Deer Hunting
Hunting Experiences for 2008. Big Bucks
Deer hunting this year (2008) was successful even though a deer wasn't tagged and bagged. The hunt was in an area where trophy deer are abundent. And there were some in our scope at a very close range. But they didn't fit our criteria. A wide 5 by 4 or 4 by 4 rack of antlers just doesn't make for a good hunt. Ahh who wants one of those big deer anyway when they could have a much smaller 2 point deer or a deer with at least 2 antlers on one side! Well of course I would love a big buck with a trophy rack but that could only happen if I put in for a lottery draw for a special tag. So with a general deer hunting tag all that can be shot in the trophey unit is a buck with 2 points on one side. So that's where hunting started this year in the trophy area for a two point. It was a good hunt with my son (step-son) and brother in law on opening day. The weather started out ok but changes were on the way for the afternoon hours. Just prior to sunrise we found a good ridge overlooking a large open area of sage and juniper trees. A great area for deer to draw into during the night to feed. I was using a .30-.06, my son a .270. I can't remember the caliber of my brother in law's gun. He's the hunter in the family. Many years he has under his belt in the deer hunting world. I'm a veteran deer hunter of about three years. It's been great watching him and learning when we go out together. When the sun came up on our awesome spot we saw may be a few birds fly by over the juniper trees. There were many shapes that looked like deer but were shadows with sage branches looking like a buck! Stumps were sometimes mistaken for a deer. When the sun was up and the field totally lit it was very obvious our deer hunt would last longer than an hour. We elected to hike along a ridge line that cut through an area where there were many draws to scope. My brother in law and son hiked ahead while I hung back to cover a different area. There were tracks all over the place and droppings so we knew deer visited the area within a day or two. It was still just about an hour after sunrise and we were about 5000 feet in elevation so the temperature was slowly climbing out of the low 30s. Surprisingly there was very little wind even though a storm was approaching. The ridge we were on was a great hunting vantage point. It was steep terrain below with many bushes, sage, and juniper scattered enough where the deer would feel safe moving through and open enough where we could see them and get a shot. It felt like hours even though it had only been around one. My shoulder muscles were getting a workout carrying the rifle and backpack while lifting the binoculers to my eye. Every year I say I'm going to get in shape before the hunting season. Every year I'm sitting there sucking wind and in pain. We sat on an area that was getting the sun first and the opposite east ridge was still in a shadow and plenty dark to allow the deer to keep moving up the draw. If they were there at all. I grew impatient and started heading towards the other hunting pair when shots rang out. I didn't know where they were and the sound cracking off the other ridge made it sould like they were aiming my way. I ducked behind a tree and heard two other shots ring out. There was movement on the other ridge about 500 yards away. There was alot of movement. I counted five deer moving very quickly. With a quick look many had horns. It was very hard to see at that range with all the shadows.
Counting was difficult but there seemed to be many points on the racks. With my heart racing I started moving quickly towards where I thought my brother in law and son were. Moving steadily sucking wind and dodging small sage my mind went to that great place in the mind where imagination has a chance to quickly become reality! I believe every hunter goes there when shots are fired. Was the target reached? The answer was no. Catching up to the rest of my hunting party it was cool to learn it was my son shooting. He's a real good shot. This was discovered when he was 12. His first deer was moving quickly at around 150 yards and he broke it's back with one shot. This time they confirmed two deer had the legal two points on one side. My son now 17 lined up on one 400 yards away! He was off by around five feet. The deer were drawing right to them until they saw me coming towards them and they spooked! Of course it was my fault that he had to fire off a 400 yard shot. But there was excitement in the air knowing this was a hot area for deer. You just don't know what the Lord is going to give you when you venture out. I always pray and ask for some deer to come our way. Maybe I should be more specific. We hiked back and ventured over another area over the next few hours. Some cow elk were seen and some does but those bucks were elusive. Then the winds started kicking up and the weather moved in. It was all snow. The first snow of the year really in the high country. The winds were up around 30 and 40 miles per hour and the snow had reduced the visibility to near a half mile or less. Not a great scenerio for hunting deer. They were bedded down for sure and the weather wasn't going to let up through the night. It was decided to head out before the roads got too bad. My brother in law asked what the weather would be like tomorrow and I answered that the storm would be gone and it should be nice. Knowing that I was the only one who was off from work the next day he said I should come right back tomorrow. The deer would be down all night and not feeding like they normally do. With the weather nice tomorrow the deer would be all over the place feeding. His advice was to come right back to the ridge my son was throwing the lead. I was going to do my best to return the next day. The only thing that would prohibit me from doing so would be the snowy roads. So after the two and half hour drive home the plan was to get some sleep and venture back early the next morning.
Two things surprised me the next morning. I wasn't very sore and I wasn't tired. Driving with the high beams on it was very clear to see an inch or two of snow on the fields off the road. The roads were good with only one stretch very icy. The deer hunt was on! I made it in the dark back to that good spot on the ridge. It was great having the fresh snow and the cold. There was about three inches of snow. I sat along side some sage on the side of the ridge and waited for sunlight. It didn't take long to feel one with the environment. Birds were moving occaisional chirping. The flutter of the wings seemed very loud. The occaisional chip monk made some noise. It felt good to be still and have them move close by. Then there was a distict movement in my periferal. With a slow turn of the neck to the left it was a flash back to that old show Wild Kingdom for me. About 10 feet away slowly moving and scouting for food was a coyote! Ten feet away! I was very still watching him pass by. He either didn't notice me or didn't care. I like to think my super cool hunting skills fooled the animal, but more than likely he didn't care. After sitting and getting cold a bit on the bottom I decided to move down the ridge a little to check out the bottom with the binoculers. It was getting lighter by now and after moving about 30 yards down the ridge setting up behind some thick brush I spotted a doe at the bottom of the draw. The heart starts pumping and I took some deep breaths to calm down some.
My scope is stronger than the binoculers it revealed another doe and two bucks moving up the draw. One buck started up the other ridge and I quickly lost him so I concentrated on the buck below. He was moving in and out of some thick junipers but they didn't see me and were carrying on at thier slow normal pace moving up the steep draw. The buck was moving closer and now in good range to count the points on his noticable rack. The deer had three large very distinct horns on one side and on the other at first glance two prominant horns. But after a closer look it was easy to see two forks at the top of each of them. I was looking at a nice three by four buck. The cool thing was he was still moving up closer to me just about 50 yards away on the other side of a small off shoot of the main draw. Well I didn't shoot him with the gun but I did use the digital camera. Even when I moved a bit to get the camera out of the pocket the deer didn't spook. I had a zoom but it wasn't the best. The picture doesn't do the actual moment justice. It was a very cool highlight of my young hunting career. It confirmed that I could get into big wise deer. Atlhough using the term wise with a mule deer is an oxymoron. They really are dumb when being shot at. That's another story for another time. This was by far the closest I've gotten to a large deer unnoticed. There is the bigger picture that shows the deer. I zoomed in to try and show the horns but you can only see the three and you have to look hard to see them due to the weak camera and the the angle of the photo. I hunted that area pretty hard and saw only one more buck that day. It was moving and seeing if it was a two point was almost impossible so I didn't take the shot. There were many draws hiked that day with many deer tracks and droppings but none were fresh. There was a good chance that a three by four made them at some point. I've got a picture to prove it.
