Jeliason
12-16-2016, 02:15 PM
Well, now that the season is over I thought I should get around to posting some pictures and a quick story about my 2016 four-point. Two years ago (2014) I shot the biggest deer of my life but things have been pretty quiet since then. I hunted as hard as I could last season and didn't even see a legal animal all year. This season was pretty tough to get out. I did get a a 9 day trip up north where we came back with 3 deer a two elk (none killed by me) but other than that trip I only got out 2 or 3 other times.
Mid november came around and my brother and I headed up the same mountain I killed my big deer two years ago. This spot is so frustrating to me. I always see tons of good sign but just cannot turn up deer on a regular basis. I can't even seem to spook them in the thick stuff. We kind of messed up our first light but got up the hill and started working the areas. There was promising sign but it wasn't long until we were whining about how we never see deer in this spot. We stopped for a lunch break that turned into a two hour nap around the fire.
We finally got ourselves together and headed into another area down back towards the road. It was just one of those days where I found myself saying to my brother. "we HAVE to see a deer in here". We came down into an area that opens up into nice grassy openings and got on a fresh rub line. I stepped out slowly into an opening that was about 100 yards long and through the fog I catch a white face looking at me! "DEER!" Gun up and can tell it's a nice buck. I'm trying to count points but he's looking straight at me and I can't tell. We spend the next 2-3 minutes watching this guy look right at us. I was 90% sure his right side was 4 and the temptation to shoot was real but I just wasn't sure enough. Finally he moved JUST enough that I could make out the tips of his point on the right side.
I say to my bro, "He's FOUR". He was still looking right at me and one quick turn and he's out of my life forever (remember, I'm two days shy of a full two year drought). I say to my bro, "I'm shooting him straight in the chest". Squeeze the trigger and he kicks up and heads over the little hill behind him. Feeling good about the shot but not sure, we contained our excitement enough to wait a few minutes and take our time walking over to look for blood. As we get to where he was standing I see a black stomach about 25 yards away under a tree
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6076_zpsueknrmud.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6076_zpsueknrmud.png.html)
He was bigger than I thought he was when I pulled the trigger and I couldn't be happier
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6078_zpss7yzbyuv.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6078_zpss7yzbyuv.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6079_zpsh9wmpu2d.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6079_zpsh9wmpu2d.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6077_zpshedq53ez.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6077_zpshedq53ez.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6081_zpsbaeqyyrk.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6081_zpsbaeqyyrk.png.html)
Mid november came around and my brother and I headed up the same mountain I killed my big deer two years ago. This spot is so frustrating to me. I always see tons of good sign but just cannot turn up deer on a regular basis. I can't even seem to spook them in the thick stuff. We kind of messed up our first light but got up the hill and started working the areas. There was promising sign but it wasn't long until we were whining about how we never see deer in this spot. We stopped for a lunch break that turned into a two hour nap around the fire.
We finally got ourselves together and headed into another area down back towards the road. It was just one of those days where I found myself saying to my brother. "we HAVE to see a deer in here". We came down into an area that opens up into nice grassy openings and got on a fresh rub line. I stepped out slowly into an opening that was about 100 yards long and through the fog I catch a white face looking at me! "DEER!" Gun up and can tell it's a nice buck. I'm trying to count points but he's looking straight at me and I can't tell. We spend the next 2-3 minutes watching this guy look right at us. I was 90% sure his right side was 4 and the temptation to shoot was real but I just wasn't sure enough. Finally he moved JUST enough that I could make out the tips of his point on the right side.
I say to my bro, "He's FOUR". He was still looking right at me and one quick turn and he's out of my life forever (remember, I'm two days shy of a full two year drought). I say to my bro, "I'm shooting him straight in the chest". Squeeze the trigger and he kicks up and heads over the little hill behind him. Feeling good about the shot but not sure, we contained our excitement enough to wait a few minutes and take our time walking over to look for blood. As we get to where he was standing I see a black stomach about 25 yards away under a tree
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6076_zpsueknrmud.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6076_zpsueknrmud.png.html)
He was bigger than I thought he was when I pulled the trigger and I couldn't be happier
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6078_zpss7yzbyuv.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6078_zpss7yzbyuv.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6079_zpsh9wmpu2d.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6079_zpsh9wmpu2d.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6077_zpshedq53ez.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6077_zpshedq53ez.png.html)
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah302/jeliason/IMG_6081_zpsbaeqyyrk.png (http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/jeliason/media/IMG_6081_zpsbaeqyyrk.png.html)