it's official...i've seen it all

[brew]

usually bow hunt but these past few years been rifle hunting as my son in law has gotten into it and gave him one of my rifles a few years back as a christmas present.  we went out yesterday morning and i wasn't expecting much as it was a blue bird morning and the weather was supposed to be crappy in the evening but this is my favorite time to be out in the season as the bucks are starting to rut and anything can happen.  only drove 3 miles through the gate and there was a truck parked at a clear cut and the guy was already out milling around.  Kinda surprising as it was still dark and we went another 200 yards and parked along side the road.  there is a side road going to the left off the main road that I wanted to hunt as it goes through an older clear cut and reprod.  Waited a bit until dawn was cracking and told the son in law to head up the spur as it goes about a mile and i would be up in a bit.  He took off up the road and i grabbed my BLR 358 that I bought from Carpsniperg2 on the site.  really wanted to shoot a deer with this open sighted beauty.  I'm old and fat and waddled up the road about 1/2 mile and was watching the sun come up.  Hung out for a bit not seeing any deer and started back to the truck.  Was about 100 yards from my truck when i looked down below the road i was parked on and saw the guy we saw earlier walking around in the lower clear cut.  I'm never in a real big hurry so i watched him covered in Hunter orange walking around the cut for a couple minutes.  Decided to pull up my binos to see what he was doing as this was about an hour after we first saw him standing by his truck.  he's about 250 yards away from me so my field of view in the binos is pretty big.  he's just walking back and forth in the cut and i can see he doesn't have a gun.  As I am watching him all of the sudden in my FOV I see a deer---holy crap its a Buck !  This guy is walking around this cut and there is a buck standing next to a stump just watching him.  This guy is literally 30 yards from this buck but he keeps walking back and forth looking at the ground and has no idea the deer is there.  for a minute i thought this was a spoof...there is no way this guy is that close to a deer and doesn't see it and there is no way a buck would just stand there less than 100 feet from someone and not take off.  I didn't holler at the guy as he didn't have a rifle so he couldn't do anything anyway.  I want to shoot the deer but I can't for 2 reasons...one the guy is 100 feet from this deer and second i have an open sighted gun and no way at 250 yards.  What do I do ?  That dam buck just stands there and is watching this guy walk around.  I hot foot it as fast as my old fat arse can down the hill to my truck and grab my scoped 7mm mag and shooting sticks and hump it back up the hill to where i sighted the buck from.  I can't belive it---the buck is still there watching the guy walking around the cut.  There is an old growth stump just off the road so I throw Silverado down on it and pull up the binos again...there is no way I can shoot this deer because I would literally be shooting over this guy who is just wandering around in this cut...the buck is still standing there watching him.  I wait the 5 longest minutes of my life for this guy to clear---by this time he was about 100 yards left of the buck and the buck was still watching him.  Its now or never...crank the scope up to 9x and by now the buck has turned and is facing away from me and about 20 yards from the reprod.  Take a deep breath and let it half out...touch the trigger and 160 grains of nosler partition slam him to the ground.  walk down to the truck and throw the shooting sticks in the back and head over to where that dude is still walking around the cut.  I ask him if that was his deer he shot and was looking for ?  he said no he shot at one earlier in the morning (don't know how much earlier because it was still dark when we first saw him) and was looking for it.  he walked over to the deer I shot and said no that wasn't it because the deer he shot didn't have horns that tall.  My son in law came down and we gutted the deer and drug it up to the road.  the only hole in that deer was the one i put in it...that guy was still wandering around that cut when we left.  I've never seen anything like that before...that rutted up pee stinking buck stood there for at least 20 minutes watching that guy...now he's hanging out in my garage,  craziest thing i have ever saw.  during that time there was about 8 different trucks drove by and that buck was less than 100 yards from the road they were driving on.  he actually has a 3rd point on his right antler...just saying

[greenhead_killer]

And that’s why you always go out. Never know what might happen. Great buck and thanks for sharing!

[h2ofowlr]

Nice one!

[fishnfur]

I don't think that it is that rare that a buck will stand there and watch you if he believes he hasn't been seen.  We just never realize that we're being watched.  The cool part is that you got to see it from a rare third point of view.  Good story.  Thanks for posting and congrats on the blackie.

[WapitiTalk1]

Weird, just weird. Congrats on your patience tho, you’re an oak.

[Tiger1358]

Last year I shot a bear in a blackberry patch in the evening. Went back in the morning to get him, while me and my friend were putting the bear on the tarp to take him outta there, 3 point blackie came out and stood 30 yards above us. He stood there for over 15 minutes watching us bringing the bear to a place where we can start working on him and stuff. When I started field dressing it, saw that he's gone.But he watched us for over 15 minutes while we were taking the bear out. Unfortunately, it was 3 weeks before the modern deer, otherwise that day would have been the best hunting day. So yea, it happens

Nice buck, congrats !

[Birdguy]

Nice! I am surprised the guy did not poop himself with your shot. Lol.

[Okanagan]

Dandy buck.  Great story!  Enjoyed the read.

Here's one where I was the guy the buck was watching...

Two friends in late morning walked around a huge clearcut and then wandered back across it toward where I sat on a low ridge watching.  The clearcut was grown up in a few Christmas trees and scattered waist high brush.  It was a fairly early season for mule deer in another state and there were some good huckleberries.  I started eating them, wandering from bush to bush while keeping an eye out across the wide flat bottomed ravine below my ridge and on across the clearcut.

The younger of my friends was coming straight toward me, carrying an open sighted 30-30.  He lifted it and aimed into the swale below me a couple of times, and seemed to stare that direction.  But he gave me no signal, no arm waving etc. and I concluded that he was just making sure that a stump or log was not a deer. 

When we got together he told me that a 4x4 mule deer buck had been lying below a grey stump below me.  When I got close it would stretch its neck out flat on the ground.  I had picked berries to within 40 feet of it.  When I worked my way back to the top of the little ridge it sneaked away and then ran.

“Why didn't you signal me?” I asked.  He replied that he knew I passed bucks sometimes and he assumed that I had seen the buck and had decided not to shoot it.  He did not say so but his tone indicated that he considered some of my hunting decisions weird but was too polite to say so to a friend. 

“Why didn't you shoot it?” I asked.  He said that it was too far across the wide shallow ravine for him to feel comfortable with open sights. 

[ThurstonCokid]

Interesting story! Nice buck, congrats


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[blackveltbowhunter]

Great story and congrats on a great Blackie. 

   I have noticed deer in general are much more tolerant when they sense that the predator is not in predator mode.

[Bogie85]

Awesome story! Love the details. And can’t beat that right place right time.

[cryder]

Well that fits right into Washington rifle hunting for sure , pardon me sir ,,, could you put your head down a little bit , I need set off this missle at that deer standing behind you that's in-between those two trucks that are parked by those two tents that ate just past where that deer is standing , between those three girls doing laundry by those other pumpkin looking dudes drinking beer , the beginning of the great story and good luck by the way I already had the ending figgered , that's Washington for ya ! But carry on guys , these are just the rants of a FLU infested mind ,,, words for the more fortanate ,,,,, GET A FLU SHOT !!

[Sandberm]

If it was that easy every time...everyone would be doing it 

[cryder]

Everybody is doing it that's the problem , even fools that don't know the woods or the critters they stalk , case in point , a relative woke up one morning to find some idiot who had shot a moose in his pasture celibrateing his elk kill , eeeyyyuuuppp everybody ( IS ) doing it , let clowns in the woods , expect a circus , the bigger the river the bigger the drought ! Rediculouse !

[Timberstalker]

PERZACKLY!!!!