twodot
New member
Well after spending most of last week at home coughing my head off and watching all the deer around running wild, my eldest Ben and I finally got back after the deer again.
We have had a great season so far, seeing lots of bucks and having several chances to shoot but always had something not optimal, "to far in the wind, not quite big enough, waiting for him to stop" you all know how that can go. But last evening after we froze our butts in wind and driving snow, we decided to wait this morning till the sun was up a bit and the deer were hopefully going for a mid-day movement hunt. Sunny and 12 degrees is not really too bad. We went to one of our favorite overlooks that we have seen several bucks from. One lone doe and fresh untracked snow all around her. We moved on heading towards the next spot where we could get a good view in the other direction. Hadn't gone 200 yards down the ridge when I noticed a bunch of fresh tracks crossing our ridge and going down into a nasty cedar hole. I got to following the tracks with my binos when all at once a small buck pops up into view. Then the whole opposite hill sprouted deer. There was a shooter for my young hunter in this bunch. I quickly set up the shooting sticks as he was chambering a round. It was a bit of a long shot for him, a bit past 300 yd and breezy. He said he was on, and I watched thru my 10-50s. Ben shot, and it was low! Shoot again he's movin, boom, thud! I saw the buck take the shot, it looked good but maybe low. {I was thinking heart shot} Now the deer was humped up and walking off around the hill poor Ben, was about to crap ice-water but gulped for air and took a third shot with no noticable effect. I told him to stop and relax, figuring that the buck was dead on his feet. Won't do that again. After looking at where he was and where we needed to be to gain a vantage point on him, we decided to go back to the jeep and drive up to the next ridge, park and sneak down the ridge and hopefully see him laid down on the back of the hill we had last seen him going around. We got where we were going and drew a blank. Nothing to do but go to the site of the shot and find blood. When we got to where he had been {about 45 min later} we found plenty of blood to convince us that we had a very hurt buck. We took up the blood trail and he surprised us by going up a rather large hill, then crossed a very steep coulee and by now was only leaving a drop or two of blood every 50 -100 yards. The fresh snow allowed us to stay with him though and finally we came near the bottom of the main drainage in the area. I told Ben, if he can go up the other side of that he is gonna get away from us. But our prayers were answered when I saw him bedded in the bottom of the drainage looking up his backtrail. Ben was ready this time and we eased to within about 150 yds or so the buck stared to get up. Ben was on him this time and he was down for good. The first hit had been just behind the ribs and the exit wound was plugged by a protruding gut. Ben has his first mule deer and it was a hard won trophy. We both learned a bit today and I can't say how proud I am of him for hanging in on an unreal long track up job in some nasty hills. After gutting and tagging we walked back up out of the drainage and decided the best way to get him was to drive a couple miles down the drainage from him and go in with a sled and bring him out on fairly level ground. We went and got Sarah and Nash then back in for the buck. Two eagles had already eaten almost all the guts and were getting ready to start on the rear quarters when we got there. No damage done other than pulled hair. A great hunt!!
We have had a great season so far, seeing lots of bucks and having several chances to shoot but always had something not optimal, "to far in the wind, not quite big enough, waiting for him to stop" you all know how that can go. But last evening after we froze our butts in wind and driving snow, we decided to wait this morning till the sun was up a bit and the deer were hopefully going for a mid-day movement hunt. Sunny and 12 degrees is not really too bad. We went to one of our favorite overlooks that we have seen several bucks from. One lone doe and fresh untracked snow all around her. We moved on heading towards the next spot where we could get a good view in the other direction. Hadn't gone 200 yards down the ridge when I noticed a bunch of fresh tracks crossing our ridge and going down into a nasty cedar hole. I got to following the tracks with my binos when all at once a small buck pops up into view. Then the whole opposite hill sprouted deer. There was a shooter for my young hunter in this bunch. I quickly set up the shooting sticks as he was chambering a round. It was a bit of a long shot for him, a bit past 300 yd and breezy. He said he was on, and I watched thru my 10-50s. Ben shot, and it was low! Shoot again he's movin, boom, thud! I saw the buck take the shot, it looked good but maybe low. {I was thinking heart shot} Now the deer was humped up and walking off around the hill poor Ben, was about to crap ice-water but gulped for air and took a third shot with no noticable effect. I told him to stop and relax, figuring that the buck was dead on his feet. Won't do that again. After looking at where he was and where we needed to be to gain a vantage point on him, we decided to go back to the jeep and drive up to the next ridge, park and sneak down the ridge and hopefully see him laid down on the back of the hill we had last seen him going around. We got where we were going and drew a blank. Nothing to do but go to the site of the shot and find blood. When we got to where he had been {about 45 min later} we found plenty of blood to convince us that we had a very hurt buck. We took up the blood trail and he surprised us by going up a rather large hill, then crossed a very steep coulee and by now was only leaving a drop or two of blood every 50 -100 yards. The fresh snow allowed us to stay with him though and finally we came near the bottom of the main drainage in the area. I told Ben, if he can go up the other side of that he is gonna get away from us. But our prayers were answered when I saw him bedded in the bottom of the drainage looking up his backtrail. Ben was ready this time and we eased to within about 150 yds or so the buck stared to get up. Ben was on him this time and he was down for good. The first hit had been just behind the ribs and the exit wound was plugged by a protruding gut. Ben has his first mule deer and it was a hard won trophy. We both learned a bit today and I can't say how proud I am of him for hanging in on an unreal long track up job in some nasty hills. After gutting and tagging we walked back up out of the drainage and decided the best way to get him was to drive a couple miles down the drainage from him and go in with a sled and bring him out on fairly level ground. We went and got Sarah and Nash then back in for the buck. Two eagles had already eaten almost all the guts and were getting ready to start on the rear quarters when we got there. No damage done other than pulled hair. A great hunt!!
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