Wayne in BC
New member
I walked on, more wary now and came to an area of "blowouts", large holes in the sand some 20 ft deep and often 100 ft around and caused by strong winds. These blowouts often had greener grass in the bottom due to being closer to water and a bit of shade effect.
The sun had slipped to the horizon now as i slunk along becoming discouraged. Then a movement ahead and a spike buck walked calmly out in front of me some 100 ft away and promptly disappeared into a blowout....perfect!
Half crawling i moved to the coarse grass on the edge of the hole and peaked over, then my heart thumped! There were 5 young Mule Deer bucks calmly feeding only a few yards below me! They were totally unaware that i was there and a process of strange luck began to unwind, something that is still utterly clear in my mind today 48 years after the incident.
I had not intended to whack a whole darn herd of Deer, certainly not with a singleshot .22 so when he raised his head from feeding i aimed carefully behind the ear of the nearest buck who was facing away and probably no more than 25 ft from me.
Crack! I remember how it seemed so loud at the time but did not connect the fact that i was shooting into a natural barrel the shape of which made it act like a big loudspeaker! The buck dropped kicking and pandemonium broke out with Deer going in all directions but none exiting the hollow, they would run part way up the side, stop and run down and over to the other side, then repeat the process. As i lay there stunned by the odd happenings one Deer ran up towards me, stopping only a couple feet below me, did a double take and went back down, only to bound around in circles then stop.....so i shot him too.
The second Deer went down kicking, shot between the eyes from 40 ft away and the other three continued running in circles. I missed the third shot, just a tad high and i saw the bullet kick sand over his head across the hollow. He stood there staring my way and i reloaded, shot number two was true and he also went down kicking but tried to rise so i put one more into his upper neck as quick as i could reload, end of problem. My blood was up and i do not believe i was even consciously thinking as i reloaded yet again from the diminishing half dozen rounds i had placed in my mouth as i moved up to the hollow blowout.
I had to wait about 30 seconds for a good shot as the last two Deer were still bounding around and when one finally stopped to stare at one of his fallen comrades who was still kicking feebly, i put a round behind his ear also and it was over as the last Deer panicked and ran up the bank and away into the gathering dusk. I leaped up and trotted down the slope reloading as i went but no more shots were required and now i had a really big job and a small hunting knife so i sat down as i had begun to shake so much that could hardly stand up!
After the fact now i was wondering what had just happened and it came to me that the Deer had not been able to tell where the sound was coming from, given the echo in the hollow, they also were reluctant to run into possible danger that they could not see because they were below ground level. Thus their fatal confusion, and my good fortune.
After a few minutes of pondering the situation i realised that it was now pretty much dark in that hollow and getting darker, i could not deal with this much meat on my own so without wasting time i headed for home on the run. I arrived winded and babbling about an hour later after numerous falls in the dark even though i had tried to stick to the cow trails. Blurting out my story to mostly disbelief, i finally convinced my uncle and Dad and off we went, armed with knives, saws, and the old truck with the headlights off. An hour or so later and the booty was hanging to cool in the cellar while i was happily repeating my story over and over
Nobody was unhappy that i had taken four Deer as that was a very welcome supply of meat, they were still amazed though, while Dad and my uncle understood what had happened they let me bask in the glory and only grudgingly said.....not bad shooting boy. The entire family was cautioned to say nothing to anyone for fear of trouble, but Wayner the hero was happy
I just kinda like the idea that i may have been the only 12ish year old boy to ever do that, don't you?
The sun had slipped to the horizon now as i slunk along becoming discouraged. Then a movement ahead and a spike buck walked calmly out in front of me some 100 ft away and promptly disappeared into a blowout....perfect!
Half crawling i moved to the coarse grass on the edge of the hole and peaked over, then my heart thumped! There were 5 young Mule Deer bucks calmly feeding only a few yards below me! They were totally unaware that i was there and a process of strange luck began to unwind, something that is still utterly clear in my mind today 48 years after the incident.
I had not intended to whack a whole darn herd of Deer, certainly not with a singleshot .22 so when he raised his head from feeding i aimed carefully behind the ear of the nearest buck who was facing away and probably no more than 25 ft from me.
Crack! I remember how it seemed so loud at the time but did not connect the fact that i was shooting into a natural barrel the shape of which made it act like a big loudspeaker! The buck dropped kicking and pandemonium broke out with Deer going in all directions but none exiting the hollow, they would run part way up the side, stop and run down and over to the other side, then repeat the process. As i lay there stunned by the odd happenings one Deer ran up towards me, stopping only a couple feet below me, did a double take and went back down, only to bound around in circles then stop.....so i shot him too.
The second Deer went down kicking, shot between the eyes from 40 ft away and the other three continued running in circles. I missed the third shot, just a tad high and i saw the bullet kick sand over his head across the hollow. He stood there staring my way and i reloaded, shot number two was true and he also went down kicking but tried to rise so i put one more into his upper neck as quick as i could reload, end of problem. My blood was up and i do not believe i was even consciously thinking as i reloaded yet again from the diminishing half dozen rounds i had placed in my mouth as i moved up to the hollow blowout.
I had to wait about 30 seconds for a good shot as the last two Deer were still bounding around and when one finally stopped to stare at one of his fallen comrades who was still kicking feebly, i put a round behind his ear also and it was over as the last Deer panicked and ran up the bank and away into the gathering dusk. I leaped up and trotted down the slope reloading as i went but no more shots were required and now i had a really big job and a small hunting knife so i sat down as i had begun to shake so much that could hardly stand up!
After the fact now i was wondering what had just happened and it came to me that the Deer had not been able to tell where the sound was coming from, given the echo in the hollow, they also were reluctant to run into possible danger that they could not see because they were below ground level. Thus their fatal confusion, and my good fortune.
After a few minutes of pondering the situation i realised that it was now pretty much dark in that hollow and getting darker, i could not deal with this much meat on my own so without wasting time i headed for home on the run. I arrived winded and babbling about an hour later after numerous falls in the dark even though i had tried to stick to the cow trails. Blurting out my story to mostly disbelief, i finally convinced my uncle and Dad and off we went, armed with knives, saws, and the old truck with the headlights off. An hour or so later and the booty was hanging to cool in the cellar while i was happily repeating my story over and over
Nobody was unhappy that i had taken four Deer as that was a very welcome supply of meat, they were still amazed though, while Dad and my uncle understood what had happened they let me bask in the glory and only grudgingly said.....not bad shooting boy. The entire family was cautioned to say nothing to anyone for fear of trouble, but Wayner the hero was happy
I just kinda like the idea that i may have been the only 12ish year old boy to ever do that, don't you?
