Its been way too long since I've filled a deer tag, 8 years to be exact. I've passed on a few deer over those years I probably shouldn't have, missed one, and screwed up on plenty of them. A couple years ago I moved back to predominately whitetail country and have kind of figured out I'm not as good at hunting deer in the timber as I thought I was. With that in mind I picked up a regular deer tag that would give me shorter seasons, but also allow me to hunt for muleys and whitetails. I'm just figuring out when it comes to deer hunting I much prefer glassing and spot and stalk vs. thick timber. I really only had a couple spots worth trying one being a hard hi,t big piece of private that allows a ton of access and a small private piece that I would basically have to myself but really doesn't have big deer very often.
I passed on a pretty nice whitetail a couple weeks ago on the first place and was beginning to kick myself as work had gotten crazy and I was running out of days.
Yesterday morning I started out on the big piece and was only able to turn up a small two point and a few does. I decided to go hit the small piece at mid day and see what was running around. I topped out on a ridge and glassed up a doe and two fawns in their beds about 700 yards away. After watching them for a few minutes a two point showed up with them. I kind of figured that he was probably the only buck hanging with them so I started glassing more of the canyon. When I looked back at the two point a few minutes later this guy was standing there with them. I spotted the cool extra he had in his back fork and knew he was a deer I would be super happy with. He was obviously rutting hard as I watched him chase the smaller buck to the next ridge top away from his does. I hurried across the canyon hoping to cut him off and luckily caught him coming back to his does. Made about a 180 yard shot and then it was time for pictures and packing. I was lucky to be in a spot with great cell service and was able to call my dad for some help. Pretty fun making my old man pack a deer out of a steep canyon. I'm also pretty sure I picked up a two year old shed off of this guy this spring about 100 yards away from where I got him. Been a great year!
I passed on a pretty nice whitetail a couple weeks ago on the first place and was beginning to kick myself as work had gotten crazy and I was running out of days.
Yesterday morning I started out on the big piece and was only able to turn up a small two point and a few does. I decided to go hit the small piece at mid day and see what was running around. I topped out on a ridge and glassed up a doe and two fawns in their beds about 700 yards away. After watching them for a few minutes a two point showed up with them. I kind of figured that he was probably the only buck hanging with them so I started glassing more of the canyon. When I looked back at the two point a few minutes later this guy was standing there with them. I spotted the cool extra he had in his back fork and knew he was a deer I would be super happy with. He was obviously rutting hard as I watched him chase the smaller buck to the next ridge top away from his does. I hurried across the canyon hoping to cut him off and luckily caught him coming back to his does. Made about a 180 yard shot and then it was time for pictures and packing. I was lucky to be in a spot with great cell service and was able to call my dad for some help. Pretty fun making my old man pack a deer out of a steep canyon. I'm also pretty sure I picked up a two year old shed off of this guy this spring about 100 yards away from where I got him. Been a great year!
