sapper
10-26-2009, 10:08 AM
On Friday I headed back to 8-15 again. This time I took a different newbie friend of mine who had a new hunter LEH white-tail doe tag. This friend hadn't been out ever so was quite excited. Thanks to Palmer we were able to set up camp in a great spot near Christina Lake. I can't give Palmer enough thanks here. His advice on a camp location and areas to check out totally made the weekend. We headed out from camp on Saturday morning and not 10 minutes down the road from camp my buddy notices a doe. We stop the truck and he gets his rifle and gets out of the truck. He asked me if it was big enough and as I was about to respond, "No," another doe pops up which was of good size. He starts following it along the road trying to get a good bead on it. I went back to get the truck and at that point he spooks three more who take off running.
As I'm getting the truck to move it off the road I hear the shot. I drive up to where he was and see him in the trees looking around. The two of us head down into the gully that the doe had taken off into after the shot. We can't find a blood trail anywhere. We head up the other side of the gully and to the top of the next ridge. Still nothing. We're just about to think maybe he didn't connect when I turn and look back down the gully and there it lies between two rocks. Lots of high-fiving. I showed him how to do the gutting. This was actually my first hands-on experience at this as on my first kill the friend I was with showed me how to do it. Given that some of the internal organs were leaking out from the shot the gutting wasn't textbook by any means but in the end I feel way more confident and my buddy feels confident to do his next one on his own.
The rest of the weekend we didn't see another deer, doe (for my LEH tag) or buck. We spooked lots of grouse who flushed from the roadside and then didn't want anything to do with us.
We had a great weekend and my newbie buddy is now hooked. On the way home he told me, "Well, I would have been hooked without the doe but now am totally into it."
I'm hoping for better success on my 3-17 LEH mule-deer tag. :)
Thanks again, Palmer, for connecting us with a great campsite and pointing us in the right direction. Palmer is a stand-up guy!!:grin:
As I'm getting the truck to move it off the road I hear the shot. I drive up to where he was and see him in the trees looking around. The two of us head down into the gully that the doe had taken off into after the shot. We can't find a blood trail anywhere. We head up the other side of the gully and to the top of the next ridge. Still nothing. We're just about to think maybe he didn't connect when I turn and look back down the gully and there it lies between two rocks. Lots of high-fiving. I showed him how to do the gutting. This was actually my first hands-on experience at this as on my first kill the friend I was with showed me how to do it. Given that some of the internal organs were leaking out from the shot the gutting wasn't textbook by any means but in the end I feel way more confident and my buddy feels confident to do his next one on his own.
The rest of the weekend we didn't see another deer, doe (for my LEH tag) or buck. We spooked lots of grouse who flushed from the roadside and then didn't want anything to do with us.
We had a great weekend and my newbie buddy is now hooked. On the way home he told me, "Well, I would have been hooked without the doe but now am totally into it."
I'm hoping for better success on my 3-17 LEH mule-deer tag. :)
Thanks again, Palmer, for connecting us with a great campsite and pointing us in the right direction. Palmer is a stand-up guy!!:grin: