Hey guys first post here, my third year hunting and my first in the high country. Sorry for the long post but it was an epic hunt.
Went out on the last day of early season without too much expectation. We went to a spot more known to hold a lot of bears. We hit the trail around 3 am. and made it to the ridge by daylight. It started off with bad visibility and a lot of low lying clouds. Around 7:30 the clouds broke and we spotted two does and a buck from about 700 yards out. They were making their way across an open hillside in our direction. The wind was right and there was enough breakup in the hill that I could work my way towards them. I made my way down a steep rocky drainage to about 200 yards of them. At the bottom of the drainage I ditched my pack and my boots and made my way towards the first ridge. About 30 yards from this ridge the clouds rolled back in. I was fogged in for about an hour or at least it felt like it, and I made the decision to wait and be patient rather than push it and possible bump the deer. As the clouds broke I went up and over the first small ridge and nothing. I signaled up to my hunting partner and he couldn't see anything from the higher ridgeline. At that moment the buck appeared over the next smaller ridge on the hill at 73 yards. He fed up hill and eventually bedded down. I'm laying down on this open hillside with wet socks with this buck bedded straight towards me for what seemed like forever. These crows or ravens(not sure) started diving at this buck and forced him to leave his bed. Sure enough he heads down the ridge and straight towards me. Now there is this very small drainage separating us. He disappears for a second and I readjust and range a spot where he will appear at 43 yards. I draw from my knees as he appears and he never stops just keeps coming head on at probably 25+ yards. I can't hold no longer and as I let down he spots me and jumps down to a lower platform at 40 yards. I range him and draw again as he is slightly quartered towards me. I pull, anchor, aim. I hit him slightly farther back than I wanted and he bolted down the hill with my arrow in him. My buddy is up above watching him run down and go into the trees and sees a deer bolt across the berry field on the bottom of the bowl. Well we gave him about 2 hours to sit and it's around noon when we go look for blood. We find only drops of blood for a hundred yards or so and my hopes are diminishing as the blood fades. We look near the bottom of the bowl where he had seen the deer run across the field, turns out that was a different deer my buck had bumped. On our hands and knees after hours of looking, we find a single drop of blood across the hillside. We find more blood along the path , thinking he ran down into this drainage, my partner headed down looking for blood. At that point I looked up and spotted him 20 yards from me bedded under a tree. I placed another arrow in him and ended his suffering. It was a hunt of highs and lows and many learning experiences. It was my first buck and to do it nearly 5 miles back in the high country was absolutely amazing. I feel very fortunate I did not bump this bedded deer and to be able to recover him. Ended up being a 4x2 with one eyeguard. Such an amazing hunt!
(ps. bottom pic is me on the left in optifade, and the buck on the far right at 73 yards.)
