All is quiet, packed up, ready to go. Recap.

[h20hunter]

Just waiting for pops to finish his morning prep work. Truck is loaded up, bows sighted in and ready, food packed, tags triple checked. Just gotta meet up with Bro in law and Mitch, aka bknilvr00,  hook up the trailer, and we are off and not due back until Friday. No more house shopping buying or selling. Work isn't going to call. No more telling the kids to stop running up and down the darn hall while I'm trying to remember what I've forgotten to pack. No more trying to remember  who picks up from daycare or if soccer is done at 6 or 6:30. None of that.

The goal is to get a legal deer of any type in front of my dad  at 20 yards for one good clean shot.

Punch a few tags, come home safe, enjoy the time.

[JJD]

Wish ya the best of luck 

[Boss .300 winmag]

Where are you going hunting? 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Tags are usually a good thing ...haha  Good luck ...stick u one !!

[D-Rock425]

Well you kill one yet?

[h20hunter]

I did kill one.

We hunted mostly the same area as we did last year....the 101 and close to it in another unit. We have some access to private property and with my dad along for his first bow hunt that is where we set up. We put a big hub blind in the same spot as last year but this area was simply much to dry. Not much browse and basically went 2 1/2 days without seeing a deer in this area. On the other hand, close to camp my bro in law and bknilvr were seeing good deer on a regular basis. The brother in law was very itchy with his trigger finger and put a decent shot on muley doe the first evening. Big healthy animal. Per some advice of a forum member we hunted a few spots and got on some decent deer. We were able to get on a small herd of about 7 o 8 deer a few times that included two nice 3pt muley bucks. Big bodies, nice looking deer. We did try and get a sneak on them which was very exciting. Sadly, they knew where we were and as dry as it was they could hear me from a long way off as I was trying to sneak around. As a group we got on a pair of bucks...a spike and a 2pt muley that were nice to see but not legal of course. We did have a 2pt whitetail buck come into a blind we set up but he was jumpy and snorted off. That was pretty cool. Coming back one night, dad and I almost hit a bear in the middle of the road, that was kind of fun.

My dad finally got a shot. Wednesday evening we were in the blind and a whitetail doe came in. We were set up for a 15 to 20 yard shot. She came in, was very nervous, jumpy like whitetail are. He drew his bow, settled, and let fly. To me, it sounded like a bat striking a baseball. A loud crack. I shoved my head out the window of the blind just in time to see her bound off with the arrow sticking out of her. Way out. I got a bad feeling right away as it did not look like much penetration. He shoots about 55/60 pounds on his bow and has the set up dialed in fairly well. However, with his eyes he is limited to 20 yard shots on average and 30 max under ideal conditions. We looked for 2 hours before running out of light, not a single drop of blood to be found. In the heat of the moment, the excitement of having a legal animal, and his first time drawing a bow on a deer I believe he reverted to what he knows and that's rifle hunting. Looking back he said he put it square on the shoulder and I think he hit low and stuck her in the upper leg right below the shoulder blade. Like I said, the four of us grid searched the entire area, not a drop of blood or sign be begin the search. Sad deal but we did what we could.

Now, my hunt was not that exciting. Since I was focused on my dad for the first bit of the trip I never really  HUNTED until the last day and a half. I was trying to get on a buck, any buck. Forkie whitetail, 3pt muley, we knew some were in the area. However, didn't get it done. Last evening about a half mile from camp a whitetail doe was minding her own business just off the main road to camp. She was not very far off, broadside, and very unlucky. 15 minutes later we were back and camp and she was hung up ready to get skinned. Tag got filled and we had our first dinner of backstrap and tenderloins last night.

One of the funnies things this year was a bit of shanahgins that the bro in law pulled. The first morning they came back to camp with 4 nice grouse. We breasted them out and added them to the bacon skillet and fried up some meat along with our cakes and eggs. Delicious. Later on...next day I think it was....they were dumping the scraps from a deer and the grouse bodies. Since they were only breasted out they got the idea to "pose" them along the road. They propped them up with sticks on a tree branch and on a rock. You guessed it.....the next day we were not to far off and heard a truck come to a quick stop....boom boom boom the shots ring out....the you hear silence.....then a truck leaving in a big hurry. Maybe I'm a little twisted but that is funny stuff.

Overall, a good camp. I'm sad my dad lost his deer and he will come back again better for it. I made some meat and am thankfull for that. Already looking forward to next year.

Sorry, no pics as we simply hardly took any at all!

[Buckmark]

Sounds like a good trip and most important good times with your dad 

Could of tied that bear up for me 

Those guys that shot at the grouse carcasses might of thought it was a wdfw sting   , that is funny though..

[Carl]

Good times with your dad.  That's enough   

Carl

[gilroym]

next time we need a game camera on those grouse. I am picturing the guy jumping out of his truck shooting the grouse just to pick them up and see the meat is already gone. I would be so pissed.