I dont post much but I am always on here checking the california forum. I love reading stories and seeing success pics of any game taken in my home state. So I thought I would post the story and pics of me and my buddies hunt from this past year. Sorry but the pics are not of great quality, crappy camera and even crappier cameraman.
My buddies and I backpacked in and archery hunted in the Ansel Adams wilderness for the second consecutive year. The first year we flung two arrows without connecting and considered that a great success, but this year we were able to connect on a buck. For those of you who pack in and hunt in the backcountry this is something you already know; nothing compares to harvesting an animal in this manner. We only harvested one buck and my buddy arrowed him, but I can honestly say I have never been so excited, this is by far my best hunt yet and I never released an arrow.
Hunting the same spot as last year really helped us as we already knew the general area. This year we learned even more and were able to narrow down the areas the bucks liked to frequent. We saw bucks everyday on a four day hunt, but I will tell you now none of them were big. Of course that didnt matter to us, we are still new to this type of hunting and taking a legal buck of any size would be a great accomplishment. Morning of day one we saw 15 deer but all were does and fawns. We were excited at finding so many deer now it was just a matter of finding where the bucks like to hang out. After a quick mountain house for lunch we were back at it. We decided to try an area we had seen two bucks in last year and sure enough almost in the same area we bumped a bachelor group of five bucks. All were forks or two by threes. We were unable to make anything happen but were excited about the area, there was alot of sign. Now that we had an area narrowed down we knew where we would be spending the rest of our time. Morning of day two found us up at 4am, after some breakfast we were headed back to the previous location where the bucks were spotted. We hunted a big granite boulder slope we had seem the bucks run down the day before. We put one person on the top of the ridge and the second 50yds below and the third 50yds below that. We then crept slowly along paralleling each other glassing every few steps. We hadnt been at our spot long when I heard over the radio that a buck had been spotted, it was bedded and my buddy was unable to get any closer without alerting him. The middle man was the one to make the spot so he tried to put a stalk on the buck thinking that if he bumped him the buck would go up or down and one of us would get a shot. Well he did bump him and just as we hoped he went straight down. The buck wasnt to spooked and after trotting slowly down about 30 yards stopped to look back. Our bottom man was at the right spot and had a 50yd broadside shot. I still remember the broken chatter over the radio confirming a hit and a lot of blood. I still get excited thinking about it. It was 7:30 am on the second day and we had a deer down. We had lost sight of him after the hit but a loud crashed confirmed what we hoped. We still waited about 45 minutes to be sure. I can tell you in this situation waiting was no problem at all especially when you knew the deer was down. In my mind it just made the whole experience last that much longer. Anyways here are the pics, again sorry for the quality.
Getting ready to head up the hill
Spectacular views
Grouse for dinner
Where the buck was bedded
His final resting place
Success 2x3
Work begins
Happy campers
My buddies and I backpacked in and archery hunted in the Ansel Adams wilderness for the second consecutive year. The first year we flung two arrows without connecting and considered that a great success, but this year we were able to connect on a buck. For those of you who pack in and hunt in the backcountry this is something you already know; nothing compares to harvesting an animal in this manner. We only harvested one buck and my buddy arrowed him, but I can honestly say I have never been so excited, this is by far my best hunt yet and I never released an arrow.
Hunting the same spot as last year really helped us as we already knew the general area. This year we learned even more and were able to narrow down the areas the bucks liked to frequent. We saw bucks everyday on a four day hunt, but I will tell you now none of them were big. Of course that didnt matter to us, we are still new to this type of hunting and taking a legal buck of any size would be a great accomplishment. Morning of day one we saw 15 deer but all were does and fawns. We were excited at finding so many deer now it was just a matter of finding where the bucks like to hang out. After a quick mountain house for lunch we were back at it. We decided to try an area we had seen two bucks in last year and sure enough almost in the same area we bumped a bachelor group of five bucks. All were forks or two by threes. We were unable to make anything happen but were excited about the area, there was alot of sign. Now that we had an area narrowed down we knew where we would be spending the rest of our time. Morning of day two found us up at 4am, after some breakfast we were headed back to the previous location where the bucks were spotted. We hunted a big granite boulder slope we had seem the bucks run down the day before. We put one person on the top of the ridge and the second 50yds below and the third 50yds below that. We then crept slowly along paralleling each other glassing every few steps. We hadnt been at our spot long when I heard over the radio that a buck had been spotted, it was bedded and my buddy was unable to get any closer without alerting him. The middle man was the one to make the spot so he tried to put a stalk on the buck thinking that if he bumped him the buck would go up or down and one of us would get a shot. Well he did bump him and just as we hoped he went straight down. The buck wasnt to spooked and after trotting slowly down about 30 yards stopped to look back. Our bottom man was at the right spot and had a 50yd broadside shot. I still remember the broken chatter over the radio confirming a hit and a lot of blood. I still get excited thinking about it. It was 7:30 am on the second day and we had a deer down. We had lost sight of him after the hit but a loud crashed confirmed what we hoped. We still waited about 45 minutes to be sure. I can tell you in this situation waiting was no problem at all especially when you knew the deer was down. In my mind it just made the whole experience last that much longer. Anyways here are the pics, again sorry for the quality.
Getting ready to head up the hill
Spectacular views
Grouse for dinner
Where the buck was bedded
His final resting place
Success 2x3
Work begins
Happy campers
![IMG_0145[2864].jpg](/xf/data/xfmg/thumbnail/6/6795-a3fd17f70a5af165e7d88d5c0c2450b0.jpg?1614230600)
