brotherjack
11-22-2014, 11:34 PM
Well, after what had (to date) been one of the worst hunting seasons of my life, everything turned around in a split second that I never saw coming. It happened so fast, that I’ll give you some back story so this isn’t a “saw deer, shot deer, the end” post. Also, for those that don't know me, I used to live in BC and hang out here a bunch. I moved to Idaho 4 years ago, so this is a south-of-the-border story. Anyway...
Earlier in the year, I had ‘broke up’ with the guy(s) I was hunting with, and gone my own way (see other thread on that). Hadn’t exactly had a good run since then. Spent piles of money on gas and burned all my time off from work, and so far, all we had to show for it was a yearling doe and a fawn (I wouldn’t have taken a fawn, but mistook it for an older deer from a distance, and subsequently felt like a total heel for killing it). Other than those two deer (that we drove 2 hours away to hunt), we hadn’t seen a dang thing (that was legal to shoot). We got so little meat out of that mis-adventure, that we ponied up the $200 (each) for second deer tags (that’s how they do second deer tags in Idaho). Hunted hard and long since then, and seen absolutely nothing (except moose and other hunters - north Idaho is littered with both).
Finally, a few days ago, we got our first snowfall. I hiked around in the snow until my feet swelled up and a toenail on my left foot is probably going to fall off from the way my cheap snow boot was rubbing it. Mostly saw 0 deer tracks, or the occasional small doe+fawn pair of tracks, but they were just passing through, not milling around. Finally, after what seemed like forever (my feet and knees certainly thought so), I eventually found some area with enough tracks to make me think it was a good spot. No big buck tracks, but some larger doe’s, and let’s face it, I’m all about the steaks, so legal is legal, and does is legal in Idaho, so anywhere deer are milling around, I’m in for it. The Wife(tm) had also seen what she thought were some buck tracks about half a mile from where I'd found my area.
We hunted it yesterday, and bounced a few does while walking around exploring the area, but they were all crashing brush and whitetails vanishing into thick stuff so fast I never had a chance. Then, right in the last twilight of legal shooting light (we only get half an hour after sunset in Idaho), I missed a shot at what was probably another yearling doe (was bigger than I fawn, but nose/face too short to be a grownup). It was about 120 yards, in dim light, and it ran off apparently uninjured at the shot. As I walked up to where it was standing, I think I figured out why. Twigs and brush and junk all over the place between me and where it was standing that I hadn't caught in my scope in the heat of the moment. 0 blood at the point it was standing, and I trailed it’s tracks for 60 or 80 yards, and not a speck of blood anywhere. Depressing.
Today, the weather breaks nice and clear, so I figure to head in mid-day and get setup on a high spot in a chair to watch the big clearing near the tree line where I’d seen the most deer tracks. I head in about 1PM, with a water pack on my back, a folding chair on my left shoulder, and my favorite rifle on my right. I’m being a little cautious, who knows what I might jump on the way in, but I was cautious on a mission to get to my spot so I could set up and spend the afternoon glassing and waiting.
I had hardly got out of sight of the truck, when I saw some moose. I watched them for a few minutes for the fun of it. Then I headed on up the trail. I was probably half a kilometer along, when out of nowhere, without warning, a buck comes storming out of the thick brush on my right, maybe 50 yards down the trail. Any legal deer is a shooter deer to me, and this was obviously a decent buck, so there was no decision making process to go through. I'ma kill this thing!
I spun the rifle off my shoulder and into my hands and had it up and the safety off and crosshairs on him in less time than it takes to read this sentence. The chair had slipped off my left shoulder and was hanging on my left bicep, which was a little awkward. The deer had already seen me and was bolting (he had never actually stopped, just spun around and headed back the way he had come). I tracked him like I would a clay pigeon with a shotgun, and pulled the trigger just before he hit the brush he’d just come out of. He crashed into the brush and was gone from my sight. The whole event took about 5 seconds (maybe less).
Shaken, I took a few deep breaths and just sat down in the trail to wait a few minutes and let my heart rate drop. He was either dead just inside the brush line, in which case there was no rush, or he was not there, in which case he might not be dead, and I did not want to push him. I was very confident I had crosshairs on him when the gun went bang, so he was hit somewhere, I was confident. I waited about 5 minutes or so, and then headed carefully up to go see if I could find blood at the spot where he was standing. Nothing… I followed his tracks a dozen yards or so into thicker cover, and…. what was this? A chunk of bloody bone laying in the trail. A few yards more and the heavy bleeding started. I was feeling good about then. I felt even better when I realized that the blood trail was headed back towards my truck!
Then… the good feelings started tapering off.. 50 yards… 100 yards… 150 yards… 200 yards… still finding blood, but no deer. I called The Wife(tm) (who was hunting about half a mile north of me) to come help track. She did, and we carried on together, her tracking, and me watching alertly in case we bounced him. We found a few more chunks of bone along the way. About 300 yards from where I had pulled the trigger, we finally found him. He had lost too much blood to carry on, but he was still alive and looking at me. I finished him with a shot from my handgun (God bless America), shooting him at the joint between spine and skull. The initial shot it turns out was terrible shot placement. It had caught him kind of low in the back leg, right about the joint. But the 180 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip had done what Ballistic Tips do, and the leg was all but amputated, and only hanging on by a chunk of hide.
That left me only about 200 yards drag back to the truck. Which is good, because any more, and I might have died, I think. Even gutted, I swear he weighs as much as I do (250lbs). I can throw 120lb bales of hay around without hurting myself all that bad, and pick them up and pack them around for short distances. But with this guy, giving it all I could give er, I could only drag him 10 or 15 yards a time without a rest.
Anyway, that’s the story. Biggest whitetail deer I ever shot, easily. Body on him seemed like a mule deer from back in Canada when we were skinning and hanging him. Ad he has a funky deformed antler on one side to boot, which I think is awesome. I am a happy man right now!
Obligatory pics:
http://xjack.org/hunting/deer2014bigside.jpg
http://xjack.org/hunting/deer2014funnyside.jpg
Earlier in the year, I had ‘broke up’ with the guy(s) I was hunting with, and gone my own way (see other thread on that). Hadn’t exactly had a good run since then. Spent piles of money on gas and burned all my time off from work, and so far, all we had to show for it was a yearling doe and a fawn (I wouldn’t have taken a fawn, but mistook it for an older deer from a distance, and subsequently felt like a total heel for killing it). Other than those two deer (that we drove 2 hours away to hunt), we hadn’t seen a dang thing (that was legal to shoot). We got so little meat out of that mis-adventure, that we ponied up the $200 (each) for second deer tags (that’s how they do second deer tags in Idaho). Hunted hard and long since then, and seen absolutely nothing (except moose and other hunters - north Idaho is littered with both).
Finally, a few days ago, we got our first snowfall. I hiked around in the snow until my feet swelled up and a toenail on my left foot is probably going to fall off from the way my cheap snow boot was rubbing it. Mostly saw 0 deer tracks, or the occasional small doe+fawn pair of tracks, but they were just passing through, not milling around. Finally, after what seemed like forever (my feet and knees certainly thought so), I eventually found some area with enough tracks to make me think it was a good spot. No big buck tracks, but some larger doe’s, and let’s face it, I’m all about the steaks, so legal is legal, and does is legal in Idaho, so anywhere deer are milling around, I’m in for it. The Wife(tm) had also seen what she thought were some buck tracks about half a mile from where I'd found my area.
We hunted it yesterday, and bounced a few does while walking around exploring the area, but they were all crashing brush and whitetails vanishing into thick stuff so fast I never had a chance. Then, right in the last twilight of legal shooting light (we only get half an hour after sunset in Idaho), I missed a shot at what was probably another yearling doe (was bigger than I fawn, but nose/face too short to be a grownup). It was about 120 yards, in dim light, and it ran off apparently uninjured at the shot. As I walked up to where it was standing, I think I figured out why. Twigs and brush and junk all over the place between me and where it was standing that I hadn't caught in my scope in the heat of the moment. 0 blood at the point it was standing, and I trailed it’s tracks for 60 or 80 yards, and not a speck of blood anywhere. Depressing.
Today, the weather breaks nice and clear, so I figure to head in mid-day and get setup on a high spot in a chair to watch the big clearing near the tree line where I’d seen the most deer tracks. I head in about 1PM, with a water pack on my back, a folding chair on my left shoulder, and my favorite rifle on my right. I’m being a little cautious, who knows what I might jump on the way in, but I was cautious on a mission to get to my spot so I could set up and spend the afternoon glassing and waiting.
I had hardly got out of sight of the truck, when I saw some moose. I watched them for a few minutes for the fun of it. Then I headed on up the trail. I was probably half a kilometer along, when out of nowhere, without warning, a buck comes storming out of the thick brush on my right, maybe 50 yards down the trail. Any legal deer is a shooter deer to me, and this was obviously a decent buck, so there was no decision making process to go through. I'ma kill this thing!
I spun the rifle off my shoulder and into my hands and had it up and the safety off and crosshairs on him in less time than it takes to read this sentence. The chair had slipped off my left shoulder and was hanging on my left bicep, which was a little awkward. The deer had already seen me and was bolting (he had never actually stopped, just spun around and headed back the way he had come). I tracked him like I would a clay pigeon with a shotgun, and pulled the trigger just before he hit the brush he’d just come out of. He crashed into the brush and was gone from my sight. The whole event took about 5 seconds (maybe less).
Shaken, I took a few deep breaths and just sat down in the trail to wait a few minutes and let my heart rate drop. He was either dead just inside the brush line, in which case there was no rush, or he was not there, in which case he might not be dead, and I did not want to push him. I was very confident I had crosshairs on him when the gun went bang, so he was hit somewhere, I was confident. I waited about 5 minutes or so, and then headed carefully up to go see if I could find blood at the spot where he was standing. Nothing… I followed his tracks a dozen yards or so into thicker cover, and…. what was this? A chunk of bloody bone laying in the trail. A few yards more and the heavy bleeding started. I was feeling good about then. I felt even better when I realized that the blood trail was headed back towards my truck!
Then… the good feelings started tapering off.. 50 yards… 100 yards… 150 yards… 200 yards… still finding blood, but no deer. I called The Wife(tm) (who was hunting about half a mile north of me) to come help track. She did, and we carried on together, her tracking, and me watching alertly in case we bounced him. We found a few more chunks of bone along the way. About 300 yards from where I had pulled the trigger, we finally found him. He had lost too much blood to carry on, but he was still alive and looking at me. I finished him with a shot from my handgun (God bless America), shooting him at the joint between spine and skull. The initial shot it turns out was terrible shot placement. It had caught him kind of low in the back leg, right about the joint. But the 180 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip had done what Ballistic Tips do, and the leg was all but amputated, and only hanging on by a chunk of hide.
That left me only about 200 yards drag back to the truck. Which is good, because any more, and I might have died, I think. Even gutted, I swear he weighs as much as I do (250lbs). I can throw 120lb bales of hay around without hurting myself all that bad, and pick them up and pack them around for short distances. But with this guy, giving it all I could give er, I could only drag him 10 or 15 yards a time without a rest.
Anyway, that’s the story. Biggest whitetail deer I ever shot, easily. Body on him seemed like a mule deer from back in Canada when we were skinning and hanging him. Ad he has a funky deformed antler on one side to boot, which I think is awesome. I am a happy man right now!
Obligatory pics:
http://xjack.org/hunting/deer2014bigside.jpg
http://xjack.org/hunting/deer2014funnyside.jpg