DLP
10-13-2015, 08:48 PM
Well for me anyway. after 3.5 years of trying to hunt deer i still haven't bagged one. i have road hunted, glassed the cuts, bushwacked, even floated a river with bow in hand. to date i have only come across does or bucks out of season and only by chance. so far this season though i am feeling very optimistic.
during bow only week i got to within 70 yards of a buck while first glassing and spotting him 200 yards away. he bolted as i was just getting within range. but last week changed everything for me. i drove up an old forestry road as far as i could go to 1400m el, contrary to local advice saying there just arent many deer around anymore. instead of glassing the old cuts i found an animal trail leading into the mid-mountain old growth. i slowly, very slowly hiked along the trail about 10 yards at a time. stopping and glassing thru the trees, looking into the voids. i stopped for 15-20 minutes at a time surveying the vistas thru the forest checking for movement and listening for sign. periodically i would blow three times into the buck-grunt call. then it all started happening - i started noticing movements, seeing black tails and brown bodies moving thru the distant slivers between tree trunks above me. i waited, grnted again. then more different movement, now closer at about 50-70 yards. i stayed very still but was able to load a bullet without being detected. i glassed for horns, but no such luck, so far only does. i waited between trees large enough to hide me but small enough to easily look around by only moving my head. at this point i had called in and watched 4 does come within 50 yards then continue down hill of me. i again started hiking uphill until i made it to 1700m after 1.5 hrs. i stopped turned and there was another doe staring straight at me. i grunted and she just slowly walked away. another 15 minutes of waiting and grunting and yet another deer i spotted thru the trees - couldnt see the head. all this occured between 2-4pm in the afternoon of a mixed sunny day.
this was super fun and gives me confidence that i may actually deliberatly be able to stalk a blacktail this year instead of just running into one by chance. after descending back to my truck i drove the 2 hrs home and researched the exact location on google and the web. turns out i was on a trail that leads to the alpine and i was no more than 100m from reaching the sub-alpine with sparser trees and high meadows. this week i plan to do the same and reach a higher elevation.
any advice on finding the bucks that surely must be around all these does i encountered??
during bow only week i got to within 70 yards of a buck while first glassing and spotting him 200 yards away. he bolted as i was just getting within range. but last week changed everything for me. i drove up an old forestry road as far as i could go to 1400m el, contrary to local advice saying there just arent many deer around anymore. instead of glassing the old cuts i found an animal trail leading into the mid-mountain old growth. i slowly, very slowly hiked along the trail about 10 yards at a time. stopping and glassing thru the trees, looking into the voids. i stopped for 15-20 minutes at a time surveying the vistas thru the forest checking for movement and listening for sign. periodically i would blow three times into the buck-grunt call. then it all started happening - i started noticing movements, seeing black tails and brown bodies moving thru the distant slivers between tree trunks above me. i waited, grnted again. then more different movement, now closer at about 50-70 yards. i stayed very still but was able to load a bullet without being detected. i glassed for horns, but no such luck, so far only does. i waited between trees large enough to hide me but small enough to easily look around by only moving my head. at this point i had called in and watched 4 does come within 50 yards then continue down hill of me. i again started hiking uphill until i made it to 1700m after 1.5 hrs. i stopped turned and there was another doe staring straight at me. i grunted and she just slowly walked away. another 15 minutes of waiting and grunting and yet another deer i spotted thru the trees - couldnt see the head. all this occured between 2-4pm in the afternoon of a mixed sunny day.
this was super fun and gives me confidence that i may actually deliberatly be able to stalk a blacktail this year instead of just running into one by chance. after descending back to my truck i drove the 2 hrs home and researched the exact location on google and the web. turns out i was on a trail that leads to the alpine and i was no more than 100m from reaching the sub-alpine with sparser trees and high meadows. this week i plan to do the same and reach a higher elevation.
any advice on finding the bucks that surely must be around all these does i encountered??