Sometimes one is humbled by the generosity and consideration exhibited by others. This weekend was one of those times for me.
I had posted on HuntWa a few weeks ago asking for ideas on hunting Beezley for an upcoming youth hunt. My "little brother" from BBBS passed hunters Ed and drew a doe tag in that unit this year and we wanted to go fill that tag!
I had several good options PM'd to me and even some folks trying to get me hooked up on some private land to help us out which was so great! One of those folks was Snowshoes22 and he let me know on Friday that he had lined up a place on his land that had been holding a couple large groups of does.
We arrived early on Saturday AM only to be thwarted with low level fog that limited visibility to under 100 yards. We hung out for the morning trying some other options, but alas, no does. After lunch we went back to the original location to find the fog had lifted! We could see some Does out just off the edge of his land, and decided to do a hike in to see if they would move over to his side and offer up a shot. The stalk was about 1.5 miles or so, and when we got in position, the deer were milling around about 400 to 800 yards out. This was too far of a shot. We waited a bit, and then my "little" and I did a 300 yard belly crawl down the slope to the edge of the property line to wait for a shot. After about an hour they came into range, but were just off the edge of the property line. It was painful, but we waited and we were rewarded with about 10 deer walking into range, and onto the property! We let them get about 50 yards over the line at a range of 115 yards. Perfect! There was a lot of:
Take that one, no she turned
OK, line up on that one and wait for a broadside
WAIT! another one walked behind her!
OK take that one
No wait, that one is pretty small
OK, just shoot the first one you can with a clear broadside shot, the one in the front looks like a good sized doe!
Boom. the 25-06 went off and it looked like someone turned a snake loose in the middle of that herd of does! Does were jumping every direction! The one he was aiming at stumbled hard at the shot, then jumped backwards and ran off towards the property line at full speed. Initially I thought it was a good hit, but she was running fast. We walked down and there was no sign of her. Snowshoes came down and helped us look and found blood. This was not good news as she had run towards the neighboring property. We tracked along and then all at once, there she was! Dead on the ground 30 yards from where she started, 20 yards on his side of the line, with both lungs punched. Perfect lung shot!
We notched the tag and he got a lesson on field dressing.
The hunt was amazing, exactly what I was hoping for. He is hooked for sure. We learned:
-There are a lot of great people out there willing to help others out
-The enjoyment of a nice hike in to find an animal
-How to plan a stalk
-How to do a stalk, including a long belly crawl
-The importance of honoring people's property line, even if that means you might not get a shot and fill your tag.
-The thrill of buck fever in a target rich environment
-How to field dress a deer
It was a great day! Once more have to say, how great Snowshoes22 was. He took his entire day to show us around and help us fill that youth doe tag. It is rare to find someone so willing to help a total stranger out and go so far beyond the call of duty. He really made a young man's day! Thanks!!
