Brambles
09-04-2006, 09:18 PM
Well my brother and I went out for the opening day of archery season. Elk and mule deer were our quarry. We get into our Elk spot and there is a big logging show in the drainage we hunt now, active logging all night long. Not sure if they were actually logging all night but they had machines banging around until the wee hours, no elk hunting possible so we switch to Mule deer in the high country.
We glass our basin on the eve of opening morning and see 4 mule bucks one of which will go 160-170 inches. I was humming and hawing if I wanted that buck but my brother convinced me that its a great animal for a first kill with archery especially since its a velvet mulie.
We get up at first light and are glassing the basin again and end up counting 14 mulie bucks and 5 mulie does and 4 whitetail does. The one buck we seen the night before was still the biggest one so we wait for him to bed down and start the stalk.
Keep in mind we were glassing these bucks from 2.5 kms away, ( yes the Zeiss diascope 65 really does work well) we had to circle around the ridge and come in above them whick was about a 4 km one way trip. We get above them and first see them at 200 yards so now we have them in sight.
The 4 point was pretty calm but the 2 point he was with was always on guard. We started to close the distance and at about 130 yard I take my shoes off and go in sock feet.
The deer get up and start feeding down and away but at a fairly leasurly pace. I move when i can and finally get down into some cover where I lost track of the deer and was going in "blind". At 49 yards the deer walks out in front of me and in behind some alder bushes. The alder has a shooting window of about 18"x18" but he's quartering to me. I circle a little left and get behind some bushes which brings me to 40 yards and provides me with a broadside/ slight quartering away shot but I have to come to full draw and peek around the bushes to get the shot. As I do this the buck and a doe, which i hadn't seen before, bound off. The doe is in the lead so I think it was her that spotted me. They weren't too alarmed and stopped broadside at 96 yards, too far obvoiously. As the deer turn to walk up the small draw I run up a bank to cut the distance ( in my sock feet).
I cut the distance down considerably and the deer stop again, I'm in head to toe camo and they don't really know what I am. I range them and come to full draw, I take the shot and release just as the buck takes off and the arrow flys harmlessly past his ASS.
The deer I was after and all the other deer on the hillside bound off into the distance and up over a far ridge.
It was a really cool hunt and weirdly enough I don't feel like I failed. I had a really good time and I was happy just to get as close to him as we did.
We did also end up getting 3 bull elk to talk to us down the "backside" but you would need horses to get them out of that valley. We did go down after them but it was INSANELY thick with alder so we climbed back out.
Sorry I don't have any pictures but I was pre occupied with the stalk. We did manage to get 5 grouse with my bow, that was great fun..
Hopefully I'll be able to make it out for a little bit more of the archery elk season, hopefully they won't be logging in that spot too.
Brambles
We glass our basin on the eve of opening morning and see 4 mule bucks one of which will go 160-170 inches. I was humming and hawing if I wanted that buck but my brother convinced me that its a great animal for a first kill with archery especially since its a velvet mulie.
We get up at first light and are glassing the basin again and end up counting 14 mulie bucks and 5 mulie does and 4 whitetail does. The one buck we seen the night before was still the biggest one so we wait for him to bed down and start the stalk.
Keep in mind we were glassing these bucks from 2.5 kms away, ( yes the Zeiss diascope 65 really does work well) we had to circle around the ridge and come in above them whick was about a 4 km one way trip. We get above them and first see them at 200 yards so now we have them in sight.
The 4 point was pretty calm but the 2 point he was with was always on guard. We started to close the distance and at about 130 yard I take my shoes off and go in sock feet.
The deer get up and start feeding down and away but at a fairly leasurly pace. I move when i can and finally get down into some cover where I lost track of the deer and was going in "blind". At 49 yards the deer walks out in front of me and in behind some alder bushes. The alder has a shooting window of about 18"x18" but he's quartering to me. I circle a little left and get behind some bushes which brings me to 40 yards and provides me with a broadside/ slight quartering away shot but I have to come to full draw and peek around the bushes to get the shot. As I do this the buck and a doe, which i hadn't seen before, bound off. The doe is in the lead so I think it was her that spotted me. They weren't too alarmed and stopped broadside at 96 yards, too far obvoiously. As the deer turn to walk up the small draw I run up a bank to cut the distance ( in my sock feet).
I cut the distance down considerably and the deer stop again, I'm in head to toe camo and they don't really know what I am. I range them and come to full draw, I take the shot and release just as the buck takes off and the arrow flys harmlessly past his ASS.
The deer I was after and all the other deer on the hillside bound off into the distance and up over a far ridge.
It was a really cool hunt and weirdly enough I don't feel like I failed. I had a really good time and I was happy just to get as close to him as we did.
We did also end up getting 3 bull elk to talk to us down the "backside" but you would need horses to get them out of that valley. We did go down after them but it was INSANELY thick with alder so we climbed back out.
Sorry I don't have any pictures but I was pre occupied with the stalk. We did manage to get 5 grouse with my bow, that was great fun..
Hopefully I'll be able to make it out for a little bit more of the archery elk season, hopefully they won't be logging in that spot too.
Brambles