11/26/14 Gun hunt

Brent called me up and asked if I wanted to run out into the woods before Thanksgiving. It didn't take much arm twisting for me to agree and set up a plan. We decided to really try to film a hunt. We were going to climb the same tree with me filming above and him hunting below. I had the 22 with the camcorder and iphone strapped to it in case we got attacked by squirrels and he had the slug gun. We got out with plenty of time before sunrise. The place we went has a steady uphill walk from the get-go. About halfway to the tree I was ready for a break, but I didn't want him to think I was a wuss, so I trudged on. When we got to the tree Brent said "I wish we would have taken a little breather back there." I started up the tree and he followed behind. A little after shooting light the squirrels came out, but it was too dark to see through the viewfinder. About an hour after being in the tree we heard a deer behind us coming out of the brush about 50 yards away. I spun around and started filming. I realized right away that the camcorder was too far forward to really see the viewfinder well. Also, my phone ran out of storage so it shut off on it's own. I was trying to keep up with the deer, but more kept coming down the trail. I think we counted at least 6. They were milling around and I couldn't tell which one he was wanting to shoot. We were really too far away from each other to talk with the deer that close. I peeked down at him a few times, but couldn't really tell where he was aiming. Once, he tried to shoot, but he forgot to take off the safety. We just happened to be on the same deer when he squeezed one off. It ran back the way they had come and the other deer slowly followed in the same direction. You can hear the deer crash in the video. After the area was clear, we started to climb down. We weren't exactly trying to be quiet. We crunched our way up to the trail while talking and both spotted another deer at the same time. Brent took the camera and I took the slug gun. I kept inching to the right until I had a clear shot on the chest. It dropped. Back at the house, I was wanting to try skinning them with the electric hoist. It seemed to bog down a lot in the 220lbs mode, so I think next time I am going to double the cable back to get 440lbs. I am also going to try to skin them back legs first to see if that keeps the neck cleaner. I think that would also help cut the ribs out since the bottom is flat.