Alright guys here is my version of the hunt.
When I woke up Monday it was dumping rain. First thought in my head was I should be up in the woods hunting. Can't get better weather than this!
Problem was I had already made plans to spend the day with my husband since he had just gotten back a few days earlier from 5 weeks in Texas.
After going to all the different places he wanted to go we stopped off at Cabela's to get a few things for me. Mainly some new hunting boots and a shooting bi-pod (upon BTKR's recommendation). I saw him use some shooting sticks when he took his bear and thought it would be a good idea to include a pair in my hunting gear.
We get home around 3:30pm and I get all my stuff together to go hunting up in CF. I leave the house at 4pm and just as I am leaving the driveway I get a call from ShadowCat. So I sit on my road for a bit and BS with him. I'm back on the road about 4:15pm.
First spot I get to is a clear cut right off one of the main line. I've never seen a deer their but thought what the heck. As I am getting my stuff on and out of the truck 2 guys in an F-150 drive up and decide to glass the same cut from 40 yards away. I was like WTHeck! I was here first what a bunch of turds.... So I get back in the truck and move to spot #2 where I had seen 4 does the last 2 days I had been their. I stop and look around and decide to move on. The third spot I go to is where me and BTKR had seen a small 1 x 2 early in the year. I get to the spot and glass for about 30 minutes and for some reason decided that this wasn't where I wanted to be.
At this point it is 5:25. I decide to Finnish off the day at a cut I call the Field. I had seen quite a few deer in that cut through the year. Including a spike. Their hasn't been a time that I haven't seen deer in that small area. So I park in one of the pull offs and get all my gear ready grab my rifle and shooting sticks and walk out to the edge of the pull off. About 5 minutes after I get to the spot a truck drives down the road right by me. A couple minutes later it comes back followed by another truck (this is a dead end road pretty much).
I start glassing and about 5 minutes later I hear another truck. At this point I am like WTHeck is this going to be a highway for the rest of the evening? When I turned around to get a look at the truck and saw that it was BTKR. He gets out and walks over and we BS for a couple minutes about the area and the location of roads, etc. He glasses the cut every now and then and I advise him to go get his rifle out of the truck.
He says "Ohh no, I'm going to drive down the road to another cut and sit. I'll stop back by before dark."
I say "OK, Cool, I'll see ya in a little bit. If I hear you shoot I will head your way!"
So BTKR drives off and I continue glassing the cut. About 15 minutes after he left I notice movement below me about 200 yards out. At first it looked like a low flying bird moving from one bush to the other. Still it's movement and I kept my eye on the spot. It didn't take but a minute to realize I was seeing the top of a deers back. I watch it for a few seconds and it picks up it's head. First thing I see is the forehead and notice right off "That's a Buck". I didn't see the horns yet but I kept my binos on it til I did. Once I saw the horns I start adjusting my shooting bi-pod.
I had to adjust it a couple times and between each adjustment I would put the bino's back up and locate the buck and make sure another deer hadn't come out behind him. Once I got the bi-pod adjusted I put the cross scope on him and waited til I could see the horns. I wanted to make sure a doe hadn't snuck out into the field undetected. Once I was confident the deer had horns I put the cross hairs on him and take a few breaths and squeeze the trigger. . . . .BOOM!
I drop the rifle and see the deer drop his head and go crashing through the brush into the timber. If he would have dropped his head another inch I think he would have tripped over it! Not 5 seconds later I hear a crash. I know I hit the deer and I felt like it was a good hit. Not 10 seconds later BTKR drives back up, jumps out of his truck and heads for a large pile of dirt behind me and to my left. I ask him what he is doing and all I hear is him wanting to get elevation. He has his binos and I'm trying to figure out why he is going to glass the cut.
So I look at him like he is completely off his rocker and ask didn't you just hear me shoot?
Was that you?
Uhh yeah, you didn't hear it?
No, I was in my truck and had my music on.
I just laugh, lol. He comes over to where I am standing and asks me about my confidence in my shot, where the deer was, what the deers reaction was after the shot, and where it went in. He says well regardless we have to go down their and look. Go grab your packboard, rifle, and a knife. By the time I get my stuff and to the edge on the cut BTKR is already 100 yards down the side of the hill.
So I work my way down and trip 2x on the way down so I finally pull myself together and tell myself to take it slow no point getting into a hurry and breaking a leg. As I get 1/2 way their BTKR comes back out of the woods and is hollering for me to hurry up. About 10 yards away I ask him if he found anything.
He says, Yeah I found a little bit of blood. It's not good lung blood, looks like their is some gut juice in it.
At this point I am thinking ohh crap! I must have made a bad shot. Hope we don't end up tracking this thing all night.
Finally I get over to him and ask where the blood he found was. He shows me and we begin tracking the deer. Their was blood about every 3 or 4 feet. We get about 20 feet from the deer and I shine the light in front of me. As I was moving the light I thought I had seen the deers eye reflect. As I am trying to find it again I hear BTKR say he saw it reflect and walks over to it. I see him stop and I ask if he found it. So I walk over and see the dear laying their Dead. At that point I am on cloud 9 and totally pumped!
BTKR, being the good Boy Scout that he is remembers his Camera! I had totally forgot mine back at the truck! So I check the deer out and we snap a few pictures. So I get to work gutting the deer. The whole time he is helping me hold legs and taking pictures. Once gutted we discuss how we are going to get the deer out. He shows me how to turn it into a back pack but that fell through with a slip of the knife through the tendon. So we tie it onto the pack board.
BTKR says, I'm going to pack out the deer because I have to go to work in the morning and we need to get out of here. When he said that I was put out in a pretty big way. It was MY deer, I shot it, I gutted it and damn it I wanted to be the one to pack it out! We talked about it for a few minutes and we finally strap the pack on me and I make my was slowly to the edge of the timber. I didn't make it far when I slip on a wet branch. So, BTKR takes the pack and straps it on and heads out of the timber leaving me to carry the rifle, both our jackets, and the heart.
After a little bit BTKR says it's time to switch! Good, it's my turn so we change and I take the packboard. I'll tell ya what it sure is awkward trying to get use to walking with an 90lbs pack when you've never done it before. It was also a pain in the butt trying to walk in these new boots. The boots were higher than any et I had ever had and really restricted my movement. After a while I could tell BTKR was getting a bit impatient because he's got to go to work in the morning. I knew he could cover more ground faster than I could so reluctantly gave up the backboard again for him to finish taking it up to the road.
He gets up to the road and gets his truck. I holler up to him to call my husband and tell him where we were. So he takes off in the truck to try and find signal. I get up to the road and wait for him for a few minutes to come back. Once back I hand him his jacket and walk up the road to get my truck. I drive down to where he is waiting next to my deer. He has already cut the deer off the packboard.
He said I went ahead and took it off the pack board so we could load it up in your truck. That way when we get to your house and you show your husband and we take more pictures it looks cooler.
We get the buck loaded up in the back of my truck and head for my house. Once their I had to send my husband to the store for vinegar because I had forgot to but some the day before.
Once the deer was skinned out I cut the inner loins out and give them to BTKR along with the heart.
