2019 Season: "It's not that bad guys, it only hurts if I walk on it"

[DOUBLELUNG]

You are raising a magnificent young woman and are a heck of a dad!  Congrats Addison.

[ctwiggs1]

You better be posting pictures today or I'm voting for

[Karl Blanchard]

With a stomach full of butterflies and 3hrs worth of anxiety built up we approached the edge of the timber with all the stealth of a Delta team approaching a target house. 

As we began to look for the exact spot where the buck had been standing, Kayden motions for us to approach him. He can see a big slash of blood 50 yards down in the timber. We take up the blood trail in the snow and it looks like someone was squeezing it out of a water bottle.  It was coming out both sides of him and while that gave me relief, I was still a bit concerned at how far he had gone. We were probably only 80 yards into the timber but he was switch backing down the hill (also a good sign) and had walked a total of probably 200 yards.

We were approaching the bottom third of the timber patch and it was getting steep enough that a guy starts to pay attention to where he is putting his feet.  I remember finding the next spraying of blood on the snow, placing a foot, looking back up and catching the familiar look of unfamiliarity of a body on the landscape. Horizontal lines in a vertical world.  There he lay! Relief was the emotion more than excitement or elation! He had found his final resting place on a small, shady flat spot in a deer trail he had probably walked hundreds of times before. 

[Jonathan_S]

The distance that buck put on with a broken leg was amazing. Tough deer for sure. He also had broken off his kicker 

[Mtnwalker]

Tough deer for sure. He also had broken off his kicker 

I was wondering about that. Bummer!

[Karl Blanchard]

He was just as big as I had day dreamed about for the last 6 days! To my disappointment he had broken of his driver side kicker (the long one ) but my taxi assures me he can make it good as new.  With pictures taken, meat off the bones and stuffed in the packs we climbed our way up and out the ridge to our pile of guns, optics, tripods, and gear. Crammed everything into our packs and started the life sucking hike back to the truck.

With a busted up foot I haven't done any conditioning besides hunting since mid August.  That burden was starting to show on this packout. Between just being an iut of shape pile of goo, the emotional roller coaster of the day had me just gassed. To top it off my foot cramp was back which left my toes and foot in a locked up state of pure misery.  Towards the end I had fully crossed over into the spirit world but as we dumped packs on the tailgate, all the pain and suffering left us and the world was right again.

We were greated back at camp with a hot tent, cheesy hashbrowns and some big fat venison burgers.  I don't think the smile left my face even after I went to bed.  To kill that buck after 6 days and to have Jon there to share the experience with was simple amazing! There is something to be said about having a hunting partner who is a better hunter than you. When they can out hike, out pack, out shoot and out woodsman you, there is never any worry about having to pick up others slack or have to sacrifice your own hunt to "hold a hand".  Quite the opposite.  Jon's selflessness enable me to stick to that buck the whole week and his keen intuition and awareness of the world had him looking in the right place at the right time.  It was quite the day.

[2MANY]

Sweet bucks Karl and Jon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lemondog]

Super nice write up. Awesome hunt with your daughter! The Colorado buck, as  you know is a real stud....

[206]

Thanks for sharing!

[grundy53]

Stud buck! Congratulations!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Karl Blanchard]

Few more bucks from the trip.  Like I said before, CO was tough this year. For the first time, we did not go 100% on tags.
Everyone had a chance to fill a tag but the big deer we were all looking for were mia.

Keegans buck had little crab fronts but was 28.5" wide.  Kayden's buck went 165 and was just beautiful all around just lacked the length to get up there in score.  That kid has really become a good hunter. This was his first solo deer so made it extra special.

[muleyslayer]

Great season so far karl, your daughter did very well for her first hunt.I also noticed in my area in Colorado this year it was definitely tough to find the older bucks for some reason.

[Bowhunter3]

Awesome read so far

[Karl Blanchard]

A flat tire, and leaky valve on a spare and a tire shop stop in moses lake and we have landed in Spokane! Unpacked and settled in at Bullblasters house. Gear is situated and we are ready for Addisons first antlered animal tag! You can tell from the drive how excited she is 

[Pinetar]

LOL My daughter is the same way, on some trips she is asleep before the door closes.

Go get em Addison!!