Opening Day.....................

Between 8 people in camp only 2 animals were downed all weekend.

Start with the turkey. Friend of the father figure was able to score on a small hen within 20 minutes of sunlight yesturday. I was with him at the time but no shotgun to cash in on the other turleys around.

Story goes as this, we drive to a spot where my dad saw a nice 4 pt. last year and this year it was posted for no hunting, some rich doctor guy bought the land and closed it off. So had to go the other side of the river from what we wanted to. Mark and I decided to walk through the sage around a cultavated field that we couldn't cross and walk 20 feet into the trees and he says deer. So i am trying to see them when mark fires a shot. All i can think is "what the F*** are you thinking shooting at deer with a 12 gauge?" Well turns out the deer spooked about 4 turkeys and he shot one of them.

I took of in an effort to see the deer or track them to get a shot. I never saw a sign of them after about 100 yards. So i hiked to the top. Not steep but all gravel covered and slick from the rain the day before, I gett to the top and see 10 does out in a grain feild walking in a strait line for the quakies, the only thing a cared about at that moment was that the youth hunt in that area had been canceled 2 days prior so i couldn't shoot any of them and i was pissed.

Oh well i just sat and glassed for awhile and watched for a buck of any size to follow them. It didn't happen but i saw some ears pokeing out of the grain and haveing just seen all the does i think it is a rabbit because through the binos it looked black to me. I was going to fire a shot at him until i noticed a road and a fence right at the tree line and the no tresspassing signs keeping me from shooting it.

I just looked around every where on my side of the mountain that could be hunted. Not haveing a good vantage point i hiked trough the little canyon between the ridges and up the next one and still nothing to glass from. I repeated this hikeing through the valleys and up to the ridges to try some good glassing spots for 2 or 3 more ridges and then came to on with a good spot to glass.

The first thing i notice is 4 deer atop the ridge 5 away. Not being able to tell if they were bucks or does i took off towards them for maybe a shot opportunity this time i went as fast as i could through the thick brush of the valley. Then when i got through it and looked up at the ridge they were still there so i went to the walkie talkie to tell my father what i was doing and it was gone, so i back tracked down through everything and found it 2 ridges over. Thinking nothing of it i started towards where the deer were again. When i reached the point where i realized the radio was gone i took a look at the ridge again and they were moveing up the ridge and into cover so i went faster to try to cut them off.

When i got to be 2 ridges from there initial position i decided to sit down a little that the running wasn't helping me any. I picked up the binos and looked around, I saw a cow walking through the river and watched it for a second. When i looked up to my suprise there was a deer sky lined one ridge over. I looked closely for about 10 seconds and then realized it was a legal buck so i pulled up my gun and he just started bounceing along the hill side. He stoped at about 100 yards broadside. I let loose with the 30-06 1 shot and he hit the ground. He bounced up and started running but i couldn't get another shot oppurtunity, i knew i hit him because of the fall.

I radioed to the camp that i had hit the deer and they told me to watch the bottom of the tree line until they got there to keep the buck from going through it.they finally got there and i took off to the spot where he had been hit. I saw where he fell and where he took of running but NO BLOOD!!! at all i couldn't find one drop. I was so pissed off and just started following his tracks through the timber.

About halfway down my dad called on the walkie talkie and told me that the could see a deer and it was limping. But they couldn't tell if it was a buck or a doe.

I asked where they saw it at and i headed down to the bottom because they said he wouldn't be visible from the top or from the direction i would come from. I got out of the trees and couldn't see the deer anywhere. Then they pointed him out to me and i judged the shot to be not more then 300 yards.

I fired a round and it hit 100 yards before the deer. So i ran out closer to it about 60 yards and my cousin brady put the range finder on him 426 yards, i was supprised cause it didn't look that far.

SO i fired another shot for purposes of seeing where the bullet hit. Then walked the gun up above him that far and shot again. He hit the ground hard and didn't move.

I then went up to the deer and looked around for where all my shots had hit after of course i poked him in the butt with my rifle to see if he was dead. Not a movement so i went to remove his head from underneath his chest and he grunted at me and kicked. My reaction time was a little to fast and i grabed the side arm and put a finishing shot in the head. Hee didn't move after that.

Well my first shot was a real shitty one, My dad blaims it on that i was shooting downhill and didn't compensate for it but even that it was crappy. I shot him through the right front leg at the knee cap and the bullet carried through and hit the other front leg, hence the fall and no blood to be found but my shot from 426 was directly behind the front shoulder dead center the middle of his body. Sorry the story was so long but i had to get to the huge shot made to kill him.

All together pretty eventful, I went after turkey this morning but nothing productive came from that except one 3 point shed found on a game trail covered in mud. Pictures will come but since i forgot my camara i will have to get them from my uncle when he gets his developed, But i have a great pic on his camara with the hunttalk hat and some other accesorries while he hung from the tree.

That is all i have to say on this subject though.
 
WTG M&M
 

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