my first deer. can't wait for next season...
Awsome first buck 
Gonna be a tough on to beat! Is there a story of the hunt and more pics?
thought i loaded the story from my phone a while back but guess it didn't make it so here goes again.
this was my first year hunting; my dad brought us up fishing steelhead and salmon but only ever took us target shooting. this was the first year i had the funds and time to get started - 38 years old but it's never too late.
i bought a .308 a couple years ago and finally got around to hunter's ed this year (had to make the res months in advance). i really had no idea how to go about hunting so got most of my info off this forum and the net. longtime backpacker but had never set out with a goal of shooting anything. i'm a DIY kind of guy and my friends that hunt are in other corners of the state so i was solo.
i spent my first few days making a lot of noise and bushwhacking around ne washington trying to find access - didn't have time to scout before the season so my first many days of "hunting" were really scouting. early season came and went and i only saw a few deer i spooked, but i finally found some public land with a couple clear areas 3 or 4 miles from the gates where there were some rubs and fresh sign. i had 3 days off the last week of late season and was pretty stoked cuz snow was forecast.
i got up friday afternoon and sat in my first spot for a few hours in the snow until light was gone and didn't see diddly. pretty discouraged - decided later the rubs and sign i'd seen weren't as fresh as i thought... next morning i was up and in the same spot an hour before light just like everyone says you should - it had snowed more overnight and was still sprinkling a little snow. there were lots of coyote tracks but only one set of hoofs. i heard a gunshot from the direction of my other spot out of another gate. after a couple of hours i got discouraged again and decided to bail. i hiked out and drove over to the other gate, and sure enough someone had scored - there was blood in the snow at the pullout and drag marks in the snow by the gate.
i decided to just walk up and check it out - the gutpile was only a half mile from the pullout. looked like someone got real lucky and had a buck step out of the thick stuff onto the road - must have ben the easiest pack out ever - they dragged their deer a half mile downhill in the snow. i was pretty jealous - thought that shoulda been my deer haha. it was getting pretty late so i decided to walk all the way in to the clear spot and review the lay of the land so i could get to a settin spot easy the next morning.
about three miles in I come around the corner and see a buck!!! about 200 yards away traipsing broadside across the hillside. i went to one knee, safety off, and put him the crosshairs. i was hoping he'd stop moving but he kept on walking and i was afraid he'd get to the thick stuff so i pulled the trigger. down he goes and down he stayed. i couldn't believe it. i thought for sure he would get up and run - i chambered another round but he stayed down. turned out i got lucky and got both lungs and the aorta. i don't think i've ever had such a satisfying moment in nature - and i've caught some pretty big salmon and steelhead in diy mode..
i walked up the hill to him and just stared until it started to get dark, and then the (fun) work started. I'd left my pack at the truck - i'd planned on just going up and back to plan the next day's hunt... i jogged back to the truck and traded pack for rifle and jogged back in, the whole time worrying about lions and bears chewing on my deer.
all i have to say is thanks for the online tutorials about gutless methods of processing deer - huge help. it took me 3.5 hours in the dark and snow, but i got all the good meat into pillowcases and into my pack with very little hair or dirt - used a tarp as a base. i think next time it will take a lot less time. i took everything out in one trip - musta been at least 80-100 lbs but at the end of 3 miles it felt like 1000.
i jerked and ground and vacuum packed over the rest of the weekend. my wife and family love it - we haven't bought meat in the last 2 months, and there's a lot left. i skinned out the head and boiled the skull and bleached it - made a pretty cool mount with a skull hooker.
bottom line - i'm hooked - plan on teaching my kids to hunt growing up. i can't wait for next year - i'd really like to get an elk (yeah, i know, so does everyone else). i hiked quite a bit this year during elk season (in 113) but only saw old sign and a moose. - didn't see any elk on the hoof. if anyone is willing to share some tips on where in 113 to head for elk, i would be willing to trade whatever - work, fishing tips, etc..
thanks to all the folks on here for the good info and tips that helped me get a deer this year - looking forward to being a contributer in the next few years myself.
