bruin
12-09-2013, 09:33 PM
Ah, the season is winding down and its been a busy one. I didn't get much time to hunt at home and when I did it was trying to find a deer or LEH moose for my new hunter/wife which was an epic failure on my part! She has given up on me as a guide and she's looking for someone a little more productive if anybody's interested! I got 3 days to hunt deer in November and I knew exactly where I was going. I took a good buddy who had never shot a mule deer and the goal was to get him a buck so I really had no expectation of shooting anything myself anyway.
Conditions were pretty good other than a full moon which kept the deer pretty nocturnal. We did have fresh powder and bitter cold plus peak rut. We worked pretty hard to travel at higher altitude in deep snow but it was beautiful and we had the place to ourselves. The first day we spotted the deer I eventually shot but knowing the area and what could be in it we kept hunting. By day 3 we had seen a handful of other bucks but nothing exciting. On our last day we decided to split up to increase our odds, Matt would still hunt through a sparsely timbered ridge where we had seen the most sign and a few deer, and I was going to experiment on some open alpine slopes. Long story short I spotted this buck from about 2500 yards and told myself I would just go and have a look since the pack out was going to be a terrible experience! He was following a single doe and fending off a couple of love struck two points on a rocky outcropping. It took me 3 hours to get there, in the mean time they dropped off the backside of the mountain, added a few hundred feet of elevation to re-climb. By then I was in kill mode and the pack out was forgotten. When if finally got there and I poked my head over the hill he was 150 yards bedded. I chickened out of filming it which was stupid cause I had the time but it was an all around great day and a great way to cap off the season. Matt never ended up shooting a buck, which I still feel guilty about. Next year I'm not bringing my gun!
https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/969256_186276648231527_1451954984_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/903508_186276021564923_2082712928_o.jpg
Conditions were pretty good other than a full moon which kept the deer pretty nocturnal. We did have fresh powder and bitter cold plus peak rut. We worked pretty hard to travel at higher altitude in deep snow but it was beautiful and we had the place to ourselves. The first day we spotted the deer I eventually shot but knowing the area and what could be in it we kept hunting. By day 3 we had seen a handful of other bucks but nothing exciting. On our last day we decided to split up to increase our odds, Matt would still hunt through a sparsely timbered ridge where we had seen the most sign and a few deer, and I was going to experiment on some open alpine slopes. Long story short I spotted this buck from about 2500 yards and told myself I would just go and have a look since the pack out was going to be a terrible experience! He was following a single doe and fending off a couple of love struck two points on a rocky outcropping. It took me 3 hours to get there, in the mean time they dropped off the backside of the mountain, added a few hundred feet of elevation to re-climb. By then I was in kill mode and the pack out was forgotten. When if finally got there and I poked my head over the hill he was 150 yards bedded. I chickened out of filming it which was stupid cause I had the time but it was an all around great day and a great way to cap off the season. Matt never ended up shooting a buck, which I still feel guilty about. Next year I'm not bringing my gun!
https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/969256_186276648231527_1451954984_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/903508_186276021564923_2082712928_o.jpg