Sika Stag Down

Well hunted both days of the late firearms season and Friday was a great day in the stand at my eastern shore lease in Dorchester county. Met up with my buddy Andy (Big Fox) early in the am and after a long discussion on stand choices ( I offered him the choice of what stand he wanted to hunt to include my choice) we got into the stand at 5:45 am and waited for first light. Well at exactly 6:45 I hear shooting from directly in front of me on the adjacent property so hoping a few deer might be pushed my way I'm ready with gun in hand. 5 minutes later I hear animals running through the woods directly toward's me and I see it's two sika stags and the first one is a huge 6 point stag and another stag behind him. They run past my stand and I try to mouth grunt them to stop but not a chance. On a dead run the big six point stag crosses the road at 75 yards from my stand with the other stag coming up behind him. I have nothing to loose at this point so I yell as loud as I can at the second stag and he stops just on the road 75 yards from me. I already have the scope on him and see he is at least a three point stag so the safety goes off quick and I fire and he drops right there on the road. That .243 round put a serious hurt on him and double lunged him, two kicks and he was finished. I was pumped as this is the first deer of any kind with horns I have harvested this year, talk about an exciting hunt. Well I call Big Fox with the good news and get down to check out my stag. Much to my good fortune he is a really good 4 point stag and I drag him to the stand and get back to hunting as it's still early. Well at 11:00 me and Big Fox take a break and after some great field pics he is gutted and hanging from the meat pole (thanks for the help Andy). We hunt to the afternoon with no more sightings but for me this was a great day in the stand and one hard earned stag.