OK - sit down before you fall down.............i'm gonna tell you a hunting story!!
We live at the coast so we have limited opportunities so this was going to be our only early hunt for 2020.
We headed to our hunting area on Friday Aug 28th with my 14 and 24 year old sons on my youngest first hunting adventure for the next week where we were going to focus on getting my youngest into his first deer and maybe his second on the same trip. I was pretty confident we could get it done but there are always challenges.
We arrived at our camp and set up and still had some time to do a quick loop and see if we can find some deer. Everyone was keen to get a look so away we went and within 5 minutes we had a 2 point mule deer looking at us on the roadside in. Not a lot happening but did see a 3-4pt Whitetail buck at last light so at least there were deer around.
Saturday Aug 29th – Up before dawn for a morning scout. Heading into my second mule deer pocket we arrived and my oldest son thought he saw a deer – up with the binos and sure enough another 2x3 buck spotted. Couple does in the same opening so we headed to another spot which I like to glass at sunrise as the deer are bedded but with the early sun they usually stand up to feed again.
Sure enough we had another 5 does spotted but no more bucks. I figured the bucks were in the summer bachelor groups so we went back to the area of the 2x3 and found a group of 3 bucks with the biggest being about a 16-18” wide 2 point.
big 2 point
Afternoon spot was good with some more deer spotted.
Sunday Aug 30th – Full moon and clear skies had the morning a bit cooler at 3c at 6am, great to see cooler air but man that full moon was lighting up the night. Headed out at first light and found that big 2 point right away not 30yds away from the truck with his 2 buddys. Great to see he was in the area now we just needed to stay on him for 2 more days.
With the morning warming up we were headed back to camp at 9:30am and spotted 2 mule deer bucks (2x2 and a 1x2) near the 3 bucks which meant there were 5 different bucks in that area. Driving for another 10 minutes and 3 mulies crossed the road in front of us which were a 5x4, 3x2 and 2x2 mule deer buck and started to feed nearby. We just watched from the truck as I did not want to spook them at all. Carry on down the road for about 3 miles and my son spots another buck – up come the binos and it’s a symmetrical 4x4 with a 3x2 and a 2x2 just feeding away with not a worry in the world.
What a morning, spotted 11 different mule deer bucks with a couple of nice deer for us to focus on.
During the day went to the range and did a few shots just to make sure gun and shooter were still on – all good.
We followed up in the evening and sure enough we found both groups of the bigger bucks withing 200yds of where we left them. Talked with my youngest and came up with Plan A / B / C depending on what we could find and the way the wind was working. Things were really looking good for him to fill his first tag with a nice deer – I was happy that we were seeing lots and having lots of action.
Monday Aug 31st – Up to check our area, weather change today with cloudy skies and light rain and about 9c at 6am.
First spot……….no deer, we take a look around and they are nowhere to be seen.
Second spot …………….no deer, hmmmm, take a look around and no deer. My bigger bucks have disappeared like they always seem to do.
Third spot………..we can only find the smaller 2x3 but the bachelor group appears to be done and I cannot find the bigger 2 point.
We didn’t push these deer at all, I don’t walk through the area until we’re ready to hunt and they’re used to the vehicle traffic so all I can guess is I think they just moved into a bit more of a wooded area up on the ridges and broke up their groups.
Sept 1 – Opening day rifle for youth and archery for all. Got everyone up an hour early in anticipation of opening day. My youngest son was nervous but the day was here so pretty excited too.
Opening day traffic and boneheads. Guy on my butt heading into the area so I let him by and he gets ahead of me and slows down – such a “Richard” move. Common sense says you want to pass get going.
First spot…….no deer. Walked around in behind on the ridge and could not locate them.
Second spot…….just coming in and we spot 2 whitetail bucks spiker and a 3 point. Youngest says he’d take either one………but it wasn’t a good spot and before we could really look at them they took off.
His comment let me know he wanted to get the monkey off his back so I knew it was game on this morning.
Looked around the second spot and again nothing – I suspect they were on the high side as we were working the lower meadows/buck brush but the high side was much thicker and I didn’t want that for him to get set up with a difficult shot.
Poked into another spot for a quick look and as we were working down to a small water supply we spotted a mule deer butt. We stalked a little closer and saw 3 more deer, then 2 – 2 point mule bucks. I wanted to get him set up and then he could decide if he wanted to take one and the best thing about a 2 point mule deer is they are very accommodating.
We got to a small rise, dropped the bipod and he had a perfect rest but not a clear shot. The lead doe was getting nervous and stated to walk sidehill and the others followed with the bucks at the back, and the doe stopped in a large opening. I told my son to wait until they got clear and they would stop, which they did and I let him know the top buck was the better shot as the lower buck had a doe too close.
I said if he wanted to take him he could, which he replied – “should I load the gun now?”, Yup!! He dropped a shell in and closed the bolt and the buck was 99.7yds.
Perfect shot, through the lungs nicking the spine dropped him and brought him rolling down the hillside. Reload and watch and the deer did a couple of kicks and expires very quickly.
CORE course in May, and by 8am on the opening day of his first hunt he has his first deer, a 2 point mule deer.
First deer (didn't have my phone with me on the recovery)
To end this day my older son arrowed his first archery deer on the evening hunt with his Excalibur crossbow - 2 point mule deer at 28yds.
First deer for both my son’s on the same day!!
One evening when coming back in we saw a large bodied whitetail carrying his head low while slinking off. I saw a couple of big bucks in this same area last year so i'm thinking he's still around. I was the only one who saw him but he was bigger than all we'd seen.
After a couple of warm days we were looking for a whitetail buck and doing just a quick loop of an area when we spotted a 2x3 whitetail buck. Before we could do anything he headed over the bank, we rushed up to where we last saw him and he was still standing there playing the “you can’t see me card”.
Shooting sticks up, my older son helped him line up and at the report of the 7-08 I see it is a perfect shoulder/heart shot. The deer had not even gone 30yds and he was piled up and the 140gr accubonds worked perfect as the heart was taken out on a complete pass through with minimal meat loss.
After the shot I saw him rubbing his eye and apparently he got scoped as well!!! no cut but I said he may have a black eye for the first day of school!!
We wrapped up this trip when I took a 2 point mule deer at 30yds on the last morning.
September 1 and hot - packed a big fish cooler on the bottom with ice blocks and chicken winged all deer. i laid the hinds in one cooler and layered ice blocks and the fronts in another with all the prime cuts packaged ready for freezing. drained the water off twice a day and they arrived at the butcher in great shape.
Great first hunt which filled both our freezers and gave us memories to last forever. Lots of excellent meat to start the season, done now until November when i can be picky for a change
Very fortunate that both my sons are excellent shots and our recovery was very easy on all animals. Patience and make the first shot count was what i always taught them and i have seen both make excellent shots even in tougher circumstances.
I never harvested a deer with my father so this experience with both my sons is a special event for them and me.
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Originally Posted by boilerroom
