My hunting partner Kev (aka "Slutch") and I left home Saturday morning at 1:00am for region 5, hoping to be there for first light. After a white-knuckle drive through a snowstorm, we arrived about a half hour before legal shooting light, and were the first ones in to the area we planned to hunt. We pounded bush hard all day, but the deer seemed to be hanging in the thickets. Kev passed on a spiker that was following a doe in the first 10 minutes...that proved to be the only buck he would have an opportunity on. I tracked a couple of deer that had crossed my tracks earlier in the day, but only got glimpses of them in the thick regen after I jumped them from their beds. We found a couple of new cuts later in the day that had more sign in them than the "usual" spots we hunt, so we decided to check them out in the morning.
Sunday morning I headed west and Kev headed east. After I was set up in the back corner of the western cut, I heard shots, and turned on my radio to see if it was Kev. It wasn't him, but I figured that the noise from our conversation made my setup spot a bit futile, so I started to head out to another spot, cutting through a patch of thick timber. As soon as I hit the edge of the timber, I spotted a doe with my Leicas about 500 yards away...with a buck right behind her. They already had me pinned down, but I decided to close the distance. I managed to use a bit of cover and the bank of a skid road to get to within 210 yards, with the deer still standing in the same spot. The perfect forked stump provided a rest, and the 180gr Core Lokt Ultra Bonded from my 300WM put the buck down in his tracks. Fortunately, we were able to get the truck within 30 feet of where he fell.
We hunted hard to find another buck for Kev, but couldn't put bone on any of the others we saw.
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Originally Posted by Phil
