Iron Sighted
11-14-2011, 01:51 AM
So after getting out for a few long day hunts in my local area without spotting any bucks(though I did help my friend fill his doe tag), I made the decision to take a week off work and get a little more serious about trying to get the opportunity to cut my muley tag. I made a call to a friend and after some last minute planning, off we went to region 3.
Three days in to the hunt and there is next to no snow on the ground, the temperatures are much milder than we'd like and the weather is fairly sunny and nice for the most part...I start to wonder if this actually November or if the rut is going to happening at all during this trip. In spite of this we do spot tons of does and a few two points and one three(hunting partner saw two four points in this span, one was big but offered no shot and the other was not large enough for him to want to shoot it, I still hadn't seen a four point yet and would have happily taken the small one he passed up as I had never shot any big game before).
Overnight things started to get better for us, the temperatures dropped, the wind picked up, and it started to snow. This would carry on through the first four hours of day four. Up we get a little before 04:00am and we arrive at the spot we decided to hunt about 40 mins before sunrise with about five inches of new snow on the ground and the wind howling. We each head off our own way and wait for legal shooting light to arrive, then march in to the thicker timber on some small ridges to try and bounce some deer out of their beds. I managed to get four on the move in the first hour, but they all busted me early and only one was a buck, again a smallish two point.
A few minutes past this point I hear a shot and go check it out, my partner has just dropped a decent four point, I congratulate him on his buck, but for me the skunk continues...Fast forward a few hours and we have now covered a few more ridges in the timber in a different area, lots of fresh sign uncovered but no deer spotted so we decide to follow an unfamiliar road to see what it would lead to. We end up driving down a long switchbacking descent with great lines of sight through the trees and brush the whole way down, what a great looking area we are thinking, but we see no tracks on the road anywhere. Then my partner spots a slew of fresh tracks on the side of the road and we jump out to take a look, I am so fixated on getting over to his side of the road to look that I don't notice the five does and one two point standing on my side of the road until I hear my partner laugh while he is telling me to turn around and look...this was a little embarrassing to say the least, six deer within 30' and I missed them all LOL.
We continue down the road until it dead ends and then follow it back up while paying a little more attention(at least in my case) to what may be lurking in the bushes. On the drive back up we spot what we think are the same group of does with a larger two point...still not a shooter seen by me yet, but at least the deer are now showing in numbers and we are starting to see some bucks with does.
Less than two minutes up the road, my partner, while scanning out the drivers side window, slams on the brakes, reverses a few feet and stops again and then slaps my thermos of coffee out of my hands while he says in a terse voice"grab your gun". I needed no further prompting and jumped out the truck while ramming cartridges in to the magazine. I had a peek in the brush where he was looking and saw a nice four point rack showing through the cover. We quickly decided that I should run back down the road to the bottom of the switch back so that we would have him trapped between us. I sprinted down it hoping he wouldn't spook and take off before I was in position(or worse run uphill past my partner who had already filled his tag and would have to just watch it run by). I hustled to where I figured would be a good spot, flipped up the scope caps and rested my thumb on the safety while I tried to calm down and scan the area where I knew he was hiding less than 60 yards away.
After about thirty very tense seconds I hear a call from up top"HERE HE COMES", and out of the cover about twenty five yards to my right this big buck goes blowing by me at top speed trying to get in to the thick stuff across the road and down to the next switch back. I brought the rifle up to my shoulder while pivoting slightly to keep the deer in my vision and had time to line up and squeeze off one shot at about forty yards before he was gone in to the bush again and out of sight. He gave no indication of being hit but I felt that I had gotten off a fairly good shot so I followed his tracks to where I took the shot at him and immediately saw a little blood just a few feet past that. By this time my partner had come down to me and we waited a few minutes while I tried to overcome my excitement(and apprehension, I was really hoping I hadn't hit him with a poor shot) and explain to him how it had gone down. Roughly five minutes passed and we started to track him down, 30 yards in and there was a lot of blood being seen on the snow and I started to get a better feeling. Around 100-120 yards we found him dead on the ground and I got my first good look at my first deer. A quick look and I realized he was a lot bigger than what I anticipated shooting for a first deer. Closer inspection revealed that I had nailed him through the lungs with my shot, and the icing on the cake was that it was with a round that I had handloaded myself for my 7mm RM. A few quick high fives and many thanks to my hunting partner for putting me on to this guy later, I settled behind this big,stinky fella and got some pictures taken of a moment that I'll happily remember for the rest of my days. :-D:-D:-D
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n607/Iron_Sighted/PB111785.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n607/Iron_Sighted/PB111783.jpg
Thanks for putting up with the long winded story, hope everyone enjoyed it. I still have a huge $hit eating grin stuck on my face and it is going to be there for a long while to come.
Three days in to the hunt and there is next to no snow on the ground, the temperatures are much milder than we'd like and the weather is fairly sunny and nice for the most part...I start to wonder if this actually November or if the rut is going to happening at all during this trip. In spite of this we do spot tons of does and a few two points and one three(hunting partner saw two four points in this span, one was big but offered no shot and the other was not large enough for him to want to shoot it, I still hadn't seen a four point yet and would have happily taken the small one he passed up as I had never shot any big game before).
Overnight things started to get better for us, the temperatures dropped, the wind picked up, and it started to snow. This would carry on through the first four hours of day four. Up we get a little before 04:00am and we arrive at the spot we decided to hunt about 40 mins before sunrise with about five inches of new snow on the ground and the wind howling. We each head off our own way and wait for legal shooting light to arrive, then march in to the thicker timber on some small ridges to try and bounce some deer out of their beds. I managed to get four on the move in the first hour, but they all busted me early and only one was a buck, again a smallish two point.
A few minutes past this point I hear a shot and go check it out, my partner has just dropped a decent four point, I congratulate him on his buck, but for me the skunk continues...Fast forward a few hours and we have now covered a few more ridges in the timber in a different area, lots of fresh sign uncovered but no deer spotted so we decide to follow an unfamiliar road to see what it would lead to. We end up driving down a long switchbacking descent with great lines of sight through the trees and brush the whole way down, what a great looking area we are thinking, but we see no tracks on the road anywhere. Then my partner spots a slew of fresh tracks on the side of the road and we jump out to take a look, I am so fixated on getting over to his side of the road to look that I don't notice the five does and one two point standing on my side of the road until I hear my partner laugh while he is telling me to turn around and look...this was a little embarrassing to say the least, six deer within 30' and I missed them all LOL.
We continue down the road until it dead ends and then follow it back up while paying a little more attention(at least in my case) to what may be lurking in the bushes. On the drive back up we spot what we think are the same group of does with a larger two point...still not a shooter seen by me yet, but at least the deer are now showing in numbers and we are starting to see some bucks with does.
Less than two minutes up the road, my partner, while scanning out the drivers side window, slams on the brakes, reverses a few feet and stops again and then slaps my thermos of coffee out of my hands while he says in a terse voice"grab your gun". I needed no further prompting and jumped out the truck while ramming cartridges in to the magazine. I had a peek in the brush where he was looking and saw a nice four point rack showing through the cover. We quickly decided that I should run back down the road to the bottom of the switch back so that we would have him trapped between us. I sprinted down it hoping he wouldn't spook and take off before I was in position(or worse run uphill past my partner who had already filled his tag and would have to just watch it run by). I hustled to where I figured would be a good spot, flipped up the scope caps and rested my thumb on the safety while I tried to calm down and scan the area where I knew he was hiding less than 60 yards away.
After about thirty very tense seconds I hear a call from up top"HERE HE COMES", and out of the cover about twenty five yards to my right this big buck goes blowing by me at top speed trying to get in to the thick stuff across the road and down to the next switch back. I brought the rifle up to my shoulder while pivoting slightly to keep the deer in my vision and had time to line up and squeeze off one shot at about forty yards before he was gone in to the bush again and out of sight. He gave no indication of being hit but I felt that I had gotten off a fairly good shot so I followed his tracks to where I took the shot at him and immediately saw a little blood just a few feet past that. By this time my partner had come down to me and we waited a few minutes while I tried to overcome my excitement(and apprehension, I was really hoping I hadn't hit him with a poor shot) and explain to him how it had gone down. Roughly five minutes passed and we started to track him down, 30 yards in and there was a lot of blood being seen on the snow and I started to get a better feeling. Around 100-120 yards we found him dead on the ground and I got my first good look at my first deer. A quick look and I realized he was a lot bigger than what I anticipated shooting for a first deer. Closer inspection revealed that I had nailed him through the lungs with my shot, and the icing on the cake was that it was with a round that I had handloaded myself for my 7mm RM. A few quick high fives and many thanks to my hunting partner for putting me on to this guy later, I settled behind this big,stinky fella and got some pictures taken of a moment that I'll happily remember for the rest of my days. :-D:-D:-D
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n607/Iron_Sighted/PB111785.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n607/Iron_Sighted/PB111783.jpg
Thanks for putting up with the long winded story, hope everyone enjoyed it. I still have a huge $hit eating grin stuck on my face and it is going to be there for a long while to come.