Monday was raining all day and I was stuck at work. At noon I called my wife to see if she wanted to take a drive in the Capitol Forest when she got home and she agreed.
I get home; get most of the essentials loaded and then I went to pick up our son from daycare. As my son and wife were getting ready a neighbor (and hunter) drove by and we started to chat for a bit. He told me about a spot that he was heading to and I mentioned that it sounded like a spot I had been hunting. He told me about a friend of his who killed a 3x3 up there on Sunday. Then my neighbor showed me pics on his cell phone. Damn, wouldn’t you know it. I met the guy on opening morning as he beat me to the spot I was going to hunt. Neither one of us mentioned a buck, but I had seen this deer a couple times in August and September when calling coyotes. Chances are he knew it was there as well. Now I was frustrated that I didn’t hunt Sunday morning, if not just to beat him to “my spot”.
Anyway, it was raining hard and everyone was ready so we took off. By the time we hit the woods, we only had about an hour of hunting time but I knew of a spot that we could glass from the truck. We did not see any rigs on the way up or even once we were in the woods, until I took a spur road that dead ends. A truck coming off of another dead end got right on my ass. I slowed down and he backed off, but continued to follow us all the way to the end. He very easily could have taken one of the numerous spurs but no; he chose to drive right down and park within 100 yards of us. After a half assed glassing job I turned the truck around and headed out.
With not much more then a half hour of light left and fog rolling in, I was getting discouraged that we hadn’t even seen any deer crossing the roads. The weather was perfect and there didn’t seem to be much human activity, but the deer weren’t moving. As a last ditch effort I barreled to a nearby landing that I always find does. Never bucks, but the does are always there. I left my wife and son in the truck as it was very windy and the rain was coming down sideways. After a couple minutes of glassing the left side, I moved over to the point and then I moved over to the right. Not seeing any deer and knowing we have less then 15 minutes of light left, I moved back to the left side of the landing for one last look and up jumped a deer about 50 yards away. I only got a quick look and I knew it wasn’t a rack buck, but thought it could be a spike. I ran back to the truck, told my son to sit tight and grabbed the rifle as my wife got out. I handed her the rifle and we walked back up the logging road about 50 yards to a trail that headed over the side and into the cut. About 20 yards in we stop so I can glass the immediate area and since we see nothing we move up about 10 yards and I see the deer looking at us from about 50 yards away.
I quickly notice the light tan between the ears, but threw up the binos anyway. Sure enough, a spike, Ike the spike. I told my wife it was a spike and that if she wanted to she could shoot it. She said are you sure it a spike? I looked again and said yes. She looked it over for a minute before pushing the safety off…but not all the way. As I was watching the spike and waiting for the shot I hear her ask a question and before I could understand it I notice she is now pushing the tang all the way forward. She takes a breath and BOOM goes the .270 and down goes Ike with a low neck shot.
We walk up to the deer to make sure it is done and then I headed to the truck to get my son, my camera and a packboard. A packboard for a spike you ask? Yea, wait and see.
By now the clouds, fog and rain are in such a combo that it almost felt like a monsoon. If it had been any colder it would have been totally miserable. We quickly took a couple pictures and then I gutted the deer as my wife went back for a bag to put the heart and liver in.
Then I tied the whole deer to my packboard. My wife asks, “your going to carry it out whole?” I laughed and said, “No, you are”. All she said was, “OK”.
She did great and nearly made it to the truck (about 100 yards), but she slipped on a log and needed some help so I took it the last 20 yards or so.
After a couple more pics we changed out of our wet clothes and headed for the meat room. It was only 75 lbs gutted but it was the only legal deer we saw. Matter of fact, it was the only deer we saw during legal hours. She hasn’t been able to hunt much the last few years and her time is very limited this year so a spike was fine, plus we had a great time.
