Good Weekend

eshunt

Active Member
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I've read a lot on the forums but haven't really posted much. This last weekend was such a great weekend that I just had to share.

I was lucky to grow up in a family that hunted. My Dad and Brother have been a couple of my best hunting partners. We have spent too many days chasing deer, elk, and other critters to count. This year, the three of us got deer tags down here in the Eastern Sierra and were looking forward to a great hunt.

The hunt started out great. The fall colors were amazing, we were seeing deer, even a few bucks. Then halfway through, we get a call that Mom was in the emergency room with a possible major medical issue. Dad and brother packed up and headed home. Thankfully it turned out to be a minor issue. So my brother headed back down to hunt some more.

He made it down Thursday in time to for an evening hunt. We saw over 50 does and fawns that evening, but no antlers. I had Friday off and we headed back up one of the canyons we had seen deer the previous weekend. Sure enough we saw the group of bucks high on the mountainside. But they fed up into a position that made it almost impossible to get to them. So, back to town for some food and a nap.

Friday evening we were out glassing for deer when my buddy spotted a bear about 1.5 miles away. We had enough daylight left to get over there so we shouldered our packs and took off. I was hoping my buddy would get a shot on the bear, but the bear decided to come back down the hill towards me.

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I was able to get my first bear. I've carried a bear tag in my pocket for years but never have been excited about getting one. The bear population around here has blown up over the last couple of years. So, I decided that this year I would finally take a bear if I had a chance. And it turned out that my first bear was a really good one. And my brother was able to watch it all happen through the spotter and then come help pack it out.

Exhausted after a long night of packing and dealing with the bear we still managed to get out Saturday for a morning hunt. We didn't see any bucks, but early in the morning we heard a couple of shots. A few minutes later a good buddy calls us on the radio and tells us he has a buck down. We hunt our way down towards where he was and helped him pack his buck a couple of miles back to the truck.

Saturday evening we were too exhausted to do much so we did a little road hunting and checked out some new country. While cruising around with my brother he convinced me that I needed to go after the group of bucks we had been seeing way up on the side of the mountain.

Sunday morning the alarm went off way too early it seemed. Right at first light I was on my way up the mountain. I knew I had to gain a couple thousand feet of elevation to be in position to have a chance at the bucks. Just as the sun was hitting the mountain I saw one of the bucks. I made my way closer as another buck came out of the trees out onto the slope above me. I wasn't able to find the biggest of the bucks that was with the group so I set my sights on one of the other bucks.

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Wow! The third animal in three days that we would be packing back to the truck. And my brother had watched it all happen through the spotter again. After breaking him down and calling in some help we had him back at the truck in the mid afternoon.

I had filled my deer and bear tags, but my brother still had one more day to make it happen. I was back at work on Monday so he headed out on his own. He checked out a couple places that he had seen some smaller bucks earlier but didn't find anything. He was willing to take even a little forkie at this point since it was the last day of the season. Well, he found a buck that was a little better than a forkie!

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And he didn't have to pack it for miles, and miles, and miles... Lucky guy!

Once again we were cutting up meat late into the night. Four animals in four days, couldn't ask for anything better then that. My Dad wasn't able to be there for the end of the hunt but there will be many more to come.

I'm always humbled by the amazing bounty that nature provides us. We have full freezers for the coming winter and some great memories to share with family and friends. And a big thank you to my brother for the encouragement to climb the mountain and helping pack meat.
 
Awesome!! Very nice hunt thread. Congrats and thanks for sharing the tale with us!!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
Congrats, any time you can harvest game in CA you have done well.
If you guys want more bears, head to Alpine Lake on Hwy4....tons of bears from Bear Valley ski resort up 10 miles above the lake on Hwy4.

))))------->
 

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