Blind Squirrel

[fishnfur]

....found a nut last night. 

Shot story coming soon .  Taking the oldest hunting tomorrow - got a bit of work to do to get ready.  Here's the ATL and a bad field photo.

Key Peninsula/Kitsap GMU - rack looks more whitetail than blacktail.

[Thehowler]

You are right about whitetail. Good work!

[Birdguy]

That is a nice looking buck! Good luck with the boy as well   .

[lokidog]

 

[bracer40]

Glad to hear it!

[fishnfur]

The success story - Sorry, not quite as short as I'd planned.
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What a long eighteen day wait it was until late buck season opened.  After sitting in a stand for most of he day Thursday in the Willipa Hills Unit and seeing nothing move until I bumped a couple of deer packing my gear out, I made a hasty decision and headed north to hunt Mason County for Friday.  I had a couple of spots up there that I wanted to hunt before I took our oldest son out on Sunday.

I drove up Thursday evening and went to bed tired after a long day.  My alarm clock got turned off in mid-ring and I was back into bed for a little more sleep on Friday morning  - not the best start for a day of hunting.  I still managed to get up and out the door without eating by first light and was in the woods hunting fifteen minutes later.  Two hours into the morning - for some reason, I felt like I was wasting my time still hunting and rattling along the edge of a cut with a lot of good rubs that I had found the week before.  I just wasn’t feeling that confident in the spot that morning. 

Skip backwards three months to when HW member Jayfire was looking for a spot to hunt in Kitsap for his Quality Archery tag.  At that time, I offered to let him hunt a 10 acre parcel of 4 year-old clearcut timberland on the Key Peninsula that I own but rarely get to because it’s a long way from home.  He took me up on the offer and over the late sumer and fall, got a few trail cam photos of several good deer.   Though he had given up on the spot early into his hunting period, he did say in a recent PM that there were at least three good deer in there and pinpointed the location in the cut where most of the activity was.

Back to present day - 10:00 AM, I decided to make the half-hour drive up to that property and hopefully catch some activity at mid-day.  The property is basically flat, 300 X 1200 feet with a 30ish foot deep swale running across the middle from north to south that drains lands to the north.  The reprod trees intermixed with brush are mostly only about 2 - 3 feet tall - generally, not big enough to hold deer during the middle of the day.  Since I didn’t have my stand or blind with me, my only option was to lie on the ground on the upper edge of the swale in an area where the brush would hide my presence, but still allow me to see the timbered edges on both ends of the swale - Jayfire’s recommended areas.

Not too stealthily, I did my best to creep and sneak my way in and find a decent spot.  Three or four times I had to get up and move because the locations were too uncomfortable, or I couldn’t see well enough from my reclined position. A couple hours into my best location, I hear a stick break from what I thought was the woods to the north.  Fifteen minutes later, another stick break and I decide to investigate.  Not more than six steps into my sneak, my pant leg gets caught up in a blackberry/blackcap bush and makes a horrible ripping noise as the thorns rake across my pants.  All hell breaks loose when a deer busts out just 20 yards from me, stotting it’s way back into the woods.  Tremendously high leaps all the way back into hiding - incredible to see, but impossible for me to get a scope on as it sped away.

Thinking that the deer hadn’t seen me, but only frightened by the noise, I quickly hid behind the nearest bush and waited until I felt that the deer was long gone.  I have no idea if it was a buck or doe, but decided I would sit on the spot longer since I still had three hours of light left. 

Two-and-a-half more uneventful hours pass.  I try to nap a bit in the sunlight.  What a gorgeous day to be hunting.  As the sun sets, I’m starting to think about where to hunt the next day.  By 4:40 PM it is noticeably dark and suddenly a doe pops out from the woods to the north and starts feeding on the edge.  Sitting as still as possible, I check her out for a couple minutes, hoping for a buck to follow, but none do.  I put my gun up on a shooting stick in preparation for what may come.  The doe catches the movement from about 80 yards away and stares me down for what seemed an eternity.  Unsure, she stomped her hooves several times then finally decided all is well and headed straight out to the middle of the cut, directly across the bottom of the swale from me and started to feed.  I took an opportunity while she traveling to put my firearm down and lay back into my home amongst the dirt, trees, and weeds to just watch. 

The doe is directly in front of me and facing me at about 50 yards.  Her ears perk up as she looks right, then relaxes and takes another bite of dinner.  Ears perk again and she looks left.  Nothing there.  I’m frantically looking right and left as she does. hoping for even a small buck to show before I run out of light.  She appears to be just waiting, not eating anymore.   A couple more looks to the left by her, and I follow suit.  Still nothing.  As I move my gaze back to her, suddenly from nowhere, a buck enters the field of view in my binocs - I see three good points! 

Time blurs, the firearm somehow finds it’s way into my hand and I find the buck easily in the scope, still standing right next to the doe.  Squeezing gently on the trigger (this time), I hardly heard the discharge.  The buck turns a half circle around the doe and drops to the ground.  The doe stands alone, perhaps perplexed by recent events.  She sniffs the buck momentarily then makes a hasty exit to her home in the woods.

It took four long years of reading every Blacktail book, magazine article, scholarly literature, and forum posts that I could get my eyes on, combined with my trial and error scouting and ill-fated solo hunts to finally succeed.  Thanks to all of you that contributed so much to my education and success, and also to my wife, who untiringly covered for me at home while I was out having fun.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nicely done. 

The three points can look like whitetails until they fork into 4 points. 

[JakeLand]

  way to go that's a nice looking buck great family pic

[kodiak 907]

Good buck! Nice family pic.

[Thehowler]

Great family photo for a Christmas card!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Great family photo for a Christmas card!

LMAO News bulletin Rudolph last seen over Key Peninsula, then vanished from radar and believed to have been gunned down by fishnfur. 

[fishnfur]

Thanks all.  The wife said as she took the photo - Here's this year's Christmas card photo!" 

- Somehow, I keep thinking that it looks like a family pet. 

[Mark251]

Great pic!  Congratulations 

[pd]

Boy, what a long wait.  Now you are an expert, and can teach me how to do it! 

Congratulations, and what a lovely family portrait.   

[lamrith]

Congrats, way to be patient, it paid off well.