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12/01/2004	Spike	Liberty Hill, SC	7mm mag Rem	Afternoon	75 yards
I've joined a new hunting club that just formed a few weeks ago. We've got 1,800 acres leased in Liberty Hill, SC, just a few miles past the Briarpatch club. There are some monster bucks on this property, and this is a great opportunity to shoot a trophy deer. Today was my third day hunting on the new lease. After driving around the property for awhile and looking for places to hunt, I chose a ground blind overlooking a long stretch of logging road. I had hunted this blind earlier in the week and had only seen turkeys, but today things were different. One of the club members had put out a small corn pile on this road awhile back, which I replenished with some fresh cobs earlier this afternoon. After putting the corn out, I settled into the blind and got comfortable. As dusk approached, I could hear a deer moving around in the woods off to my right. From the blind's position, it is impossible to see over into those woods, so I had to listen in growing anxiety, hoping the deer would emerge onto the road. At 5:15pm, it happened. As I watched, I saw a deer step out cautiously into the road. I raised my rifle to get a look at the deer through the scope and confirm the sex. Cranking the magnification on the scope to 9-power, I inspected the deer's head and saw that it was a spike. I debated whether or not to shoot it, but in the end I decided that it was getting late in the year, and as I had no deer yet I needed to go ahead and take one. With a quite snick, I slid the safety off, centered the crosshairs, and squeezed the trigger. The deer dropped in it's tracks, and I breathed a sigh of relief at having made a quick, clean kill. I jacked another cartridge into the chamber, then watched the deer through the scope for a few minutes to make sure it didn't get up and run off. He twitched a few times and was still. I waited about 5 minutes, just in case another deer might come out, but none did. Shaking, I emerged from the blind and went and retrieved my deer. It was an average sized spike, and will make for some great eating!

12/01/2004

Spike

Liberty Hill, SC

7mm mag Rem

Afternoon

75 yards

I've joined a new hunting club that just formed a few weeks ago. We've got 1,800 acres leased in Liberty Hill, SC, just a few miles past the Briarpatch club. There are some monster bucks on this property, and this is a great opportunity to shoot a trophy deer. Today was my third day hunting on the new lease. After driving around the property for awhile and looking for places to hunt, I chose a ground blind overlooking a long stretch of logging road.

I had hunted this blind earlier in the week and had only seen turkeys, but today things were different. One of the club members had put out a small corn pile on this road awhile back, which I replenished with some fresh cobs earlier this afternoon. After putting the corn out, I settled into the blind and got comfortable.

As dusk approached, I could hear a deer moving around in the woods off to my right. From the blind's position, it is impossible to see over into those woods, so I had to listen in growing anxiety, hoping the deer would emerge onto the road. At 5:15pm, it happened. As I watched, I saw a deer step out cautiously into the road. I raised my rifle to get a look at the deer through the scope and confirm the sex. Cranking the magnification on the scope to 9-power, I inspected the deer's head and saw that it was a spike.

I debated whether or not to shoot it, but in the end I decided that it was getting late in the year, and as I had no deer yet I needed to go ahead and take one.

With a quite snick, I slid the safety off, centered the crosshairs, and squeezed the trigger. The deer dropped in it's tracks, and I breathed a sigh of relief at having made a quick, clean kill. I jacked another cartridge into the chamber, then watched the deer through the scope for a few minutes to make sure it didn't get up and run off. He twitched a few times and was still.

I waited about 5 minutes, just in case another deer might come out, but none did. Shaking, I emerged from the blind and went and retrieved my deer. It was an average sized spike, and will make for some great eating!