Chip shot, NDR

jode hillman

jode hillman

Well-known member
I took some time off from Duck hunting to chase some venison. I was lucky enough to connect this morning.

?Chip shot?

2018 has set records for the copious amounts of rain we have had here in New Jersey. The start of our Muzzle loading rifle season was no exception. Over 2? yesterday alone, and it put a damper on my plans to hunt. However overnight the winds turned to the northwest, a classic pattern for a clear off and colder weather. Perfect for deer hunting.

I awoke in the pre dawn dark with one goal in mind for the day. Spend as much time in the woods as possible until I killed a deer. I packed a thermos, breakfast and lunch. I?d skip dinner if I needed to hunt all day. Loaded with a heavy pack I set out under a waning, yet still bright moon to hike to my hunting location. The forest floor was damp and quiet. A steady west wind muffled any remaining sound. I made it to my perch in a old gnarled White oak without spooking any deer or other creatures of the night. I awaited the rising of the sun.

As the sun came up I noticed lots of standing water all around my hunting area. The woods and swamp had overflowed, co-mingled and become one. I was hoping it did not push the deer to higher ground. Everything was quiet and not a creature stirring, save a few rambunctious squirrels.

Then all hell broke loose.

I heard a loud crashing and breaking of brush. A sizeable lone doe came barreling out of the Mountain laurel and stopped 30 yards in front of me breathing hard. She was looking intently behind her. From the ridge I heard multiple soft grunts and a steady falling of feet. That was followed by all I can describe as, a loud Thump of flesh and bone colliding, followed by a whooshing of air and a deep bellow. A young 6 point buck then dashed into the opening towards the doe, and they both seemed to want to vacate the area, poste Haste, and took off running in separate directions. A few seconds later a large somewhat grey buck comes charging out of the thick cover to make sure he has ran the interloper off from his lady. I immediately recognize a high angled brow tine on the Bucks right side. I had seen him before, but he never offered a shot.

He walked directly under my stand, splashing water with every step. His nose high in the air searching for the scent of his mistress. I raise my rifle but He is too close to shoot! I saw nothing but brown hair through the scope reticle. I quickly dialed it back to 3x, and let the buck advance past me to 15 yards or so, Just a chip shot for the old .50 caliber doc white rifle. I centered the crosshairs quickly on an invisible line through his offside shoulder. KABOOOM! The 460 grain conical found its mark, center punching the heart. The buck wheeled 180 degrees and made a short run of 35 yards before expiring. A real battler, the bucks ears were split from fighting, and a tine broken off from his crown of glory. However, I could not of been more pleased.

I was satisfied I accomplished my goal, slightly reticent another fine creature has met his end, yet extremely happy for all the wonderful meals he will provide. Sometimes a chip shot is all it takes!


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Well, since he was that close, you shoulda drawn your fighting knife and jumped on his back!!!

Great buck and a great story. Are you done for the year or have another tag?
 
Nice buck! The brow tines are unique, you'll see them again if he has some successful breeding seasons! I saw some deer during our muzzle loader season but they were a little too far for a guaranteed vital shot, or just over the line of the property I hunt, or too close to a house! Shotgun season opens Saturday and late duck opens the same day__If the weather is perfect for ducks I'll go for them; otherwise I'll be deer hunting. Your story started to get my juices flowing! Nothing wrong with chip shots; I make myself take them. Much better than a questionable shot where you could lose the deer or ruin alot of good meat!
 
Carl said:
Well, since he was that close, you shoulda drawn your fighting knife and jumped on his back!!!

Great buck and a great story. Are you done for the year or have another tag?
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Lol, I know right, I was wishing I had the bow for sure!

NJ is Wierd, kinda a pay to play state. Same with turkey. I can shoot 4 more bucks if I choose too, and a whole herd of does. I?ll probably try for one more deer, gender assignment doesn?t matter. Lol
 
Sandy, your right. This buck is just one in a long line of bucks I have killed with similar genetics composition. And that?s s been a 20 year run. Trophy hunters don?t t like the area because of the wacky racks. I?m m a meat hunter, so a heavy body deer that?s s lives in the big woods is fine by me! Thanks and good luck whichever you pursue.
 
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Good morning, Jode!


Congratulations on a great telling of what must have been a thoroughly thrilling experience!


All the best,


SJS

 
Congratulations Jode on a beautiful buck! We see a dominance of high tight racks in the U.P., too. I suspect that predation is the principal selection pressure, since it is hard to run through the thick understory for animals carrying wide racks. If you have your black powder gun configured to shoot 209 primers, you can buy some finger-stiks at any pharmacy to wiggle over the barrel end to deny water access. Pharmacists use these for better adhesion on their finger tips when manipulating pill counter trays. They work far better than balloons to keep moisture out of your barrel. Rain hunts are a very productive way to hunt whitetails, since daylight onset doesn't phase-in, but just pops like a light switch being thrown. It seems to catch deer on their feet still on their way to bedding cover, as well as killing scent. I do ALL of my scouting during rain events.

Here are some U.P. bucks I shot that are good examples of "tight rack syndrome":
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Beauty buck and great story to go with it.

I?ve had a slow season here. I put several does in the freezer early and was planning on a banner year. Plan isn?t going so well. Glad you got a good un.
 
tod osier said:
Beauty buck and great story to go with it.

I?ve had a slow season here. I put several does in the freezer early and was planning on a banner year. Plan isn?t going so well. Glad you got a good un.
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Does eat fine by me. I actually had my rifle centered up on the doe yesterday before I heard this buck vocalizing. I?m happy to tag a buck, but would of been happy with the doe too.
 
Steve Sanford said:
Good morning, Jode!


Congratulations on a great telling of what must have been a thoroughly thrilling experience!


All the best,


SJS
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It was very enjoyable. Kinda anti climatic I had to end it with a shot!
 
Rl, those are some dandies! I agree with you thoughts. I?m hunting heavy timber, if you drive a miles south to farm country the racks seem to widen up.
 
Great story Jode. Makes me want to get out deer hunting, I've always been the duck and small game hunter of my family and not really caring to deer hunt. I do like the preparation for it though. I've made food plots and built stands, tracked deer movement with cameras and learned patterns but as soon as season comes in I lose interest with sitting and waiting for the deer so I tend to go duck hunting or small game instead.

My brother killed a nice 12 this year that was huge for our area. Sad thing is now that all the other "hunters" are jealous and starting rumors and what not. Really takes part of the enjoyment out of hunting because of idiots that are more poachers than hunters. They complain about not having big deer but shoot every 4 pointer that comes out. Plus they are mostly dog hunters which I wouldn't mind so much if they were at least respectful and smart about it.

Either way great deer and story, I like the brow tines.
 
If I cut a single deer track with some size to it, the first thing I note is how the animal making the tracks picks its way through brush and understory. If it is able to thread through small gaps in an aspen clear-cut, I know it is not a buck I want to try and get a shot at or stay with. I admit I don't poke hunt that much anymore. We used to do a lot of three man triangle drives, still huting through mature timber along stream drainages along the Sturgeon in the hills south of Mount Arvon and Curwood. Bucks move up and down the stream corridors and intermittent beaver flowages to look for does in the heavy brush along the Sturgeon River. When hunting deer in truly remote country up here, bucks will jump and run, and then often turn and stop to look back like a mule deer to see what spooked them up and got 'em going.

Sometimes a chip shot is too close. Why I didn't try and shoot that ten that momentarily parked himself next to my pop-up blind this season-too close to risk the shot based on experience. Check your blackpowder gun at close range to determine where the muzzle and crosshairs begin to diverge significantly. I had the buck on the right (below) walk in behind me to a bed I had seen near my blind when I dropped my chair inside the trangular log blind I had constructed along a hardwood tongue that dropped into a large cedar swamp. We found a number of nice sheds in this area in the spring. It was crunchy snow, so I heard the buck come in, but thought it was a band of does by the volume of noise. When I realized I the sound was bouncing off the swamp edge and the deer was coming in behind me he was right on top of me. I dialed the scope down to 2X and waited until I realized my bad knee was going to lock-up and deny me from rising to my feet from the squatted position I dropped into when I heard the buck coming in on top of me. So, I shifted over and stood, keeping the tree behind me between my position and the last place I heard the buck move from. When I was up I decided to step right to clear my shouldered gun. My scope field was full of the head of a very nice buck. I quickly shifted to his chest and saw a stump and roots blocked a shot at his chest, so I went back to the base of his neck, centered the crosshairs on his spine and fired, expecting to knock him over. He spun and blew out of there never allowing me to get a follow-up shot. I paced the distance; 23 feet. Hair and tissue were abundant in the snow, but I never hit bone that would enable the bullet to mushroom at that distance. My muzzle and crosshairs were "off" by about 4". My second mistake was to pursue him after waiting two hours. We had good snow cover, no wolves then in the U.P. and I should have let him bed and die overnight. Instead I pushed him out of his bed into a beaver flowage where I lost him. I found him dead a couple days later. I put my two hunting partners near that flowage as I wandered around the cedar swamp each day. Jim killed a beautiful 12point and his brother, Mike, shot a nice eight the following morning. We killed four more bucks out of that area before the beaver destroyed it and flooded it out.
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Nice story thank you for sharing. If you don?t mind a question - what is a ?brow tine??
Mark
 
benp said:
Great story Jode. Makes me want to get out deer hunting, I've always been the duck and small game hunter of my family and not really caring to deer hunt. I do like the preparation for it though. I've made food plots and built stands, tracked deer movement with cameras and learned patterns but as soon as season comes in I lose interest with sitting and waiting for the deer so I tend to go duck hunting or small game instead.

My brother killed a nice 12 this year that was huge for our area. Sad thing is now that all the other "hunters" are jealous and starting rumors and what not. Really takes part of the enjoyment out of hunting because of idiots that are more poachers than hunters. They complain about not having big deer but shoot every 4 pointer that comes out. Plus they are mostly dog hunters which I wouldn't mind so much if they were at least respectful and smart about it.

Either way great deer and story, I like the brow tines.
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Ben, yes sadly deer hunting has its own circles and anytime done kills a really big one up here the rumors start. I?ll never have to worry about that though, because I only kill scrubs! Haha.

I enjoy duck hunting much more, but my family eats and loves its venison, and I have easy access to some good property. I like the whole body of skills that go with the woodsmanship. Too many guys in my star have lost that when dump and sit became the law 20 years ago. ( baiting). It?s sad a whole generation of hunters have no idea how to hunt otherwise.
 
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