Ryan2388
Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2014
- Messages
- 44
Hi Everyone,
This is the first year I decided to hunt river bottom whitetail and drew unit 92 muzzleloader for a buck. I was able to do some scouting on some of the public WMA's and found very promising area's hunt. It was great to see mule deer and whitetails using the same area's a lot. Friday night before opener I did a little glassing and saw some whitetail doe's heading to cover but no bucks.
I got to my camping spot and sent up my tent in 25 degree weather. It was unusually cold for October, and hopefully good for deer movement. First morning not so good I forgot to setup my alarm, and I was awakened to duck hunters at Jumbo reservoir. I decided to stay back get more sleep and not mess up hunters already there. That early afternoon I hiked about a mile to my hunting spot and setup. For four hours nothing but wind and ducks flying by me. I decided to hunt the last 30 minutes walking back to my car. I reached my first river crossing, and noticed whitetail doe's moving down a trail on the bank fifty yards in front of me. I glassed and saw no legal buck with them. I stayed at this spot for ten minutes and watched a few more doe's come by. A lot fun for my first evening.
Got back to camp made dinner, and got to bed early with my alarm set. Instead I was I awoken to 40+ winds and my rain fly almost off my tent. I fixed my rain cover and pounded all my stakes in better with sideways snow hitting me. I woke up to probably 2 inches of snow and very cold weather. I setup on good vantage point overlooking the trail from the previous night, and unfortunely nothing was moving that morning. I did see an unfortunate bird frozen on a tree branch.
That evening I moved to a new location about a mile in and setup against a tree with cover in front of me. It was probably 16 degrees and I was wearing every layer I brought. After six hours of sitting even my toe's in my 1000 gram boots started to get cold and no deer moving at all. Again, I decided to hunt my way back to my vehicle. The first thing I did though was hike to the river and check a major crossing the deer appeared to be using. I finished glassing and was about to leave when I saw movement coming towards me on the other side of the river. I put my binoculars up and saw it was a small buck about 60 yards away. He stopped to drink some water, which gave me time to put my binoculars away and get a shot off. As the smoke cleared I could tell I dropped him in his tracks. I waded across the river to a dandy little whitetail buck. I was super excited to get my first public land whitetail. I tagged and gutted him out and dragged him to a more safe spot. My buddy and I packed him out the next morning. I didn't do it that night because water got into my boots and my toes were numb very quickly.
This is the first year I decided to hunt river bottom whitetail and drew unit 92 muzzleloader for a buck. I was able to do some scouting on some of the public WMA's and found very promising area's hunt. It was great to see mule deer and whitetails using the same area's a lot. Friday night before opener I did a little glassing and saw some whitetail doe's heading to cover but no bucks.
I got to my camping spot and sent up my tent in 25 degree weather. It was unusually cold for October, and hopefully good for deer movement. First morning not so good I forgot to setup my alarm, and I was awakened to duck hunters at Jumbo reservoir. I decided to stay back get more sleep and not mess up hunters already there. That early afternoon I hiked about a mile to my hunting spot and setup. For four hours nothing but wind and ducks flying by me. I decided to hunt the last 30 minutes walking back to my car. I reached my first river crossing, and noticed whitetail doe's moving down a trail on the bank fifty yards in front of me. I glassed and saw no legal buck with them. I stayed at this spot for ten minutes and watched a few more doe's come by. A lot fun for my first evening.
Got back to camp made dinner, and got to bed early with my alarm set. Instead I was I awoken to 40+ winds and my rain fly almost off my tent. I fixed my rain cover and pounded all my stakes in better with sideways snow hitting me. I woke up to probably 2 inches of snow and very cold weather. I setup on good vantage point overlooking the trail from the previous night, and unfortunely nothing was moving that morning. I did see an unfortunate bird frozen on a tree branch.
That evening I moved to a new location about a mile in and setup against a tree with cover in front of me. It was probably 16 degrees and I was wearing every layer I brought. After six hours of sitting even my toe's in my 1000 gram boots started to get cold and no deer moving at all. Again, I decided to hunt my way back to my vehicle. The first thing I did though was hike to the river and check a major crossing the deer appeared to be using. I finished glassing and was about to leave when I saw movement coming towards me on the other side of the river. I put my binoculars up and saw it was a small buck about 60 yards away. He stopped to drink some water, which gave me time to put my binoculars away and get a shot off. As the smoke cleared I could tell I dropped him in his tracks. I waded across the river to a dandy little whitetail buck. I was super excited to get my first public land whitetail. I tagged and gutted him out and dragged him to a more safe spot. My buddy and I packed him out the next morning. I didn't do it that night because water got into my boots and my toes were numb very quickly.
