Two years before I moved to New Hampshire I injured my knee playing football, this was just before hunting season. We had already reserved a cabin for a week at Back lake in Pittsburg, Nh., but I ended up on crutches and was out of the hunt.
My dad had a friend, Jake Jackobson who owned 400 posted acres on the backside of Pawtucketaway State park in Deerfield, Nh. There is a 1 1/4 mile dirt access road to a 100 acre pond (Deer pond) and small cabin. Good fishing to, buts that's another story.
Jake was with New Hampshire Fish & game and just took a position Fish & Game in Wisconsin. While the land was up for sale dad had keys to access gate and cabin. He said to me "take the keys, spend the night in the cabin and then hobble to a stone wall and sit down, at least you will be hunting" I was bumming but what else could I do?
Morning came, I slung my rifle, picked up my crutches and hobbled to a stone wall. I was a young stud, sitting was not my style of hunting I was a driver never liked sitting on a post. First light came and went and it started snowing I was getting very frustrated
just sitting there. I decided to take 1 crutch and tie it to a tree so I could at least be a little mobil and move now an then with I crutch and rifle in hand. I crossed the stone wall I was sitting on and saw a porcupine about 50 yds away, you know how slow a porcupine moves? I had a 308 Winchester model 100 with a 5 shot clip, I was mad, I raised my rifle, emptied the clip and the porcupine kept walking away, reached for second clip and I was going to empty that one too.
As I slapped in the second clip I noticed about 125 yds to my left standing broad side a big buck. One shot, one kill!!My first deer! The only knife I had was my military k-bar and I didn't even have a drag rope. Lucky he had "HORNS", I grab his rack after a messy field dressing and away we went! Left heart, liver and second crutch in woods. Strapped him to the back of my 1968 "Carroll Shelby" " SHELBY 500" and was home before noontime.
Deer dressed out at 197 lbs 7 point.
True story #2
The year I moved to New Hampshire it was late fall just before hunting season, with all that was going on and being a new resident to New Hampshire and not being able to buy a resident licensee I was going to let this season pass.
One day at work I had a good contractor friend, who's name was Mark come into my office bragging about a buck he just bagged in Massachusetts " 8 point 193 lb." nice deer! But wouldn't stop bragging ( in a friendly and funny manner ) IM the great white hunter, IM the best, on an on, you no what I mean. Him and I got into one of those friendly arguments, It was a Friday night and I told him I was going to buy a new rifle and hunting licensee on my way home, and shoot a bigger deer. You might have thought I had been drinking it was the last weekend of deer season but I just couldn't stand the bragging.
On my way home I stopped at a Kmart, bought a Remington 30/06 and my licensee. That Saturday morning before first light I went to "JAKE"S PLACE" in Deerfield, no more key for gate, had to walk-in ( 1 1/4 miles) to the place we call the "TALL PINES". I sat posted on a spot I call "MY ROCK", once first light came I looked around and it looked like I was sitting in the middle of a pumpkin patch, orange hats everywhere you looked. I got up and started heading into an area that I never hunted before, it was cold about 11 degrees with a little snow on the ground, after wandering around and brudding for about a half hour I came upon a lot of sign and droppings. Tried posting for awhile but it was to cold, as I moved through the thick pines I came into a small clearing and like ray of light from God the sun came out and lit up a spot on a stone wall. My first thought was to at least sit against the stone wall and try to get warm.
Not less than five minutes go by I hear a god awful loud noise, fifteen seconds later same noise. It was hard to distinguish what it was, it actually sounded like someone slamming a truck / car door. The first thing I could thing of is that I wandered so far that I was close to a road and the noise was two hunters getting ready to enter the woods, so I stood up so they could see me and they wouldn't get startled. Low and behold there was "BUCKZILLA", not a care in the world. He started crossing me broadside less than 50 yds out, just weaving back and forth between trees. Let me tell you I never had buck fever before or since don't even really know what it is, but my heart started pounding, throat got dry and even started to shake. Is that buck fever? I said to myself "next tree I'll take him", instead of next tree he went down hill, but came right back, It was now or never . I put my glove on the wall. Rested rifle on glove and squeezed the trigger, saw him arch so I knew I hit him, but he went downhill. Once I got to the impact spot three was blood everywhere, I knew he was mine! Followed blood trail for about thirty yds. he bolted raised I my rifle for a second shot, but the spent cartridge didn't eject, I reached for my knife and manually pulled out the casing, chambered another round and short him again, he tumbled, got back up and kept going. Same problem my gun was jammed again, manually ejected, chambered and short. This time he stayed down!
Tag was filled out at 9:00 am, he got checked in at 9:30 PM. The check in station was only 10 minutes from where my truck was parked. It was a long drag and if it was not for the snow on the trees I probably would have died in the process. Could not walk for more than a week, every muscle in my body ached !!!
He checked in at 8 point 227 pounds and that weight was 12 .2 hours after field dressing.
True story #3
This little spike was my first deer taken from a tree stand and also first with a scope. I was hunting open hardwood, you could see 200 yds. It was a beautiful fall day, temperature was about 40 degrees with no wind. Around 10:00 am I noticed movement 200 yds out in front of me crossing right to left looked like a big doe at first, I put my scope on it, it was a small buck
but not coming any closer. I knew my rifle was dead on at 100 yds, so my old saying "next tree". With eyes going bad on me I bought quite a high power scope (10 POWER WITH A ZOOM LENS) I crank that zoom lens all the way up, squeezed the trigger raised my head and saw him arch so I knew he was hit. Dumb deer did not know where the shot came from, he started running right towards my tree stand.
Im sitting there watching him waiting for him to drop. He was hit 200 yds out, now he's 150 yds away and still coming, 100 yds, 75yds now Im getting a little nervous I wonder if I hit him at all. I raise my rifle I think its time for a second shot, but with a 10 power scope and zoom lens you try a find him as he's coming straight at you now less than 40 yds. I did one of these things up down up down up down you know what I mean, could not find him in the scope. Like a fool I forgot I had raised mounts, finally the light bulb lit, I looked through the raised mounts and dropped him 10 feet from the bottom of my stand.
If you look close at the photo you can see a little white dot " right between the eyes".
| True story #4 |
Opening day of this muzzleloading season started the same way as the year before,side ways rain, you know the type rain Im talking about. I told my son Adam where it was opening day and warm that I was going to stay until I got totally saturated. Im sitting at the top of a hemlock tree swaying back and forth in a 25 mile an hour wind, when all of a sudden a crack of thunder shook all of the nuts out of the tree, even me.
I walk the 1 1/4 mile trail back to my truck, by the time I get to the truck Im so wet you would think I walked across Deer pond. Now its only 10:00am I was already wet and it was warm, the thunder and lighting didn't bother me I would stay out of the trees. I did not want to got back in because of the walk,
I remembered an area in Candia where I mountain biked and saw several deer cross the trail, so I thought I would give it a try. After 2 hours of side ways rain I called its quits, as I was nearing my truck I felt it was time to clear
my gun. Fat chance, my cap was wet, after several attempts I gave up even the spare capper was saturated.
When I got home I pulled the bullet and reloaded for the next day. Around 2:30 in the afternoon it stopped raining I decided to give opening day another chance. I went back into deerfield and on my way to one of my tree stands I saw movement coming up the valley it looked like a small deer. I sat down behind a big rock, took my glove put it no the rock and rested my rifle on it, as the deer got
closer I saw it was not a deer but a coyote. I hesitated at first about shooting the coyote, I was deer hunting not dog hunting and if I shot it would scare away possible chance of even seeing a deer, but it was 4:00 and almost time to
leave the woods anyway so I decided to take him. Just as I was getting ready to squeeze the trigger hen turned into the thick pines. I waited for about a minute to see if he would come back, all of a sudden more movement coming up the valley. Nice buck followed by a doe but they to followed the same path as the coyote. Low and behold here comes a third deer, small doe and she stops broadside, here it is opening and a small doe out in front of me, I hate ending the season on opening day with a 90 pound doe, but at this point I had never taken a deer with muzzleloader and it seemed like such a simple shot. As I put my cross hairs on the deer I knew what I was having for supper. The next thing I saw was a puff of smoke and a white flag running down the valley, can’t believe I missed, went home with my tail between my legs.
The next day I had a new tree strand and strap on tree steps I wanted to try, I got kind of a late start and by the time I got set up it was nearly 10:00. After only about 20 minutes in the stand a nice spike came down the hill quartering me left to right, he had quite a pace going, as I put my cross hairs on him, gave him a normal lead, squeezed trigger, he did a 90 degree turn to my left and off to the races he went. I watched as he ran, 40 yards, 50 yards, 60 yards,70 then 90 at about a 100 yards I saw one leg buckle and then the other. As I was watching him running off I just sat there in disbelief shaking my head saying to myself no way you missed this one too. After he dropped I still sat in my tree stand opened up a juice box, eat my sandwich, took my tree stand and steps down packed up then went for the deer.
Every deer except my firit one I field dress deer leaving heart and liver intact in the body cavity so I don't loose or forget it like in "TRUE STORY #1". When I got him home I brought him to the hanging tree, drag out the hose and continued to do a complete field dressing. I reached up into the cavity with my left hand grabbed hold of the liver and cut it out, now I reach up for the heart and for some reason can’t find it, so I go in with both hands, NO HEART just spaghetti. Its hard to believe this deer could run a 100 yards with no heart, I say this deer had a lot of heart.
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