First, I want to say thank you to Lokidog and Weathergirl for having me out to Decatur and helping me get my first deer. This post wouldn't be possible without you guys!
Life has been a bit crazy lately and very busy, but when they invited me out for the late season, I decided to take them up for their offer. Saturday morning I headed up. The plan was for Kelli and I to go sit in one spot they'd seen a lot of deer and hope to see one.
I must say, it was pretty cool to be sitting out there with another woman. This is what I was hoping to find when I signed up for this site. The temperature was dropping near freezing and man is it cold to just sit there and not move! But it was nice to slow down and take in all the sights and sounds of the outdoors. The end of hunting for that day was getting near, so I walked around a little trying to see if any deer were bedded down. No luck. So we started to make our way out which is a lot harder to do once it's dark. After climbing over and under some trees that had fallen during the wind storm, we finally got out.
For dinner, Ed grilled up some big horn sheep from his hunt. It was definitely some of the best meat I've eaten! We made a game plan for the next day, Ed and I would head out before sunrise to be in place when 7am rolled around.
It was another cold morning. We quietly made our way to the spot to wait and see if deer would cross one area once it was daylight. With no sign of deer after an hour, we moved to the next spot. We went up to a field and Ed spotted a doe bedded down. We tried to sneak up closer to her but she moved. We slowly walked over near where she was and she popped up again.
Ok - this was the first thing I hadn't realized in all the preparing I've done for hunting, how fast you have to react to shoot them. I moved the gun into position but couldn't see through the scope on my first try, I moved my head and could then see through the scope and the doe was gone. In all of three seconds. It was the first of many things I learned about hunting that weekend.
We made our way down through a few more areas. Heading down hill near a patch of trees, I spotted a small buck down below us. We moved into a patch of trees in the direction the buck was headed. Here's the second thing I learned - hunting in Western Washington is WAY different from hunting in Eastern Washington. I wasn't used to finding a shooting lane through the trees and hoping the deer stops in the clearing. The buck didn't seem to notice us. I lined up a shot between two trees, slowly he walked out and it was my chance to shoot. He had moved where just enough of his front half was in front of the tree trunk. He was about 70 yards away from us, I aimed and fired. He took off, I tried setting up a second shot but he kept moving behind more trees.
We made our way down to where the buck was to see if I hit him. We didn't find any blood. We walked all the places we saw him go and didn't find any spots of blood. Shot and missed. I was a little bummed to have missed but again learned a lot in that moment.
We made our way back to the house to eat lunch, before heading out again. We went to a couple more spots but didn't see any deer. We decided to head back and take a quick nap before heading out one last time.
There were a couple hours left in the day for me to get a deer. We got everything ready and headed out. We rounded a corner leaving their property and up popped a doe. We hadn't been outside for more than a few minutes. I lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. She moved and this is when I learned my next lesson, keep shooting. I didn't get my next shot ready in time before she moved out of sight. We went back to where she was and saw blood. She jumped up and moved again, too quick to get another shot on her.
We went back to get Kelli to help track her. We started following the blood trail and the doe had made her way into thick brush. We heard her move one more time. Ed decided to head around the other side and hopefully we'd be able to push her toward him. Kelli lead the way through the thick salal. We followed the blood until it opened up to a small clearing and we couldn't find anymore. We decided to try another way into the brush near where we heard her go. The stuff we were walking through was tough. My dad and brother had always told me the hard work starts after you shoot them, I now understood what they meant. We forged our way through more salal and ended up in another clearing. I looked down and saw more blood so we started tracking again.
This part was really difficult. The sun had started going down and being in thick brush meant there was even less light to work with. Again, we made it to a point where the blood trail just stopped. We heard some movement as we went closer. Ed was outside of the brush, trying to see where the deer would go. Eventually we decided to just get out of the salal. Doing this actually got the doe up and out of this area. Ed saw her and was able to get a good shot on her.
Kelli and I made our way over more fallen trees to get out of the brush. Once we got out, Ed said we should head back to eat dinner, then come back and find her.
Ed made a delicious duck leg curry. Any recipe he posts, definitely try it! He's a great cook!
After dinner, their son joined to help us track the blood again. He quickly found the first spot on the brush and we made our way in. We followed several big spots and found her about 20 yards in. I was really glad to have found her.
Before, I was worried we wouldn't be able to find her in the thick brush. It's not a good feeling to not be sure where they are or if they're suffering. That's probably the hardest part I dealt with. I didn't really have a reaction to shooting her which actually surprised me a little. But struggling to follow the blood trail and knowing she kept moving was weighing heavy on me. So I was really happy to have found her.
I notched my first deer tag, hopefully the first of many! We took her back to their garage where Ed taught me all about gutting and skinning a deer. We were able to see where the shots went. It looked like my shot hit her lower heart but left the chambers intact. He wasn't really sure how she was able to keep going as far as she did. His shot got her in the diaphragm which definitely put her down.
It was pretty fascinating really to see where all the different cuts of meat are. He took out the tenderloin and backstrap for me, then quartered the rest for me to butcher with my brother.
For breakfast, he cooked up some backstrap scraps with mushroom and onions and it was beyond delicious!
My brother came over Thanksgiving morning and he taught me more about butchering the deer. It's been pretty cool bonding with him over hunting stuff. We got half of the deer done before we needed to get to Thanksgiving dinner. Yesterday, I finished butchering the rest of the deer by myself. My butchering might not have been perfect but I learned a lot doing it and am glad to know how to do this.
So again, I'm really thankful for the help that Ed and Kelli gave me. I had no idea what would happen when I signed up for this forum over a year ago, but I'm really glad I did. This story never would've happened if it wasn't for this site!
I'll be posting more pictures from this hunt and some of the recipes I'll be trying out on my blog,
www.countryhuntress.com. My only Black Friday purchase was a meat grinder, so I can't wait to start cooking up some recipes. Feel free to share your favorite, I'm excited to finally have venison to cook with!
