buckhunterhart
Member
My nephew, a co-worker and myself all drew one of the new early season rifle deer hunting tags for a northern Utah unit this past spring. The unit we drew has a lot of private land and the public Forest Service land tends to look like a pumpkin patch during the hunts, so I decided to dig a little deeper and do some in depth "digital" scouting. For years I had heard of a few public BLM and State Trust land areas around that mostly locals knew about that were intermingled among CWMU and private lands. I reached out to one of the DNR COs that I have rubbed shoulders with a few times in the past and he did me a solid by calling me directly and discussing how I could navigate right of way access into the areas I was looking at on the map.
After spending quite a while on the DNR map site, I decided I needed a better tool and bought the OnX app for my phone. Wow! What a great tool to have in the field, especially when trying constantly transitioning from BLM to CWMU to private to State Trust lands etc. I had a pretty good idea where I wanted to take a look around in July, but family obligations and holidays always got in the way, and come August we had a 2 week vacation planned that was occupying all of my time planning, booking excursions, and arranging transportation.
Returning very exhausted from a long trip overseas, I found myself without something to focus on and very little funds to get out and play, but decided that a tank of gas was in the budget and decided to take an evening drive up to the area that I had only seen on paper. My hunting partners each had newborns during the summer, and they were not going to push their luck sneaking away if they wanted to hunt come October, so I flew solo.
It had been a very, very dry summer here in northern Utah, and the area I went to look at reflected it with about 3 inches of dust on the roads. With only a couple of hours before dark, I utilized the OnX map app on my phone to get around to some of the areas that seemed to have the most potential. A whole lot of nothing was what I was seeing. Not a lot of cover, only rolling sage brush hills with no water sources in sight. Seeing a bunch of cattle in one area, I decided that there had to be a source of water around, and right before dark headed up a little draw. Still nothing. I decided to call it a night and turned the truck around, only to expose the drivers side of the truck to the hills to the west and spotted this on the skyline.View attachment 88561
Adrenaline pumping I now had a place to start looking, some evidence to share with my hunting partners, and a legit reason to plan another scouting trip. A week later we took an early morning Saturday scouting trip, and wouldn't you know we saw a half dozen bucks in the same area, and eventually ran into this bruiser near another water source. View attachment 88562
Fast forward a couple weeks and the muzzleloader deer hunt begin, and we decided to not get out while others were pursuing deer and elk. With the arrival of the general season elk hunt the weather did a complete 180. Rain started and kept going for a couple of days. With our hunt starting on a Wednesday morning, the forecast called for 1" of snow in the town nearest our hunting area. Looked promising. Some of my best days hunting have been after a storm cleared and there was a nice blanket of snow to make spotting a lot easier.
Morning came and going over the pass to the hunting area it became apparent that we were in for more than an inch of snow. Nearly 8 inches were on the road at 9000 feet, and it only seemed to get deeper the further down into the valley we got, which was atypical for Utah. We found about 6-8" in our hunting area, with about 2" of mud underneath. We were able to make our way around pretty well, and encountered several bucks in the area we had scouted in the previous month. My nephew was a bit hesitant to shoot any of the little bucks after having seen bigger, and when he did finally decide to shoot his safety was on and it went up over the hill. Having scouted and knowing where the road went, we decided to try to cut them off.
We started up the hill with the greatest of expectations...until the road got steeper, the tires lost grip (had not put on the chains yet as it was prime time) and we had to back down the road. That is when things took a bad turn. I slid the truck into the bank of the road, lodged it on a rock and we were stuck for about 2 1/2 hours. Not cool. Several shooter bucks crossed within 100 yards from us as we tried to dig out, seemingly mocking us. We finally decided that getting help was our only option, so we hiked up to a nearby CWMU lodge, and some very kind guys came down and we slowly got pulled down the hill.
One good dent to the rocker panel, and half of my front bumper pulled off later ($6.99 connectors on Amazon phew) we were down on flat ground and chaining up. We chased around the rest of the afternoon, burning a full tank of gas and only going 150 miles. We decided to head out over the pass a bit earlier than anticipated in order to conserve enough energy to do it all again in the morning. Upon reaching higher elevation and Forest Service land fortune changed in an instant as my buck and 2 point crossed directly in front of us with about 15 minutes of legal shooting light left. I hit the brakes, pulled to the shoulder, grabbed my gun and pack and jumped off the road to try to chase them down. After a ways I was amazed to see them standing broadside in the thick trees. I pulled up and discovered that my new scope (thanks again @schmalts ) was still at 18 power. Quickly dialed down to 3 power, and as they turned to walk away I put a quartering away shot through part of the rear quarter, into the chest cavity and dropped him in his tracks with the good old 300 WSM Browning x-bolt. The Federal 180 TBT was just on the opposite side right under the hide, perfectly mushroomed and completely intact. (so glad I spend $1000 plus on a 1000 yard capable scope only to shoot one at 30 yards. Oh well, it will come in handy eventually)
Got him loaded up and we headed home, me with a good adrenaline rush and the other two hopeful for the morning.
The next morning we came into the same area, and as I stopped to lock the truck in 4 low I glanced past my nephew and said, "well, there are two deer". He threw up his glasses, saw the one was a good buck, got a good rest and took his time and fired a great shot. Seeing the deer lurch, I knew he had hit it hard. My coworker took off to get his track as my nephew and I glassed him around the hill and ran the truck down the road to intercept him. We saw the little one he was with, and soon found him bedded nearby. (the little buck would eventually be the big guys downfall). My nephew squeezed off another shot and he dropped. Thinking he was dead to rights, we backed up the road to a spot that would make it easier to recover him. As we hiked in to where he was we found a bed with bright blood, two sets of tracks, one dragging a bum leg, but no deer. Surprisingly they jumped up about 50 yards down the hill and he ran straight down a ravine covered in shoulder high sage.
Not knowing how hard he was hit, but having had an experience with a buck the previous year that was hit in the front shoulder, I thought it best to send my nephew down the draw, as there was a cattle fence that I didn't think he could get over with a bum leg. We drove around to a road that came out on the other side. From that vantage I threw up the Black Diamond 10 x 42's and glassed the deep sage draw. Pretty soon I was able to spot the little buck, and glassed out the antler of the big one right by his feet. The little buck would walk to the top of the wash, look around, and then go back to the big guy. My nephew made it down, put a good kill shot on him, and my coworker decided to take one for the team and shoot the small buck (mostly because he knew that neither one of use was going to want to get up at 4am again...he was right). We dragged them down the hill, and a truck that had passed us previously, another CWMU runner and his friend, helped us get them the rest of the way out of the hole.
My nephew was very happy with his very first big game kill, and I think he is hooked for life.
Tons of thanks to both of the CWMU unit guys that helped us out in our pursuit. Also, my coworker Matt totally put himself in the backseat (figuratively and literally) to let my nephew have a great first hunt.
Also, thanks to the DNR CO that gave me the low down on the area.
@schmalts - Thanks for the great price on a great scope that I swear I will use at more than 30 yards in the future.
Was a great hunt, and we now have a ton of memories which run the entire spectrum of emotions to recall. The best part is we have a great area to spend more time exploring in coming years, the draw odds being in our favor...hopefully.
After spending quite a while on the DNR map site, I decided I needed a better tool and bought the OnX app for my phone. Wow! What a great tool to have in the field, especially when trying constantly transitioning from BLM to CWMU to private to State Trust lands etc. I had a pretty good idea where I wanted to take a look around in July, but family obligations and holidays always got in the way, and come August we had a 2 week vacation planned that was occupying all of my time planning, booking excursions, and arranging transportation.
Returning very exhausted from a long trip overseas, I found myself without something to focus on and very little funds to get out and play, but decided that a tank of gas was in the budget and decided to take an evening drive up to the area that I had only seen on paper. My hunting partners each had newborns during the summer, and they were not going to push their luck sneaking away if they wanted to hunt come October, so I flew solo.
It had been a very, very dry summer here in northern Utah, and the area I went to look at reflected it with about 3 inches of dust on the roads. With only a couple of hours before dark, I utilized the OnX map app on my phone to get around to some of the areas that seemed to have the most potential. A whole lot of nothing was what I was seeing. Not a lot of cover, only rolling sage brush hills with no water sources in sight. Seeing a bunch of cattle in one area, I decided that there had to be a source of water around, and right before dark headed up a little draw. Still nothing. I decided to call it a night and turned the truck around, only to expose the drivers side of the truck to the hills to the west and spotted this on the skyline.View attachment 88561
Adrenaline pumping I now had a place to start looking, some evidence to share with my hunting partners, and a legit reason to plan another scouting trip. A week later we took an early morning Saturday scouting trip, and wouldn't you know we saw a half dozen bucks in the same area, and eventually ran into this bruiser near another water source. View attachment 88562
Fast forward a couple weeks and the muzzleloader deer hunt begin, and we decided to not get out while others were pursuing deer and elk. With the arrival of the general season elk hunt the weather did a complete 180. Rain started and kept going for a couple of days. With our hunt starting on a Wednesday morning, the forecast called for 1" of snow in the town nearest our hunting area. Looked promising. Some of my best days hunting have been after a storm cleared and there was a nice blanket of snow to make spotting a lot easier.
Morning came and going over the pass to the hunting area it became apparent that we were in for more than an inch of snow. Nearly 8 inches were on the road at 9000 feet, and it only seemed to get deeper the further down into the valley we got, which was atypical for Utah. We found about 6-8" in our hunting area, with about 2" of mud underneath. We were able to make our way around pretty well, and encountered several bucks in the area we had scouted in the previous month. My nephew was a bit hesitant to shoot any of the little bucks after having seen bigger, and when he did finally decide to shoot his safety was on and it went up over the hill. Having scouted and knowing where the road went, we decided to try to cut them off.
We started up the hill with the greatest of expectations...until the road got steeper, the tires lost grip (had not put on the chains yet as it was prime time) and we had to back down the road. That is when things took a bad turn. I slid the truck into the bank of the road, lodged it on a rock and we were stuck for about 2 1/2 hours. Not cool. Several shooter bucks crossed within 100 yards from us as we tried to dig out, seemingly mocking us. We finally decided that getting help was our only option, so we hiked up to a nearby CWMU lodge, and some very kind guys came down and we slowly got pulled down the hill.
One good dent to the rocker panel, and half of my front bumper pulled off later ($6.99 connectors on Amazon phew) we were down on flat ground and chaining up. We chased around the rest of the afternoon, burning a full tank of gas and only going 150 miles. We decided to head out over the pass a bit earlier than anticipated in order to conserve enough energy to do it all again in the morning. Upon reaching higher elevation and Forest Service land fortune changed in an instant as my buck and 2 point crossed directly in front of us with about 15 minutes of legal shooting light left. I hit the brakes, pulled to the shoulder, grabbed my gun and pack and jumped off the road to try to chase them down. After a ways I was amazed to see them standing broadside in the thick trees. I pulled up and discovered that my new scope (thanks again @schmalts ) was still at 18 power. Quickly dialed down to 3 power, and as they turned to walk away I put a quartering away shot through part of the rear quarter, into the chest cavity and dropped him in his tracks with the good old 300 WSM Browning x-bolt. The Federal 180 TBT was just on the opposite side right under the hide, perfectly mushroomed and completely intact. (so glad I spend $1000 plus on a 1000 yard capable scope only to shoot one at 30 yards. Oh well, it will come in handy eventually)
Got him loaded up and we headed home, me with a good adrenaline rush and the other two hopeful for the morning.
The next morning we came into the same area, and as I stopped to lock the truck in 4 low I glanced past my nephew and said, "well, there are two deer". He threw up his glasses, saw the one was a good buck, got a good rest and took his time and fired a great shot. Seeing the deer lurch, I knew he had hit it hard. My coworker took off to get his track as my nephew and I glassed him around the hill and ran the truck down the road to intercept him. We saw the little one he was with, and soon found him bedded nearby. (the little buck would eventually be the big guys downfall). My nephew squeezed off another shot and he dropped. Thinking he was dead to rights, we backed up the road to a spot that would make it easier to recover him. As we hiked in to where he was we found a bed with bright blood, two sets of tracks, one dragging a bum leg, but no deer. Surprisingly they jumped up about 50 yards down the hill and he ran straight down a ravine covered in shoulder high sage.
Not knowing how hard he was hit, but having had an experience with a buck the previous year that was hit in the front shoulder, I thought it best to send my nephew down the draw, as there was a cattle fence that I didn't think he could get over with a bum leg. We drove around to a road that came out on the other side. From that vantage I threw up the Black Diamond 10 x 42's and glassed the deep sage draw. Pretty soon I was able to spot the little buck, and glassed out the antler of the big one right by his feet. The little buck would walk to the top of the wash, look around, and then go back to the big guy. My nephew made it down, put a good kill shot on him, and my coworker decided to take one for the team and shoot the small buck (mostly because he knew that neither one of use was going to want to get up at 4am again...he was right). We dragged them down the hill, and a truck that had passed us previously, another CWMU runner and his friend, helped us get them the rest of the way out of the hole.
My nephew was very happy with his very first big game kill, and I think he is hooked for life.
Tons of thanks to both of the CWMU unit guys that helped us out in our pursuit. Also, my coworker Matt totally put himself in the backseat (figuratively and literally) to let my nephew have a great first hunt.
Also, thanks to the DNR CO that gave me the low down on the area.
@schmalts - Thanks for the great price on a great scope that I swear I will use at more than 30 yards in the future.
Was a great hunt, and we now have a ton of memories which run the entire spectrum of emotions to recall. The best part is we have a great area to spend more time exploring in coming years, the draw odds being in our favor...hopefully.
