J
jgalantine
Guest
Well this was our third consecutive year hunting the ruby mountains. The first two years we were unsuccessful. We hiked in on Thursday afternoon to our hunting spot and set up camp. Opening morning my dad and I setup a little ways away from each other and said we would sit untill at least 10am. At about 7:30 a group of 7 bucks came down the hill towards the tree my dad was sitting next to. I couldn't see him but I knew the bucks would pass by him fairly close. I waited 10 minutes after I figured the bucks should have passed him and I stood up and walked a few yards till I could see my dad walking around in circles. I got down there and he said the whole group passed him at 30 yards. He picked out the one that looked the biggest and let it fly. The shot ended up going through the front leg, grazed the heart and tore up the lungs. For some reason there was no blood at all near where he was hit. We searched for 30 minutes for blood untill we picked up some blood crossing the creek about 100 yards from where the buck was shot. Still there was very little blood but we were able to follow the tracks in the dirt for another 100 yards untill my dad looked up and saw half the rack sticking up in the grass. This is his first archery buck ever.
We got the buck all cleaned up and I continued my hunt. I went the next 4 days without getting in range of any bucks. On the fifth day of the hunt I decided to try some different areas a little higher than we had been hiking to. I had been into bucks all morning and had been following a group of what started out as 16 bucks when I came up on a 3x4 at 63 yards. The shot went just under him and off he went. Later in the afternoon, after eating lunch I decided to still hunt this ridge down to the lake. I made it 100 yards down the ridge when I spotted a big rack in the grass just below me( it was a 2x4 old buck I figured at 28 inches). I ducked down and ranged the tree he was laying next to and came up with 38 yards. I drew back, stood up and made a perfect fieldgoal shot through his antlers. I have no idea what happened but I figured buck fever got the best of me AGAIN! I was pretty frustrated with myself and just felt like going back to camp and sulking. After a small pep talk with my self I decided to try to sit on the hillside where we would see them feed out to fairly regularly. I didn't make it to my spot before I caught a buck a little up the hill from me getting ready to feed into a different area they would feed into. I got into as good of position as I could and began the wait. After waiting awhile I only had 30 minutes of shooting time left so I decided to try and sneak in for a shot. I closed the gap to 40 yards from this buck and has my last shot of my season. My dad came up the hill and helped me bone it out and took it back to camp. Both of these bucks were my dad and I's first archery bucks ever. We could not of been happier. This is a very physically demanding hunt and it really feels good to finally get it done after 3 years.
We got the buck all cleaned up and I continued my hunt. I went the next 4 days without getting in range of any bucks. On the fifth day of the hunt I decided to try some different areas a little higher than we had been hiking to. I had been into bucks all morning and had been following a group of what started out as 16 bucks when I came up on a 3x4 at 63 yards. The shot went just under him and off he went. Later in the afternoon, after eating lunch I decided to still hunt this ridge down to the lake. I made it 100 yards down the ridge when I spotted a big rack in the grass just below me( it was a 2x4 old buck I figured at 28 inches). I ducked down and ranged the tree he was laying next to and came up with 38 yards. I drew back, stood up and made a perfect fieldgoal shot through his antlers. I have no idea what happened but I figured buck fever got the best of me AGAIN! I was pretty frustrated with myself and just felt like going back to camp and sulking. After a small pep talk with my self I decided to try to sit on the hillside where we would see them feed out to fairly regularly. I didn't make it to my spot before I caught a buck a little up the hill from me getting ready to feed into a different area they would feed into. I got into as good of position as I could and began the wait. After waiting awhile I only had 30 minutes of shooting time left so I decided to try and sneak in for a shot. I closed the gap to 40 yards from this buck and has my last shot of my season. My dad came up the hill and helped me bone it out and took it back to camp. Both of these bucks were my dad and I's first archery bucks ever. We could not of been happier. This is a very physically demanding hunt and it really feels good to finally get it done after 3 years.