manny53
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 5,257
i woke up this morning feeling like i just went through a divorce and my buddy is telling me to get back out there n date again....lol
i started out my spring this year realizing i was chasing the proverbial carrot dangling on a string, dealing with Cali's draw system, i'm not getting younger u know turning 61 this year, so i posted a question here, asking for opinions on cashing in my bonus points, i have been applying for the M9 hunt before we had the point system, so i started building points, i missed a couple years when i moved to oregon but later started building again.
well having 12 bp's i felt x5b would be a shoe in, but after that post i lost that confidence, hearing x5b population was way down, at least x2 has the oregon migration, right, so long story short i did not know anything bout the x2 hunt except knowing its not the kinda of hunting i was used to, just to flat of country, very little op to glass or spot, i apprehensively decided to party up with a gent who had 4 points who knew the unit better then i.
my only experience with the devils garden (X2) was the muzz hunt where both my boys drew when they were 12, before the bp system; i was hooked ever since, thus the proverbial carrot trying to get a m9 tag, hah; ...
so the day before the opener the gent that drew with me had intel on a 28" buck so he went n did his due diligence to track that lead down on the opener, i had intel on a monster as well n went to track that lead down as well, but that buck hit the dirt early that morning n not by me, lol... congrats to Calib...
me n my grandson hit the southern part of x2 on the opener covering alot of ground glassing when i could, seeing very few deer, we hunted first 3 days of the hunt, we went back home hoping for weather, next week end we hit it again this time the north part of the unit up near oregon boarder, alot more deer up there but every buck we seen was in high gear getting their arse out of dodge, no time to judge class, just a blur...
we noticed everyone was hunting the big burn, so i decided to hunt the outer perimeter, sounded like a good idea right, well it produced nothing...again we go home after another three days of disappointment...
now i've been texting a local guide down there who knows the unit very well, he was putting bucks on the ground for his clients, so i book with him for the last three days of the season.
by this time i was wondering if my goal of shooting a 28 to 30" buck were too lofty for this hunt, so i grinned and bared it till i could hunt with Jerry the guide, it snowed friday morning feeling pumped the day turned out to be a bummer the deer seemed to disappear like Houdini total opposite of what u'd expect.
down to the wire i was dealing with the taste of tag soup, even with my guide we were not seeing deer, so here i am sunday the final hurrah finally the snow started melting n the deer reappeared, seen hundreds of deer coming in from oregon does n a ton of forks.
we were after a 25" heavy 4x4 sunday afternoon we knew was in the area, but nothing mature showed itself, down to the wire 4:00pm we hightail it back to burn glassing when possible hundreds of doe's moved in over night no bucks over a fork was seen.
then i hear out of my guides mouth there was a rumor of a 35" 3 point off some road we both laughed hah Rumors right' but headed that way anyways hey why not right...lol
well by now its damm near too dark for my aging eyes to see clearly and right off the road at 70 yards was that 30 plus inch 3 point buck; i could barely get the words out my mouth "big buck".... we were driving at 30mph n skidding to a stop i jumped out as he dissapeared in some trees, i waited what seemed for ever for a shot n he trotted out giving me a second to pull the trigger, bam the gun goes off and the bucks keeps moving through the trees i thought i hit him but nothing, he stops in the trees but next to a smaller but with my eyesight and failing light i could not distinguish which body i was looking at so i did not fire a second shot...
twelve years boiled down to 20 seconds in time, well i hate it when that happens but thats hunting...
i started out my spring this year realizing i was chasing the proverbial carrot dangling on a string, dealing with Cali's draw system, i'm not getting younger u know turning 61 this year, so i posted a question here, asking for opinions on cashing in my bonus points, i have been applying for the M9 hunt before we had the point system, so i started building points, i missed a couple years when i moved to oregon but later started building again.
well having 12 bp's i felt x5b would be a shoe in, but after that post i lost that confidence, hearing x5b population was way down, at least x2 has the oregon migration, right, so long story short i did not know anything bout the x2 hunt except knowing its not the kinda of hunting i was used to, just to flat of country, very little op to glass or spot, i apprehensively decided to party up with a gent who had 4 points who knew the unit better then i.
my only experience with the devils garden (X2) was the muzz hunt where both my boys drew when they were 12, before the bp system; i was hooked ever since, thus the proverbial carrot trying to get a m9 tag, hah; ...
so the day before the opener the gent that drew with me had intel on a 28" buck so he went n did his due diligence to track that lead down on the opener, i had intel on a monster as well n went to track that lead down as well, but that buck hit the dirt early that morning n not by me, lol... congrats to Calib...
me n my grandson hit the southern part of x2 on the opener covering alot of ground glassing when i could, seeing very few deer, we hunted first 3 days of the hunt, we went back home hoping for weather, next week end we hit it again this time the north part of the unit up near oregon boarder, alot more deer up there but every buck we seen was in high gear getting their arse out of dodge, no time to judge class, just a blur...
we noticed everyone was hunting the big burn, so i decided to hunt the outer perimeter, sounded like a good idea right, well it produced nothing...again we go home after another three days of disappointment...
now i've been texting a local guide down there who knows the unit very well, he was putting bucks on the ground for his clients, so i book with him for the last three days of the season.
by this time i was wondering if my goal of shooting a 28 to 30" buck were too lofty for this hunt, so i grinned and bared it till i could hunt with Jerry the guide, it snowed friday morning feeling pumped the day turned out to be a bummer the deer seemed to disappear like Houdini total opposite of what u'd expect.
down to the wire i was dealing with the taste of tag soup, even with my guide we were not seeing deer, so here i am sunday the final hurrah finally the snow started melting n the deer reappeared, seen hundreds of deer coming in from oregon does n a ton of forks.
we were after a 25" heavy 4x4 sunday afternoon we knew was in the area, but nothing mature showed itself, down to the wire 4:00pm we hightail it back to burn glassing when possible hundreds of doe's moved in over night no bucks over a fork was seen.
then i hear out of my guides mouth there was a rumor of a 35" 3 point off some road we both laughed hah Rumors right' but headed that way anyways hey why not right...lol
well by now its damm near too dark for my aging eyes to see clearly and right off the road at 70 yards was that 30 plus inch 3 point buck; i could barely get the words out my mouth "big buck".... we were driving at 30mph n skidding to a stop i jumped out as he dissapeared in some trees, i waited what seemed for ever for a shot n he trotted out giving me a second to pull the trigger, bam the gun goes off and the bucks keeps moving through the trees i thought i hit him but nothing, he stops in the trees but next to a smaller but with my eyesight and failing light i could not distinguish which body i was looking at so i did not fire a second shot...
twelve years boiled down to 20 seconds in time, well i hate it when that happens but thats hunting...