My buddy and I took Friday off to go look for some deer for opening day. Friday morning we were where we wanted to be but no deer. At least none that weren't dinkers. We were sitting there with our spotting scopes and binos on tripods on full deer find mode and just couldn't find much at all. Steve mentioned that if we left right then we could get back to the truck and make it over to Jordon where he had always seen deer growing up.
My only knowledge of the "breaks" was when killed my bull elk up there 2 yrs ago. I seem to have more patience glassing areas I'm not that familiar with because it seems that when you know an area you tend to look at where you know where deer "have been" and less in areas that look like a deer "should be".
Off we went. We got to the new spot right at dark. We hiked over some ridges and sat down to get the spotters set up. Wow. Such nasty country. We ran in to some guys from the Dakotas who were looking for cow elk. No way I'd kill an elk in there unless it had a huge set of horns and someone was down on the lake with a boat.
We got on a different ridge and Steve buried his eyes in his new Swarovski spotter. "Good buck", he says. Great buck.
Steve knew some old couple who lived about a half hour from where we were. They offered us some twin beds in the basement of their house. Lap of luxury in the middle of nowhere. I love me some good tent camping but who's gonna turn down that and an egg breakfast before dawn?
We got back to the ridge and when shooting light came we were ready. About 15 minutes later we were getting nervous. No deer. My legs were getting numb so I decided to stand up and look over a different ridge. Just as I got my binos on the tripod I hear a shot. I look over and Steve is really warming up his barrel. Two. Then three.
I go over there and Steve said he shot a deer but it's not the one we saw. All three shots were hits. It was about a 350 yard shot and the deer fell behind some bushes. He's catching his breath and we are just talking about how nice of a morning it is and the best way to get over to his deer when I see a deer directly below us. All I can tell is that he's mature, 80-90 yards away and about to bolt. All I do is jack a shell in on my way to my shoulder. Steve puts his binos up and says shoot. Next thing I know this deer is summersaulting down the hill to the bottom.
High fives and fist pumps. We stay as high as we can and get to Steve's deer. When he pulled the antlers out of the cedar tree we both agree it actually was the buck from the night before. He ended up going 172-174
We drug his down the hill and it was only 40 yards from where my deer was laying. Mines only a 3x4, but he's a solid deer and we were both pleased with the first half hour of the season. Thank goodness for pack frames!!!! Here are some pics. We had our orange on. We just took them off for the pics, FYI.
My only knowledge of the "breaks" was when killed my bull elk up there 2 yrs ago. I seem to have more patience glassing areas I'm not that familiar with because it seems that when you know an area you tend to look at where you know where deer "have been" and less in areas that look like a deer "should be".
Off we went. We got to the new spot right at dark. We hiked over some ridges and sat down to get the spotters set up. Wow. Such nasty country. We ran in to some guys from the Dakotas who were looking for cow elk. No way I'd kill an elk in there unless it had a huge set of horns and someone was down on the lake with a boat.
We got on a different ridge and Steve buried his eyes in his new Swarovski spotter. "Good buck", he says. Great buck.
Steve knew some old couple who lived about a half hour from where we were. They offered us some twin beds in the basement of their house. Lap of luxury in the middle of nowhere. I love me some good tent camping but who's gonna turn down that and an egg breakfast before dawn?
We got back to the ridge and when shooting light came we were ready. About 15 minutes later we were getting nervous. No deer. My legs were getting numb so I decided to stand up and look over a different ridge. Just as I got my binos on the tripod I hear a shot. I look over and Steve is really warming up his barrel. Two. Then three.
I go over there and Steve said he shot a deer but it's not the one we saw. All three shots were hits. It was about a 350 yard shot and the deer fell behind some bushes. He's catching his breath and we are just talking about how nice of a morning it is and the best way to get over to his deer when I see a deer directly below us. All I can tell is that he's mature, 80-90 yards away and about to bolt. All I do is jack a shell in on my way to my shoulder. Steve puts his binos up and says shoot. Next thing I know this deer is summersaulting down the hill to the bottom.
High fives and fist pumps. We stay as high as we can and get to Steve's deer. When he pulled the antlers out of the cedar tree we both agree it actually was the buck from the night before. He ended up going 172-174
We drug his down the hill and it was only 40 yards from where my deer was laying. Mines only a 3x4, but he's a solid deer and we were both pleased with the first half hour of the season. Thank goodness for pack frames!!!! Here are some pics. We had our orange on. We just took them off for the pics, FYI.
