If I were younger I would not tell this story. My title is: Now I Know Which Way Is The Front!
Back before bow season, when I bought my new bow, I also bought a pop-up blind. It’s kind of neat, but I’ve never known which way was the front. Does the door go in the back, side or front? The shooting windows are the same on all sides and corners. When you unzip the windows, there are “shoot through” screens you can cover the windows with. I haven’t used it much because my right shoulder has been hurting so badly. Anyway, after my tummy calmed down today, I decided to set it up in a spot where I would see doe in the afternoon. I popped it up (just opened windows-didn’t insert screens) and set up a camping chair inside. I made myself comfortable and enjoyed the time relaxing and contemplating while waiting. I had the door off of my right shoulder in the corner, with the side window in front of me pointed down a 100 yard shooting lane through the timber, the place I expected the doe to appear. I also had good shooting lanes to my left, and one off my right back shoulder through the door. I sat in the chair and shouldered my rifle at each window to check my clearance and swing room. I also had my pistol ready for an unexpected close shot. After I had been in the blind about an hour and a half, two doe appeared in the woods directly in front of me, right where I thought they would be. They were behind trees, so I just put my scope down the shooting lane and waited for the lead doe to walk into it. She stepped into the lane broadside and stopped, crosshairs on her shoulder, trigger pull slow and easy. Boom and a whine. I thought, ‘that was weird’ my .270 has never made a whine like that (sounded similar to a .357- kind of metallic) with the boom. Incredibly, the doe did not go down. Just 100 yards away, no limbs in the way, what is happening? She trotted off over the hill with the other doe. I could tell they weren’t sure where the noise came from. ‘They’ll be back,’ I thought. I lowered my rifle thinking about what just happened, and then I saw it. The zipper was blown out of the bottom of the window- accounting for the metallic whine- and the miss! Where the zipper seam came together at the bottom of the triangular-shaped window, not only was the zipper pull blown away, but the fabric had ripped straight down about 4 inches. There was also a polka dot pattern of light streaming through the fabric (muzzle blast/powder burn). I laughed at myself and shook my head. That explains the sound and miss. I’ve heard of idiots doing things like this, but not me, until now. The muzzle of the rifle barrel is about an inch below the middle of the scope… just enough lower to take out an unsuspecting zipper. This expanded window is now officially the front of the blind. Thirty minutes later the two doe did reappear, but 175 yards away through thick brush. I just laughed, shaking my head as I packed up to go home. Happy to be alive but now an official member of the “careless idiots club.”
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