Hirshey's Washington Deer 2015

[Ccortez]

I already know how it ends

You must be the new guy that's afraid of the dark that watched? 

[coachcw]

my money is on her 

[hirshey]

Slowly, painfully, I crept down the hill out of view of the buck to the next pine. Once in position, I held on tightly to my range finder and side-stepped the tree until I could see my target. 200 on the dot! I lowered the range finder and started to sit: my preferred shooting position has always been elbows resting on knees... but the buck took two steps and disappeared from my sight picture. I side stepped twice more to get a good view of him and quickly sat over my knees. It was decided. I wanted this buck! I settled into shooting position as the buck turned its head back my direction... I put the crosshairs just behind his shoulder, took off the safety and started to squeeze... and the shakes hit. I release pressure on the trigger and put the safety back on... settling down, I try once again... and shake. I take a deep breath and settle back into position with the crosshairs aiming true.. and pull the trigger. The recoil is minimal, and I pick the animal back up quickly... he is still standing there, ears lowered, acting like a large buck that perhaps had a bullet fly over its head... I'm flabbergasted!

[hirshey]

I quickly run through the scenario in my mind... yes, it is downhill... yes, I could have shot over the top of him with the slope being what it was... but in my heart of hearts I was sure the slope was gradual enough not to have THAT much of an impact on my shot. I shake my head, jack another bullet in as the buck continues to stand there, head lowered, 200 yards away. I look at him in my scope, and notice he doesn't look like he's sneaking, he looks hit. Resolutely, I put the crosshairs back behind his shoulder (he is now standing broadside the opposing direction from the initial shot) and squeeze the trigger. This time, a decided reaction; he bucks, and starts running downhill. I move quickly, setting up in position for another shot if necessary when he clears a small clump of trees and enters a clearing. I wait; 5 seconds. 10 seconds. 20 seconds. Nothing.

[hirshey]

I slowly start taking steps downhill at an angle, revealing more and more of the area under the patch of timber until I see a body laying on the uphill side of the last pine. I stop to examine the situation. My deer (at this point, it is resolute in my mind... I would do anything to make sure I recovered this animal) was laying, but it's head was still alert. An angled away, laying down shot... not my favorite, but I was desperate to end the hunt. I sat, and raised my gun one last time. With the recoil of the gun came the sight of my buck straightening its legs and sliding 10 yards downhill. All was motionless. I had been given one more successful hunting season!

[hirshey]

I whooped at my friend, who is a natural at this hunting thing... he'd collected both packs and slowly started to work his way down the hill, making sure he had a good sight picture on the buck each time I shot. We got to my animal and examined just how beautiful he was! Dark, tall horns greeted our arrival.

[Skillet]

Really great story, great  buck, thanks for sharing Hirshey!   

[DOUBLELUNG]

Very nicely done, and great photos too!

[bobcat]

Nice buck, and thanks for not taking three days to post the entire story, like some people do.   

[Roosevelt]

Awesome depiction!  Will you marry me?     Congrats!

[hirshey]

We pulled him downhill to a slightly flatter location to begin an incredible amount of work. I'm a fan of the gutless method, which pairs well when you are caping an animal, so we diligently worked to bone him and cape him out, getting our heavy packs loaded and ready for hiking back to camp at 9:30 PM.

During the boning process, I discovered that deer was dead on his feet; the first two bullets' entrance and exit holes were within  2 inches, and the last entered behind the shoulder and unfortunately went out THROUGH the off-side shoulder, making it so I lost a decent amount of meat. We still ended up with about 85-90 pounds of meat, but always a little bit of a downer.

At 9:35 we started our trek back to camp, and earned a good lesson in night-hiking when we missed a trail junction and added an extra .5 miles onto our adventure for the evening... gaining and losing a total of almost 3000 feet in elevation, we made it back to camp, a flask of whiskey, and a still-burning fire from Jeff at 1:00 AM. Needless to say our next day's adventurings with Jeff were shot!

[Buck Rub Jr]

Awesome! Crongrats!

[trophyhunt]

Very cool write up, again! Congrats!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Congrats awesome buck.

Now I can get back to hunting.

[hirshey]