Deer Hunting Last Weekend

Well, so much for holding out for a big one with my last Arkansas tag. I ended up shooting a unicorn on Saturday evening right before dark. It only had one horn. The other had broken off at some point. And, the horn that was left was less than 2 inches long, so it qualified as a button buck. I thought I was shooting at a nice young doe. I couldn't see the horn.

I was actually finished hunting for the day and was walking back to the cabin. As I was walking past a nice green food plot with just a minor screen of trees between me and the plot, I saw 3 or 4 deer feeding about 50-60 yards away. I just stood there and watched them. I knew that I couldn't see my sights well enough to shoot at that range. As I watched, something spooked them and they started running down hill, straight at me. I thought that the one that I shot was going to pass the big pine tree in front of me and run me down. So, I cocked and shouldered my firelock. Just before getting to the tree, the little buck stopped and turned broadside, looking back up hill. It was a 10-yard shot that I couldn't pass up.

The ball went in behind the last rib and exited through the sternum. He dropped in his tracks and only quivered once. That's good since I didn't want to track in the dark. Of course, then the work started, but I had help at the camp, so we made quick work of it.

That's my last tag for this year in Arkansas. Any more deer hunting this season will be in Texas, and with muzzleloader season following the regular season, I can hunt with my firelock in Texas until about the middle of January.

Sorry I didn't get a photo of this one. I accidentally left my camera at the office last Friday. I was using the same Mark Thomas rifle, so its record is now 7 deer in 7 shots, plus a deer I batted clean-up on for my brother-in-law.

Bill Scurlock