unstableryan
12-01-2017, 08:41 PM
Up at camp in the Christian Valley alternating between 2 stands on a family friend’s property, I hunted my ass off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and saw nothing. Wednesday at 9:30, 11, and 4:15, I saw three pairs of small does. At least it was something, I was getting bored hunting from light to dark, going a little crazy with the squirrels.
Thursday morning I was out in the early light and climbed up, gave a grunt and started organizing all the crap in my pockets, granola bars and water, bino’s Etc. Out of the corner of my eye, 75 ish yards away was this thing. I got the gun up and shot really quickly and had good confidence in the shot. This is like 10 minutes after sitting down tops.
Walked up to where he was at impact and there was no blood. Immediately doubt began to form and I followed his tracks a little bit until I found some blood. Kinda worried at this point. I walked back to the cabin to tell my dad and I had the feeling I knew I was going to be searching the mountain all day. He was getting ready to come help when I got back and started following. Little blood, fresh hard tracks in the fresh snow. Also snowing like a *******. Didn’t feel good about the tracks... made it 30 yards into the fairly thick bush and there he was. The biggest deer I’ve ever shot.
I got it with my tikka t3 in 6.5x55 with a 120gr ttsx. Went in high shoulder/neck and out ribs, destroying the lungs. Only blood was coming from mouth/nose, not the holes. They were tight on my finger. Butcher is a long time family friend and he says that there is very little actual meat loss when I asked about shooting through a roast or something. Lucky there :)
Anyways, emotions went high, low, high again in a pretty short period of time. That’s my ramble, he’s an easy 4x4 but with one little sticker of a beam so they all called it a 5x4 ;)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6624&stc=1
Thursday morning I was out in the early light and climbed up, gave a grunt and started organizing all the crap in my pockets, granola bars and water, bino’s Etc. Out of the corner of my eye, 75 ish yards away was this thing. I got the gun up and shot really quickly and had good confidence in the shot. This is like 10 minutes after sitting down tops.
Walked up to where he was at impact and there was no blood. Immediately doubt began to form and I followed his tracks a little bit until I found some blood. Kinda worried at this point. I walked back to the cabin to tell my dad and I had the feeling I knew I was going to be searching the mountain all day. He was getting ready to come help when I got back and started following. Little blood, fresh hard tracks in the fresh snow. Also snowing like a *******. Didn’t feel good about the tracks... made it 30 yards into the fairly thick bush and there he was. The biggest deer I’ve ever shot.
I got it with my tikka t3 in 6.5x55 with a 120gr ttsx. Went in high shoulder/neck and out ribs, destroying the lungs. Only blood was coming from mouth/nose, not the holes. They were tight on my finger. Butcher is a long time family friend and he says that there is very little actual meat loss when I asked about shooting through a roast or something. Lucky there :)
Anyways, emotions went high, low, high again in a pretty short period of time. That’s my ramble, he’s an easy 4x4 but with one little sticker of a beam so they all called it a 5x4 ;)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6624&stc=1