BuckSWATer
Member
- Messages
- 31
Luck was on our side this year for the California deer tag draw. Not only did I draw G37 (Anderson Flat Nov 22-30, hopefully I will have another success story to share after November), but my wife and 16 year old son were drawn for a quality X zone that I know well.
Dawn of opening morning found us way above the timberline sitting on a familiar high point, glassing a 270 degree view. But after two hours we had seen exactly zero deer. Based on our scouting and knowledge of the area we knew there were bucks out there, we just hadn't found them. Eventually, I spotted deer on a ridgeline two drainages away. A check through the spotting scope revealed two 4 pointers and a big forkie! The bucks were still feeding, but clearly interested in finding their beds. Within a few minutes they fed over the top of the ridge, onto the north facing slope and out of our view. We decided to drop down and loop all the way around them, climb up the back side of the mountain one ridge north of where we had last seen the bucks and wait for them to get up from their nap. After hours of hiking and positioning, we got ourselves right where we wanted to be. About an hour before sunset, we finally found them again. The sneaky sons -a- b;tches had done an end around and were now on the ridgeline south of where we had last seen them, much closer to where we had started from hours ago! They were way too far for us to close the distance before dark. So we decided to start making our way back to camp (we had a long way to go) and try again in the morning.
On our way back, we paused at a high point and glassed across the drainage ? deer! Two of ?em. I dropped my pack and dug out the spotting scope. They were bucks! My son took a quick look and his smile said it all. But we would have to hurry. The bucks were over 1000 yards away and daylight was fading fast. The three of us gathered our gear and hustled across a hidden bowl to the edge of the drainage ? 455 yards and no way to get closer. I reacquired the buck in my spotting scope while my son got into position; bi-pods adjusted, pack under the stock, scope dialed in, round chambered. I was so excited I could barely sit still, but my son was in the zone. He whispered ?ok dad I'm on him, the big one is standing broadside facing downhill, right?? ?That's him, you know what to do, just take your time and squeeze???... BOOM???.thwack!! Through the spotting scope I saw the buck hunch, run about 30 yards and tip over!! Wooowhooooo!!! We had to scramble down over 500 feet in elevation to cross the drainage and then back up the other steep slope ? of course it was pitch dark by the time we got to his buck, but we were all smiles. I talked him through it, but my son gutted his buck 100% on his own. The temperature had been dropping into the high 20?s at night, so we decided to drag his buck a little down the drainage, hang him high in a tree and get a fresh start in the daylight.
The following morning we decided to return to the vantage point we had originally spotted the first group of bucks from the previous day. The plan was to glass for a couple hours and then return to where my son?s buck was hanging and pack it off the mountain. (Our water was frozen, so I knew his buck was plenty cool). Lots of glassing turned up a few small groups of deer, but not the ones we were looking for. We were just getting ready to pack up our gear when my wife, who was looking through the spotting scope, announced ?got ?em, there they are!? and pointed to a sagebrush bowl about a mile away. They were the same three bucks we had seen the day before, but this time they were in a spot we might be able to get to. We developed a plan, picked out some landmarks, chose our route and headed off to try and close the deal on my wife?s first buck. Our course took us down a draw, around the foot of the mountain and up the back side of the ridge the deer were feeding on. 45 minutes later we were sneaking through our designated saddle and I knew we were getting close. We stayed low and slowly crept to a rock pile we had identified from our original lookout. As we crawled up the slope to the pile, the deer came into our view. They were still feeding unaware, near the top of the bowl. A check of the rangefinder read 305. Not a chip shot, but very doable. My wife got set as I watched through my binoculars. Like the evening before with my son, I found myself far more excited and anxious then if I had been behind the rifle myself, my adrenaline was pounding! She whispered, ?I'm ready if you are ready? ? ?take ?em?? Boom??.thwack!! The buck dropped in his tracks like someone had flipped a switch!! After some hugs and high fives and a few tears of joy my wife stood over her first buck ? a beautiful high country California 4x4.
We spent the rest of the day gutting, capeing, quartering, deboning, packing, hanging, hiking, skinning, quartering, packing, hanging?..whew!! And oh ya, lots of smiling. What an incredible California deer hunt ? memories that will last a lifetime!!
Adversity does not build character, it reveals it - Audaces Fortuna Juvat
Dawn of opening morning found us way above the timberline sitting on a familiar high point, glassing a 270 degree view. But after two hours we had seen exactly zero deer. Based on our scouting and knowledge of the area we knew there were bucks out there, we just hadn't found them. Eventually, I spotted deer on a ridgeline two drainages away. A check through the spotting scope revealed two 4 pointers and a big forkie! The bucks were still feeding, but clearly interested in finding their beds. Within a few minutes they fed over the top of the ridge, onto the north facing slope and out of our view. We decided to drop down and loop all the way around them, climb up the back side of the mountain one ridge north of where we had last seen the bucks and wait for them to get up from their nap. After hours of hiking and positioning, we got ourselves right where we wanted to be. About an hour before sunset, we finally found them again. The sneaky sons -a- b;tches had done an end around and were now on the ridgeline south of where we had last seen them, much closer to where we had started from hours ago! They were way too far for us to close the distance before dark. So we decided to start making our way back to camp (we had a long way to go) and try again in the morning.
On our way back, we paused at a high point and glassed across the drainage ? deer! Two of ?em. I dropped my pack and dug out the spotting scope. They were bucks! My son took a quick look and his smile said it all. But we would have to hurry. The bucks were over 1000 yards away and daylight was fading fast. The three of us gathered our gear and hustled across a hidden bowl to the edge of the drainage ? 455 yards and no way to get closer. I reacquired the buck in my spotting scope while my son got into position; bi-pods adjusted, pack under the stock, scope dialed in, round chambered. I was so excited I could barely sit still, but my son was in the zone. He whispered ?ok dad I'm on him, the big one is standing broadside facing downhill, right?? ?That's him, you know what to do, just take your time and squeeze???... BOOM???.thwack!! Through the spotting scope I saw the buck hunch, run about 30 yards and tip over!! Wooowhooooo!!! We had to scramble down over 500 feet in elevation to cross the drainage and then back up the other steep slope ? of course it was pitch dark by the time we got to his buck, but we were all smiles. I talked him through it, but my son gutted his buck 100% on his own. The temperature had been dropping into the high 20?s at night, so we decided to drag his buck a little down the drainage, hang him high in a tree and get a fresh start in the daylight.
The following morning we decided to return to the vantage point we had originally spotted the first group of bucks from the previous day. The plan was to glass for a couple hours and then return to where my son?s buck was hanging and pack it off the mountain. (Our water was frozen, so I knew his buck was plenty cool). Lots of glassing turned up a few small groups of deer, but not the ones we were looking for. We were just getting ready to pack up our gear when my wife, who was looking through the spotting scope, announced ?got ?em, there they are!? and pointed to a sagebrush bowl about a mile away. They were the same three bucks we had seen the day before, but this time they were in a spot we might be able to get to. We developed a plan, picked out some landmarks, chose our route and headed off to try and close the deal on my wife?s first buck. Our course took us down a draw, around the foot of the mountain and up the back side of the ridge the deer were feeding on. 45 minutes later we were sneaking through our designated saddle and I knew we were getting close. We stayed low and slowly crept to a rock pile we had identified from our original lookout. As we crawled up the slope to the pile, the deer came into our view. They were still feeding unaware, near the top of the bowl. A check of the rangefinder read 305. Not a chip shot, but very doable. My wife got set as I watched through my binoculars. Like the evening before with my son, I found myself far more excited and anxious then if I had been behind the rifle myself, my adrenaline was pounding! She whispered, ?I'm ready if you are ready? ? ?take ?em?? Boom??.thwack!! The buck dropped in his tracks like someone had flipped a switch!! After some hugs and high fives and a few tears of joy my wife stood over her first buck ? a beautiful high country California 4x4.
We spent the rest of the day gutting, capeing, quartering, deboning, packing, hanging, hiking, skinning, quartering, packing, hanging?..whew!! And oh ya, lots of smiling. What an incredible California deer hunt ? memories that will last a lifetime!!
Adversity does not build character, it reveals it - Audaces Fortuna Juvat
