John and I went hunting this morning and things ended up well. They didn't start that way. Last week, John hit a deer and we tracked it for over a mile before giving up. He had been given some bad advise about bullets. Somebody told him a 168 HP was a good hunting round. Well, with predictable results, he hit a deer in the front shoulder and created a hell of a flesh wound, but nothing more.
Today was different. We didn't see anything in the morning so we did a number of "pushes". A push is like a drive, but quieter. We pushed out several wood lots on the farm but nothing was around. I was starting to get worried.
Finally, we hit a patch of woods that I know usually holds several deer. John set up at the bottom of the hill and I started walking at the top. About 10 minutes in, I kicked up 6 deer. I radioed John and less than a minute later, I heard the shot.
When we met up, John seemed a bit worried. He hadn't seen the deer go down and it hadn't appreared to be wounded. Unlike most new hunters he paid close attention to the direction they ran. We went to the general area and started looking. Within a few minutes, Jon found a blood trail. It was a good one. Within a few yards, I found a chunk of lung on the ground, surrounded by pink, frothy blood.
The trail went up a hill at an angle for about 50 yards. It suddenly stopped. We both looked at eachother with a confused look. The trail just stopped going up. Hmmm... oh maybe that's because its laying dead on the ground about 6 feet back!
The shot was perfect. He took out the lungs near the back and pulverized the liver. He was using Federal High Energy soft points (165 grain I think) and the wound channel was impressive.
It was his first deer. Honestly, I don't know who was more excited about it, him or me. I really enjoy being with new hunters when they get that first deer.
Oh yeah... we only had a crappy phone camera so the pics are not great, but you get the idea. It was a nice doe, weighing about 115 pounds dressed.