BigSky_KShuck
Member
Well I’ve been lurking far too long and I think it’s time I contribute to Randy’s awesome forum. A little bit of shared entertainment is the least I could do for all the knowledge and enjoyment I’ve gained through experiences on this site. It’s the offseason, a very strange one at that, so if you’re anything like me you love seeing new hunting stories while in preparation mode.
I’m mostly a public land hunter, but occasionally connections work out to your benefit and you get some extra nice hunting opportunities to be thankful for. That’s the case with the whitetail hunting I’ve been doing the past few years with my Dad’s help. Here’s the hunt:
It’s early November, the bucks should be rutting, and I’ve had a tough season without any success in the antelope and elk archery general seasons. I’m hoping to see just a decent whitetail buck to get some delicious venison and maybe if he’s nice I’ll learn how to do my own euro mount. My dad and I park the truck out of the woods near the creek where we usually do so we don’t scare any game and can sneak in. Well wouldn’t you know it, as I’m throwing my pack on, I quickly scan the woods and spot a nice whitetail… but he has me completely pegged. We’ve parked here a ton of times and that’s never happened. I whisper to my dad to grab my rifle since he’s on the hidden side of the truck (while in my head I’m a little disgusted I could get an animal so quick into the hunt – wait, who am I kidding I’ve had a tough season I could use a break). As soon as I grab the rifle the buck takes off, shocking I know. At this point my dad mentioned he could do a push of the trees and I could go on the other side and set up. It’s about a half-mile of river bottom that could hold a lot of deer.
As I worked through the trees, I didn’t see many deer, but plenty of sign. Once I got to the other side, I saw a few does, and picked a spot to sit and watch. There was a small spindly 4-point that I kept trying to make bigger in my head but decided not to shoot him. Shortly after my decision they must have heard or winded the old man at the rate they took off. I went about a quarter way up the adjacent bench to get little elevation to see if some deer would try to escape. As I worked my way up and toward the end of the property, I heard a shot! It was only one shot from my Dad, so I set up and watched. A minute or so later a few deer dashed through an opening too far away and I swear the last one of the group was a really nice whitetail. I was excited at the possibility he got one but thought I should just check ahead a little bit in case there was another nice buck around. As I side hilled the bench a tall but very narrow muley buck is staring at me. I thought about shooting him, but I do like the taste of whitetail so let him go. A few minutes later I haven’t seen any other deer, so I start heading down to help my Dad. As I get down to the trees he starts coming out and said there was a large blood trail, but the buck jumped the fence to the other property. It was a quick offhand pullup shot so he wasn’t certain where he hit. I went to check out the blood trail and couldn’t believe the buck wasn’t dead based on the blood I saw. As much as it sucked, there wasn’t anything else we could do. He wouldn’t be able to get onto the adjacent property to finish or recover the buck.
At this point it was late in the morning, probably around 10-11. My dad went back to the truck, but I wanted to keep hunting, so he jokingly said, “have a nice hike” when I told him I was going on a hunt. I began hiking up toward the bench to see if I could find that tall muley again, since I knew I wouldn’t have many opportunities to hunt deer that year. Well, of course that muley and his does had moved on elsewhere and were nowhere to be found. I kept going to the top of the bench to do some spotting. After spotting the other side of a valley with no luck I started to head back to the morning side with plans to take a break, spot, and eat some lunch. A coyote spotted me while crossing the bench and took off, I thought about shooting the bugger, but he was at least 500 yards away by the time I could’ve realistically taken a shot at him. It was probably a good thing I didn’t shoot if I wanted my odds of getting a deer to be better than zero. I found a nice spot on a log that overlooks the river bottom we walked in the morning by a few hundred feet in elevation.
There was a group of 5-6 whitetail does on the wrong side of the property I could hunt, but I didn’t see any bucks among them. Well after powering down a sandwich and spotting some more I see a lone deer making his way toward the better side of the fence. He crosses and it’s hard to always have a grasp of where he is with the thick brush he’s walking through, but I thought I saw him bed by a strange looking tree. I still wasn’t sure what size of buck he is but decided I should at the very least sneak down to him and get setup just in case he’s a nice one. Once I got down from the steep part of the bench, while checking his location with my binos every couple hundred feet, I get to some loud swampy grass that required a slow and steady pace. Multiple times I would get in a lane that I could just barely seem him and thought he would bust, but he never did. I knew the wind was good since I check it about 123,987,527 times. I tried to work my way up the hill a little to get a shooting lane on him, but there were just too many trees. So, I had to work my way back down and would need to walk right into where he’s looking and hope I did it slowly enough to get setup on him and have time for a shot. There were a perfect group of low trees that I had setup on in the past to get my first turkey a few years prior that I thought would put me in position.
The next couple pictures I took a few days ago during my uneventful turkey hunt while I relived my deer hunt.
My view:
The Deer’s view:
Now that group of trees was under only a couple hundred feet from the deer, so I had to be extra careful. I got to the trees and slowly kneeled and as I pull up my binos he’s looking directly at me. Shoot! I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to shoot if he took off so I just stayed as still as I could, while in my head I knew I’d shoot him, and he’d be my best whitetail. Well after a few moments, looking through my binos he starts to slowly close and open his eyes! There’s no way he knows what I am if he’s sleepy like that, so I patiently sit in the mud that already caked my knees and I get my bipod setup as quietly as possible. He is still sleepy looking, so I gather myself until I’m solid. I would have shot earlier, but can only see his head and whole neck, no vitals. I waited for a minute, hoping he’d stand and give me a broadside, but I didn’t have a big shooting lane so I may not have had a view of his vitals if he did eventually stand. My nerves have worn off by this point and I’m as solid as possible so decide to take a shot at his vertebrae and/or arteries. After shooting I get another shot ready only to see he’s on the ground barely moving his head. It was a good shot and I just got my best whitetail! Hopefully there will be many more like this!
A few side notes:
It was nice letting my Dad know how my “hike” went.
Learned a ton about how to do a Euro mount.
Hopefully I’ll be able to have a similar story ready after this fall since I drew my first deer permit after deciding I didn’t want to potentially wait my whole life for a certain impossible to draw deer permit.
My last 3 whitetails I’ve been fortunate enough to take:
I’m mostly a public land hunter, but occasionally connections work out to your benefit and you get some extra nice hunting opportunities to be thankful for. That’s the case with the whitetail hunting I’ve been doing the past few years with my Dad’s help. Here’s the hunt:
It’s early November, the bucks should be rutting, and I’ve had a tough season without any success in the antelope and elk archery general seasons. I’m hoping to see just a decent whitetail buck to get some delicious venison and maybe if he’s nice I’ll learn how to do my own euro mount. My dad and I park the truck out of the woods near the creek where we usually do so we don’t scare any game and can sneak in. Well wouldn’t you know it, as I’m throwing my pack on, I quickly scan the woods and spot a nice whitetail… but he has me completely pegged. We’ve parked here a ton of times and that’s never happened. I whisper to my dad to grab my rifle since he’s on the hidden side of the truck (while in my head I’m a little disgusted I could get an animal so quick into the hunt – wait, who am I kidding I’ve had a tough season I could use a break). As soon as I grab the rifle the buck takes off, shocking I know. At this point my dad mentioned he could do a push of the trees and I could go on the other side and set up. It’s about a half-mile of river bottom that could hold a lot of deer.
As I worked through the trees, I didn’t see many deer, but plenty of sign. Once I got to the other side, I saw a few does, and picked a spot to sit and watch. There was a small spindly 4-point that I kept trying to make bigger in my head but decided not to shoot him. Shortly after my decision they must have heard or winded the old man at the rate they took off. I went about a quarter way up the adjacent bench to get little elevation to see if some deer would try to escape. As I worked my way up and toward the end of the property, I heard a shot! It was only one shot from my Dad, so I set up and watched. A minute or so later a few deer dashed through an opening too far away and I swear the last one of the group was a really nice whitetail. I was excited at the possibility he got one but thought I should just check ahead a little bit in case there was another nice buck around. As I side hilled the bench a tall but very narrow muley buck is staring at me. I thought about shooting him, but I do like the taste of whitetail so let him go. A few minutes later I haven’t seen any other deer, so I start heading down to help my Dad. As I get down to the trees he starts coming out and said there was a large blood trail, but the buck jumped the fence to the other property. It was a quick offhand pullup shot so he wasn’t certain where he hit. I went to check out the blood trail and couldn’t believe the buck wasn’t dead based on the blood I saw. As much as it sucked, there wasn’t anything else we could do. He wouldn’t be able to get onto the adjacent property to finish or recover the buck.
At this point it was late in the morning, probably around 10-11. My dad went back to the truck, but I wanted to keep hunting, so he jokingly said, “have a nice hike” when I told him I was going on a hunt. I began hiking up toward the bench to see if I could find that tall muley again, since I knew I wouldn’t have many opportunities to hunt deer that year. Well, of course that muley and his does had moved on elsewhere and were nowhere to be found. I kept going to the top of the bench to do some spotting. After spotting the other side of a valley with no luck I started to head back to the morning side with plans to take a break, spot, and eat some lunch. A coyote spotted me while crossing the bench and took off, I thought about shooting the bugger, but he was at least 500 yards away by the time I could’ve realistically taken a shot at him. It was probably a good thing I didn’t shoot if I wanted my odds of getting a deer to be better than zero. I found a nice spot on a log that overlooks the river bottom we walked in the morning by a few hundred feet in elevation.
There was a group of 5-6 whitetail does on the wrong side of the property I could hunt, but I didn’t see any bucks among them. Well after powering down a sandwich and spotting some more I see a lone deer making his way toward the better side of the fence. He crosses and it’s hard to always have a grasp of where he is with the thick brush he’s walking through, but I thought I saw him bed by a strange looking tree. I still wasn’t sure what size of buck he is but decided I should at the very least sneak down to him and get setup just in case he’s a nice one. Once I got down from the steep part of the bench, while checking his location with my binos every couple hundred feet, I get to some loud swampy grass that required a slow and steady pace. Multiple times I would get in a lane that I could just barely seem him and thought he would bust, but he never did. I knew the wind was good since I check it about 123,987,527 times. I tried to work my way up the hill a little to get a shooting lane on him, but there were just too many trees. So, I had to work my way back down and would need to walk right into where he’s looking and hope I did it slowly enough to get setup on him and have time for a shot. There were a perfect group of low trees that I had setup on in the past to get my first turkey a few years prior that I thought would put me in position.
The next couple pictures I took a few days ago during my uneventful turkey hunt while I relived my deer hunt.
My view:
The Deer’s view:
Now that group of trees was under only a couple hundred feet from the deer, so I had to be extra careful. I got to the trees and slowly kneeled and as I pull up my binos he’s looking directly at me. Shoot! I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to shoot if he took off so I just stayed as still as I could, while in my head I knew I’d shoot him, and he’d be my best whitetail. Well after a few moments, looking through my binos he starts to slowly close and open his eyes! There’s no way he knows what I am if he’s sleepy like that, so I patiently sit in the mud that already caked my knees and I get my bipod setup as quietly as possible. He is still sleepy looking, so I gather myself until I’m solid. I would have shot earlier, but can only see his head and whole neck, no vitals. I waited for a minute, hoping he’d stand and give me a broadside, but I didn’t have a big shooting lane so I may not have had a view of his vitals if he did eventually stand. My nerves have worn off by this point and I’m as solid as possible so decide to take a shot at his vertebrae and/or arteries. After shooting I get another shot ready only to see he’s on the ground barely moving his head. It was a good shot and I just got my best whitetail! Hopefully there will be many more like this!
A few side notes:
It was nice letting my Dad know how my “hike” went.
Learned a ton about how to do a Euro mount.
Hopefully I’ll be able to have a similar story ready after this fall since I drew my first deer permit after deciding I didn’t want to potentially wait my whole life for a certain impossible to draw deer permit.
My last 3 whitetails I’ve been fortunate enough to take:
