DGuest
11-19-2013, 07:43 PM
So I shot this guy on remembrance day around 1pm, here is my story.
I had a wedding I was told I had to go to on Saturday night, which through a wrench into my hunting plans.... who gets married on a long weekend as the ruts starting... some people. So I slept in Sunday, got my stuff together and headed out to a place a had scouted a few times this summer. Ended up not getting there until dark so I slept in my truck at the trail head.
There was some drizzle over night but it was so close to zero I knew I would be into fresh snow early in my hike. It took me until about 9:30 before I was in a foot of snow and starting to cut fresh tracks. Found what looked to be buck tracks and started tracking him. after about an hour or so I saw him for the first time, just a glimpse but he looked pretty big, couldn't count points but rack was fairly high above his ears and body looked thick.
Saw him once more about another hr later.... but he was always 100m or more up hill from me and was always trotting off by the time I saw him. By this time I am in full on alpine and getting tired, in true blacktail form this SOB was making me chase him up hill. I just kept telling myself the mountain was only so high and I actually wasn't that far from the top now... maybe another 300m elevation.
I noticed a second set of tracks with him now and all of a sudden they both swing to the left. They split, one walked to the left of a clump of spruce and one went to the right. I decided I wanted the high ground for once and kept hiking up hill to the next bluff. Just as I get past a clump of spruce I decide to not move for about 5 min... I like to do this as I am stalking or hunting timber just to take in everything around me and to let things quiet down. I start to look around..... then I realize a doe is staring at me through the clump of spruce. She keeps looking at me then looking down hill.... It has to be the buck she's looking at. but I don't know what to do as she is only 20yards away. I can call a bit and she doesn't really do anything. I decide to give a few grunts to maybe piss off the buck and peek his interest... who knows maybe he would poke his head around the spruce and I would get a shot.... he doesn't. So i figure I can't just stand here he will wind me soon and I'll be hiking up hill more. So I get just a little bit higher then swing left just as they did hoping I will have the advantage now.... Just as I get to the crest of a bluff there he is standing no more than 30 yards away broad side down hill from me. I made a quick off hand shot. I knew I had a good hit as I could see hair and blood on the snow from where I shot.
He ran about 50 yards before piling up. But he had one last trick up his sleeve.... We were on a ridge line, he ran away from my truck and down hill into the next basin.... perfect. I was using 165grain federal fusion, nice entry and exit, blood trail was awesome, he was leaking out of both sides.
Now for the best part, I had been hiking away from my truck all day and now I have a deer down, I'm by myself, it gets dark in 4 hrs and I work the next day.
I used the gutless method for the first time which was awesome, quarter him and pull off the backstraps etc. Rack wasn't anything special but there was no way I was going to leave without it. Started hiking out at 1:37 and got to my truck at 4:42 one trip was brutal but 2 would have taken longer.
Things I learned:
55L day pack from mec.... not good for packing out meat. getting a frame pack.
Things I haven't learned yet: how to load a picture.
I had a wedding I was told I had to go to on Saturday night, which through a wrench into my hunting plans.... who gets married on a long weekend as the ruts starting... some people. So I slept in Sunday, got my stuff together and headed out to a place a had scouted a few times this summer. Ended up not getting there until dark so I slept in my truck at the trail head.
There was some drizzle over night but it was so close to zero I knew I would be into fresh snow early in my hike. It took me until about 9:30 before I was in a foot of snow and starting to cut fresh tracks. Found what looked to be buck tracks and started tracking him. after about an hour or so I saw him for the first time, just a glimpse but he looked pretty big, couldn't count points but rack was fairly high above his ears and body looked thick.
Saw him once more about another hr later.... but he was always 100m or more up hill from me and was always trotting off by the time I saw him. By this time I am in full on alpine and getting tired, in true blacktail form this SOB was making me chase him up hill. I just kept telling myself the mountain was only so high and I actually wasn't that far from the top now... maybe another 300m elevation.
I noticed a second set of tracks with him now and all of a sudden they both swing to the left. They split, one walked to the left of a clump of spruce and one went to the right. I decided I wanted the high ground for once and kept hiking up hill to the next bluff. Just as I get past a clump of spruce I decide to not move for about 5 min... I like to do this as I am stalking or hunting timber just to take in everything around me and to let things quiet down. I start to look around..... then I realize a doe is staring at me through the clump of spruce. She keeps looking at me then looking down hill.... It has to be the buck she's looking at. but I don't know what to do as she is only 20yards away. I can call a bit and she doesn't really do anything. I decide to give a few grunts to maybe piss off the buck and peek his interest... who knows maybe he would poke his head around the spruce and I would get a shot.... he doesn't. So i figure I can't just stand here he will wind me soon and I'll be hiking up hill more. So I get just a little bit higher then swing left just as they did hoping I will have the advantage now.... Just as I get to the crest of a bluff there he is standing no more than 30 yards away broad side down hill from me. I made a quick off hand shot. I knew I had a good hit as I could see hair and blood on the snow from where I shot.
He ran about 50 yards before piling up. But he had one last trick up his sleeve.... We were on a ridge line, he ran away from my truck and down hill into the next basin.... perfect. I was using 165grain federal fusion, nice entry and exit, blood trail was awesome, he was leaking out of both sides.
Now for the best part, I had been hiking away from my truck all day and now I have a deer down, I'm by myself, it gets dark in 4 hrs and I work the next day.
I used the gutless method for the first time which was awesome, quarter him and pull off the backstraps etc. Rack wasn't anything special but there was no way I was going to leave without it. Started hiking out at 1:37 and got to my truck at 4:42 one trip was brutal but 2 would have taken longer.
Things I learned:
55L day pack from mec.... not good for packing out meat. getting a frame pack.
Things I haven't learned yet: how to load a picture.