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Luck! Perserverance! Responsibility!


InTheSchool

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Here is a story with a message:

On Saturday morning at 8:35 I finally heard and then saw a deer. It was a nice buck too! He was on the move like they are at this time of the year. I found him in the scope and stayed with him until the hazel brush and tag alder opend up. On the shot he bolted with his head and tail both down. He disappeared in the bush in two bounds. I felt very confident about the shot, but when I went to look there was no sign of a hit, no blood, no hair nothing. I had to round up my hunting party (my daughters) and we started over. I got back in the stand and had them go to where the buck was. We positively IDed the trail he was on. Still we found no sign. We went to where I last saw him and started checking the obvious trails. At 11:00 my oldest daughter and I went back to where I thought I hit the buck. We were on our hands and knees looking. My youngest daughter wasn't back (she had gotten turned around in the swamp) so we just sat and waited for her. While sitting there my daughter noticed a pinprick of blood and a sliver of flesh and some hairs on a two inch sapling. On further inspection we found more hair. By then the young one had rejoined us. And we knew the deer was hit. We rechecked all of the trails and kept working deeper into the swamp. Finally I struck a blood trail. It just started about 75 yards from where the deer was hit. From there it was an easy job as it was like tracking a stuck pig. In 40 yards there lay a truly magnificent ten point buck(just over 200#). He was shot through the bottom of the heart with a 180 grain nosler partition from my 30-06. His off leg was broken just below the shoulder. It was now 12:30. The rest of the weekend I kept thinking about how easy it would have been to not recover that deer. I could have just said I missed when I first looked by myself. My daughters could have said I missed. But through luck or stubborness we didn't. Remember every time you pull the trigger you have a moral responsibility to make absolute certain you missed, or you recover your animal.

Step one - "call the shot" did it feel good or not?

Step two - How did the animal react?

Step three - Where was the animal when you shot?

Step four - Where did you last see the animal?

Step five - Give it time.

Step six - Get help.

Step seven - Don't expect to see the same sign after each shot.

Step eight - Keep looking.

On a year like this with no snow this is so important. Good luck this final weekend to the 1A hunters and good luck to the 3B hunters!

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Great story and congrats on the harvest of a nice buck. Just another story to prove how hard work, determination, and never giving up pays dividends.

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This year... I was caught sleeping in my stand when a nice doe came from behind me. She was making her way into a field so I looked in my scope. Found her... about 75 yards out. Just then a nice buck came running behind me right for the doe.

I waited.. the doe out in a little clearing and the buck skirting the edge. He presented a nice broadside shot. BANG!!

He did not jump; he did not move; the doe still standing there. Did I miss? I worked the bolt - aquired the buck again. BANG! no jump but walks into the woods. The doe now starting to move -run- racked another shell in - Bang. She drops and stumbles into the woods.

Ok so now I have no shells left (why I only brought 3 who knows). I walk back to the shack and grab my 10mm for tracking and my dad.

I was sure on with the doe; Broke the shoulder and caved the heart. She went 5 yards from the point of impact.

The buck went 10 yards into the woods. He had two shots both within 1/2 inch of each other (not bad for two off handed shots); both hit the heart and lungs.

Why would he not react to the shot; I have never seen this before. Hit with a 7mm WSM at about 85-90 yards with Barnes Triple Shock 160 grain bullets (too big I know).

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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