out my flashlight and DOUBLE FEED! The rifle is jammed SOLID.

Get out the pocket knife, cut my hand trying to pry out the top round...CRAP....

So now...WHAT. I almost thought about getting down, runnning to my truck and running home and getting the '97...but then I lose a GREAT looking "Happy Time" on Opening day!

SO rummage around in my pack, find the Gerber tool, contemplate removing the lever and bolt...(In the STAND? what if I drop the screw or the lever or the boltor the extractor? I'll NEVER find it in the leaves and crap under the stand!)

So with the flashlight in my dentures, my hands uncovered and turning numb, the only little head on the Gerber tool that fits the lever screw buggering it up, I FINALLY get it back in service by 7:30, and all the time I'm looking around tfor deer...like what am I going to do, throw my TOMAHAWK at one?

SO now I'm afraid to put any more rounds in the mag, I have one up the spout and two more in the tube, so I think that will have to do....

About an hour later, I start thinking, these conditions are GREAT...and how lucky I am that Kenny took out the end rows for me...and remember, I didn't PRAY today!
Now don't get me wrong, I am not a Holy Roller or anything, but I DO pray...so I Thanked Him for letting me see one more Opening Day, especially one like this, Thanked Kenny for thinking of me hunting his land once again, and asked him if I had a shot at one to make it a good one so it doesn't suffer...and said my usual morning prayers...

And I kid you not, right when I finish my Sign of the Cross I look up and a deer steps put of the fenceline into the cut corn next to the fence, and starts walking RIGHT towards me...

Now I KNOW I told my wife "if it's Brown it's down" today since I haven't gotten one in TWO YEARS...but I HATE shooting Buttons and this one is all alone, usually does have at least ONE yearling with them here, usually TWO...

And she is WALKING...not running, like if a buck is chasing her....

I have to shoot offhand, so I let her come...at about 50 yds I have the crosshairs on her chest...I squeeze...and WTH? She jumps up, then jumps SIDEWAYS about three rows of the cut corn, and starts walking again towards me! I lever (It feeds properly) I aim a little lower and squeeze.. THIS time she jumps like she was hit by a train, and runs at me, and folds up right under my stand about 10 yds away, blood everywhere, I lever the last round in (Wrong!) but she is dead.

(I only found one of my "custom" shortened cases under my stand, I should have caught the second one...oh well, maybe I will find it before the end of the season...)

But I get to it, and it is a much BIGGER doe tha I expected...after I stick it in the eye with a stick to make sure it's dead, I realize.....I havenet GUTTED a deer in three YEARS, do I remember HOW!
Well I screwed up the "Butt Out" so had to revert to the 'Hawk splitting the pelvic, but other than that ...(AND having to go back after I checked it in to look for my KNIFE that I dropped after I wiped it down and almost LOST it...when I PREACH to people never to lay your knife down when it is bloody or you WILL lose it...;)) But I got it out with no help....got to drive the truck right to it and the deer 'boggin and a couple of short 2x6s got it slid right up into the old Toyota 4x4 slicker than snot....no help needed thank you very MUCH!:)

She was about 150 lbs dressed, will be a nice tasting deer, and tomorrow I will enjoy cutting up venison that I haven't done in YEARS. :)

Not bad for an old guy 7 years from his heart attack....;)

Plus you remember I have my wife trained that you CANNOT cut up a deer without a big bottle of Beam...but she got so she would buy one before opening day along with my lunchmeat and snacks...but THIS year she said no Beam UNTIL I had one hanging... she is out of town doing stuff with my daughter, and when I texted her about my doe she reminded me to buy my BEAM tonight since i couldn't get it tomorrow on a Sunday when I cut it up....;):):)


The best Opening Days leave you with the best memories AND stories....
 

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#5 ·
Actually, my wife kinda had the same incorrect thoughts too...I of course needed a shot or two every time I returned from the cold frigid woods empty handed to warm up, and since I was hunting more than normal each season THAT alone used up a whole bunch...;)

Then of course drowning my sorrows at the end of every season, three times a year...skunked during GUN season, MUZZLELOADING season and late ANTLERLESS season is 3 drunks per deer season....good thing I don't bow hunt any more or I would have probably had to get ANOTHER bottle....;)
 
#6 ·
Well, I got her cut up and in the freezer today. Interestingly I found one of my bullets in one of the roasts in a hindquarter. Must have been the one that killed her, went through the neck, caught jugular, and then went the length of the cavity and lodged in the roast.

Not much damage at all to the meat, except the neck roast was pretty much toast. COULD have had two hits right next to each other but just a mess, couldn't even make out a single bullet hole. When I was gutting her I reached up to cut the esophagus like I always do and couldn't find it, and when I got her home and hosed her down there was just a mess in her throat area.

But when I gutted her there wasn't a big bloody mess like you would expect if a bullet traveled the entire cavity??????

And funny thing, the only other damage I found was a blood shot armpit roast on the Left side, and a line of bloodshot meat under the skin but no damage to the meat right along the ribs on her right side. But no visible damage or exit hole, Hmmmm....and I didn't find THAT bullet, I wonder where it went.

But kind of making sense, she was dead on full frontal when I shot the first time, and the way she jumped a couple of rows to her LEFT, would make sense if I hit her in the neck but didn't hit the jugular or the esophagus, and the bullet went through her armpit and smacked her ribs on that side, causing her to jump to her left...and then my second shot hit her in the middle of the neck, and the bullet ended up in her offside hindquarter...

But where did the first one go? No exit so it had to be in there, but I didn't find it. No holes in the hide either except in the front throat area, no exit from either.

And the ribs were NOT damaged, just bloodshot meat all along her side and in that armpit roast.

Maybe the first shot was a MISS and the bloodshot meat was because she fell on that side when she folded up and went down?

My first shot with my new rifle at a deer, I COULD have jerked the trigger, God knows I have done that before;) BUT it was such a nice sight picture and I remember squeezing, and being shocked that she didn't go down with the first shot.

I guess I'll never know.
 
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