First Season of Hunting Success! Whitetail Story

Hi Folks,

Quite pleased to say that I managed to get a whitetail during my first season hunting.

Took about 8 or 9 solid days this November - It's been a ride of me trying to learn as much as I can and find good areas with no previous scouting information (or really knowing what I was doing) - I've had a harem of elk + a bull walk by me within 10 yards, been traumatized by more grouse than I can count, had a close encounter with a moose, several mule deer pass by (out of season), and saw the backs of 5 or 6 whitetails.

Typically a day out for me would be trying to sit or still-hunt in the morning, spend the afternoon scouting, and then sit somewhere or still-hunt in the last light of the day. I have no stands so this was all done on the ground. I would try to leave a week between hunting an area and scouting it.

Today was my second last day I could hunt in the season and the weather was good, (low/high -4/3) - I figured I would go to one of the better areas I have found. It requires walking through a regional park to the crown land beyond and is about a 1 - 1.5 hour walk in the dark, gaining maybe 300-400 feet elevation.

I didn't quite make it as far as I would have liked as I hit shooting light but I thought, I'm beyond the hills and into good edge habitat, I might as well hunt here. (I also had bumped a whitetail entering the edge which I figured was a good sign) the ground was slightly frozen and filled with crunchy leaves. I cleared a spot in the leaves to put my stool while hitting my grunt tube, attempting to make it sound like a buck was in the area and was hitting a scrape rather than human noise.

As I get settled a squirrel will not let up on me. Continuously alarm chattering for over twenty minutes. Takes a small break to make the "no longer pissed but predator still in area" noises, and then starts chattering again. At a certain point I think, "asshole." and decide to move. I realize that although there are many trails in this area and I am facing into the wind I had chose the bottom of the area, and I might have better luck with thermals and visibility if I ascend to a small rise.

I slowly make my way there and lean my rifle against a tree to take a piss. I have my pants half undone when a buck runs within 15 yards of me and we are staring at each other. I slowly turn around, slip my ear muffs on and grab my rifle. There is slight cover between us and I wait until the buck's line of sight is hidden before raising the rifle. I get a shot off.

The buck runs about 100 yards before hitting cover. I don't hear him hit the ground hard, and am unsure if it was a clean shot. I wait about 30 minutes before approaching. At the 32 minute mark a seemingly identical buck cruises maybe 50 yards through moderate cover around me. I wonder if I missed entirely and the same deer is coming back around? I raise my rifle and have a sub-par broadside shot, but I don't take it as I am unsure what is happening.

I find the deer roughly where I thought it should be and begin the process of dragging it out of the woods. I had a friend meet me half way, it takes us about 2 - 2.5 hours to drag it to the truck. I'm lucky that my landlord is a generational hunter and he mentored me skinning/quartering the deer. I ended up taking out the bottom of the deer's heart and at least one lung with the round. It was a shoulder shot so I lost some meat in the process.

Been a extremely rewarding and exhausting day. All in took about 13 hours from leaving my house to having the deer fully processed. Definitely stoked that I got a deer my first season and have a few of you to thank for the advice along the way.

- I am curious how much my decision to use my grunt tube and try to mimic a buck scraping influenced those two young bucks to be in the area. The guy definitely came up at me like he expected me to be a deer. Unsure how much this actually influenced anything but will definitely be trying to mask human noises with calling and noise in the future.

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Well done, congratulations on your first deer.

Congrats that’s a great story.

Congrats Dan! Sounds like you had a solid plan. That always helps! That will be a tasty buck!

Nice buck! Way to go.
kenny

Nice to see your hard work paid off this year, congratulations!

Congrats. Nice buck. Haven't met a hunter yet that likes chipmunks haha

Way to go Dan ! Your first year and you harvested a whitetail I’d say that’s great .
Arctic Lake

Excellent!

Congrats on your first! https://www.tnof.ca/styles/default/x...s/Pozitive.gif
He is going to be right tasty!

Cheers