My First Hunt and First Whitetail

[AlexPdHJ]

Hello everyone,

I thought I would post this to introduce myself. I know it is a bit of a strange time of year to post about successful hunts, but I just found the hunting BC forum. I am a very new hunter. This will be my second season this fall. In the summer of 2013 I had never fired a rifle before, but now I reload and go to the range at least once a month.

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10802068_10101179753456621_1117720836642406819_n_z ps8piczzwq.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10802068_10101179753456621_1117720836642406819_n_z ps8piczzwq.jpg.html)

Last November my girlfriend's Dad invited me on their annual whitetail hunt. We went for 10 days in the southern interior and I was fortunate enough to hunt with a different person every day for the first 4 days of the hunt to learn from each of them. On the fifth day I set myself up behind a stump just below a road running along the top of a slash. It had snowed the night before and there were lots of tracks across the road at the bottom of the slash. I spent all morning in my position glassing and saw nothing, much like the previous four days. Just as I was getting cold enough to want to head back to camp for lunch I saw some movement. After looking through my binos I could just see the rump of a deer move behind a tree and into a gully at the bottom of the slash. I knew from my range finder that gully was at around 220m and just at the edge of my comfortable range. I waited another 30 minutes until I was too frozen to sit there anymore and headed back to camp for lunch. As I headed back to camp my girlfriend's Dad was walking up the road and told me he had just seen two does heading down hill across from the slash, heading right for that gully and the stream within.

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10842225_10101180100096951_2225169415360108979_o_z psbkpjdof9.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10842225_10101180100096951_2225169415360108979_o_z psbkpjdof9.jpg.html)


So, that afternoon I was feeling more excited than usual to get back out for the afternoon so as soon as chores were done I grabbed my Browning X-Bolt Stainless Stalker with a Fluted Barrel in .30-06 with the Zeiss Terra 3-9 x 42mm and my magazines full of Barnes Vor-TX in 180gr and jumped on the ATV and headed back to the slash. I went right back to the same slash and parked the ATV off to the side of the road so as not to block the road (another no-no), and started walking to the spot I had been using which had a great stump upon which to rest my bipod. As I was walking I looked over to where I saw the deer’s rump in the morning and suddenly I panicked. There was a beautiful whitetail buck there walking with a doe. Didn’t even need to glass it. He was probably a 4x4 or 5x5. What the hell do I do!? I am standing in the middle of the road at the top of the slash and he is at about 250m where I saw deer tracks crossing the far side of the road at the bottom of the slash the day before. I can’t take that shot standing, kneeling, or sitting. On hindsight I could have probably taken it prone right there, but I made the wrong decision and ran to the stump so I could shoot off the bipod. The deer had not seen me, but in the 30 seconds or so they had moved into some brush. I could still see them, but they were walking through brush towards that gully at around 220m by now. No clear shot. They vanished into the gully.



As I sat there with my heart racing and trying to calm myself down I was struggling with what to do. Between me and my girlfriend’s Dad we had see 5 deer head to that gully that day, but it was at the limit of the range I am comfortable with on the far side of the slash. Do I stay in my spot and hope they come out closer or take a shot at the edge of my comfortable range, or do I move? Moving would mean I would need to drive down to and then along the road at the bottom of the slash to get to the other side, to a closer vantage point to the crossing. Would that disturb the deer and chase them away? Well, it came down to what I could live with. I could live with moving and not seeing another deer. I couldn’t live with staying put and seeing another dandy buck at a range I am not comfortable with crossing at the same place as the 5 deer we had seen. I decided to move.



I ran up to the ATV, drove at an urgent, but not overly fast pace down to the road at the bottom of the slash and then over to the other side. I found a beautiful spot with great concealment and a good rest just within 100m of the crossing point, but looking at it from the other side just below the lower road. I cut away some branches from the saplings in front of me to get a clear view while keeping a fair bit of concealment. Just as I was getting comfortable I saw the fog of my breath. It was moving towards the crossing point. My scent would be all over that place in no time. Damn! It only took me a second to decide I had to move again. I quickly picked another spot, this time above the lower road, where the tree line bent into the slash a little, looking at the crossing from same side as before. The wind direction was good, I cut the lower branches off some saplings again to get a good view, and started to get comfortable. By now it was about 3:00pm and sunset was just past 4:00pm. Hopefully that would be enough time.

[AlexPdHJ]

I was starting to lose hope and convince myself that I should have stayed put when at about 4:00pm two does walked down across the lower road at the crossing towards the gully, about 120m away. I really hoped that a buck would be with them since I had been told it was pretty normal to see a buck following a doe or two around. The buck usually comes out afterwards the experienced hunters had told me. My heart was pounding. I was getting so excited. I watched them walk to the gully and disappear. No buck was following them. I ranged the area and knew the far tree line below the lower road was about 175m, well within my range. One big red tree that was a little in front of the tree line was in the middle was easy to use as a landmark and it was 165m. Seven deer had used that crossing. As the darkness grew closer I knew I would be coming back to this sport tomorrow.



Just then I once again see movement, right at the tree line, heading up from the gully. It’s a deer, but this time I am not panicking. I already got that out of my system the previous three times I saw deer that day. It’s a buck and the antlers look whitetail! Still no panic yet. Keeping both eyes open I acquire him in the scope of my rifle and he is walking and stopping to sniff the ground every so often so I don’t have a good look at his antlers. But, then I see his rump when he stops next to the red tree at 165m and there was the white outline to his V shaped tale. I can only describe what happened next as a switch in my brain flipped on the autopilot and my hours of practice at the range took over. It is like the whole world slowed down. Reticle on target low and just behind the front shoulder, safety off, natural breath pause, left eyes closes for a moment, squeeze not pull, left eye opens, rack the bolt, reacquire target…nope. Just as my left eye opened and I was racking the bolt I see the buck leap what must have been over 20 feet and vanish into the trees next to the gully… Okay…here comes the adrenaline and panic. Movement! Two deer run out of the far side of the gully, stop and look back. Through the scope I see they are does. Safety on. I learned in my CORE that successful shots can flush out similar looking bucks from the area you saw your buck bolt into, and therefore not to take a shot at them unless you can see its yours and wounded, or never lost sight of yours.

At this point I am full on panicking and shaking. I am convinced that I definitely missed him. My scope probably lost its zero when I had a rough go of it on the ATV going over the slash a few days before. Still trembling I pick up my radio turn it on and in a quavering voice try to tell my girlfriend’s Dad it was me who took the shot. He doesn’t reply. I give myself a good while to calm down and pack up my gear and hike out of my spot. It is getting to be dusk at this point and visibility will be poor soon.


I get on the ATV and slowly drive over to the closest spot I can get to the red tree and park it on some nice flat snow. I walk over to the red tree and look around on the snow. No blood. Yep, I definitely missed him. Damn. Well, don’t give up, walk in progressively larger circles out from where you think you hit him. I turn around to start walking the first circle and within three steps there is a 6 inch patch on the snow. Here comes the panic again… I call out on the radio that I got him, I found blood. No reply on the radio. I dropped a waypoint on my GPS and I slowly start following the trail and then my girlfriend’s Dad pulls up in his truck. He couldn’t figure out the radios. Anyways, he had heard the shot and then turned on the radio and heard me say it was me, but couldn’t figure out how to reply. I should have shown him how to work them. The Motorola radios are actually not intuitive.



We followed the blood drips about 40 feet in a straight line down the gully towards the creek dropping GPS waypoints as we went in case we had to come back another day. Then the trail ended about 20 feet from the creek. We looked left, right, forward back, it was starting to get darker and we couldn’t see anything. Back to the progressively larger circles I guess. Once again I turned around and took about 10 steps before seeing my deer laying there.

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/DSC07504_zps1snqjjnc.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/DSC07504_zps1snqjjnc.jpg.html)



A beautiful 5x5. He isn’t any kind of monster, but I was pleased with my first deer. We had walked right past him and weren’t 10 feet from him, but with that brown colouration and being completely still it was impossible to see him even though there was a fair bit of snow around even though we were inside the tree line and down the gully. At that moment I truly understood how well deer are naturally camouflaged if they remain still. We thought we were looking around so carefully as we followed his brief trail. Time for a couple photos before the real work begins.

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/DSC07506_Crop_zps4f8001a9.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/DSC07506_Crop_zps4f8001a9.jpg.html)



The next challenge was field dressing. Thank you youtube! I got right in there. It was far easier than I expected and by that point it was no longer a deer and it was already venison in my mind. My girlfriend’s Dad just sat back and watch me to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes with my first try at field dressing. The only mistake was that I cut myself with my razor sharp brand new Buck knife when I was up to my elbows and working blind in the chest cavity to free the lungs from the windpipe.


With the gory bit done we still had a bit of light left as we started dragging him up to the ATV. We had to take the long way around and up the gully because the way we came was too steep to go up dragging a deer. We got half way up and decided it was flat enough there to bring in the ATV. By now it was almost completely dark and my girlfriend's Dad went to get the ATV. I stood there with my deer listening to him struggle with the ATV. The wheels were spinning and the ATV was stuck. I need to go help him get it unstuck. I dropped a GPS waypoint where I left my deer and trudged up to the ATV. I had managed to get a craggy stump caught in the front suspension of the ATV. I swear I had parked on flat snow. Clearly I was mistaken. We couldn’t get the ATV off. We hacked at it for a long while with a small hatchet kept in the ATV’s pannier in case of emergencies. It was too awkward of an angle and we didn’t want to hack up the front suspension. After discussing how many opinions there were back at camp about the correct way to get an ATV unstuck we finally decided we needed help anyways.



We went back in the pickup truck and got two people and another ATV to help us extricate both the ATV and my deer. The ATV needed to be jacked up along with the stump so that the stump could be freed from the ATV. It was well and truly stuck. When I went to look for my deer in the pitch black I learned again how camouflaged deer are. Even with lots of light and a GPS waypoint marked we couldn’t find the deer. We had to be within 20 feet of it. We drove flooding the area with light from the second ATV and finally found the deer. I should have used the flagging tape I had with me in my pack. It would have made it so much easier to find once the GPS got me close.


Loaded the deer on the ATV and started the drive back to camp hooting and hollering the whole way. Once back we celebrated with everyone and hung him up. I learned how to skin him from one of the experienced guys and later in the trip skinned out the head for practice and learned why you would want to do that before it cools too much if you wanted to do a full mount. Skinning out the head when it’s cold was slow work, but doable. I decided not to do a full mount, just the rack.

Anyways, that is the rather long story of my first hunt. I learned a lot and had a great time! I can't wait for going for moose this year since I got my LEH draw!

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10633261_10101180100271601_4047304897729062390_o_z pszeyoumul.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10633261_10101180100271601_4047304897729062390_o_z pszeyoumul.jpg.html)

[AlexPdHJ]

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/IMG_0920_zpsgzqy6uct.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/IMG_0920_zpsgzqy6uct.jpg.html)

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10869820_10101192061281641_9122046969997300770_o_z pscdc6b189.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10869820_10101192061281641_9122046969997300770_o_z pscdc6b189.jpg.html)

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[Fella]

That is a very nice deer! Good story, make sure you don't lose that horseshoe!

[fuzzybiscuit]

Beauty Whitetail and a heck of a good first buck! Congrats.

[AlexPdHJ]

Haha! Thanks! Yeah I know I was very lucky. I didn't expect to get a deer on my first hunting trip, let alone one as nice as mine. Other than all the deer I saw that one day, I only saw one doe while hunting and it was 5 days after I got mine. I also saw some out of season mule deer and was nearly killed by two whitetail does as they jumped in front of my ATV after I surprised them on the road while driving back to camp after dark.

[monasheemountainman]

great story! congrats, good job figuring it out on your own!

[Brew]

Welcome to the site. Great story and one hell of a first hunt. Way to go. I assume the addiction is in full swing now.

[AlexPdHJ]

Oh absolutely! I am absolutely hooked now! The group of guys I went with are awesome and we're going moose hunting in October and Whitetail again in November. I learned so much from them and they were so welcoming and patient with my questions. I may also try some Black tail in the coastal forests in between. I have made some absolutely fantastic meals with my venison too. Venison Bourguignon was the best thing I have ever cooked in my life. I did Venison Sauerbraten from the Outdoor Edge Magazine last night and it was pretty good (8/10). Venison meatballs, burgers, bacon wrapped rotisserie on the grill, shepherds pie, have all turned out beautifully. However, the chops with a little salt and pepper, olive oil and rosemary, on the grill until medium rare is the best way to taste the venison without anything like a red wine sauce overpowering the flavour of the meat. I am fortunate that this venison is a lot less gamy than other venison I have tried. (https://www.google.ca/search?safe=off&q=bourguignon&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0CBoQvwUoAGoVChMIxKLtzdXYxgIVwpYsCh2PSQsN)

[835]

awesome write up! that is a great buck!

[Leaseman]

awesome write up! that is a great buck!

X2!!!:shock:

[Everett]

Thanks for that we all need a good hunting story this time of year and hell of a first deer.

[ElliotMoose]

Great read. Posts like these are what get us all through the off season. Good luck on your moose hunt this year, we'll be expecting a story of your success!!

[jeff341]

I am out for my first season this year as well.....hopefully half a lucky as you with the success and the people to learn from. Great story.

[The Hermit]

Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us! I know it can take quite while but the effort is really appreciated! Congrats on a great buck and doing it all right! Preseason practice, reloading, making decisions in the field based on your comfort level and observations. etc. I bet you are definitely in your father-in-laws good book now! Cheers

[dmuth]

nice story Alex you missed the joke on your first post

[Sofa King]

sounds like an awesome hunt.
great first deer, heck, great deer for anytime.
love hunting in those snowy conditions, now that's a camp.
http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10633261_10101180100271601_4047304897729062390_o_z pszeyoumul.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10633261_10101180100271601_4047304897729062390_o_z pszeyoumul.jpg.html)

a little different from a couple days earlier.
http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10802068_10101179753456621_1117720836642406819_n_z ps8piczzwq.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10802068_10101179753456621_1117720836642406819_n_z ps8piczzwq.jpg.html)

[AlexPdHJ]

Ha! Yeah, over the 10 days we were there is snowed a lot. On the last night it snowed about 8 inches on top of what you see in that photo. It made hauling the gear out and breaking a camp a little bit of a chore! This ladder shows nicely how much it snowed on the last night. Keeping snow from collapsing the awning over the picnic table was a constant chore. The snow didn't build up too badly on the tents because we kept them pretty warm with the wood stoves.

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q631/alexpdhj/10749991_10101180100401341_449833372027855826_o_zp skfjhljsr.jpg (http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/alexpdhj/media/10749991_10101180100401341_449833372027855826_o_zp skfjhljsr.jpg.html)

[AlexPdHJ]

Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us! I know it can take quite while but the effort is really appreciated! Congrats on a great buck and doing it all right! Preseason practice, reloading, making decisions in the field based on your comfort level and observations. etc. I bet you are definitely in your father-in-laws good book now! Cheers

Well, I was invited back so that's a good sign :)

[Wentrot]

Awesome story and a great buck!!!!

[tuner]

Nice buck, good write up, we got hit with the same amount of snow.

[Jeliason]

That's a great first buck! Awesome job. congrats.

[Pangaea]

Great buck and awesome post. Just what we need to get us through the next 57 days... I love that you can feel the excitement in your writing - that urgent, adrenalin-fueled wildness! Thanks for posting!

[Blainer]

Great share!

[Seeker]

Great story! Thanks for taking the time so the rest of us can dream a little. You made a lot of solid ethical decisions and I have no doubt you will develop into a seasoned hunter before too long. Keep it up!

[BRrooster]

Great story, Thanks for sharing. Memories that will last a lifetime. Good luck on your Moose hunt this fall!

[Fisher-Dude]

Good buck! Good shot! Good story!

[jtred]

Great to read some hunting stories in the summer. Excellent tale and a beautiful whitetail, and not just for the first. Best of luck on your moose hunt this fall.

[ydouask]

Welcome to the addiction and congratulations on a very nice well earned buck. Good call on the second move !

[HarryToolips]

Congrats!!

[Liveforthehunt]

That looks like a good pile of snow ! Great story and buck congrats!!!

[ursusbait]

Well done. Thanks for posting.

[avadad]

Congrats on a fine first buck. Welcome to the club!

[AlexPdHJ]

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone! It was fun to be able to relive my excitement while writing about my first hunt. I learned so many other good lessons on the first hunt as well that I didn't write about. One of the biggest lessons was that several of the seasoned hunters passed on opportunities with smaller bucks in favour of waiting for a bigger buck with impressive racks which never came. They left without punching their tag and really regretted not having a freezer full of venison for the winter.

The other biggest lesson I learned was to be choosy about who you share the exact location of your success with. After my buck was skinned and hanging, and the scotch and beer was flowing in celebration, I got a little too loose lipped with the neighbouring camp which we had gotten pretty friendly with. We had 4 hanging by that point between the 12 of us up their from our larger group and the other camp had 1 hanging between the 4 of them. They were eager to get another one at least and they spent the next two days in the spot where I got mine. They got there first each day, so no harm no foul. But it was slightly frustrating that my loose lips meant our guys couldn't take advantage of my good spot. Anyways, I guess it wasn't so good because they didn't manage to get anything there.

Luckily a few days later we were able to get one of our guys in the spot and he took a shot at a nice buck, but missed! That's when I heard for the first time about zeroing a rifle at 25yards to have a zero at 200yards. That evening we went out behind our camp and I got to watch people zero their rifles at 25yards. While my ballistic app confirmed this as approximately true for most .30 cal rifles, I was very interested to see how these seasoned hunters, and the one who missed, zeroed their rifles. Sure, achieving minute of deer probably works for zeroing at 25 to have a zero at 200 yards, but from my experience at the range I wouldn't zero my rifle unless it was the actual range I was trying to zero it at. I realized that I probably had fired my .30-06 rifle more in the last year (over a 1000 rounds )than most of them did in the last 30 years. I know my place so I didn't voice my newbie opinion to these seasoned veteran hunters, but I was surprised to see that they were happy with being over a half inch off (or more, a lot more) at 25 yards and mixed brands of ammo and bullet types in their magazines. Being .5" out at 25 yards equates to 4 inches out at 200 yards. I knew from my testing with my rifle that one brand of ammo and bullet shoots totally differently than another brand and type. Anyways, I had learned a lot from talking to the bench rest guys at the range about their ammo selection and reloading as well as copper fouling and proper rifle cleaning. Anyways, my advice for fellow newbies is to understand the ballistics of the bullet brand, type, and weight that you are going to use hunting as well as practising at the actual ranges you will be shooting at. I found that knowing my bullet and rifle performance inside out helped me not have to worry about my rifle and my shooting ability while hunting. With the sub-optimal field conditions that are inevitable and all the adrenaline and excitement of my first hunt, I don't think I could have done it unless I had total confidence in my rifle and was able to just focus on my performance. If my rifle was out by 4 inches or more at 200, and I was using an ammo that I wasn't familiar with, I know that the human factors would have cause me to miss or worse have a gut shot or cause an injured animal. I am so glad that I read so much on the internet and spent all those months at the range learning before going into the field. It was worth every dime...errr...every hundred. Damn ammo is expensive! LOL!

[TheProvider]

Great write up and pictures

[kennyj]

Great story, and great buck. Thanks for sharing your first buck!
kenny