We're back and not empty handed. WooooHooooo!!!!!
Here is the story:
We headed up on Sat. and got there just before midnight. Sunday we (My son and my nephew had tags. Myself and my brother in-law toook them) had the boys sight their guns in one last time and then we made sure everything was ready for Monday the opening day.
Monday morning opening day we decided to walk a ridge line where I had spotted a 4x4 on one of my scouting trips. We were right in the middle of it on a saddle so I sent my son one direction and my nephew the other. After an hour they did not see anything so they started down draws to see what they could see. I was watching my boy through my Swarovsky 20x60x80HD scope and I saw numerous deer he flushed out including two bucks. It was funny because he didn't see any of them and told me later that ther must not be any deer there.
Well that was pretty much how it went the first day. We started out the second day in the same draw he flushed the bucks out on Monday. I was up top again with my scope. It was about 5:45 and he was getting into postion so I started looking at other hillsides. About a mile and a half away I spotted two bucks and two does in the middle of a patch of trees (it was about a mile long and a half mile wide). I continued to scan the hillside and spotted a group of 4 bucks grazing along the bottom edge of the treeline.
My son got back from his walk about 7:00 and once again said he did not see anything. I told him "you want to see some bucks?". He looked throught the scope and said he wanted to get the bigger one which looked like a 3x3 (later it turned out to be a 3x2. One of the points was less then an inch). We watched them until about 8:45 when all but one had bedded down. They were bedded down just in the tree line under a cluster of trees. I figured it was safe to assume that the last one would do the same, so we discussed how he would do the stock and then I drove him to where he would start. Just about them on a ridge line. It took about 45 minutes to drive him there.
After I dropped him off I drove back down to about a half mile from where the deer where on a little null where I could watch the whole thing. It was about 10:15 at this time.
To help you visualize this here is how the layout was. The hillside the deer were on faced East and was about a 20% slope. They were just in the tree line on the bottom South corner. There was a draw that ran along the tree line on the South just about 30 yards from where the deer were (this was the route we decided he would take). It ran down the hill to a dry creek bed that ran North into a the valley below, but it split into two about 30 yards down creating a little null in between the two creek beds. The two creek beds and null were in between the null I was sitting on and where the deer were bedded down.
Well he started down the draw (oh yea we checked the wind and it was blowing from the Northe to the South. Perfect). I though he was rushing it so I keep signaling him to slow down. Of course he is 15 and smarter so he keept going. He got down to almost even with them which put him about 30 to 40 yards from them. I signaled him to see if he could get a shot from there and he signaled no. I signaled him to drop his pack and crwal closer. Just as he started to drop his pack I think they heard him because they boiled out of there like it was a hornets nest. 6 bucks not 4. The biggest was still the one he picked out. They headed straight down to the dry creek bed stopped and turned around. They were about 40 to 60 yards from him so I franticly signaled him to take the shot. Later he said they were clumped to close and didn't feel he had a good shot. After sitting for about a minute they turned and followed the creek bed down to the North. At the fork they took the one to the right and continued for about 50 yards where they stopped and turned around. They just sat there for about 10 to 15 minutes just staring up the dry creek bed. They they started grazing. My son was still sitting where he was just like your suppose to, to let them calm down. I signaled to him to see if he couldo see them and he signaled back "no". I signaled to him to head down the draw. He did and about the time he got to the fork in the dry creek bed the deer decided they were going to back up on top ot the null seperating the two creek beds. I franticly signalled to him to get ready for the shot, so he sat down and raised his riffle. The bigger deer had stopped so he was in the back. I thought my boy was going to have to settle for one of the smaller ones, but at the last minute it decided it wanted to be in the lead. It trotted to the front which put it right in front of my son at 30 yards. It stopped like it sensed somthing wrong. I once again franticly signaled to my son to take the shot. After what seemed like an eternity he fired. The buck reared up and took off running full speed. I put my binos down and though he missed. Well after about 20 seconds I heard him hooping and holering. No, it couldn't be. Yes he did. The buck ran about 20 to 30 yards and piled up. He hit him in the shoulder and it went through it's chest. It's lungs and heart were like hamburger. I didn't realize just how much kenetic energy those 50 cal rounds have. The time was 11:30. I first spotted him around 6:00 so the whole event lasted about 5-1/2 hours.
What a year my son just got his Eagle rank in scouts about a month ago, his first vehicle and now his first buck. Life is great.
Oh yea my nephew ended up getting a doe, which is ok because his dad had to leave half way throuhg the week. I told him this was he didn't go home empty handed and next year he could get his first buck when his dad could be with him. I told my boy that next year it was going to be about me. hehehehe.
Here are the pics.
