Day 2- It was cold as hell today. We had a high of 17 with about 25 mph winds out of the west. Scott and I decided to canoe across to the river just to the south of camp and John and Hayden would pair up on the main island we were camped on. Shortly after crossing to the south island, I spotted a handful of mule deer 600 yards away. 3 does with one buck sniffing them all. I wasn’t really expecting to see mule deer out on the islands. I wasn’t against shooting a mule deer but it would have to be a worthy buck and this guy wasn’t it. We left those 4 deer be and continued on our path up to the small bluffs that overlook the southern island. Right about when we reached the top of the bluffs there were another 4 deer being chased right towards us by a different Muley. We both sat down and watched them trot to 47 yards below us. The buck played the role of rutted up muley perfectly. He spotted me at 60 yards with only his head poking over the Yucca plants and then he proceeded to step out into the open at 47 yards and glance back and forth at me and his 3 does, deciding which was more important. Ultimately, the does took a wrong turn and he was back at work keeping them contained.
Scott and I continued on our original path. Half a mile later we were walking the edge of the slough when 3 coyote pups came sprinting down the ice on the slough at about 30 yards. The third coyote in line was the only one to spot us. Like a true friend, he never made a peep and hit the brakes on the ice, tucked tail, and went in the opposite direction leaving his friends to fend for themselves. A true Montanan would have unloaded the magazine at those two last spring Pups.
We spent the rest of the morning slowly working through the mix of mature Cottonwood, Juniper, and Russian Olive trees. This island contained almost no sign until you waded into the timber. Even that sign seemed to be several days old. There was a large amount of cows on this chunk of public ground that I wasn’t expecting considering it was this late in the season. By early afternoon we still hadn’t seen any fresh sign on this island so we decided to split up for the evening. I would stay and overlook the willows close to the gravel bar that showed the most recent, although still outdated, sign on the island and Scott would head back towards the other end of the island closer to camp where we had seen the mule deer earlier that morning.
Nothing moved the rest of the afternoon, except for the split crotch in my puffy pants after straddling a downed cottonwood tree. I decided to slowly work my way back to the north end of the island where Scott and my canoe were at. Halfway back to the canoe I glanced off to the west across the side channel of the river to a sand bar and spotted a handful of deer grazing on the cottonwood saplings that were poking up through the snow. This was probably 10 minutes after sunset so I didn’t have a lot of time to play with but a quick look through the binoculars confirmed there was a nice 5 point whitetail on the sand bar with a couple does and a smaller buck still standing in the willows looking down on the more mature buck. I closed the distance to 250 yards and was laying down with the rifle on the bipod overhanging the cutbank of the river waiting for the buck to turn broadside. The buck turned to his right and stopped, I squeezed the trigger, heard the boom, waited for the thwap, and then there was nothing. The buck turned back to his left and sprinted for the thickest part of the island only 60 yards away. I was confused but still confident in my shot. I gave John and Hayden a call to check where they were at and see if they could hurry to the sand bar before it was completely dark. A quick check showed where the buck was at when I shot and the quick turn to his left. No hair, no blood, clean miss.
We were all too chilled to sit another second outside so we decided to cook Day 2’s menu of Beef Stew on top of my Knico Stove inside the tent. The buns were frozen but the soup warmed a guy up.
