Used my Pappy Lewis Knife again

[tocws2002]

Well, it didn't take long to get to #12 with the Pappy Lewis knife. I actually typed up the #11 deer while in the blind this morning with my youngest son at The Cow Field. We've been out a few times this season with his crossbow, but this weekend is youth weekend, so he chose to use his Savage 243. He wanted to sleep in a tent last night, so we did that and woke up to it raining. We finally got up and in the blind about 7:35, the rain had pretty much become an extremely light drizzle for a little bit. Saw a few squirrels, but not much else until about 10:18 am, when a hawk came swooping in and landed in a tree about 30 yards from us, that was cool to see!

By 10:35 am, my son was ready to head to the house, so we started packing up his rifle, binos, water bottles, rangefinder etc. He was standing up in the blind ready to go, I just needed to grab my camera off the tripod. We were literally just a couple minutes from getting out of the blind when I saw a doe at The Cow Field fence. Whispered to my son, so he sat back down (after he realized I wasn't joking that I saw a deer). I turned on the camera and got about 50 seconds of video before my son unleashed the Savage 243 on her. She ran about 30-35 yards and crashed.

My son and I turned to each other in disbelief of what just happened and how quickly it all went down. We waited just a few minutes, packed up, again, and walked the short distance to retrieve her. As we walked down the trail (about 7 yards from the blind), another doe had snuck in without us knowing, standing about 15 yards from us. Guess she finally heard us, because we were LOUD , and she trotted off.

Wasn't much of a tracking job since we could see the doe from 25 yards away. Walked over, got our pictures, and put the knife to work again!

My son did a fair amount of the field dressing with some assistance, and then helped drag her up our hill on the deer cart. We did find the bullet in the off side hide, so that will be kept, along with the casing. We got her skinned out (my son plans on tanning the hide) and processed this afternoon. My son didn't mind the skinning or the processing and actually did a really good job. Kept the backstraps and tenderloins for steaks, the rest will a mix of jerky, burgers, and summer sausage.

Thanks,

-jason

Any ways, on to the pics!

Doe and entry wound



Glamour shot...


Pappy Lewis knife, casing, and bullet...

 

[woodtickgreg]

And a well placed shot.

 

[tocws2002]

And a well placed shot.

Yes, sir. We practiced a few weeks ago and he did well at all the distances we shot. The flat trajectory is one of the things I like about the 243.

-jason

 

[tocws2002]

Great read! I love stories like this. Congrats! Meat in the freezer.

Thanks, I've started logging cliff notes of my hunts on my cell phone as they happen this year so I can go back after the fact and see what transpired throughout the season.

-jason

 

[tocws2002]

Enjoyed the hunt with you. We have some great knives indeed. Jim

Thanks and, yes, we do have some great knives. I feel blessed to have one and get it use it often.

Thanks,

-jason

 

[tocws2002]

Great stories. This reminded me of the recent trip I took to Guyana. Ever since growing up in Panama and spending a lot of time in the jungle, I always carry a stick. Helps clear spider webs, coax snakes off the trail, acts a third leg in dicey situations, etc. Surprisingly, none of the guides we had carried a machete. I'd brought my Buck sheath knife so the first mostly straight branch I found that had some rigidity to it, I picked up (after checking for bullet ants), whittled a small notch so it would break cleanly, stripped the bark, smoothed off the small branches, and made me a stick. The guides laughed until we stumbled into the first spider web across the trail. A good knife is such a useful tool to have anytime you head outdoors.

Thanks, posting the hunts here have helped me relive them and give a shout out to Pappy and the knife he made for me. I agree with your statement about a knife. Been carrying one since I was 10 or 11, thanks to my dad, who always carries one as well.

-jason

 

[tocws2002]

Deer #13 is in the books....well, actually, he's in the fridge! Saturday was opening day of rifle season, so I went to the blind at The Cow Field with my youngest boy in hopes of getting him on a buck. My oldest son went to The Arena, hoping for a buck, but ready to take a doe, as he hasn't shot anything yet this year. Both had their Savage 243's, I had a camera.

Temperatures had dropped quite a bit, it was about 35 degrees, with sunrise at 7:19 am (thanks to setting the clocks back recently). We got settled in about 6:00 am while it was still completely dark and tried to stay warm while we waited for the sun to come up. Heard several shots on neighboring farms shortly after daylight, so figured the deer were up and moving.

By 7:36 am my oldest son sent a text that he had 8 deer at The Arena within 25 yards. There were 6 does and 2 spikes. He held off for a bit, not so much that he wanted to, but because there were too many eyes for him to do much without getting noticed. He said they were in and out/back and forth for a while, and never saw a shooter buck. He decided to take a doe, so around 8:24 am my youngest son and I heard a shot. I immediatley said "your brother just shot", which was followed up by a text from the oldest confirming it was him. He said he shot a doe, but found out it was actually a button buck. He saw it go down, but still gave it about 30 minutes before he got out of the stand to check on it.

He sent a couple pics of it, and its front ankles and hooves were white. Not sure if that classifies as a piebald, but it's still pretty neat looking. He headed back to the house to warm up while the youngest and I hunted for another hour and a half, without any luck.....we didn't see any deer at all.

We then headed to the house to warm up and grab the appropriate tools, including the Pappy Lewis knife. My son grabbed his knives, one, a Case that his grandparents gave him, and another, a Kershaw a friend of mine gave him a couple years ago. The three of us went back to The Arena, quickly found the deer as it was less than 30 yards from where he shot it. Took some pictures, then put all three knives to work to get him field dressed. It was a heart shot, which the 243 destroyed.

Once that was finished we took it to the garage and processed it. We will keep the backstraps and tenderloins for steaks, all the roasts and larger cuts will become jerky, and the rest will be hamburger and/or summer sausage.

We kept the skull, which will get a Euro mount, as well as the front hooves, which we are going to attempt to mount for a gun rack (or something along those lines). We've never mounted deer legs before, so it could be interesting to see how they turn out.

This is the 1st year my sons and I have all taken at least one deer on our property. There's still plenty of season and tags left, so it's possible the knife will get used again this season. Anyways, thanks for reading/following along, now on to the pics.

Thanks,

-jason

The button buck...





The white feet/hooves...





One of the dew claws was black...

 

[tocws2002]

I was a little remiss in posting my use of my Pappy knife during the 2024/2025 hunting season, so I'm playing catch up now.

Below are quick summaries of the deer I got to use my Pappy Lewis knife on last hunting season. Looking forward to putting it to use this season as well.

Deer #14 was taken by my brother on November 16, 2024 during the Ft Knox Quota Hunt.

This outing was at Ft Knox during gun quota hunt. They allow shotgun with slugs or a muzzleloader. I was hunting with my brother, brother in law, and a couple of other friends. It wasn't terribly cold for a November morning, about 47 degrees. We left around 4:00 am, drove to the base, and got checked in. While prepping to go into the woods, we were stopped by a game warden (not @Eric Rorabaugh) who checked to make sure we had all our appropriate paperwork and gear. Normally there are lots of shots heard as day breaks, but this morning I only heard one, which happened to be my brother in law who shot a good buck.

Around 7:50 am I saw a deer about 9 yards from my stand, unfortunately, it was a dead head.

A couple hours later, I had a nice shooter buck that snuck in from behind me, got within ~25 yards and must have winded me, got spooked and took off. Nothing more to speak of the rest of the morning from anyone else in our group. Came out for lunch and swap stories with the boys for a bit.

We then headed back in for the afternoon/evening hunt. Around 4:40 pm, I hear a shot pretty close to me and know it's my brother. He texts shortly after that he has a buck down. He also tells me to continue hunting. He field dressed it, but needed help getting it out of the woods and up the hill to the truck. I hunted until sunset, then made my way to help him. It was 7:00 pm by the time we got to Hunt Control and checked in. There was a pretty long wait and lots of really nice deer taken that day. Due to the potential for CWD, the deer had to be processed on site, and or taken to a local shop. We opted to process it ourselves, which is where I got to put the Pappy Lewis knife to work again! We spent about an hour breaking it down and packing it in the cooler before heading to the hotel. All in all, it was a great weekend of hunting!

My brother-in-laws buck...


My brother's buck...

 

[tocws2002]

Deer #15 was taken by by youngest son, who hunted by himself this year, on November 22, 2024. He was in the area of of our property we call The Cow Field (strangely enough, because it borders my neighbors farm that has cows). This was an evening hunt in which we didn't get into our respective stands until around 4:00 pm. It was ~44 degrees out, somewhat windy, and a couple of sporadic sprinkles of rain. Sunset was at 5:23 pm this day. The state allows hunting 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. At 5:42 pm I heard a shot from The Cow Field. A minute later, my son sends me a text that he has a deer down! He was down to the last 10 minutes of legal shooting time. I hopped out of the stand, headed back to the house, grabbed the deer cart, a flashlight, some fruit snacks for my boy, and my Pappy Lewis knife.

My son said it was a doe and saw which direction it headed, which was to his right, across the creek, and up the hill some. He thought he saw it crash and saw its belly. Using flashlights he leads the way. We found some hair where it was standing when he shot it, but no blood (which isn't unusual for a 243). We walked maybe 100 yards, following what looked like a deer trail/path with overturned leaves, but still don't see it or any blood. I told him I'd head back to the stand and turn my flashlight on so he could get a good visual of where he was in relation to where he thought it ran. As I'm walking back, I see the deer down the hill, closer to the creek. I tell him he should come back closer to the stand and start his search over. As he's walking down, he shines his flashlight on the deer! As we walk up to it, we realize it's a 5-point buck! I think he was somewhat disappointed since he wouldn't get a chance at one of the bigger bucks he was after, but I couldn't have been any more proud of him. This season was the first time he hunted alone, and from a stand. We field dressed it (with the Pappy Lewis and his knife), loaded his buck on the deer cart and got it up the hill. We took a few pics in the dark and then get it hung up in the shop. We skinned it and processed it, ready to make some steaks and jerky. We did a euro mount the head.

Pics of his buck...

 

[tocws2002]

Deer #16

It was finally my turn to harvest a deer this season. Nothing like waiting until there were only 2 weeks left to go. This was a morning hunt on January 4, 2025, my son was at The Cow Field with a crossbow and I was at The Arena with my compound bow. It was about 17 degrees out, but I did get to see a beautiful sunrise.

About 30 minutes after I got in the stand, I saw four does and fawns running on the other side of the creek. A 5th deer (doe) walked by at the creek a few seconds later. All 5 stayed on the other side of the creek and headed out towards my neighbors farm. My son saw a coyote across the fence, but it never crossed onto our farm.

Fifteen minutes later, I had two does and two fawns come in from the creek. I'm pretty sure it's the four I saw earlier in the morning. They ended up hanging around for nearly 20 minutes.

Finally one of the does gave me a shot. She was a little quartered to and about 20 yards away. After I shot, all four deer ran across the creek away from me. The doe I shot stopped for several seconds on the hill side. The other three finally trotted off. The doe I shot started walking away slowly and eventually was out of my sight. A few moments later, I heard what sounded like a tree branch hitting another tree and loud rustling of leaves. I was hoping it was the doe crashing and kicking, but I didn't see her crash and couldn't see her from the stand. I was self-videoing, so I watched the replay several times. I had definitely hit her, but it looked like my arrow was a little back.

I sent a text to my son that I had shot one, but was going to give her some time before getting down to look for her. I waited about an hour and a half before I got down. My plan was to go to the spot where I shot her and look for blood, then head to the house to give her plenty of time, in case it was a liver shot. I got out of stand, took a few steps and saw what I thought was the deer across the creek. I confirmed with binos, she was down about 90 or so yards from the stand, not too far from where I last saw her. I went back to the house to warm up, get my Pappy Lewis knife, my son, and the deer cart.

Got back in the field after warming up. We followed the blood trail to the deer to look for my arrow. Found the arrow stuck in the ground next to her. While my shot was a little further back that I would have liked, during field dressing, we noted that the Rage hypodermic (1st time using mechanicals) got both lungs. My son and I loaded her on the cart, drug her out of the woods, loaded on the truck and back to the house. We skinned her out and processed her, putting the Pappy Lewis knife to work again!

 

[tocws2002]

Deer #17

Fast forward less than a week to January 10, 2025. My oldest boy hunted for a couple hours in the morning, but only saw a coyote and no deer. It was ~13 degrees out and snowing, so he didn't hunt too long.

My youngest boy and I hunted in the evening. About an hour after he got settled in, he sent a text that he just shot a doe with his crossbow. He said he had about seven in range, but it took nearly 20 minutes before he could get a good shot, especially with all the eyes ready to bust him!

After receiving his text, I climbed down out of my stand and headed to help him recover his deer. While walking towards his stand, I spotted the doe down on the far side of the creek, not 60 yards from his stand.

We got her off the hillside and on some flat ground by the creek, then headed to the house to get our knives and lights.

My son used the Pappy Lewis knife to field dress her. By this time, it was pretty dark out, so we got her up the hill and hung up, ready to process in the morning.

It was a great season, one I won't soon forget! Thanks for following along with our adventures and my Pappy Lewis knife!

-jason

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

we were stopped by a game warden (not @Eric Rorabaugh)

Congrats on all the successful hunts. Here's a couple on the local prison farm that was sent to us. We'll definitely have to watch this atea

 

[tocws2002]

Congrats on all the successful hunts. Here's a couple on the local prison farm that was sent to us. We'll definitely have to watch this atea

View attachment 278852

Dang, those are nice! Is that considered high-fence hunting?

-jason

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

Dang, those are nice! Is that considered high-fence hunting?

-jason

No. Its a prison and they have a farm that they raise cattle and vegetables for other prisons around the state. Prisoners work it. Just a regular board fence and woven wire fence around the farm except the actual prison area.