Vanish and FireTiger's 2018 Hunt Journal - Season 8
- Thread starter vanish
- Start date
No sign of deer in there.
I've moved to check out a whitetail spot. The wind is unstable. It was from the South all morning, but as soon as I got here it switched to from the East. Now that I positioned, it's coming from the North, seemingly with gusts from anywhere.
I have found two flocks of turkeys but things aren't going well. Wet feet and the ag field I saw on satellite is an enormous tumbleweed patch, not to mention that dang wind.
I've moved to check out a whitetail spot. The wind is unstable. It was from the South all morning, but as soon as I got here it switched to from the East. Now that I positioned, it's coming from the North, seemingly with gusts from anywhere.
I have found two flocks of turkeys but things aren't going well. Wet feet and the ag field I saw on satellite is an enormous tumbleweed patch, not to mention that dang wind.
WildWill
Well-known member
Congrats to Firetiger on a beautiful buck. Good luck chasing the whitetails.
Tonight I saw 3 small bucks, 9 does and 5 flocks of turkeys. That one was at 14 yards. I was watching some does and could hear something in the grass near me. He caught me pulling my phone up to take his photo.
I also saw two trucks glassing the area.
Sentry turkeys.
I also saw two trucks glassing the area.
Sentry turkeys.
SPDSpappy
Active member
We're back from Scotland. Had a very good day for wildlife viewing one day including reindeer ( free range, not the "tour" deer ), red deer, roe deer and red grouse. The roe deer were all too far/small for my camera, and the stag photo didn't come out so well, but you can tell there was a whole pile of them together. The reindeer was sheer lucky timing as a group of 5 came over a ridge and walked right past us.
You went to Scotland and didn't hunt red stag?? We need to talk!
SPDSpappy
Active member
Congrats to her on the awesome buck BTW!
You went to Scotland and didn't hunt red stag?? We need to talk!
Yes. There were a few reasons:
1.) We were only there for a week.
2.) I didn't help plan one dang bit of it. I wanted to show FireTiger that yes, I can have a good time even if I am not in control and we are doing something other than hunting and fishing. She did try to get me to put together an ocean fishing trip while there but I didn't find anything to get excited about.
3.) We took the inlaws, who while support our hunting, are not hunters themselves.
FireTiger mused about trying to find some last minute booking while we were in Glen Isla, as there was lots of game there.
I had hoped to be drawn for @devondeer's sweet deal this year but lady luck was not on my side.
Last night, I was reviewing the weather forecast for the morning. Mid 40s with light rain and heavy fog. This did not bode well for glassing the sandhills in the morning. I could have hunted the whitetail spot I checked out again, but I have a week of time off scheduled in early November for hunting them. Instead, I decided to get up early and drive back across the state line to try to fill my turkey tag. Fog wouldn't hurt me with that, and I am not sure if I will have another opportunity to hunt this tag before the season closes.
I set my alarm for 4am and made it to the parking lot a little before 6am. It was pretty gross out, and I almost didn't make it up the hill in the RAV4. There was another vehicle heading in at the same time. I peaked out while putting my camo on and chatted briefly about where he was headed, and we wouldn't be in each other's way.
By the time I made it to my blind, my lower half was much wetter than I had anticipated. I took a few minutes to stack the blind a bit higher, as I had brought chair for once. With the rain, I was really glad I had made that decision! I nestled in to wait.
I thought I heard some hen calls to my right not long after I got settled, but it was hard to tell with the wind. Around 7:40, just as I was thinking maybe the rain had let up enough to pull out my book, I caught a head bob about 50 yards out to my right. She was working right towards me, so as soon as she passed behind a tree I slid my gun up out of its sheath and onto the blind edge. As she passed behind a bush, working her way more towards the front of me, I was able to reposition for a better shot angle. She popped out at 30 yards and that was that.
I've never shot a hen before and didn't realize just how much smaller they are than a tom. Should be tasty though.
I set my alarm for 4am and made it to the parking lot a little before 6am. It was pretty gross out, and I almost didn't make it up the hill in the RAV4. There was another vehicle heading in at the same time. I peaked out while putting my camo on and chatted briefly about where he was headed, and we wouldn't be in each other's way.
By the time I made it to my blind, my lower half was much wetter than I had anticipated. I took a few minutes to stack the blind a bit higher, as I had brought chair for once. With the rain, I was really glad I had made that decision! I nestled in to wait.
I thought I heard some hen calls to my right not long after I got settled, but it was hard to tell with the wind. Around 7:40, just as I was thinking maybe the rain had let up enough to pull out my book, I caught a head bob about 50 yards out to my right. She was working right towards me, so as soon as she passed behind a tree I slid my gun up out of its sheath and onto the blind edge. As she passed behind a bush, working her way more towards the front of me, I was able to reposition for a better shot angle. She popped out at 30 yards and that was that.
I've never shot a hen before and didn't realize just how much smaller they are than a tom. Should be tasty though.
I drove about 550 miles on this trip which was a bit much for 1.5 days but I'm really glad I decided to go. Podcasts sure helped on the drive.
I'd have like to have seen some bucks in that Sandhills country, but I think another scouting trip there is warranted before I decide whether its worth hunting. Its not a type of terrain I am familiar enough with to really know what to look for.
The whitetail spot was fine. Obviously, I saw some deer. However, access to most parts of it was even easier than I expected as there was a road that I did not expect to be driveable, but it certainly was. Also, finding not one but two treestands in short order tells me its getting some hunting pressure.
I'd have like to have seen some bucks in that Sandhills country, but I think another scouting trip there is warranted before I decide whether its worth hunting. Its not a type of terrain I am familiar enough with to really know what to look for.
The whitetail spot was fine. Obviously, I saw some deer. However, access to most parts of it was even easier than I expected as there was a road that I did not expect to be driveable, but it certainly was. Also, finding not one but two treestands in short order tells me its getting some hunting pressure.
This weekend is pronghorn season!
We're leaving around 4 on Friday afternoon and my Dad will be meeting up with us at "camp" on Friday night. Poor guy has an ~6.5 hour drive, but at least he can start his drive whenever he wants. I don't know why he doesn't leave Thursday, fish half a day and then finish the drive. This will be his first pronghorn hunt, so I am hoping I can show him the good time we usually have. Unfortunately, Hank has to tag along with me but its not his first rodeo so hopefully won't be too much of a hindrance.
FireTiger and I have both buck and doe tags. We were able to pick up the complimentary licenses off the reissue list. Dad has a buck tag and Fitzy, who is on her first big game hunt ever, has a doe tag. B-Rad has a doe tag as well, but had a scheduling conflict and won't make it this weekend. FireTiger may take him later in the week.
The season is a little later this year, so we'll see how that affects the bucks and the rutting and/or lack of rutting. Unfortunately for Fitzy, I feel like does have traditionally been harder to hunt in this area than bucks, as they rarely travel alone and are not as curious. Her range is also limited. At the very least, I have a good feeling she'll be able to experience dealing with an animal on the ground.
The weather looks great for opening day with temps 40-60 and partly cloudy. I am not a fan of baking out there. Sunday is looking like it could be a "bit damp" though. Last year, I crawled around in the rain/mud for a couple hours before tagging my buck, and I was one grumpy puppy by the time I finished packing him out!
With the extended drought, I would expect the water holes to be dry. However, Google is showing there's actually more water holes with water in them than usual. This could go either way for helping us. We're not hunting from the truck. We walk in, and it could be 2-5 miles. Its pretty darn flat, so spot and stalk is hard, though doable as we did last year. Some of the only breaks in the land are by these water holes, so for people like my Dad, who has zero spot and stalk experience, or Fitzy, with limited range, these are excellent spots to set up. If there are too many water holes, there won't be a great reason for pronghorn to go to the one we set up by over another.
We're leaving around 4 on Friday afternoon and my Dad will be meeting up with us at "camp" on Friday night. Poor guy has an ~6.5 hour drive, but at least he can start his drive whenever he wants. I don't know why he doesn't leave Thursday, fish half a day and then finish the drive. This will be his first pronghorn hunt, so I am hoping I can show him the good time we usually have. Unfortunately, Hank has to tag along with me but its not his first rodeo so hopefully won't be too much of a hindrance.
FireTiger and I have both buck and doe tags. We were able to pick up the complimentary licenses off the reissue list. Dad has a buck tag and Fitzy, who is on her first big game hunt ever, has a doe tag. B-Rad has a doe tag as well, but had a scheduling conflict and won't make it this weekend. FireTiger may take him later in the week.
The season is a little later this year, so we'll see how that affects the bucks and the rutting and/or lack of rutting. Unfortunately for Fitzy, I feel like does have traditionally been harder to hunt in this area than bucks, as they rarely travel alone and are not as curious. Her range is also limited. At the very least, I have a good feeling she'll be able to experience dealing with an animal on the ground.
The weather looks great for opening day with temps 40-60 and partly cloudy. I am not a fan of baking out there. Sunday is looking like it could be a "bit damp" though. Last year, I crawled around in the rain/mud for a couple hours before tagging my buck, and I was one grumpy puppy by the time I finished packing him out!
With the extended drought, I would expect the water holes to be dry. However, Google is showing there's actually more water holes with water in them than usual. This could go either way for helping us. We're not hunting from the truck. We walk in, and it could be 2-5 miles. Its pretty darn flat, so spot and stalk is hard, though doable as we did last year. Some of the only breaks in the land are by these water holes, so for people like my Dad, who has zero spot and stalk experience, or Fitzy, with limited range, these are excellent spots to set up. If there are too many water holes, there won't be a great reason for pronghorn to go to the one we set up by over another.
SPDSpappy
Active member
If you ever end up going back, I can connect you with my buddy who is a hunting concierge and sets up hunts all over the globe. He hooked me up w/ the red stag hunt shown in my avatar.
We arrived at our camp spot Friday night, meeting my Dad who was already there. Hurricane force winds made the drive a bit of a bear. We couldn't set up our gear tent for fear of it getting shredded, so we stuff the cab and stacked the coolers next to the truck. We had been hoping to hang out for a bit around a virtual camp fire, but that wasn't happening. To bed we went!
In the morning, I was worried this was going to make it impossible to cook our celebratory opener breakfast of eggs, hash browns and pronghorn breakfast sausage, but we managed to build a wall out of gear to keep the cook stove going. The winds weren't quite so bad. We made it to our hunting area just after first light to find nobody parked there (yay) but later found that's because they were all driving the access road anyway. We split into girls and guys and headed down different fence rows. About an hour in, we had our first action with some shooting, followed by 2 does and a buck running by a few minutes later. They had gone through a gauntlet of two trucks worth of shooters and had no intention of stopping by us, so we just watched them run. FireTiger and Fitzy had a stalk on a couple of does that ended with the does on private.
Dad and I moved to a ridge to glass a big valley that is traditionally greener than the rest of the area and full of groups of pronghorn. Unfortunately, this year it was as brown as could be and devoid of life. FireTiger and Fitzy had moved towards a waterhole where we've had great success in the past, but it was dry. They still had some action with a chance at a buck, but it didn't work out. That same buck came wheezing past us too far for a shot. Dad got to learn just how difficult it can be to judge distance in this open country when the buck went through the fence we were sitting on. He had guessed the opening to be about 300 yards away but it was more like 700.
The morning continued to be slow for Dad and I. It was not warm out, but the mirages were ridiculous. We couldn't glass much more than a mile or so. I haven't really experienced it to that degree before. Areas that typically held animals were empty, and we wound up hiking a long ways before we were consistently finding them on a nearby property. We couldn't hunt them there, but there were going back and forth between. The afternoon proved to be a bit better.
Fitzy got her first shot at an animal as a young buck pushed a doe in front of her. Adrenaline got the best of her. Keep in mind this was her first time doing this, and she didn't even know how she would feel about it. Turned out she had no fear of shooting the animal, just fear of doing something wrong. FireTiger had lured two bucks into range, but didn't see the closer buck and missed a shot at the further one. They had more action but I wasn't there so don't remember the details.
We had a large group working their way towards us and got set up. They made it to about 350 yards, but I think it was one of the few times where we got winded. They held up and though they had been working right to us, hooked a 90 and left. While we were watching them, I had seen some chasing well in the distance I was keeping an eye on. For whatever reason, their snaking path ended up bring the two bucks and two does right into our laps. I was calling ranges for my Dad (220, 200, 170...), and he got a bit excited and pulled the trigger while they were still on the move. That was a really good opportunity and I believe with a bit of patience he'd have had an easy shot at close range.
Shortly after that, we had another group of 3 chasing towards us. A lone buck saw them and came to join up. They bedded about 600 yards away and I decided to try the two pronged stalk, each of us spiraling in from the opposite side. I made it to about 330 yards when the lone buck got up and walked off. He wasn't even above his ears so I let him go. Eventually the next, a doe, got up and started walking off. I admittedly made a poor shot, not accounting for the wind, and missed.
We moved to a water tank to get out of the increasing wind. While I was checking in with FireTiger on the radio, even without my glasses on ( I had taken them off to try using the spotter, which was useless due to the air distortions ) I caught movement in my peripheral. Three does were right there, under 100 yards! I don't know where they came from but I hopped on the gun. Dad confirmed they were all does. I put the crosshairs on the lead doe and dropped her. Seeing movement in another direction, I grabbed my binos to take a look as I thought it might be a buck catching the action. My Dad says "She's up!" and I turn back and she's hauling butt full speed away, completely covered in blood. We were both in utter shock. I'm shooting a 7mm magnum which is total overkill for this and she was under 100 yards! I still don't understand what happened. All I can figure is I hit high somehow. FireTiger and Fitzy were about a mile and a half from us directly in her path, so I let her know on the radio. They saw her and almost got a shot, but more shooting from another direction caused her to kick it back into high gear. They saw her cross onto the neighboring property almost 3 miles from us. I felt terrible but there was nothing I could do.
Shortly after she disappeared, Dad and I gathered our stuff to start heading back. I happened to look behind me as I was about to put my pack on, and saw a herd on the horizon. We got back down to check which way they were headed, and it looked like they were coming our way. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later we were in shooting position and I was calling off ranges again. I said to my Dad I don't think they are going to get any closer when they were at 240 and moving perpendicular to us. As I was about to say I'll stop them so we can get a good shot, BOOM, he misses. I suppose I should have had a conversation with him before about stopping them for a shot.
We made the LONG walk of shame back to the vehicle. We had done over 10 miles on the day, which is quite a bit for my Dad. 0/6 tags was not exactly the opening day we had envisioned. However, there's still another day...
In the morning, I was worried this was going to make it impossible to cook our celebratory opener breakfast of eggs, hash browns and pronghorn breakfast sausage, but we managed to build a wall out of gear to keep the cook stove going. The winds weren't quite so bad. We made it to our hunting area just after first light to find nobody parked there (yay) but later found that's because they were all driving the access road anyway. We split into girls and guys and headed down different fence rows. About an hour in, we had our first action with some shooting, followed by 2 does and a buck running by a few minutes later. They had gone through a gauntlet of two trucks worth of shooters and had no intention of stopping by us, so we just watched them run. FireTiger and Fitzy had a stalk on a couple of does that ended with the does on private.
Dad and I moved to a ridge to glass a big valley that is traditionally greener than the rest of the area and full of groups of pronghorn. Unfortunately, this year it was as brown as could be and devoid of life. FireTiger and Fitzy had moved towards a waterhole where we've had great success in the past, but it was dry. They still had some action with a chance at a buck, but it didn't work out. That same buck came wheezing past us too far for a shot. Dad got to learn just how difficult it can be to judge distance in this open country when the buck went through the fence we were sitting on. He had guessed the opening to be about 300 yards away but it was more like 700.
The morning continued to be slow for Dad and I. It was not warm out, but the mirages were ridiculous. We couldn't glass much more than a mile or so. I haven't really experienced it to that degree before. Areas that typically held animals were empty, and we wound up hiking a long ways before we were consistently finding them on a nearby property. We couldn't hunt them there, but there were going back and forth between. The afternoon proved to be a bit better.
Fitzy got her first shot at an animal as a young buck pushed a doe in front of her. Adrenaline got the best of her. Keep in mind this was her first time doing this, and she didn't even know how she would feel about it. Turned out she had no fear of shooting the animal, just fear of doing something wrong. FireTiger had lured two bucks into range, but didn't see the closer buck and missed a shot at the further one. They had more action but I wasn't there so don't remember the details.
We had a large group working their way towards us and got set up. They made it to about 350 yards, but I think it was one of the few times where we got winded. They held up and though they had been working right to us, hooked a 90 and left. While we were watching them, I had seen some chasing well in the distance I was keeping an eye on. For whatever reason, their snaking path ended up bring the two bucks and two does right into our laps. I was calling ranges for my Dad (220, 200, 170...), and he got a bit excited and pulled the trigger while they were still on the move. That was a really good opportunity and I believe with a bit of patience he'd have had an easy shot at close range.
Shortly after that, we had another group of 3 chasing towards us. A lone buck saw them and came to join up. They bedded about 600 yards away and I decided to try the two pronged stalk, each of us spiraling in from the opposite side. I made it to about 330 yards when the lone buck got up and walked off. He wasn't even above his ears so I let him go. Eventually the next, a doe, got up and started walking off. I admittedly made a poor shot, not accounting for the wind, and missed.
We moved to a water tank to get out of the increasing wind. While I was checking in with FireTiger on the radio, even without my glasses on ( I had taken them off to try using the spotter, which was useless due to the air distortions ) I caught movement in my peripheral. Three does were right there, under 100 yards! I don't know where they came from but I hopped on the gun. Dad confirmed they were all does. I put the crosshairs on the lead doe and dropped her. Seeing movement in another direction, I grabbed my binos to take a look as I thought it might be a buck catching the action. My Dad says "She's up!" and I turn back and she's hauling butt full speed away, completely covered in blood. We were both in utter shock. I'm shooting a 7mm magnum which is total overkill for this and she was under 100 yards! I still don't understand what happened. All I can figure is I hit high somehow. FireTiger and Fitzy were about a mile and a half from us directly in her path, so I let her know on the radio. They saw her and almost got a shot, but more shooting from another direction caused her to kick it back into high gear. They saw her cross onto the neighboring property almost 3 miles from us. I felt terrible but there was nothing I could do.
Shortly after she disappeared, Dad and I gathered our stuff to start heading back. I happened to look behind me as I was about to put my pack on, and saw a herd on the horizon. We got back down to check which way they were headed, and it looked like they were coming our way. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later we were in shooting position and I was calling off ranges again. I said to my Dad I don't think they are going to get any closer when they were at 240 and moving perpendicular to us. As I was about to say I'll stop them so we can get a good shot, BOOM, he misses. I suppose I should have had a conversation with him before about stopping them for a shot.
We made the LONG walk of shame back to the vehicle. We had done over 10 miles on the day, which is quite a bit for my Dad. 0/6 tags was not exactly the opening day we had envisioned. However, there's still another day...
While we went 0/6, it was entirely our fault. We all had our chances. There weren't as many opportunities as year's past, but we didn't capitalize on the ones we had.
Sunday started off quite bad. The winds were stronger, and we were in a misty fog. We couldn't see more than 200 to 400 yards most of the time. Dad and I set up on a water tank in range of a fenceline we had seen groups following the day before, so we could be in a decent spot but out of the wind.
At one point, the fog lifted and I glassed up a group of seven with a nice buck feeding on a perpendicular fenceline around half a mile away. This happened again 15 minutes later and they were still there, so when the fog came back I told my Dad I was going to put a stalk on using the fog for cover. About halfway there, the fog lifted more than it had all day and they instantly busted me. Figures.
The girls didn't see anything and around noon, without us seeing anything more either, we decided that while visual distance had improved, without hunting pressure moving the animals around they simply weren't going anywhere. The wind was a steady 20+ mph. We humped it the couple miles back to the truck and decided to loop around to the other side of the property and do a little bit of glassing from the truck. Not my favorite way to do it, but I could tell everyone was beat and staying out in that wind wasn't going to help.
It seemed like it took forever to get over there, but we weren't too long into it when I thought I saw two pronghorn moving over my shoulder. I eased the truck forward and sure enough, there was a group of about 15 heading parallel with us. They disappeared again and I moved the truck again. It didn't seem like we had spooked them, so just before we hit the next "ridge" I parked it. Nearly losing my hat as I stepped out the truck, I walked up to the ridge and there they were, in a little depression about 3/4 of a mile away.
Nobody looked anxious to go after them, but I knew this could be our last chance for the trip. I slipped my gun out of the back, turned my hat backwards and said I'm going for them. They looked like they were just feeding, there was the slightest of ridges between us and I figured I could cut them off. Well, I got to that ridge and they were "just over it" so it turned in to army crawl time. Naturally, they started feeding away from me at this point. I couldn't keep up, and I couldn't stand up without being very exposed. Lucky for me, they found another little depression and bedded down about 550 yards out, I estimated, judging by the distance of the lone yucca in their direction.
GO TIME! Very slow go time. I could still see the bucks horns even while sitting on my butt, so I knew I couldn't stand. This meant it was time to butt scoot, and only 450+ yards of it. It was agonizing, but I kept telling myself this was it, this is the chance to not go home empty handed. They aren't going anywhere in this wind. Boy did I wish I had my leather gloves, but luckily there wasn't much except grass stubble to poke me. I dodged a couple prickly pears but it didn't seem as bad as year's past.
I had several landmarks to keep an eye on, but when I got to the point where I could clearly see the bucks horns with the naked eye, I knew I was close enough. I was under 100 yards. I didn't want to get any closer than I needed with a dozen+ does around him. Now it was time to wait. After 20 minutes or so, I gave a little whistle. I don't know if that did it, or if they caught me bobbing a bit, but eventually the buck stood up, and that was that.
Of course, I had lost my walkie talkie while belly crawling, so I had to walk all the way back to the truck, but there was a two track not far from the buck, so we were able to cut off a lot of that distance to retrieve him. Fitzy got to experience the quartering process and my Dad got to see a pronghorn up close for the first time. His back leg looked infected from a cut which was a bit disappointing as pronghorn is our favorite meat. We'll find out more this evening when we package.
So, we didn't go home empty handed! Fitzy had a good time and is looking forward to our whitetail doe hunt later this month. My Dad got to experience it and while he wasn't chomping at the bit to do it again, said he'd go if we found a tag on the leftover list in the future. Its a long drive for him so I get it. FireTiger wants to try to get back later in the week, but the forecast is pretty bad for the next few days, so we'll see.
Sunday started off quite bad. The winds were stronger, and we were in a misty fog. We couldn't see more than 200 to 400 yards most of the time. Dad and I set up on a water tank in range of a fenceline we had seen groups following the day before, so we could be in a decent spot but out of the wind.
At one point, the fog lifted and I glassed up a group of seven with a nice buck feeding on a perpendicular fenceline around half a mile away. This happened again 15 minutes later and they were still there, so when the fog came back I told my Dad I was going to put a stalk on using the fog for cover. About halfway there, the fog lifted more than it had all day and they instantly busted me. Figures.
The girls didn't see anything and around noon, without us seeing anything more either, we decided that while visual distance had improved, without hunting pressure moving the animals around they simply weren't going anywhere. The wind was a steady 20+ mph. We humped it the couple miles back to the truck and decided to loop around to the other side of the property and do a little bit of glassing from the truck. Not my favorite way to do it, but I could tell everyone was beat and staying out in that wind wasn't going to help.
It seemed like it took forever to get over there, but we weren't too long into it when I thought I saw two pronghorn moving over my shoulder. I eased the truck forward and sure enough, there was a group of about 15 heading parallel with us. They disappeared again and I moved the truck again. It didn't seem like we had spooked them, so just before we hit the next "ridge" I parked it. Nearly losing my hat as I stepped out the truck, I walked up to the ridge and there they were, in a little depression about 3/4 of a mile away.
Nobody looked anxious to go after them, but I knew this could be our last chance for the trip. I slipped my gun out of the back, turned my hat backwards and said I'm going for them. They looked like they were just feeding, there was the slightest of ridges between us and I figured I could cut them off. Well, I got to that ridge and they were "just over it" so it turned in to army crawl time. Naturally, they started feeding away from me at this point. I couldn't keep up, and I couldn't stand up without being very exposed. Lucky for me, they found another little depression and bedded down about 550 yards out, I estimated, judging by the distance of the lone yucca in their direction.
GO TIME! Very slow go time. I could still see the bucks horns even while sitting on my butt, so I knew I couldn't stand. This meant it was time to butt scoot, and only 450+ yards of it. It was agonizing, but I kept telling myself this was it, this is the chance to not go home empty handed. They aren't going anywhere in this wind. Boy did I wish I had my leather gloves, but luckily there wasn't much except grass stubble to poke me. I dodged a couple prickly pears but it didn't seem as bad as year's past.
I had several landmarks to keep an eye on, but when I got to the point where I could clearly see the bucks horns with the naked eye, I knew I was close enough. I was under 100 yards. I didn't want to get any closer than I needed with a dozen+ does around him. Now it was time to wait. After 20 minutes or so, I gave a little whistle. I don't know if that did it, or if they caught me bobbing a bit, but eventually the buck stood up, and that was that.
Of course, I had lost my walkie talkie while belly crawling, so I had to walk all the way back to the truck, but there was a two track not far from the buck, so we were able to cut off a lot of that distance to retrieve him. Fitzy got to experience the quartering process and my Dad got to see a pronghorn up close for the first time. His back leg looked infected from a cut which was a bit disappointing as pronghorn is our favorite meat. We'll find out more this evening when we package.
So, we didn't go home empty handed! Fitzy had a good time and is looking forward to our whitetail doe hunt later this month. My Dad got to experience it and while he wasn't chomping at the bit to do it again, said he'd go if we found a tag on the leftover list in the future. Its a long drive for him so I get it. FireTiger wants to try to get back later in the week, but the forecast is pretty bad for the next few days, so we'll see.
