junior88
Well-known member
When it came time to apply for the 2019 deer season i decided to apply for 2 hard to draw hunts. Late season mule deer and late season coues. I fully expected to add to my growing number of bonus points, and then try for leftover coues. As luck would have it, I drew 1st choice, late mule deer in the rut.
I left on Wednesday. After a 6 hour drive I arrived and set up camp. My son would arrive at about 2am. He didn't get drawn, but that was not a problem. He arrowed a trophy coues on opening day of the August archery season. Thursday was a scouting day. That proved beneficial because we coundn't access our first spot due to a closed road.
Opening morning arrived. We hiked to our spot by headlamp. As dawn turned to morning it became obvious we were too far south. The only deer we saw were whitetail. We ended our morning hunt early, and headed back to camp for breakfast. We headed to our afternoon location at about noon. This was north of camp. We set up our tripods and almost immediately began spotting mule deer. Mostly does but we did see a few bucks. Nothing that I was going to end my hunt on. There was a knoll to our west that we wanted to reach because it would open up a lot of new country for us in the morning.
We hiked to our knoll Saturday, early morning. As soon as glassing light arrived we began seeing deer. We had a 360 dergree view from our knoll. We were seeing deer all morning. Even a few coues. We were watching deer all morning. We had seen about 7 bucks, including a couple 4 pointers. At around 11am I heard my son whistle. He spotted a buck that was "interesting." He was about a mile away. After about 30 minutes we decided that we needed a closer look.
We dropped off our knoll, crossed a creek, and began climbing up a ridge. We bumped a group of 15 deer. They ran off to the right which was good cuz we were heading left. We dropped off the ridge and began climbing the next one. Halfway up we dropped our packs. As we topped the ridge we got prone. My son was able to pick up 3 bucks. We found the "interesting" buck. He was worth the hike. He was 410 yards away. I dialed to the correct MOA and settled in for the shot. I had a good stady hold when i squeezed the trigger....missed. Buck stood up and offered me a broadside shot. Squeezed the trigger...another miss. What the hell? The crosshairs were dead solid on the buck for both shots. The buck moved about 25 yards to our left and stopped. Broadside again, in the sunlight. Crosshairs on the buck again. This time he would fall. Kicked a couple times and the hunt was over.
After going back for our packs we hiked over to the deer. He was truly a great buck. I couldn't be happier. I glanced over to where I shot from. My son ranged the rock ledge I shot from. It was only 320 yards. That explained the 2 misses. My third shot hit the backstraps and the spine. Almost missed him 3 times. My son figured he must have ranged a tree or bush when he called 410 yards. All's well that ends well. I couldn't have done it without him. We checked OnX after the pack out, the day's hunt was about a 5.5 mile day. We were a little bummed that the hunt ended on the 2nd day, but there was no way to walk away from that buck.
I left on Wednesday. After a 6 hour drive I arrived and set up camp. My son would arrive at about 2am. He didn't get drawn, but that was not a problem. He arrowed a trophy coues on opening day of the August archery season. Thursday was a scouting day. That proved beneficial because we coundn't access our first spot due to a closed road.
Opening morning arrived. We hiked to our spot by headlamp. As dawn turned to morning it became obvious we were too far south. The only deer we saw were whitetail. We ended our morning hunt early, and headed back to camp for breakfast. We headed to our afternoon location at about noon. This was north of camp. We set up our tripods and almost immediately began spotting mule deer. Mostly does but we did see a few bucks. Nothing that I was going to end my hunt on. There was a knoll to our west that we wanted to reach because it would open up a lot of new country for us in the morning.
We hiked to our knoll Saturday, early morning. As soon as glassing light arrived we began seeing deer. We had a 360 dergree view from our knoll. We were seeing deer all morning. Even a few coues. We were watching deer all morning. We had seen about 7 bucks, including a couple 4 pointers. At around 11am I heard my son whistle. He spotted a buck that was "interesting." He was about a mile away. After about 30 minutes we decided that we needed a closer look.
We dropped off our knoll, crossed a creek, and began climbing up a ridge. We bumped a group of 15 deer. They ran off to the right which was good cuz we were heading left. We dropped off the ridge and began climbing the next one. Halfway up we dropped our packs. As we topped the ridge we got prone. My son was able to pick up 3 bucks. We found the "interesting" buck. He was worth the hike. He was 410 yards away. I dialed to the correct MOA and settled in for the shot. I had a good stady hold when i squeezed the trigger....missed. Buck stood up and offered me a broadside shot. Squeezed the trigger...another miss. What the hell? The crosshairs were dead solid on the buck for both shots. The buck moved about 25 yards to our left and stopped. Broadside again, in the sunlight. Crosshairs on the buck again. This time he would fall. Kicked a couple times and the hunt was over.
After going back for our packs we hiked over to the deer. He was truly a great buck. I couldn't be happier. I glanced over to where I shot from. My son ranged the rock ledge I shot from. It was only 320 yards. That explained the 2 misses. My third shot hit the backstraps and the spine. Almost missed him 3 times. My son figured he must have ranged a tree or bush when he called 410 yards. All's well that ends well. I couldn't have done it without him. We checked OnX after the pack out, the day's hunt was about a 5.5 mile day. We were a little bummed that the hunt ended on the 2nd day, but there was no way to walk away from that buck.
. But now the snowbirds and Californians are driving the home values up. As for the fire....we were damn tired
