JohnSWA
Senior Thread Mover
Hi guys and gals!
I just got back from a three day weekend in Northern Idaho for a deer hunt. Last year I shot my first deer(doe) and that was great but yesterday I shot my first Buck! What a rush! hump Here's the story.
Sunday, my father in law invited me and my bro in law out to one of his friends property. It was quite a bit of land with high rolling hills and tall pines everywhere with hay fields in between. I hiked up one logging road with my FIL and my BIL took a lower road. We didn't see any animals immediately, so my FIL told me to try a different logging road that would eventually end up somewhere around where my BIL was hunting. I followed the road until it ended and hung out in the middle of steep hill where I saw some decent scrapes. I made a few grunts and heard nothing in reply, so after a while I climbed the top of the hill and walked quite a ways looking for some fresh sign. I saw a game trail to my left and started to walk down the hill in thick brush. Yeah, I know...I scared everything for miles walking that trail, but I saw tons of fresh sign everywhere and even got to see a beautiful Snowshoe Hare sitting on the hill not more than 10 yards away from me. It reminded me about the "Booner" pic of the huge rabbit! LOL! That was classic. Anyway, I'm cruising down this trail not knowing where I'm going(which is nothing unusual for me) and proceded to ALMOST get lost! |oo My FIL sent me down the wrong trail(his words) and I ended up way on the other side of the hill. I must have walked about 10 miles trying to find my way back to the truck(felt that way anyway). What's really funny was that after getting lost last year I promised myself that I was not going anywhere without a gps ever again! Ofcourse I had my gps(in the truck). I figured that since I wasn't going too far from the truck I wouldn't need it! Just another day of a bad case of "dumbass"!
I heard a gunshot and over the radio, my FIL said he had a deer down! Turned out to be a little toe head, but still something for the freezer. Don't ever shoot a lil one with a 7mm mag. Poor thing was blown to bits! at least he was able to save the hindquarters and a bit of the backstrap.
Now we headed over to another hill. I went up the right side, FIL/BIL took the left. I saw a huge buck!, but ofcourse he saw me first, so I couldn't take a shot. Five minutes later I hear another gunshot. BIL radios that he shot a spike. Nice shot with a .444. With a gun like that your not chasing an animal anywhere! The spike was a decent buck and we dressed and dragged it out to the truck. That was day one.
Day 2:
This day was hilarious! We decided to hunt some public land to find my buck. We went to Crane Point and unloaded my FIL's ATV and he got a friend to loan me an ATC and we basically just went road hunting. Yeah, I know...roadhunting :BLEEP: Cruising the logging roads I saw one buck but of course he saw(or heard) me first so the first half of the day went pretty uneventful...that is until we saw a REAL steep road down to Crane Creek with lots of kelly humps. Now I know a lot of you guys have ridded ATVs down steep roads with kelly humps but have you tried doing this in a three wheeler? I lead the way down and was doing just fine until we reached the middle of the hill. I was driving the ATC kinda slow and it was good thing I was because I found one Kelly hump with my name on it! I got the front wheel over ok, but then I got the rear wheels over too! WAY OVER!!! Like I said, it was a good thing I was driving slow. I was thrown from the three wheeler with nothing hurt but my pride. The gun rack was a bit tweaked and my rifle got some character marks on the stock and the barrel was plugged with dirt but other than that, everything was ok...for a while that is.
After we reached the bottom of the road, we cruised the road along Crane Creek and saw lots of sign, but ofcourse no animals. We decided to call it a day and head back to the truck and load the vehicles. My FIL loaded his ATV in the back of his truck and I started to load the ATC. You know what? I don't think I'll every buy a tilt trailer for loading vehicles...at least for atc's.
We tilted the trailer down and I loaded the ATC...well sort of! When I drove it up the trailer it automatically leveled itself perfectly!!! Of course when I got up from the seat standing on the pegs it tilted back up sending me and the ATC end over end backwards! You should have seen the look on my FIL's face as he saw the tralier give way...better yet, I would have loved to see the look on my face as the horizon went to blue sky! Luckily, I just kinda jammed my elbow a bit on the ground and the ATC wasn't too terribly heavy as it landed on me so everything was ok. The handlebars were a little bent back and the gun rack got tweaked a little more, but thank God I didn't have my rifle on the rack. After that tumble I was laughing soo hard! I couldn't stop from cracking up! My FIL couldn't understand why I was laughing at something that wasn't funny(to him) but I hadn't laughed so hard in years! I was just cracking up all the way down the hill. I guess I'm just kinda stupid that way.
Ok, Day 3:
I was only able to hunt for a 1/2 day because I had to catch a flight home. This time, I got to drive the 4 wheeler! Would you trust me on a three wheeler? Anyway, we went back to the area we were at the first day. I found a spot on day one that was perfect! I've never seen anything like it before. An open hay field that was surrounded by thick pines with a little pond about 100 yards from the thicket! I thought the field was plowed but the area was tilled with hoof prints!
I stopped the ATV about 1/4 mile away from where I wanted to hunt and hiked up to my spot right under one of the few trees in the field. I brought with me a set of antlers to rattle with to see what I could scare up. I've never used antlers before, but let me tell ya...I'm sold! I started rattlilng about 7:00am and about 20 minutes later I hear slow foot(hoof)steps coming towards my direction! Finally out from a tree comes this huge(for me anyway) buck with his neck all swollen looking to get in on this faux fight! The tree was only about 40 yards away from me and he spotted me.
Slowly, I put down the antlers and picked up my .270. He didn't move, he just stood there wondering why there was a hunter where a buck brawl should have been! My rile scope took a beating from the gun rack and the last time I shot it it was shooting low and to the left, so I found this bad boy in my scope and aimed a little high and to the right. BANG! He wouldn't give me a broadside shot, but he was quartered a little bit to his left, so I aimed high at his left shoulder. After I pulled the trigger, he jumped up and stumbled a bit as he ran, so I knew I hit him!
I waited a little bit before I got up to look for his blood trail. I went to the site where I shot him and found no blood! I knew that I hit him so I tried to follow his path in which he ran...stumbled. Sure enough, thirty yards from where I shot him he was lying in the field. My shot was just as I expected. A little left and a little low from where I aimed. The entry wound was high in the chest in a downward direction dead center in his heart and ricocheting into his left shoulder which is why he couldn't run very far...I guess the heart shot had a little something to do with that too! Hee Hee!
Unfortunately, my FIL's radio wasn't working, so I had to drag this bad boy over a hundered yards up hill to the quad and lift him up on the rack all by myself...I hear ya..."Whaaaaahhhh"! Well it was quite the workout buy oh so worth it! I was so happy and so proud! His rack you say? Well, he's no Booner, but he's a 3x3 or a 4x4 if yoiu count the kickers. I couldn't weigh him but he looked pretty big to me.
Well, that's my story. I hope it wasn't too long. My digital is in the shop getting cleaned, so you'll have to wait for my disposable camera's film to be developed for the pics.
Thanks for reading and I hope everybody gets their buck and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I just got back from a three day weekend in Northern Idaho for a deer hunt. Last year I shot my first deer(doe) and that was great but yesterday I shot my first Buck! What a rush! hump Here's the story.
Sunday, my father in law invited me and my bro in law out to one of his friends property. It was quite a bit of land with high rolling hills and tall pines everywhere with hay fields in between. I hiked up one logging road with my FIL and my BIL took a lower road. We didn't see any animals immediately, so my FIL told me to try a different logging road that would eventually end up somewhere around where my BIL was hunting. I followed the road until it ended and hung out in the middle of steep hill where I saw some decent scrapes. I made a few grunts and heard nothing in reply, so after a while I climbed the top of the hill and walked quite a ways looking for some fresh sign. I saw a game trail to my left and started to walk down the hill in thick brush. Yeah, I know...I scared everything for miles walking that trail, but I saw tons of fresh sign everywhere and even got to see a beautiful Snowshoe Hare sitting on the hill not more than 10 yards away from me. It reminded me about the "Booner" pic of the huge rabbit! LOL! That was classic. Anyway, I'm cruising down this trail not knowing where I'm going(which is nothing unusual for me) and proceded to ALMOST get lost! |oo My FIL sent me down the wrong trail(his words) and I ended up way on the other side of the hill. I must have walked about 10 miles trying to find my way back to the truck(felt that way anyway). What's really funny was that after getting lost last year I promised myself that I was not going anywhere without a gps ever again! Ofcourse I had my gps(in the truck). I figured that since I wasn't going too far from the truck I wouldn't need it! Just another day of a bad case of "dumbass"!
I heard a gunshot and over the radio, my FIL said he had a deer down! Turned out to be a little toe head, but still something for the freezer. Don't ever shoot a lil one with a 7mm mag. Poor thing was blown to bits! at least he was able to save the hindquarters and a bit of the backstrap.
Now we headed over to another hill. I went up the right side, FIL/BIL took the left. I saw a huge buck!, but ofcourse he saw me first, so I couldn't take a shot. Five minutes later I hear another gunshot. BIL radios that he shot a spike. Nice shot with a .444. With a gun like that your not chasing an animal anywhere! The spike was a decent buck and we dressed and dragged it out to the truck. That was day one.
Day 2:
This day was hilarious! We decided to hunt some public land to find my buck. We went to Crane Point and unloaded my FIL's ATV and he got a friend to loan me an ATC and we basically just went road hunting. Yeah, I know...roadhunting :BLEEP: Cruising the logging roads I saw one buck but of course he saw(or heard) me first so the first half of the day went pretty uneventful...that is until we saw a REAL steep road down to Crane Creek with lots of kelly humps. Now I know a lot of you guys have ridded ATVs down steep roads with kelly humps but have you tried doing this in a three wheeler? I lead the way down and was doing just fine until we reached the middle of the hill. I was driving the ATC kinda slow and it was good thing I was because I found one Kelly hump with my name on it! I got the front wheel over ok, but then I got the rear wheels over too! WAY OVER!!!
Like I said, it was a good thing I was driving slow. I was thrown from the three wheeler with nothing hurt but my pride. The gun rack was a bit tweaked and my rifle got some character marks on the stock and the barrel was plugged with dirt but other than that, everything was ok...for a while that is.After we reached the bottom of the road, we cruised the road along Crane Creek and saw lots of sign, but ofcourse no animals. We decided to call it a day and head back to the truck and load the vehicles. My FIL loaded his ATV in the back of his truck and I started to load the ATC. You know what? I don't think I'll every buy a tilt trailer for loading vehicles...at least for atc's.
We tilted the trailer down and I loaded the ATC...well sort of! When I drove it up the trailer it automatically leveled itself perfectly!!! Of course when I got up from the seat standing on the pegs it tilted back up sending me and the ATC end over end backwards! You should have seen the look on my FIL's face as he saw the tralier give way...better yet, I would have loved to see the look on my face as the horizon went to blue sky! Luckily, I just kinda jammed my elbow a bit on the ground and the ATC wasn't too terribly heavy as it landed on me so everything was ok. The handlebars were a little bent back and the gun rack got tweaked a little more, but thank God I didn't have my rifle on the rack. After that tumble I was laughing soo hard! I couldn't stop from cracking up! My FIL couldn't understand why I was laughing at something that wasn't funny(to him) but I hadn't laughed so hard in years! I was just cracking up all the way down the hill. I guess I'm just kinda stupid that way.
Ok, Day 3:
I was only able to hunt for a 1/2 day because I had to catch a flight home. This time, I got to drive the 4 wheeler! Would you trust me on a three wheeler? Anyway, we went back to the area we were at the first day. I found a spot on day one that was perfect! I've never seen anything like it before. An open hay field that was surrounded by thick pines with a little pond about 100 yards from the thicket! I thought the field was plowed but the area was tilled with hoof prints!
I stopped the ATV about 1/4 mile away from where I wanted to hunt and hiked up to my spot right under one of the few trees in the field. I brought with me a set of antlers to rattle with to see what I could scare up. I've never used antlers before, but let me tell ya...I'm sold! I started rattlilng about 7:00am and about 20 minutes later I hear slow foot(hoof)steps coming towards my direction! Finally out from a tree comes this huge(for me anyway) buck with his neck all swollen looking to get in on this faux fight! The tree was only about 40 yards away from me and he spotted me.
Slowly, I put down the antlers and picked up my .270. He didn't move, he just stood there wondering why there was a hunter where a buck brawl should have been! My rile scope took a beating from the gun rack and the last time I shot it it was shooting low and to the left, so I found this bad boy in my scope and aimed a little high and to the right. BANG! He wouldn't give me a broadside shot, but he was quartered a little bit to his left, so I aimed high at his left shoulder. After I pulled the trigger, he jumped up and stumbled a bit as he ran, so I knew I hit him!
I waited a little bit before I got up to look for his blood trail. I went to the site where I shot him and found no blood! I knew that I hit him so I tried to follow his path in which he ran...stumbled. Sure enough, thirty yards from where I shot him he was lying in the field. My shot was just as I expected. A little left and a little low from where I aimed. The entry wound was high in the chest in a downward direction dead center in his heart and ricocheting into his left shoulder which is why he couldn't run very far...I guess the heart shot had a little something to do with that too! Hee Hee!
Unfortunately, my FIL's radio wasn't working, so I had to drag this bad boy over a hundered yards up hill to the quad and lift him up on the rack all by myself...I hear ya..."Whaaaaahhhh"! Well it was quite the workout buy oh so worth it! I was so happy and so proud! His rack you say? Well, he's no Booner, but he's a 3x3 or a 4x4 if yoiu count the kickers. I couldn't weigh him but he looked pretty big to me.
Well, that's my story. I hope it wasn't too long. My digital is in the shop getting cleaned, so you'll have to wait for my disposable camera's film to be developed for the pics.
Thanks for reading and I hope everybody gets their buck and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
