Since I have been on this site I have not had the chance to post or start a thread that said "Success"...but I got my chance today. Sorry for the long story but I want to cover the highs and lows of my early archery season.
Part 1
My season as of date had many highs and lows. To start with I get a call while in Montana from the guy I supposed be hunting saying he is bailing! Not again, I swear I have no luck sometimes. Luckily I was able to meet up with two other guys and was invited to hunt the Westside for elk and deet. Both guys were fairly new to hunting.
The first part of the trip has me headed to Whynooche Lake. After driving from Renton and less than 5 miles away the lake we find out the road is closed. Luckily some logger gave us directions on how to back track and get to our hunt location. A course the delay cost of 3 hours of extra driving and a ton of gas. I was towing my travel trailer and for some reason my Dodge was eating the diesel up. By the time we reached the area to hunt we had been driving for five hours. Unbelievable I could have drove to CDA, ID in the time it took me.
After setting up camp and heading out for the night hunt we were attacked my mestiquotes, humid and hot weather and thick woods. No deer or elk sign for three days. We hunted our butts off and not seen a fresh track or even the slightest sign of a deer or elk. It was hot, humid, buggy and fricken miserable. We were there on the 4th-7th and decided to leave and go to another spot. Great more time to travel, gas and lost time hunting. To top things off on the way out we went another way to save time and it was so steep and nasty that I had to use 4wd to get my trailer out of the woods. 1st damage to the trailer- somehow the microwave door came open and the glass broke on the floor and a piece of glass got wedge under the slideout and rub a hole in the vinyl floor. Plus the two top drawers fell out and broke the screw holding them. What a mess!
Finally arrived at South Rainer. The guy who had been there before killed a bear and seen some good elk activity earlier in the month. I was trying to stay positive! The next morning we were off and climbing a nasty drainage. We were seeing good elk sign and big bear tracks. Getting really excited about the fresh sign we got more aggressive and really put some serous hiking in. It was now around 4pm and we had not seen any animals however lots of tracks. It was hot and pretty thick where we were. We were very low on water and beat from the earlier hike and we needed to get the hell off the mountain before nightfall. On the way out we ran out of water and I was pretty dehydrated and could barely get myself down the drainage. We got back to the truck pretty late. I learned a valuable lesson never to be so stupid and run out of water with no way of getting more. I was in bad shape that night. I got on the fluids and recovered by morning. Sore as hell we started again and found a great area with lots of promise. For the next 4 days we hunted this area hard as hell but still no animals. The weather continued to be very hot, and buggy as hell. I have been hunting elk and deer since Sept 4th and as of the 11th had not seen a fricken animal. There were a few bugles but they were other hunters. I was spent and wanted to go home but I had a buddy coming up Friday and it was his first archery hunt in 5 yrs so I decided to stick around.
Positive note- the two guys that I hooked up with to hunt were pretty cool and I知 sure we will hunt together again. The first guy-Chad was ex Army (Special Forces) and he was a wealth of knowledge about maps, compass, survival techniques and different plants to eat, ect. I never hunted with a guy who could navigate so well in the woods and always knew where he was and so prepared. He really saved my but getting me on the mountain and in a safe manner. He left on the 12th to go home to find out if his wife was having a boy or girl. The second guy was also pretty cool and a friend of Chad. We had good time hunting the rest of the weekend. It was his first year hunting and his expectations were very high. He seemed pretty let down with the lack of animals. We finally closed up camp and left on the 13th.
Part 2
I have been home for two days and getting ready to go deer hunt in my favorite spot. My buddy and I load the truck and trailer and headed east with high hopes. At this point all I want is to kill a doe. I知 out of elk and deer meat and I just want to get a doe. We get to our spot and set up camp. The alarm goes off at 4am and we were up and getting ready for the morning hunt. At first light the wind is blowing, and I find myself in some sage watching 3 does feeding toward their bedding spot. I start a stock and get within 80 yards and the deer bolt. I feed down the field and jump several more pockets of deer and again blow the opportunity. By 8:30 I have seen 20 plus deer and yet to draw. My buddy and I spent the next 4 hours stocking deer with no prevail. The wind was so unpredictable we kept getting spotted by the deer. Back to camp for a break and head back out for the evening hunt. Again we are in deer but just can稚 get closer than 80 yards.
Day 2 fines us back into a similar situation but this time the wind is a lot calmer. I have a deer at 84 yards and she is beaded and doesn稚 know I知 there. I put a stock on her and get to 42 yards and draw back. I squeeze the trigger and shoot right over the top of her back. This would not be my fist miss that day and after that I headed back to camp to check my bow out. After looking at it for a while I find my serving string on the peep and come loose and my peep sight has move slightly. I fixed the serving string and get some arrows out and spend some time shooting to insure I can hit what I want. Plus I realized I was putting so much pressure on myself to get a deer and was not taking enough time. I got myself calmed down and really started hitting the shooting bag with tight groups.
That night would prove to be awesome. My buddy and I found a sweet spot with sign everywhere and we decided to split up. I took off down this deer trail and been hiking for about 30 minutes or so and was seeing lots of deer movement across the fields. I spotted a doe and a buck feeding on separate trails. I started after them and when I came up over the knoll lost sight of both of them. I carefully glassed for 5-10 minutes and spotted an ear in the tall grass and brush. I checked the wind and circled around the deer. As I came down the trail I looked to my left and got a glimpse a horn. Boy was I excited and getting nervous. I was less than 40 yards from a buck. I used my binos and glassed him and he was a legal buck. I slowly walked toward him with my arrow knocked. He had not moved an inch. I was with in bow range but could not shoot him because of the branches and tall grass covering his vitals. Plus you never want to shoot a deer that is bedded as the vitals are not exposed enough. I whistle, kicked my foot, yelled but still he would not get up. Finally I step 2 more steps and he stood. I drew back and place my sight pin on his vital and released the arrowed. He was hit hard. I could instantly tell I took his lungs out, he ran 15 yards up the hill, broke to the left and I heard him crash. I sat down in his bed and took some water in and though oh man I shot my first mule buck. I waited 15 minutes and put a quick track on him. He was bedded under some underbrush and when I grabbed horns I though holey *censored* I got a buck down, now what? I have shot many does but never so far from the truck. I knew I was going to have work hard and quick before nightfall. I notched my tag and slid it into his hear. I started to drag him out of the underbrush in order to field dress him. After field dressing him and dragging him 500 yards I was spent. I decided I needed help and went to find my buddy. I arrived back at the truck to find him covered with blood he had shot a doe and need help as well. So we dragged his doe to the truck and then back my buck. By this time it was dark and luckily I left my hat and some other markers to get back to the buck. It took us hour and half to get him to the road before loading into the truck. Back to camp, where we hung and skinned both deer. It was cooler than it had been the previous days and so we hung them outside for the night. We broke camp and loaded the truck. We left the next morning to be beat the heat and get them to the butcher. After my initial trip to the Westside I was pretty discourage but after getting back to mule deer country and working hard I now have new found energy. I consider myself a meat hunter for the most part, but it was a real reward to shoot a buck. No real great pictures because I知 a dumb ass and left my camera at camp. After dragging this deer I realized even more than ever I need to get in better hunting shape. My goal is to get my butt in better shape now for the rest of the season and next year.
I still have a Westside elk tag and I may go out for the late hunt but as of now I知 not sure I want to hunt that type of terrain. I can see what draws guys to the Westside though, having the change at bulls does get the blood pumping.
NW_Bowhunter
