jbseamus83
Well-known member
It was one of the best 1 day hunts I've had. My wife is 8 months pregnant, so she was pretty worried about me being gone for to long. I had plans to hunt through the weekend if needed, but if an opportunity at a quality buck presented itself, I was not going to hesitate.
The morning started surrounded by bugling elk. I watched bulls pushing cows all over the hills. Even had one pretty nice 5x5 with 2 cows at 75 yards from me for a while. I spotted deer about 3/4 mile away, but couldn't go straight at them. It was about 1.5 miles to get there and a 3 mile loop all the way back around. On my way around, I found a doe, fawn, and forkie that I stayed about 30 yards from watching and looking for others. I waited for 20 minutes and finally decided to just push through and bump them because I wasn't shooting any of them and didn't see any other deer. The doe saw me, wheezed and the woods exploded with probably 20 deer running in all directions. Oh well.
I found another deer later that looked like a buck. It had a bigger body than anything else I had seen and a very wide head. Unfortunately, he was standing in a ton of low scrub oak and his head was right in the branches. I couldn't verify any headgear, so I waited. As he turned and bounced away, he was one I would have shot. Again, oh well.
I saw upwards of 70-80 deer throughout the morning and early afternoon, mostly does and fawns. I went back out and glassed from a hillside on the other side of the timber for the late afternoon. 2.5 hours of sitting and only 4 does/fawns had shown themselves. I decided around 5:30 to start working through the timber again. I got pinned down by a doe and fawn for almost 10 minutes, but I had learned my lesson that morning and wasn't moving until they were gone. This turned out to be a very good decision.
They finally moved off and I caught movement from my right eye. I knew instantly it was a buck. It rounded around the trees and I knew it was a shooter buck for me. It was facing directly toward me at only 30 yards. I waited and he turned a little and gave me a quartering too shot. The 300 grain SST smacked him at 28 yards. He ran about 45 yards and went down. I was able to get my truck on the forest service road and get within range to drag him after gutting him so that I could hang him in camp and didn't have to quarter him in the field and pack him out.
It's my best Mule deer to date and I was able to get it on a great day in the woods and get back home the following day. I love the character this deer has with the trident looking back fork on the left side.
The morning started surrounded by bugling elk. I watched bulls pushing cows all over the hills. Even had one pretty nice 5x5 with 2 cows at 75 yards from me for a while. I spotted deer about 3/4 mile away, but couldn't go straight at them. It was about 1.5 miles to get there and a 3 mile loop all the way back around. On my way around, I found a doe, fawn, and forkie that I stayed about 30 yards from watching and looking for others. I waited for 20 minutes and finally decided to just push through and bump them because I wasn't shooting any of them and didn't see any other deer. The doe saw me, wheezed and the woods exploded with probably 20 deer running in all directions. Oh well.
I found another deer later that looked like a buck. It had a bigger body than anything else I had seen and a very wide head. Unfortunately, he was standing in a ton of low scrub oak and his head was right in the branches. I couldn't verify any headgear, so I waited. As he turned and bounced away, he was one I would have shot. Again, oh well.
I saw upwards of 70-80 deer throughout the morning and early afternoon, mostly does and fawns. I went back out and glassed from a hillside on the other side of the timber for the late afternoon. 2.5 hours of sitting and only 4 does/fawns had shown themselves. I decided around 5:30 to start working through the timber again. I got pinned down by a doe and fawn for almost 10 minutes, but I had learned my lesson that morning and wasn't moving until they were gone. This turned out to be a very good decision.
They finally moved off and I caught movement from my right eye. I knew instantly it was a buck. It rounded around the trees and I knew it was a shooter buck for me. It was facing directly toward me at only 30 yards. I waited and he turned a little and gave me a quartering too shot. The 300 grain SST smacked him at 28 yards. He ran about 45 yards and went down. I was able to get my truck on the forest service road and get within range to drag him after gutting him so that I could hang him in camp and didn't have to quarter him in the field and pack him out.
It's my best Mule deer to date and I was able to get it on a great day in the woods and get back home the following day. I love the character this deer has with the trident looking back fork on the left side.
