By Sherman Shifflett
There’s a buck in Louisa County that apparently has nine lives – like a cat. He’s burned two of those lives by dodging bullets, but he is not out of the woods yet.
During muzzle-loader season a friend and I were hunting around some bean fields near Mineral. We were about 400 yards apart, hunting over different bean fields. Both of us have stands in the cut-over, over-looking the bean fields, waiting for the deer to emerge from the sleeping areas to feed.
Around dusk I heard a loud blast from my friend’s stand. He is a crack shot and I felt confident that his “smoke pole” had tagged a deer. Friend texted the buck had run into the cut-over and it was a “chip shot.”
He said he would wait a few minutes to track blood to the deer.
Twenty minutes later I drove my 4-wheeler over to his stand to help retrieve the deer. He described the deer as a “small-bodied buck with big rack” (in proportion to body size.) Certainly not a wall hanger.
Sometimes deer run a bit before they start bleeding, but there was no blood to be found, even after an extensive search. The deer should have dropped in his tracks. I returned to the area the next day, but no luck. There’s a tree at the edge of the field near the stand and at the angle friend was shooting, he clipped a twig and altered the course of the bullet. Said he did not see the twig in the scope. I had missed a deer that way a few years ago.
Last Friday afternoon, I returned to my tree stand around the bean field. I decided to take the Ruger .30-06 instead of my shotgun. Darkness was closing in, and I was preparing to leave when two does emerged from the cut-over to my right and walked past my stand, only 15 yards away. Does became legal the following day. Then a “small-bodied buck” with large rack (in proportion to his body). It was the same buck that dodged a bullet several days ago.
There’s a bushy tree to the right of my tree stand and when I did some trimming in late summer, I decided not to trim the tree, but instead to use it as cover. I could see the buck through the tree, but I couldn’t find a good opening. I could have easily tagged him with a shotgun. The buck was just standing, broadside, 15 yards away. I eased the safety off and placed the barrel just past the big bush. He was feeding on the loose soybeans on the ground. I needed just three more yards.
Instead of following the does (and his demise), the buck did a U-turn and continued feeding away from me, along the edge of the cut-over. All I could do was watch. He never spooked, but he disappeared into the darkness.
What a lucky deer! Twice, he has dodged the bullet. He must have all the lucky charms – wishbones, shamrocks, rabbit’s feet, 4-leaf clovers and a horse shoe.
The season is not over. I’ll return and sooner or later he’ll run into my bullet. Meanwhile, that bushy tree needs to be pruned.