GoatT
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It was now the opening of the rifle deer hunt, and I headed to the area I had checked out during the muzzleloader hunt with my brother Brent. He also had a deer tag and I felt fortunate to hunt together with him that first morning. As we made the long drive I thought back to all the great animals and missed opportunities I had seen during my scouting trips and earlier hunts just a few weeks earlier and years past.
We arrived while the stars were still out and headed up an old mining road. It was a little cold from the recent storm that had left some snow on the ground. After about a 2 mile hike in we sat next to a big clearing where we had a good vantage point of a couple of ridges and side hills. Slowly the sun rose and started to warm our cold frozen faces. There wasn?t much activity so we headed for a little canyon about ? of a mile away where we saw a few does and what looked to be a decent buck. When we got to where the deer were they had gone in the trees. We worked our way up the canyon only to run into some other hunters so we turned around and decided to drive up the road a little further and hit another area we wanted to check out. The evening was slowly creeping in and so we decided to head back for some grub.
Just as we hit the road we noticed some activity on the hillside. We stopped to glass and saw a buck with a few does. The buck was a small forkie. As we continued glassing we spotted a good buck that was worth checking out, but darkness was setting in and we couldn't really see if he was worth going after. We decided to come up to the same place the next morning and get on top of the ridge the deer were on the night before and maybe catch them as they came to there bedding area.
The air was slightly warmer the next morning, but the ground had frozen overnight. It was crunchy so we took our time and slowly made our way up the ridgeline so as not to spook any animals. We glassed a cow moose on the crest of the hill we were headed for. Slowly we approached the top while our moose friend just stood and fed in the sun 120 yards away. We wanted to walk down the ridge towards where we saw the deer the previous evening.
My brother started to head down while I glassed a hill across the way. I followed behind about 20 yards when I saw what looked like a big deer across the canyon. I peered through my bino?s only to see a big ?stump deer?. I made it another 10 yards before I started to cough uncontrollably. I looked over the ledge to my left into the thick brush one last time when I saw him! All I could see as I raised my binoculars was horns. He was bedded facing me at 70 yards down in some of the thickest oak brush there was. Nobody could get 100 yards from this buck without him noticing. He had been watching us the whole time. I quickly pushed the safety off and put the crosshairs on his chest and slowly pulled the trigger. There was just a small window for my shot but I knew my 7mm would hit its mark. I shot once then reloaded as he jumped out of his bed and bounded through the oak brush. I shot again only to hit one of the many aspens scattered below. He then disappeared a few yards over what I thought was a ledge where I knew I had made a good solid first shot. By now my brother had ran up to where I was. ?What are you shooting at?? I told him he just passed a big deer down below. We then contemplated our next course of action.
I knew I had hit him good with the first shot, so we headed down to his bed. When we got down there, minutes later, we found nothing but some hair. My jaw dropped. I knew I had hit him and couldn't have missed. My brother asked which way he had went, I pointed and we moved in that direction looking for any sign of blood on the ground?nothing! We pushed our way through the brush another 10 yards then from out of nowhere he jumped up right in front of us. He had been lying down hiding hoping we would just walk right by. He leapt into the pines in front of me before I could even get my gun up. We found where he had been lying and saw what we were looking for?blood?frothy blood. I had lunged him. We knew it wouldn't take long for him to retire. We sat down and waited awhile before we made our way down the hill where he had gone. As we followed his tracks on the ground there wasn?t a lot of blood, just spots here and there in the dirt, suddenly something crashed through the trees below us. We couldn't get a look to see if it was he, but his tracks told us it was. Because of the faint blood trail, we decided to wait a while longer to go after him in fear we would push him into another canyon. I had to make a difficult decision, since it was getting to be later in the afternoon ? go after him and risk pushing him all over the mountain?. or what my brother convinced me we needed to do which was hike out of there and come back first thing in the morning and pick up the blood trail. It took a lot of convincing on his part, but we turned around.
It was hard to sleep that night, but I knew he wouldn't go far from what the blood told us where we had first jumped him, and also since we had jumped him twice within 100 yards from where the first shot took place.
Morning came and we were back on his trail. As we moved on from where we had turned around the day before, the blood trail was not real evident. After a few minutes on hands and knees we found a drop, then another, then the blood trail got more noticeable. I then knew he wouldn't be far. We had only covered about 100 yards from where we had turned around the day before, when we came around a clump of trees, there he was. He had laid down and expired in his bed. After the high fives and numerous pictures we boned the meat out, I strapped it on my pack, and hiked back to the truck.
After many years of passing on smaller bucks and even missing some great opportunities at larger bucks, even though he hadn't met the expectations I had set earlier in the year, I was elated and very satisfied with the results. An exciting hunt, I had now connected on an animal that I felt was a true trophy. THAT DAY I PREVAILED!
http://www.trophyblogger.com/Goat
We arrived while the stars were still out and headed up an old mining road. It was a little cold from the recent storm that had left some snow on the ground. After about a 2 mile hike in we sat next to a big clearing where we had a good vantage point of a couple of ridges and side hills. Slowly the sun rose and started to warm our cold frozen faces. There wasn?t much activity so we headed for a little canyon about ? of a mile away where we saw a few does and what looked to be a decent buck. When we got to where the deer were they had gone in the trees. We worked our way up the canyon only to run into some other hunters so we turned around and decided to drive up the road a little further and hit another area we wanted to check out. The evening was slowly creeping in and so we decided to head back for some grub.
Just as we hit the road we noticed some activity on the hillside. We stopped to glass and saw a buck with a few does. The buck was a small forkie. As we continued glassing we spotted a good buck that was worth checking out, but darkness was setting in and we couldn't really see if he was worth going after. We decided to come up to the same place the next morning and get on top of the ridge the deer were on the night before and maybe catch them as they came to there bedding area.
The air was slightly warmer the next morning, but the ground had frozen overnight. It was crunchy so we took our time and slowly made our way up the ridgeline so as not to spook any animals. We glassed a cow moose on the crest of the hill we were headed for. Slowly we approached the top while our moose friend just stood and fed in the sun 120 yards away. We wanted to walk down the ridge towards where we saw the deer the previous evening.
My brother started to head down while I glassed a hill across the way. I followed behind about 20 yards when I saw what looked like a big deer across the canyon. I peered through my bino?s only to see a big ?stump deer?. I made it another 10 yards before I started to cough uncontrollably. I looked over the ledge to my left into the thick brush one last time when I saw him! All I could see as I raised my binoculars was horns. He was bedded facing me at 70 yards down in some of the thickest oak brush there was. Nobody could get 100 yards from this buck without him noticing. He had been watching us the whole time. I quickly pushed the safety off and put the crosshairs on his chest and slowly pulled the trigger. There was just a small window for my shot but I knew my 7mm would hit its mark. I shot once then reloaded as he jumped out of his bed and bounded through the oak brush. I shot again only to hit one of the many aspens scattered below. He then disappeared a few yards over what I thought was a ledge where I knew I had made a good solid first shot. By now my brother had ran up to where I was. ?What are you shooting at?? I told him he just passed a big deer down below. We then contemplated our next course of action.
I knew I had hit him good with the first shot, so we headed down to his bed. When we got down there, minutes later, we found nothing but some hair. My jaw dropped. I knew I had hit him and couldn't have missed. My brother asked which way he had went, I pointed and we moved in that direction looking for any sign of blood on the ground?nothing! We pushed our way through the brush another 10 yards then from out of nowhere he jumped up right in front of us. He had been lying down hiding hoping we would just walk right by. He leapt into the pines in front of me before I could even get my gun up. We found where he had been lying and saw what we were looking for?blood?frothy blood. I had lunged him. We knew it wouldn't take long for him to retire. We sat down and waited awhile before we made our way down the hill where he had gone. As we followed his tracks on the ground there wasn?t a lot of blood, just spots here and there in the dirt, suddenly something crashed through the trees below us. We couldn't get a look to see if it was he, but his tracks told us it was. Because of the faint blood trail, we decided to wait a while longer to go after him in fear we would push him into another canyon. I had to make a difficult decision, since it was getting to be later in the afternoon ? go after him and risk pushing him all over the mountain?. or what my brother convinced me we needed to do which was hike out of there and come back first thing in the morning and pick up the blood trail. It took a lot of convincing on his part, but we turned around.
It was hard to sleep that night, but I knew he wouldn't go far from what the blood told us where we had first jumped him, and also since we had jumped him twice within 100 yards from where the first shot took place.
Morning came and we were back on his trail. As we moved on from where we had turned around the day before, the blood trail was not real evident. After a few minutes on hands and knees we found a drop, then another, then the blood trail got more noticeable. I then knew he wouldn't be far. We had only covered about 100 yards from where we had turned around the day before, when we came around a clump of trees, there he was. He had laid down and expired in his bed. After the high fives and numerous pictures we boned the meat out, I strapped it on my pack, and hiked back to the truck.
After many years of passing on smaller bucks and even missing some great opportunities at larger bucks, even though he hadn't met the expectations I had set earlier in the year, I was elated and very satisfied with the results. An exciting hunt, I had now connected on an animal that I felt was a true trophy. THAT DAY I PREVAILED!
http://www.trophyblogger.com/Goat
Somebody didn't like bouncing betty 
