San Antonio Man Tells Tall Tale by Saunders John T. Jr.;

Author:Saunders, John T., Jr.; [Saunders;Jr., John T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hamilton Books
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Driving Miss Bambi

One thing I learned early on is there is nothing better than a one-shot kill. There is nothing worse than the loss of a wounded animal, both for the animal and the hunter. When I take guests hunting, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of proper shot placement and using a gun that is sufficient to kill the intended species. The other is to make sure that the rifle has been properly cleaned, maintained, and sighted in. I have to remind this to myself to abide by this from time to time. I have seen missed shots, wounded animals, shots through the floorboard of a car, watched a guy pull the trigger with nothing happening, looking at the gun, then two seconds later “BOOM!” The rifle was so dirty that the firing pen stuck temporarily. Anyway, the first step is to be prepared.

The first time I experienced this was when I was seven. I was hunting on Mr. Oppenheimer’s estate and took a shot at a mockingbird that was just a tad out of range for my Daisy BB gun (by the way, the Daisy of today is no comparison to the Daisy of the 60s. You used to be able to kill a jackrabbit with a BB gun, now they bounce off a cardinal). I hit that mockingbird in the wing and sent it screaming to the ground, not accepting death very well at all! I ran up to finish the bird that was screeching to high heaven and found I was out of BBs. I started throwing rocks, and then beat it with a . . . well never mind, you get the picture.

A clean, one-shot kill is the way to go. The loss of a wounded animal can not only ruin the hunt and a good time, but be dangerous as well. Many a professional hunter in Africa has been killed by wounded cats, buffalo, and elephants trying to protect their clients. Even in Texas, a cornered deer will run at you as a last resort. My dad had a wounded javelina chase him up a tree one time and kept him there until dad put one between the eyes with his .22 single shot rifle.

I am convinced that the toughest animal on the face of the earth pound for pound is the whitetail deer. Anybody that has ever hunted deer in Texas has lost a wounded deer. A good friend of mine named Roy, out of Dilley, Texas, has a string of wounded deer dogs that end up coming to our ranch every year. These are converted cow dogs and they are amazing and really good at catching a wounded buck. However, if the deer is not hit really solid, Roy will be the first to tell you that the deer will never be found. They will run for miles.

I was sitting in a deer stand in a tree one day at about 2:00 in the afternoon when the biggest deer I had ever seen until that time stepped out into the sendero and stared back toward me.

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