Hunter: Alan Sherrill
Points: 9 (4L, 5R)
County: Jasper
Season: 2020-2021
Hunt Story
This was the first time this year hunting this stand. I have not even scouted this stand area, and it's only good to hunt on an east or south wind due to it's near a cut over thicket. Got into the stand about 7 a.m. Got situated and the squirrels starting playing and rebuilding their nest. I guess in anticipation of the coming rain. The woods were very still and quiet. Some water oak acorns were still falling. I could only hear the squirrels on the ground if they were close. I kept hearing them and seeing them over my right shoulder on several occasions. I picked up on the cadence of what I thought was a deer walking, so I peeked over my right shoulder and said to myself "there's a deer" at about 40 yards, peeked a little more and said to myself "it has antlers." "Good antlers." As soon as the deer went behind about 10 yards of thick brush I stood up, turned around and laid my Remington 700 on a hook I placed on the tree for my back pack. It was just the right height for the shot. When the deer stepped out I could see his shoulder but was quartering away from me by now. I placed the crosshairs on his should and squeezed the shot. He stumbled and ran away from me at a right angle, I thought. I thought, "I'm getting down now." Went to the spot of impact and found no hair, blood and not even the ground was messed up where he took off. I followed where I thought he went for about 60 yards. No sign at all. I went back to the spot of impact and went in a more straight path for about another 60 or 70 yards and no sign. Went back to the spot of impact a third time and thought that maybe he circled back to the thicket where he came from. I went about 40 yards to the left the spot of impact and picked up ruffled leaves and pine straw. As I got closer to an old logging road that bordered the property line the leaves and pine straw were really messed up and found the firs sing of blood. Two more steps and I was seeing the back half of the deer laying on the old logging road bed at about 6' below the ground I was standing on. He crashed into the ground on the old logging road and went no farther. I thought to myself "Watashi" and did a little 2 step dance and thanked the Good Lord for allowing me to find him. Not a good feeling to not find a deer you thought you made a good shot on. The shot was a little further back due to him quartering away from me. The bullet went in about 7" behind the ribs on the right side and lodged in the front left shoulder, which explained why there was no blood. After texting my buddy Jeff with a picture, I headed to the truck, changed clothes and went back to field dress the buck. I had to drag him up the old logging road to the dirt road we come in on by myself. About 200 yards of so. I didn't want to mess up Jeff's hunting so I just grabbed the buck by the rack and dragged him up the hill backwards 20 to 25 yard at a time while catching my breath between pulls and listening to deer blow way down in the thicket where the buck came from.
