Tales from the Timber: Vanessa the deer slayer

Steve and Vanessa Helms of Pontiac killed this deer on the family farm in Pike County on Dec. 4, 2010.

Yes, Vanessa is now a big hunter!  Saturday night, she shot her first deer (and she didn’t even cry). After freezing to death for more than three hours, we let a young 8-point buck and a couple of does pass us by because they were 100 yards away.

Just before the end of shooting light, this doe came into the cornfield and headed right towards our shooting shed. It was all by itself and I was worried it was a spike buck or a large button buck. We only shoot 8-pointers or bigger, we let all small bucks pass us by to grow larger. After checking it out with my binoculars, I gave her the green light to take it down. It came within 25 yards, but was going to pass it by. I made the sound of a buck grunt, and it stopped the doe for her to take the shot.

After she shot it, it ran over the ridge in front of us and we could no longer see it. After waiting 15 or 20 minutes, we got the flashlight and went looking for her trail. We found it right away and after tracking her for about 100 yards, she had expired by a fence she couldn’t get over.

A cold but very fun hunt!