My first Washington deer

[wafisherman]

First solo trip (with my 10 yr old son along to watch and learn) and scored a nice 4x4 muley.    That thing was huge.  Hadn't missed a meal that's for sure    Thick layer of fat and very tall.

We back packed into the North Central cascades Thursday.  Scouted hard for 2 days.  Saw plenty of sign but not a single deer of any shape or form (well, a pile of really old bones).  Lots of tracks, a fair amount of droppings and a few good fresh rubs that really got me excited to see.  My son became quite the tracker and spotted some of the rubs and more droppings than I did.  Opening morning we woke up before light, bundled up, and started stalking the ridge line where we saw the most activity.  Nothing for 6 hours.  3 days and still no sign of a deer.  We got snowed on, and enjoyed ourselves, but we were both fighting colds and his was getting worse.  I had also pulled a thigh muscle pretty bad with the heavy pack and having to climb over some big boulders and blow downs.  So after 3 days in the back country, I figured he was doing well, but I wanted to not push him too hard.  We broke camp in the now slushy rain and headed back to the truck.  I talked him into letting me have an evening hunt, but close to the truck and he could stay behind and rest. He was good with that, so we started to scout the area from truck.  Crossed the valley to some other roads and BOOM pumpkin patch city.  And at 2pm, I didn't see a single deer at any camp.  So after seeing the circus, we headed back to our initial area where there were only a few hunters around.  I picked a ridge that just felt right and seemed like it may have been overlooked by the road hunters any any of the morning hunters.  Parked, left the boy who started a fire in a fire ring and just headed up to a ledge I spotted from the road overlooking a clearing.  It was about 4 when I left the truck.  At 5 I was on top of the ledge.  Found that there was a logging road up there and some road hunters drove by.  I just spent some time glassing the area.  Found some nice big tracks but no fresh droppings other than some tiny stuff at the top.  But I was sure those tracks were fresh and that the deer was heavy.  I began to move away from the clearing and decided to head toward the thicker brush in a couple of small gullies on the edge of the clearing.  I reached the edge and began to carefully work my way down, now a little after 5pm.  I looked across the gully into the thick brush about 100 yards away.  There staring at me was a huge buck just coming up over the ridge.  I saw him from just about chest up to head, straight on, but clearly a nice shootable buck.  My heart stopped and I turned, raised the scope, aimed center of chest, and fired.  He dropped like a ton of bricks.  all 4 legs were in the air, rolled over a log, and stopped.  Normally I'd let him lay for a bit, but just couldn't help heading below and working my way up to him.  Found him were he dropped.  Twitching, but gone.  Shot right into the chest and probably blew up the heart.   Massive internal damage and minimal meat damage.  That .270 did the job well.  About 400 yards from the truck.  I was shaking and couldn't wait the go grab my boy and have him see.  We easily slid it down the steep slope a few hundred yards, and I moved the truck back into the woods a hundred yards.  But we still have to move it 100 yards on flat ground.  Wow.  NOT easy. That deer must have been at least 250lbs. Guttted it, and started dragging.  10 feet at a time.  Was dark before we reached the truck and took a feat of engineering to get it into the truck.  We drove through town (won't name it - but was clearly deer central) and it was packed from one end of town to the other with hunters.  Several spotted our deer as we got gas and admired it and noted that it was the only deer they had seen all day.  Drove home a day earlier than planned, but smiling from ear to ear.  My boy and I will remember that trip for the rest of our lives.


Our base camp deep in the woods well off any known trail:



Here's your sign...


Just before the kill:

[jason stevens]

Nice buck!!!!

[brianmtsinc]

Congrats!  That's awesome!

[The Big Game Hunter]

Great story! Getting the deer is great, and having your son on the hunt makes it absolutely awesome. I got my start as a hunter going out with my dad and it looks like he is on that same road with you now.

Congratulations!

[jasnt]

Congrats. Beautiful buck

[blackveltbowhunter]

Gorgeous buck. Congratz 

[Natures Way]

Congrats! On a nice buck and sharing with your son.

[PolarBear]

 

[silverdalesauer]

Amazing! Congrats to you and your boy! 

[lazydrifter]

nice buck.  nice write up too.  congratulations

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Right on! Having your son there makes it all the sweeter.

[Huntboy]

Congrats.

[MC37493]

Nice buck! is that the savage axis? if so how do you like it?

[boneaddict]

Sounds like a pretty great hunt to me.

[MLBowhunting]

Great buck

[MeatMaster]

Congrats and a very nice muley for sure!

[bowhunterforever]

Very nice, congrats

[Ripper]

Nice! 

[bigbds61]

Very nice buck!  Good stuff with the young one.

[bowhunterforever]

Nice buck, congrats

[Pathfinder101]

Very cool!   

[wafisherman]

Nice buck! is that the savage axis? if so how do you like it?

Well, can't complain.  Taking up hunting is a pretty big time and money investment.  As a husband and father of 8 kids - I don't have a lot of either!  So I was happy to find a sale on the Savage Axis that put it at $279 including scope.  Upgraded scope with a slightly used Leupold and put the cheap one on my 22.  I have scored 4x4 mule deer 2 years in a row now, so some good mojo going    And that 270 round dropped both with massive internal damage and quick kill.

Last year in Idaho, my first deer hunt, under the guidance of my cousin who is a life long hunter, I tried it out for the first time.  Found out pretty fast that the cheap plastic magazine is garbage.  I load manually.  Doesn't take much longer to reload after a shot with a little practice.  And you NEVER get surprised that the round didn't feed...  Last year I had a shot at a spike and the mag decided not to cycle a round.  Pulled the trigger with a 50 yard broad side standing still shot - nothing easier.  Click.  Nothing.  Deer ran off.  So after that, only trusting manual feeding.

For the price, I'm happy.  Light weight (not a youth rifle though - still a little heavy for my boys to shoot off hand) and recoil is strong, but not bad.  My 10yr old likes to shoot it (from the bipod).  Not  a classic beauty, but practical, functional, and other than being careful to clean and oil like most rifles (found out the hard way that the barrel will rust quickly if you are not careful).

[MtnMuley]

   Great story right there!