Little Big Man MT Chris
Well-known member
My encounter with this deer actually started back in 2016 when driving down the hwy , I could see a newer clearcut faintly through the trees along the hwy . in 2017 I used google earth Learn how to get there , we’ve had a hot long dry summer and early fall this year and deer season is 5 days old , Ive been out twice and have seen 0 deer , Thursday , I look at Friday’s weather, low 50’s and rain all day , I got excited first real rain in 5 months, Blacktails are gonna be out in the clearcuts all day, After work race home gear up and go , I choose to go where last season ended , where we’ve been able 2 fill tags the last 2 years , about halfway up the mountain I hit the low clouds and fog , as I look out the window it’s 50 yds visibility, this is bad , turnaround or keep going and hope it lifts before dark keeps rolling in my mind , then I see the side road , the last road off the mountain, I go with my gut , the fog ain’t blowing over , I gotta get low , a hard left and back down I go , getting to the highway I feel the pressure of losing hunting time and my original plan is blown up , gotta think of somewhere close , then I remember the single walk in cut i learned the last season is 15 Min away ! Pedal down , pull off the hwy after a few miles hit the dirt road hoping no ones at the gate , it’s the only one on this road and the next area to hunt is over 30 Min away , I feel relief as I see no truck at the gate ! Go time , As i approach the clearcut I feel excited for the evening hunt, I knew this was my one spot for the night to far for a second clearcut to hunt , take your time hunt slow , the wind is whipping and it’s blowing sideways mist / rain , I go right to the first high point to glass the canyon and the timber edge below , looking over the edge , I pull out my wind checker , crap it’s blowing right to the flats and the ridge I wanna work to, i quickly retreated back to the starting point and took the road left and walked along slow and glassing ahead, just repeating the process, for those who’ve never hunted logging country a clearcut depending on the size can have a road , no road , or multiple roads in it based on terrain, this clearcut had a main road through the center and 3 short roads off the main which we call spur roads , taking the spur road left, I hunt into the wind and follow it the end , no deer sightings yet , but I’m seeing deer crap everywhere, I feel I could see one at any moment, I stop at this time to look at the new clearcut next to the one I’m in , this is the first time I’ve seen it since they started that job last season , it’s a nasty straight up and down hill , I glass the edges for deer , then I hear a truck , looking up I see an old pick drive into the landing at the top of the hill in the next cut over and above me pause , they reverse and disappear back into the woods , with the wind so strong and blowing the wrong way , i choose not to use the road through the center to access the high point on the far right of the cut to sit and glass till last light , but knew to get there I was gonna have to go all the way around , out of road now on the left side of the clearcut, I know there’s a road below me even though I can’t see it , time to bushwack!!! I’m begin to drop off the ridge and slowly picking my way across the mess of old branches on the ground, glassing ahead everywhere , still no deer . Halfway across the cut now , I look to my left and see another hunter on the landing the next cut over , walking to each side and glassing, I wave to get his attention, he doesn’t notice me or if he did he didn’t respond, I need to get off this side of the clearcut I tell myself and move a little faster still glassing as I go, I finally make it to the bottom of the hill and the road below , still no deer , surprised but then again not surprised I’m hunting Blacktails, as I slow walk the road back up the mountain I keep glassing ahead , looking, searching. I get to the one big flat on that side a great place for deer to feed with a small draw , I take my time to glass , nothing . I take a few steps , gun shot down below me , and across the hwy it sounded like , Hopefully he got it I think , and at least someone’s will get a deer tonight. I glass the flat again , nothing... take 2 steps , I hear rustling to my left , turn to look , only to see the white butt of a Blacktail go flying into the reprod... what the ! How the hell , I miss that ! The flat was 100 yards wide by like 300 long going up hill , I had full view , angry with myself and wondering where the hell was that deer , it was like 75 yards away maybe , I keep glassing where in went into the tree line hoping it will peek back out but knowing it won’t , was it a buck ??? Who knows , move on , I tell myself, but also feeling a little encouragement from finally seeing a deer on my 3rd outing of the season, I reach the top of the hill now and stay far left as I can the high point ridge is less than a hundred yards away now , the one place I most wanted to get to tonight I’m almost there , I leave the old logging road and have to slowly pick my way across the last 50 yards not wanting to miss step and break a branch , crouching low so not to highlight myself I get to the edge , I’m too far left I think to myself, if I see something right it’s gonna be to far to shoot , I back away 20 yards or so and move a little closer to the middle of the ridge line , slowly working my back to edge and finding a stump to sit behind and glass , as I sit down I see a deer looking up my way from below, crap !!!! busted I think , then I see another deer bedded behind it, quickly I glass them , just does . That sucks , maybe something else is here , I glass around , nothing. Peeking back around the stump , one deer is still looking up my direction, the other still bedded , I glass them again , and then it dawned on me the deer are all bedded and the only reason that one below me is standing is because it heard something, that’s why I never saw the first deer , I glassed right over it , I was laying down out of the wind , I felt some closure on missing seeing that first deer I just assumed it was standing, as I glassed over the area below me it’s at least 800 yards long and 300 plus wide , nothing else , I peek back down at the deer below , ones still bedded ones still looking up at me , I glass them again , Does that bedded deer have antlers? I strain , it does ! It’s just a spike , I need to get my rifle out and use the zoom to look for a fork , in Oregon Blacktails have to fork to be legal to harvest, pull the scope cover , pull the bipod down , just blurred, I can see the deer but all the rain has blurred the scope , I quietly try to use the inside of my shirt , raise my rifle again, still blurred, peek around the other side of the stump, deer's still looking up at me , try to use the inside of my coat , still not clear , knowing I have a good bino cloth in the back of my harness but not wanting to get it out because it’s in a plastic type bag it came in fearing I’d make too much noise , I conceded I have to do it , wrinkle, wrinkle, peek around the stump, deer still bedded deer still looking my way , let me also point out , these deer can’t be that far past 115 yds , clean the scope , raise my rifle , nope just a spike , put the cover back on the scope , glass the whole flat , don’t see any deer , peek back around the stump, deer still looking up , the spike is now up , glass both deer again hoping I a different angle I will now see a fork , like the longer I stare at them will somehow make there antlers grow , the spike is now feeding broadside to me the doe is still looking up , by this time it has occurred to me that the doe looking up herd something or saw something, but is so unsure she is still relaxed, I need to move farther down the ridge away from these deer , I think, maybe get a different spot , no ! I tell myself, it took you 2 hrs to get here , you maybe have 1hr at most of light to glass , you bust those deer and any other deer around won’t come out if there on the edge and your hunt is over , I parked at 4pm at the gate and it’s roughly 6 now , 2 or 3 times while sitting behind that stump I fought back the desire to move and get away from those deer , glass the whole flat then look down at the deer again , one was still looking up , this routine went on for 15 minutes , well I know the one is a spike , look again at the other one maybe it has horns and I’m not seeing it I tell myself, and as I go back to glass the doe looking up at me still , still hasn’t moved an inch , I accidentally glass over the top of her as I went from glassing the flat to find her again , is that another deer , bedded behind her ? It’s is ! I see the shape of the front half of a deer bedded behind a small evergreen, and as my eyes go from ribs and front shoulder and feet to neck and head , the reality of a mass of horn hits ! BUCK ! I didn’t even take a second look at the rack ! I knew it was a big deer , sitting back I slide the binos in my harness looked at my rifle sitting in front of me on the stump , It was already facing the deer , and pointing left from looking at the spike in the scope a few minutes earlier, right hand pulled off the scope cover and did a slight half turn left and silently prayed to calm myself as I slid behind the rifle put the cross hairs on the buck , and my inner voice said adjust lower your gonna be high at this down ward angle , cross hairs lower , BOOM , the whole buck rocked sideways feet kicking , he fought to get his feet underneath himself, I reloaded at the thought of him standing up, Boom , I shoot again , the buck rocks back on his butt and I see 4 point antler roll over and out of sight of my scope , I stand up , looking down , the buck no longer moving the doe looks back at the buck , the spike turns around and walks towards the buck looking at it , looking down I know in my heart it dead , I fill with excitement, and instantly I know I need help , slinging my rifle I starting running for the truck and my cell phone , After 35 minutes of phone calling , helps on the way, I’m on the phone with John telling him the story of what went down look over the edge and down to my buck and go , John you ain’t gonna believe this those deer are still there with that dead buck , he’s like no way !!! I’m gonna hang up and take a picture. looking back on that day , I never meant to hunt there , but bad weather changed me to plan B which I made up on the fly , it was a past season scouting that gave me the layout of the terrain of that clearcut , Randy always mentions in every hunt there’s that 5% that’s either good luck or bad luck , for me that doe never moving was my good luck, that when I over glassed her that last time it allowed me to notice the buck I never saw ,15 yds behind her maybe, it’s amazing to me that even when you see something you still don’t see it , had that spike been a fork i would have shot most likely, also had the first time I came to the edge of the ridge if I hadn’t readjusted my position I might not have seen them, they would have straight below me , they were so close to the face of the drop off . my one criticism I have of myself is that i rushed my shot , I believe from the time I recognized there was a buck bedded to shoot him was 4 or 5 seconds, while I made a clean kill , I never took the seconds that deer provided me by being caught unaware. Also when the buck was skinned we were able to determine my second shot was a clean miss , the first shot broke threw his rib where it connects to the spine , through the spine and out the front right shoulder , we all thought it strange a buck that big was with 2 small young deer , started the evening going to a different mountain and ended up in a place I didn’t think about all day and shot the biggest buck of my life to date , funny how life works
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