MarvB
Well-known member
Well haven’t been around much lately…budget time at work (5-year) means lots of pain lately in this “robust” economy that we’re in. Looks like the regulars are having themselves a good fall with lots of critters hitting the ground.
I didn’t get out as much as I wanted this season, fugged up the timing on my apps (was out of town) and ended up having to go OTC for a tag and just hunt locally a couple of times. Had two good (for here) bucks that I had caught a couple of times on my game cams and spent most of archery season targeting them without any luck. Both cameras are set up on areas that have a spring seeps and limestone looking rock and the deer seem to congregate at these two spots in the summer as a natural lick I guess. I’ve got a lot of pics with tongues out like they just drank or ate something sour!
Dink buck
The bigger of the two I was looking for
Decent deep forks
The one I was after...mocking me
Anyway, three trips to the area and two treestands left me without a single daytime glimpse of either of the two bigger bucks, both of which I had on cameras on 4 different dates. Here’s a couple of shots of their nighttime antics…these are muley/blacktail hybrids for the most part, they will show a little heavier to one species or the other at times but don’t qualify as true blacktail in the Cali record books where these shots were taken.
That brings me to last weekend. With the wife and two older daughters out of town I decided to switch out the bow for the rifle and head up to the hills with my daughter to catch the last two days of the season. We hunted about as hard as you can push a nine year old on Friday night and all day Saturday with only three does spotted for our efforts.
We did see more bear sign in the area than I’ve ever spotted in the years of hunting this spot and Meagan got pretty excited when we had fresh bear tracks covering our own from the night before. With the first two days being a bit of a bust and the youngster’s interest rapidly turning south (I do believe I answered somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3,000 questions in that two day period) I told her that we’d hit it again Sunday morning and that if it didn’t pan out, I’d take her on a quad ride and we’d do some shooting with her pellet gun….Dad basically bribed on more hunt out of her!
Nearly three hours of steady walking and glassing later we were back to the road and on the quad heading to the cabin (I say road but they are a series of roads and connected firebreaks that surround the property we were on). Cheese and salami (her favorite) and a cold soda were gonna be the next order of the day when Meg’s asked if she could drive on the way back. Dad slid to the back rack and down the road we went…had got about 2/3’s the way back home when I saw a doe bound off through the mazanita and heavy brush that surround the backside of the property. I told Meagan to stop and she hit the kill switch as I hopped off, grabbed up my rifle, and jogged about 20-30 yards out into the brush for a better look. The doe was disappearing out of sight and just a quick a decent bodied buck was bounding off to join her. I glanced behind me to see Meg standing up on the quad taking it all in and then swung back on the buck which was still heading straight away. He had about another two bounds before he was going to disappear fully into the brush so I held just above the base of the neck and touched off the 300. The buck half jumped-half rolled at the impact and landed just short of the wall of manzanita. I heard the war whoop behind me and had an excited 4th grader attached to my leg all in the same motion. Walked up to the buck and rolled him over…instantly noticing the “lack” on an entrance or exit wound in the neck? I guess I held a touch low or he zigged when I zagged but the bullet caught him at the very top of the back hip instead of where I was attempting. I was a bit pissed off at myself when I moved the hind leg to find it nearly loose in the socket. The daughter picked up on my disdain and asked “what’s the matter daddy?” to which I explained to her the difference between the best intentions in life and their actual outcomes. I ended by saying that I probably “lost the one of the quarters on this buck”…. To which she replied, “well I don’t think it’s lost because he didn’t go anywhere, but even if it is you still have 75% of the quarters right?”
Her innocence and quick math had to make me laugh! We got the buck gutted and drug it back out to the quad to load and head to camp. Sue enough the bullet had caught the hip but then rolled up along under the spine and the back down into the lungs (jellied them). The one quarter was a bit beat up but mostly salvageable and since the bullet stayed high in the body cavity and daughter didn’t have to witness a case of green goo from a busted paunch. Still wasn’t real happy with my off-hand efforts but I guess that is what happens (too me anyhow) when you spend far more time with a bow in hand than a long gun.
Sorry for the long-winded adventure…just kinda came out that way! The daughter now is using the below pic as the new background on her computer and is already asking when she can go next year so that mission has definitely been accomplished- now makes all three girls that have been onboard when Dad has taken a buck and each helped out from the time the pocket knife came out to the cutting and wrapping for the freezer.
All smiles!...gotta like the nifty shades
Not a bad bodied little Cali deer
Loaded up and heading back to the cabin
I didn’t get out as much as I wanted this season, fugged up the timing on my apps (was out of town) and ended up having to go OTC for a tag and just hunt locally a couple of times. Had two good (for here) bucks that I had caught a couple of times on my game cams and spent most of archery season targeting them without any luck. Both cameras are set up on areas that have a spring seeps and limestone looking rock and the deer seem to congregate at these two spots in the summer as a natural lick I guess. I’ve got a lot of pics with tongues out like they just drank or ate something sour!
Dink buck
The bigger of the two I was looking for
Decent deep forks
The one I was after...mocking me
Anyway, three trips to the area and two treestands left me without a single daytime glimpse of either of the two bigger bucks, both of which I had on cameras on 4 different dates. Here’s a couple of shots of their nighttime antics…these are muley/blacktail hybrids for the most part, they will show a little heavier to one species or the other at times but don’t qualify as true blacktail in the Cali record books where these shots were taken.
That brings me to last weekend. With the wife and two older daughters out of town I decided to switch out the bow for the rifle and head up to the hills with my daughter to catch the last two days of the season. We hunted about as hard as you can push a nine year old on Friday night and all day Saturday with only three does spotted for our efforts.
We did see more bear sign in the area than I’ve ever spotted in the years of hunting this spot and Meagan got pretty excited when we had fresh bear tracks covering our own from the night before. With the first two days being a bit of a bust and the youngster’s interest rapidly turning south (I do believe I answered somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3,000 questions in that two day period) I told her that we’d hit it again Sunday morning and that if it didn’t pan out, I’d take her on a quad ride and we’d do some shooting with her pellet gun….Dad basically bribed on more hunt out of her!
Nearly three hours of steady walking and glassing later we were back to the road and on the quad heading to the cabin (I say road but they are a series of roads and connected firebreaks that surround the property we were on). Cheese and salami (her favorite) and a cold soda were gonna be the next order of the day when Meg’s asked if she could drive on the way back. Dad slid to the back rack and down the road we went…had got about 2/3’s the way back home when I saw a doe bound off through the mazanita and heavy brush that surround the backside of the property. I told Meagan to stop and she hit the kill switch as I hopped off, grabbed up my rifle, and jogged about 20-30 yards out into the brush for a better look. The doe was disappearing out of sight and just a quick a decent bodied buck was bounding off to join her. I glanced behind me to see Meg standing up on the quad taking it all in and then swung back on the buck which was still heading straight away. He had about another two bounds before he was going to disappear fully into the brush so I held just above the base of the neck and touched off the 300. The buck half jumped-half rolled at the impact and landed just short of the wall of manzanita. I heard the war whoop behind me and had an excited 4th grader attached to my leg all in the same motion. Walked up to the buck and rolled him over…instantly noticing the “lack” on an entrance or exit wound in the neck? I guess I held a touch low or he zigged when I zagged but the bullet caught him at the very top of the back hip instead of where I was attempting. I was a bit pissed off at myself when I moved the hind leg to find it nearly loose in the socket. The daughter picked up on my disdain and asked “what’s the matter daddy?” to which I explained to her the difference between the best intentions in life and their actual outcomes. I ended by saying that I probably “lost the one of the quarters on this buck”…. To which she replied, “well I don’t think it’s lost because he didn’t go anywhere, but even if it is you still have 75% of the quarters right?”
Her innocence and quick math had to make me laugh! We got the buck gutted and drug it back out to the quad to load and head to camp. Sue enough the bullet had caught the hip but then rolled up along under the spine and the back down into the lungs (jellied them). The one quarter was a bit beat up but mostly salvageable and since the bullet stayed high in the body cavity and daughter didn’t have to witness a case of green goo from a busted paunch. Still wasn’t real happy with my off-hand efforts but I guess that is what happens (too me anyhow) when you spend far more time with a bow in hand than a long gun.
Sorry for the long-winded adventure…just kinda came out that way! The daughter now is using the below pic as the new background on her computer and is already asking when she can go next year so that mission has definitely been accomplished- now makes all three girls that have been onboard when Dad has taken a buck and each helped out from the time the pocket knife came out to the cutting and wrapping for the freezer.
All smiles!...gotta like the nifty shades
Not a bad bodied little Cali deer
Loaded up and heading back to the cabin
