BOHNTR
Well-known member
Well I’m back boys from my late season CA hunt……..what an experience…..both highs and lows. This is a very hard tag to draw (35 tags) and is a rifle hunt that I was going to try with my bow.
I got up there the night before and set camp up. Checked on some deer I had scouted the week before and was amazed that most of them were busted up pretty bad. Now I’m not talking a tine here or there, but WHOLE main beams broken off above eye-guards. That’s a lot of torque. Two friends (Wally and Jerry) showed up to help me along for the weekend. It was nice to have some company. With a lack of snow in the high country, I knew it was going to be a VERY tough to locate a big buck, as most of the deer were still in the high country.....out of the unit.
Decided on an area to hunt the next morning since my backpack plan (Plan A) was foiled, as two rifle guys were packing into a place I was going to hunt. No problem, with eight days of scouting in I had a few back-up plans. (I thought)
Opening morning, I drove to an area that held a pretty nice 3x4 I photo’d the weekend before. He was one of the better-framed bucks I scouted and would have flung an arrow at him anytime even though he was only a 3x4. Remember this one I photographed last week........would you cast an arrow at him? I sure wanted to.
Well, as I pulled into the area, there was a truck exactly where I needed to be……in fact 3 vehicles. We backed out and decided to get away from folks. This began to be a daily routine for this ol’ bowhunter.....searching for areas that didn't have folks that could shoot A LOT farther than me..
Long story short, I had two bucks shot out from under me. One of them Jerry saw the whole thing un-fold. I’m 70 yards from two shooter bucks, one of which is a nice 5x4 with a 7” in-line. They’re feeding towards me when all of a sudden BOOM! Dirt flying everywhere and bucks confused……then another BOOM. I’m scurrying for some nearby boulders for protection and waving my orange hat. That stalk was over. Although this hunter didn’t realize I was there….un-like the other incident.
The older gentleman (70’s) walks down the hill towards me and realizes he’s just ruined my stalk. He apologizes profusely and I let him know it’s okay……that’s what I expected being out here with a bow. With his sincerity I felt obligated to help him get that back that was standing a couple hundred yards away. After helping the gentlemen find the buck in his rifle scope, he finally downed the buck……man was he happy. Never had a man shake my hand so much….made my day. One heck of a nice man.
I ended up getting up on a few bucks over the weekend and ended up passing a few….one of which I regret now, as the broken tines got worse each day. Here’s a few I passed during the hunt.
******** Continued ********
I got up there the night before and set camp up. Checked on some deer I had scouted the week before and was amazed that most of them were busted up pretty bad. Now I’m not talking a tine here or there, but WHOLE main beams broken off above eye-guards. That’s a lot of torque. Two friends (Wally and Jerry) showed up to help me along for the weekend. It was nice to have some company. With a lack of snow in the high country, I knew it was going to be a VERY tough to locate a big buck, as most of the deer were still in the high country.....out of the unit.
Decided on an area to hunt the next morning since my backpack plan (Plan A) was foiled, as two rifle guys were packing into a place I was going to hunt. No problem, with eight days of scouting in I had a few back-up plans. (I thought)
Opening morning, I drove to an area that held a pretty nice 3x4 I photo’d the weekend before. He was one of the better-framed bucks I scouted and would have flung an arrow at him anytime even though he was only a 3x4. Remember this one I photographed last week........would you cast an arrow at him? I sure wanted to.
Well, as I pulled into the area, there was a truck exactly where I needed to be……in fact 3 vehicles. We backed out and decided to get away from folks. This began to be a daily routine for this ol’ bowhunter.....searching for areas that didn't have folks that could shoot A LOT farther than me..
Long story short, I had two bucks shot out from under me. One of them Jerry saw the whole thing un-fold. I’m 70 yards from two shooter bucks, one of which is a nice 5x4 with a 7” in-line. They’re feeding towards me when all of a sudden BOOM! Dirt flying everywhere and bucks confused……then another BOOM. I’m scurrying for some nearby boulders for protection and waving my orange hat. That stalk was over. Although this hunter didn’t realize I was there….un-like the other incident.
The older gentleman (70’s) walks down the hill towards me and realizes he’s just ruined my stalk. He apologizes profusely and I let him know it’s okay……that’s what I expected being out here with a bow. With his sincerity I felt obligated to help him get that back that was standing a couple hundred yards away. After helping the gentlemen find the buck in his rifle scope, he finally downed the buck……man was he happy. Never had a man shake my hand so much….made my day. One heck of a nice man.
I ended up getting up on a few bucks over the weekend and ended up passing a few….one of which I regret now, as the broken tines got worse each day. Here’s a few I passed during the hunt.
******** Continued ********
