Mooretitan
Active Member
- Messages
- 249
Both of my boys drew and out of state youth tag for PV. I did as much research as I could and got some good information from a few people here. The overall feeling was that the zone is hurting and has quickly gone done hill. Some encourage to just turn the tag back in but figured a week in the mountains with my sons would produce some memories and we have always found away to turn up something with enough work. With the early rifle opening on a Oct 12th it would give us a few days to scout before things got serious. We set up camp Saturday night and had big plans of finding some big bucks in the morning. We planned a pretty good hike for Sunday that should but us around 10 miles round trip from camp.
Day one: Started and ended with head lamps on. We saw roughly 50 does during the morning. Most were in groups of 4-6 deer and one group of about 15. We saw tons of sign and felt good about the area we had picked. It was pretty strange seeing that many different groups without seeing a buck. I would have for sure thought that a few of the groups of does would have at least a small buck with them but nothing. We settled into an evening glassing spot around 2:00. We found a small tree and tried to get out of the heat the best we could. Well after a couple hours the sky started to darken and the rain started coming down a little. My youngest son asked if it was going to come down harder and if we should get back to camp. My oldest was determined to stay until dark hoping to find a buck. It did not look to bad so I just said we will be fine about 20 mins later it started really coming down and hailing. We tried to crawl deeper under the tree but nothing we did really worked. We were soaked to the bone and a good 3 miles back to camp. I decided it was time to go and we made are way off the mountain. My youngest said we should have left earlier but oh well. I could ring out the water from my shirt. On the way back we did spot one pretty nice buck in the trees. So things were looking up. We dried out, ate dinner and played cards to end the night.
Day 2
We slept in a little and scouted closer to camp. Found lots of does but again no bucks. The plan for the evening was to drive to a different part of the unit and see if could get on some bucks. The evening turned out similar. We found roughly another 50 does in a great looking bowl. Thing was the does were spread out all across the bowl. Places where typical would turn up a buck jus produced does. Did not matter if it was high or low, thick or open just small groups of does. At this time I was getting a little nervous that were were not going to find a buck. At this time were had well over a 100 does and only one buck. We made it back to camp with a few minutes to glass and turned up a small 3pts. Again another night in tent playing cards and just enjoying my two boys.
Day 3 - We moved a few miles from camp and planed on another long day on the mountain. Things started out just like before. Tons of does, great looking country but not no bucks. As we climbed the mountain we just kept thinking that the next draw would produce the buck we were looking for but as we found out. Turning up a buck was a challenge. We finally topped the mountain and based on OnX we were roughly 3 miles straight line from the truck. I set up the tri pod and started to break down the country the best we could from this new vantage point. Finally found a couple of bucks cresting a ridge about 800 yards away. I pulled up OnX and google earth and figured out the rest of backside of the mountain without disturbing the area much. We bailed off another drainage and headed back to the truck. A little over 8 miles covered this morning. Opening morning was the next day and we needed a plan for the morning. After talking it over in camp we decided on an opening morning plan. We were going to head back to the spot from today and hunt back towards camp. This would put us on the bucks from today and in the area of the buck from the 1st day. Probably cover between 10-12 miles opening day if needed. Both of sons have killed deer before with my oldest being a pretty darn good hunter at 15 years old. He flat out gets it done and doesn't have much quit in him. He also believes everything will work out in his favor.
Opening morning found us up early and walking in with head lamps. After an hour or so we got set up on an area that gave us a pretty good look of the area. We noticed a group of 3 guys on the opposite ridge moving pretty quickly up the other side. Now this last year I have let myself go a little and I am not in the same shape as years before. I can still cover ground it just takes a little more time. There was no way were were going to out race this group to the top and since we were on opposite sides of the ridge we tried to keep with the plan. About an hour later we had made lots of elevation gain but had not turned up and bucks, just lots of does. As we neared the top the guys on the opposite ridge took a shot. We could see them scrambling and heard another shot. Neither shot sounded like a hit and as watched the guys they did not seem to act like they had hit anything. We worked our way towards the top and peeled off the side hoping to get below the other group and work our way into a different area. We got about another mile on a really good looking finger ridge and set up for lunch. We glassed up a few more does played a couple games on cards on the mountain and tried to figure out were to set up for evening. We set up on the top of a nice bluff outlook for the evening that would allow us to see lots of country. The hours ticked by and lots more deer spotted but no bucks. We worked of the ridge in the dark, I was pretty tired at this point and a little worried that we just were not going to get on a buck. We had seen close to 150-200 does and only a couple bucks. My boys did not seem to really care. My youngest is more of a go with the flow and as long as we played a card game or two he was game to go anywhere. Helps he never gets tired and is half mountain goat. My oldest was in the zone and was convinced we would get into them. Just needed to go deeper and longer. He had a plan to go to the opposite mountain if needed. I told him it would be a 15plus mile round trip from camp. His response was we have head lamps. Guess its hard to argue with that logic. Either way we needed to get on some bucks.
Day one: Started and ended with head lamps on. We saw roughly 50 does during the morning. Most were in groups of 4-6 deer and one group of about 15. We saw tons of sign and felt good about the area we had picked. It was pretty strange seeing that many different groups without seeing a buck. I would have for sure thought that a few of the groups of does would have at least a small buck with them but nothing. We settled into an evening glassing spot around 2:00. We found a small tree and tried to get out of the heat the best we could. Well after a couple hours the sky started to darken and the rain started coming down a little. My youngest son asked if it was going to come down harder and if we should get back to camp. My oldest was determined to stay until dark hoping to find a buck. It did not look to bad so I just said we will be fine about 20 mins later it started really coming down and hailing. We tried to crawl deeper under the tree but nothing we did really worked. We were soaked to the bone and a good 3 miles back to camp. I decided it was time to go and we made are way off the mountain. My youngest said we should have left earlier but oh well. I could ring out the water from my shirt. On the way back we did spot one pretty nice buck in the trees. So things were looking up. We dried out, ate dinner and played cards to end the night.
Day 2
We slept in a little and scouted closer to camp. Found lots of does but again no bucks. The plan for the evening was to drive to a different part of the unit and see if could get on some bucks. The evening turned out similar. We found roughly another 50 does in a great looking bowl. Thing was the does were spread out all across the bowl. Places where typical would turn up a buck jus produced does. Did not matter if it was high or low, thick or open just small groups of does. At this time I was getting a little nervous that were were not going to find a buck. At this time were had well over a 100 does and only one buck. We made it back to camp with a few minutes to glass and turned up a small 3pts. Again another night in tent playing cards and just enjoying my two boys.
Day 3 - We moved a few miles from camp and planed on another long day on the mountain. Things started out just like before. Tons of does, great looking country but not no bucks. As we climbed the mountain we just kept thinking that the next draw would produce the buck we were looking for but as we found out. Turning up a buck was a challenge. We finally topped the mountain and based on OnX we were roughly 3 miles straight line from the truck. I set up the tri pod and started to break down the country the best we could from this new vantage point. Finally found a couple of bucks cresting a ridge about 800 yards away. I pulled up OnX and google earth and figured out the rest of backside of the mountain without disturbing the area much. We bailed off another drainage and headed back to the truck. A little over 8 miles covered this morning. Opening morning was the next day and we needed a plan for the morning. After talking it over in camp we decided on an opening morning plan. We were going to head back to the spot from today and hunt back towards camp. This would put us on the bucks from today and in the area of the buck from the 1st day. Probably cover between 10-12 miles opening day if needed. Both of sons have killed deer before with my oldest being a pretty darn good hunter at 15 years old. He flat out gets it done and doesn't have much quit in him. He also believes everything will work out in his favor.
Opening morning found us up early and walking in with head lamps. After an hour or so we got set up on an area that gave us a pretty good look of the area. We noticed a group of 3 guys on the opposite ridge moving pretty quickly up the other side. Now this last year I have let myself go a little and I am not in the same shape as years before. I can still cover ground it just takes a little more time. There was no way were were going to out race this group to the top and since we were on opposite sides of the ridge we tried to keep with the plan. About an hour later we had made lots of elevation gain but had not turned up and bucks, just lots of does. As we neared the top the guys on the opposite ridge took a shot. We could see them scrambling and heard another shot. Neither shot sounded like a hit and as watched the guys they did not seem to act like they had hit anything. We worked our way towards the top and peeled off the side hoping to get below the other group and work our way into a different area. We got about another mile on a really good looking finger ridge and set up for lunch. We glassed up a few more does played a couple games on cards on the mountain and tried to figure out were to set up for evening. We set up on the top of a nice bluff outlook for the evening that would allow us to see lots of country. The hours ticked by and lots more deer spotted but no bucks. We worked of the ridge in the dark, I was pretty tired at this point and a little worried that we just were not going to get on a buck. We had seen close to 150-200 does and only a couple bucks. My boys did not seem to really care. My youngest is more of a go with the flow and as long as we played a card game or two he was game to go anywhere. Helps he never gets tired and is half mountain goat. My oldest was in the zone and was convinced we would get into them. Just needed to go deeper and longer. He had a plan to go to the opposite mountain if needed. I told him it would be a 15plus mile round trip from camp. His response was we have head lamps. Guess its hard to argue with that logic. Either way we needed to get on some bucks.
