Well we did it again - thankful for another year. We got to our glassing spot with just enough light to be able to see. We sat down and Matthew put his eyes in his binocs and literately said ' there's a deer' it literately took less than 5 seconds for him to spot it. We got the spotting scope set up and had to let the light come more. Sure enough it was a 3x4. We watched him for about an hour as he moved up a rock slide which was a sure chance for a shot if he went to the bottom of the cliffs. It was just a matter if he went left or right. He went left - perfect he would be trapped between both of us. I was to be the first to tag out so i backed out to set up the ambush. I circled around and got on the other side of the buck and climbed to the bottom of the cliffs and at the same time Matthew went the other way to set up the push. I got to where I thought I should be and waited. 40 minutes later i was really thinking something went wrong when Boom. Then on the radio, Matthew said 'Missed, there are two deer doe in front buck in back'. A minute later the doe appeared on a full bounce passing 25 yards away. Then the buck came over the rise and stopped. Then he started running right at me. I just kept thinking let him come , get closer closer closer... then i thought better shoot or he is going to run into me. So he was literately 10 feet away when i shot. Through the smoke I saw him drop and start to roll away down the rock slide and out of sight. I could hear him going and hoped he did not break a point off. We regrouped and I looked at the time. 10 am. 3 1/2+ hours for it to come together. We climbed down and found the buck - no broken points just a few scratches and some bruised meat. Had him quartered and in the truck at noon.
Hunted till dark and no other deer that day. The next day we found three bucks with one extremely wide but not tall at all, maybe the widest deer i have ever seen. Legal on one side confirmed and the other two we never got a good look at them but did not matter with the one. With the heavy wind they seemed agitated and just kept milling around. We made two stalks on them and got to 197 yards, just too far especially with where they were at and how they were positioned. We backed out a third time to shave 50 or 100 yards off and got busted. Found 11 does/fawns in the afternoon. So Matthew still has a tag... He had to get back to WSU.... we get to hunt another day....>>.
Gotta get ready to shoot a spike elk next weekend.
