Saturday my son and I head up to a spot that over looks a clear cut that I have seen Deer bed down. We get up to the spot and glass all morning and into the afternoon. Suddenly I see movement. As I watch the wood line waiting to see what emerges from the trees.
Elk, all I see are elk!
So I look at my son and say, "Lets go find some Grouse"! So we pack up and head out. After a few trips down blocked off roads and what not, we see nothing. We decide to head home and try for Grouse on Sunday.
Sunday morning we get a late start and I am not to sure I want to go walk around in the drizzle with my 9yo. He says he wants to go, so we head out. We decide to head to a different location where I have seen Grouse before. We get to a blocked road that we can hunt legally and park. We get out, I grab my rifle just in case I see a deer, my son grabs the shotgun. Two point drops down the side and looks broadside at us about 120 yds away. My son asks me if that is a legal deer for the GMU we are in, I look through my scope and sure enough it is.
Mistake #1... I did not have my magazine in my rifle.
mistake #2. Forgot what pocket my magazine was in so I am fumbling around while this two point is looking at us. My son is telling me to shoot the dear. Finally I get my magazine out, load and chamber a round. Drop down to the prone like I am being shot at and aim. Shot fired, the buck drops down the hill and out of sight. Didn't kick, hunch, nothing. So I am thinking I missed him. So we get up to where the buck was at and we see blood and bone fragments.
We look over the edge and we see where he dropped down with a lot of blood left behind.
mistake #3. I head back to the vehicle, unload and lay my rifle in the back. I grab my keys and tell my son its going to be a wet search. We head back to the edge leaving the rifle in the vehicle.
Mistake #4. I broke a very important rule. We started trackin after only about 15 mins after the shot. We head down the edge and my son is in front and very excited. As we are tracking we see a good amount of blood as well as more bone fragments. My son is telling me he has to be down and dead by now. Me, I have my doubts but I have high hopes. As we are tracking more and taking our time, just off in the distance about 50 yards away he stands up and slowly walks off. I curse under my breath! My son asks me what was wrong. I told him we just jumped him and we may be in for a long search. He looks up and said.. Well lets go! I told him to wait here, I head back up and to the vehicle to grab my rifle.
After retrieving my rifle and getting back to my son, we are about an hour into the search. We start following the tracks again and move slow scanning the very dense woods. Ferns and down trees everywhere along with standing timber. The slope is not to bad but walking through the crap is difficult. 2 hours into the search and we are still seeing blood but not as much. Then just like that, we lose tracks and blood.
We circle a few times finding nothing. By this time my son and I are wet from the waist down and I know he is cold. We head back up to the vehicle. I want to warm my son up and move the vehicle to a lower road so if when we do find the buck, the vehicle will already be where we want it instead of dragging the deer down and then heading back up to get the vehicle. As we are driving back down, we pass a few trucks. I stopped along side of one and asked the guy how good his tracking skills are with a slight grin and a little chuckle. He said they are good. I tell my my story and he tells me to keep going in circles, you will find him. I said that was the plan and we both drove off. I get to a turn out and park. I get out thinking my son was staying to stay warm. He proceeds to get out and tells me he wants to help find him. Gotta love him, he has a big heart and doesn't give up.
Final mistake and I really paid the price for this one.
We head out and back up the slope. Find the spot we left off and continued to search for any signs. Then we see fresh heavy tracks. So I tell my son to go slow, we need to find blood to make sure we are on the buck I shot. Moving at a snails pace we follow the tracks with no sign of blood. We are almost on our hands and knees, so we stand up to stretch and suddenly he pops up staggering and then bolts parallel to the road below and out of sight. The we hear it. Lots of heavy crashing like something is rolling down a hill, then thud!. For the second time we jumped him and now I am kicking myself in the arse hard. My son said it sounded like he is down and I agreed with him. Instead of walking at a fast pace, we just take it slow and then we hear a familiar sound. A vehicle coming up the road, slams on the breaks and really fast turns around. I look at my son and he said I hope they let us know if they found our deer. Two doors open and I hear a tailgate drop. Still to far away to see anything we begin yelling letting them know we are up here and headed to our downed deer. Tailgate shuts and doors shut and off they go!
I take off through the thick ferns and timber towards the road, son on my tail! Get down to the road and they are out of sight!
We walk down the road a little and see where the buck tumbled down and the impact with blood where he was laying. Drag marks and then burn out marks on the gravel and my Buck is gone!
I am so frustrated I want to cry! My son tells me that that sucks and they should be in jail. I just told him that maybe they needed it more than us I guess. He said yeah maybe and it will be ok. Said at least we still have the deer meat from my kill. I just smiled, headed back to the vehicle and we headed home.
