Tag Soup
The 2014 big game hunting season has come and gone for me. The elk were out for me from day one because of all that stuff I mentioned before, but I figured the deer hunting would be easier. Since huckleberry season I'd been seeing a lot of deer around in the places I was wandering and figured, "If nothing else I should be able to get a couple of those." Hmmm, never expect that I guess.
When we were still in elk camp I was on a drive looking for grouse one evening. I turned down a road I hadn't been on before and got into a neat lodgepole stand. I came around a corner and saw a HUGE whitetail buck. His body was huge, his "bib" was a large patch of white in an otherwise green forest, he had a wiiiide rack with about six? short tines on each side, AND he was only about 30 yards off the road!! I rolled by him with my mouth hanging open and honestly my first thought was, "I'll bet that's one of those Fish and Game robo-deer!" (I thought maybe they were trying to bust people up there for road hunting.) But then this darn thing just tracked me with it's eyes and head as I slowly drove by.
What the hell!!!? It's REAL?
I drove down the road a ways and grabbed my rifle and walked back to where I'd been. There were some alders between us and I couldn't see his vitals...just his face. As soon as I had them cleared he calmly turned and disappeared in the trees. Oh sure, I went up the hill and tried to follow him but he was long gone.
I still have trouble believing he was real...amazing. But he was definitely the king of THAT hill, so I'm okay with him still roaming around.
The next day we broke camp and headed home in a serious downpour. On my way home I drove up a road near the house just to see if people were out deer hunting down there yet. That's when I rolled by ANOTHER buck standing about 30 yards off the road, staring at me. He was a pretty four-point and I contemplated trying for a shot. I turned around and drove by again, still there. I did this TWO more times and he didn't move! I finally decided I didn't want to be done with hunting season so early (and also, the rifle was in the case in the bed of the truck.) I stopped in front of him and it wasn't until I opened the door that he ran off. Cool!
I went back up there the next day with the 30-30 hoping for an easy shot. I hadn't really walked around in there, so I was roaming a bit and ran into three does at about 40 yards. I counted coupe on all of them by having them in my sights and basically saying "bang." I never took a shot for whatever reason....and, that was the last time I saw any deer in that area. But after running into a veritable herd of turkeys, THAT'S where I was the next day with the shotgun...collecting a nice young one.
Later in the month I ended up on the state land near Priest Lake. I got within 10 yards of a nice buck in one of the thick patches and could have tried a shot at the back of his head when he slowly bounded away....but didn't. Then I got lost...I hate flat ground like that. When I finally checked the GPS I was going exactly 180 degrees the wrong way! Luckily that little gizmo got me back to the truck. The following weekend I was up there again and didn't see a thing...but ended up getting turned around yet again...I was DONE with doing that, I'll tell ya!
And finally I had one more shot at a doe on State land near the house. But STILL didn't take a shot...because of the young one right on her heels.
The rest of season was filled with seeing nice bucks on private land...tempting me to take a shot. Or does walking through our yard. Again tempting, but the neighbors down the hill are just too close for me to comfortably do that. I DID manage to have a bowhunter pass within 10 yards of me and never see me...that was interesting. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to literally scare the shit out of him!
The very last evening I went out, I ended up in an area that had good sign...but also had a plethora of road hunters. They circled my "spot" until it got dark, so I just stayed hunkered until after shooting light then got to the truck and unloaded the gun for the last time of the year.
Overall, it was a very good year. I didn't take any unethical or hurried shots and, more importantly, I didn't wound anything. I learned some good country and found a lot more places to go next year. But, I'm thinking I'm going to try hunting deer when everyone else is hunting elk...THAT was when they all seemed to be out just staring at roads!!
When we were still in elk camp I was on a drive looking for grouse one evening. I turned down a road I hadn't been on before and got into a neat lodgepole stand. I came around a corner and saw a HUGE whitetail buck. His body was huge, his "bib" was a large patch of white in an otherwise green forest, he had a wiiiide rack with about six? short tines on each side, AND he was only about 30 yards off the road!! I rolled by him with my mouth hanging open and honestly my first thought was, "I'll bet that's one of those Fish and Game robo-deer!" (I thought maybe they were trying to bust people up there for road hunting.) But then this darn thing just tracked me with it's eyes and head as I slowly drove by.
What the hell!!!? It's REAL?
I drove down the road a ways and grabbed my rifle and walked back to where I'd been. There were some alders between us and I couldn't see his vitals...just his face. As soon as I had them cleared he calmly turned and disappeared in the trees. Oh sure, I went up the hill and tried to follow him but he was long gone.
I still have trouble believing he was real...amazing. But he was definitely the king of THAT hill, so I'm okay with him still roaming around.
The next day we broke camp and headed home in a serious downpour. On my way home I drove up a road near the house just to see if people were out deer hunting down there yet. That's when I rolled by ANOTHER buck standing about 30 yards off the road, staring at me. He was a pretty four-point and I contemplated trying for a shot. I turned around and drove by again, still there. I did this TWO more times and he didn't move! I finally decided I didn't want to be done with hunting season so early (and also, the rifle was in the case in the bed of the truck.) I stopped in front of him and it wasn't until I opened the door that he ran off. Cool!
I went back up there the next day with the 30-30 hoping for an easy shot. I hadn't really walked around in there, so I was roaming a bit and ran into three does at about 40 yards. I counted coupe on all of them by having them in my sights and basically saying "bang." I never took a shot for whatever reason....and, that was the last time I saw any deer in that area. But after running into a veritable herd of turkeys, THAT'S where I was the next day with the shotgun...collecting a nice young one.
Later in the month I ended up on the state land near Priest Lake. I got within 10 yards of a nice buck in one of the thick patches and could have tried a shot at the back of his head when he slowly bounded away....but didn't. Then I got lost...I hate flat ground like that. When I finally checked the GPS I was going exactly 180 degrees the wrong way! Luckily that little gizmo got me back to the truck. The following weekend I was up there again and didn't see a thing...but ended up getting turned around yet again...I was DONE with doing that, I'll tell ya!
And finally I had one more shot at a doe on State land near the house. But STILL didn't take a shot...because of the young one right on her heels.
The rest of season was filled with seeing nice bucks on private land...tempting me to take a shot. Or does walking through our yard. Again tempting, but the neighbors down the hill are just too close for me to comfortably do that. I DID manage to have a bowhunter pass within 10 yards of me and never see me...that was interesting. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to literally scare the shit out of him!
The very last evening I went out, I ended up in an area that had good sign...but also had a plethora of road hunters. They circled my "spot" until it got dark, so I just stayed hunkered until after shooting light then got to the truck and unloaded the gun for the last time of the year.
Overall, it was a very good year. I didn't take any unethical or hurried shots and, more importantly, I didn't wound anything. I learned some good country and found a lot more places to go next year. But, I'm thinking I'm going to try hunting deer when everyone else is hunting elk...THAT was when they all seemed to be out just staring at roads!!
posted by geotracker12 at 11:09 AM
1 Comments:
I like your perspective. Sounds healthy and all that jazz. Nice!
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