One shot does double duty for Cloquet deer hunter

Lots of hunters shoot two deer during Minnesota's deer season. But not many of them do it with one shot.

That's how Jim Boyd of Cloquet shot two does on opening day Saturday while hunting north of Cloquet. After sitting on his stand earlier that morning, he went for a little walk about 8 a.m. Shortly after climbing back into his stand at 11 a.m., he saw two deer in the distance.

"I took a peek at them with my scope and decided to take the larger of the two does," Boyd said. "After I dropped the deer I was shooting at, I called for Shawn (his son) to come and aid me with field-dressing the doe. As we approached the spot where I was sure I had shot the doe, Shawn said it was over his way farther. I told him the doe I had shot was bigger than that.

"Well, about 30 feet away was a much larger doe. He said to me, 'You shot two does, dad!'"

Boyd had killed the two does with a single shot. Apparently there had been another, smaller doe directly behind the larger doe, and not just the two he had seen. There had been three deer in all. Boyd had an extra tag for the second doe, so it was legal for him to possess it.

Shooting two deer with one shot is very uncommon but occasionally occurs the way it did for Boyd, when a hunter can't see a second deer behind the first. On one occasion a few years ago, a firearms hunter killed three deer at the same time when his bullet passed through all three animals.

Boyd was feeling lucky after shooting the two deer, so he bought a Powerball lottery ticket that day, too. He didn't win the big prize.

"For me, that day I had already won the prize -- a deer story to last a lifetime," Boyd said.