Late Season can PAY OFF!

     I was ending up a spectacular season in the deer woods.   I had taken a huge VA buck, shot a doe, and was just enjoying  the holidays.  I however seldom shoot a buck after Thanksgiving in the Carolinas.    I had in fact just shot a doe a few days earlier trying to get some meat for the freezer and wasn't really thinking I would see a buck.
     This story started out back in November.   I got a trail camera picture of a tall tined 8 point at night and it got me excited.  I shot very cool twelve point earlier in the season and originally thought it was the eight that coming and not him.  I originally took the trail cam picture and judged the deer as a 4.5 year old shooter and made that call because of the length of the face and the glimpse of the body that I got.
     Fast forward to winter and the weekend after Christmas.   My wife's mother was flying into town so my wife and boy went to the airport to pick her up.   I joked with the better half that I was going to kill a big one.   I got to stand early ---I am talking really early about 1:00.  I went to a shooting house and just went in to relax.    The lack of acorns and cold weather had the deer hitting my fields real hard, so I thought this was a good place. 
     I sat and saw what you expect to see early in the afternoon during December well after the Rut---------NOTHING.   At 4:30, a 4 point that I knew well slipped into the field.  The wind was in my face so I just relaxed and watched the buck.   He however looked behind me, got nervous, and walked off.   Out from nowhere, the eight point walked across the field around 5.  He came in from my hard left.   He was crossing the field and I didn't give him time to make it all the way across the 3/4 acre field planted in oats, wheat, clover, chicory, and turnips.   I lifted my 7 Rem Mag and put a 150 grain bullet into his chest.   He made it about 30 yards but never made it out of the field.
     I made it over to the buck and looked at his nice tall rack.   This was the end to a great season and just a fun way to end my last hunt.   Not to take anything away from the buck, but I did think he was a 4.5 years old.  I do however now think and believe he 3.5.  But that is ok.  I enjoyed shooting him, would shoot him again, and it was cool to finally kill a nice buck in this part of the world after November.
     Last but not least.  I wasn't planning on killing a deer.   I left the 4 wheeler at home (Its how I load big deer while alone.).  So I  tied a tie strap to the deers head and lifted him/ secured his head while I got up into the bed of the truck.  I then grabbed the horns and began to pull the buck into the truck.  I was horrified when one of his horns pulled off!  That was a first.   It was clean pull like he was about to shed.  So this was truly a first for me and memory I will never forget.  Hopefully the taxidermist can still make him look cool.

Something is wrong with her!

    PREFACE THE STORY.   Bow season stank.  I normally shoot at least one doe in NC and sometimes one in VA, but this  year I had a big goose egg.  OK, I had a real good time but I didn't come up with a doe.   I did miss a doe by misjudging the distance.  I also got within bow range of 2 nice eight points (one of which was REAL NICE), but I couldn't seal the deal.   I had been running cameras on and off since the spring.  I had saw a doe with a mass on her face on camera, as well as on the stand.  I had thought to myself that I try to take her this year if I had the opportunity.   The rut had come and gone and I BUCK HUNT during around the rut.   Rut was however a sweet memory, there was a nice buck in hand, and I needed to thin the herd.
     I hate trying to shot does in the late season.  During the bow season, they are allot more tame.  You also see deer around every corner during the rut.  The late season is however a different animal.  The does and even the young bucks are have shot at and/ or are just scared of every movement.  All deer need to eat so I went back to my green fields to hunt the girls.
     I got to the woods an hour from the house and was looking through my backpack.  I starting doing my normal afternoon ritual,  When I went to open the tote with my camo in it, I realized I had left it home!  I wasn't about to go home and not hunt so I got together enough stuff to stay warm.  I went to the stand I had shot my big buck from earlier in the season.   I wasn't seeing a huge amount of deer from this green field this year,  but I was also seeing the doe with a mass on her face.   She knew I was there.  She would come out into the road I had planted, and look up the hill at me and watch me for long periods.  I had tolerated her during buck season but it was after Christmas so her day had come.   I sat that day with little to no activity.  I had saw nothing even though I hadn't been in that stand for almost three weeks  (I thought maybe the camo and scent loc clothing thing was for real, haha).   At 5 though my old familiar friend stepped out down the planted road.  She tried to play the same game that she played out several times over the year and look up the hill.  I let her look at me a little, then she went to eat.  I raised my 7mm WSM and put the scope on her.  I think she caught the movement because she turned to walk back into the woods.  I shot her at about 120 yards and she promptly fell to the ground.  A couple of kicks and it was over.
     The after moments of shooting a deer are always a hectic blurr to me.   You question if you should get down ASAP or take time and sit in the stand.  This was one of those times that you get down and walk to the deer.  I made the walk down the hill and looked her over.   I raised her head as I do either buck or doe and took a long look over her.   If I had it, I would take more appreciation of this moment whether it was  a buck or doe.  I enjoy walking up to them, taking the pictures, and really just enjoying your hard work.  I do however go into machine mode and automatically start figuring out how to load the beast as well as gutting it, so I can get it back home.  I am complaining as I think I rob myself of precious moments as well as dignity I  believe that is owed to the animal.
     This is normally were the story ends and I say something inspiring.  This deer however had huge tumors not only on its face but all over its body. We were taking pictures at home in the light and could see the hard tumors all over here.  Many of them were under her legs and even around her anus.   From questioning others and what I researched on the Internet, the masses were not tumors but rather warts.   They are a sort of viral thing that happens to deer.  I was told by others that meat was OK but I couldn't bring myself to it.
     This was one of my firsts.  Right or wrong, I felt good about taking her out of the herd.  She will always be a memory to me even though she wasn't an addition to the freezer.