Little Pathfinder, PathfinderJR and The Ghost

[Pathfinder101]

2020 was shaping up to be a good season.  We had trail cameras out from May on, and with all the wet weather in April, May and June, it looked like we were going to have a good antler year.  In August Little Pathfinder shot his first bear after sitting and staring at a hillside for 16 hours straight, and in early October both boys got the chance to go to Wyoming and tag out on two nice pronghorn bucks.
All through the summer our excitement continued to build as we monitored our trail cameras.  As the drought hit in early July (thankfully after most of the antler growth had happened), bucks that seemed to be “regulars” started to come and go, and a few of the best ones apparently relocated to areas that had better feed and water.  In early August, after our bear hunt was over, we hiked in and checked the cameras and found a surprise.  A large 4x4 had moved in and become a “regular”, showing up on our cameras every few nights.  At first we only got glimpses of him.  Usually waaaayyy in the background, behind the other deer.  We named him The Ghost.  The Ghost convinced me that I should buy a surplus Multi-Season tag when the time came.

[Pathfinder101]

I chased him in September with a bow, seeing him several times, but never in a position that allowed for a stalk.  After a couple of weeks, it became apparent that he lived on the neighboring ranch (private property, where we don’t have permission) and that he only came off it when pushed, or in the dead of night.  I buggered my only chance at him with a bow.  It was after work, I was in a hurry and bringing a couple of ice chests full of water to dump in the guzzler that had nearly run dry.  Near the guzzler is a 100+ year old abandoned barn.  As I drove past the barn towards the guzzler, suddenly 5 bucks exploded OUT OF THE BARN.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Of course, my bow was safely cased up in the back seat of my truck.  I watched 3 of the 5 biggest bucks I had on my cameras this year bounce safely over the hill and onto the neighbor’s property.  Standing there in that draw I realized that the wind had been perfect, I had cover and concealment… If I had just decided to walk in there that afternoon (instead of driving in with a load of water), I could have walked to within 30 yards of them without being detected.   
I got one stalk on him during muzzy season, but got busted by swirling wind.  As he and a buddy bounced out of the draw, they stopped on the hillside at 198 yards.  A chip shot for a rifle.  I looked at him through my iron sights.  The cartoonishly large dayglow front sight post seemed to cover up the entire buck.  I decided to stick to my self-imposed limit of 150 yards.  One of the reasons I held my fire, was because I had a plan…

[Pathfinder101]

I knew no one on the neighboring property was hunting during bow or muzzy season.  That’s why he felt safe there.  I also knew that the neighbor would be out there on opening day of rifle season.  Driving around in the wheat fields in his white Chevy pickup, and when he did, The Ghost would come trotting through one of 3 draws into my area to hide in the CRP (or maybe the barn… ).
Opening day of rifle, the trap was laid.  Little Pathfinder and I sat on the second highest ridge in the area, overlooking that barn, the guzzler and two of the draws that The Ghost used to access the property.  PathfinderJR took up a position on the highest ridge, about a mile from us, overlooking a large canyon that we usually watch on opening day.  It is a place where the deer like to retreat to when the shooting starts.  The buck was going to have to come through one of those areas.  We (thought) we had all of our bases covered.

[Pathfinder101]

As we usually do, we all hiked in at about 5am, making sure we were set up in the pitch dark and waited for daylight.  As the sun began to slowly illuminate the hills, we started picking out deer.  Before long we noticed 2 bucks in front of us, and a 3rd buck in the canyon between us and PathfinderJR.  As shooting light approached, we could tell one of the bucks to our front was a 4x4, tall-ish, but young and with very crabby forks.  Little Pathfinder inspected him for a while in the spotter and elected to pass.  He had a “hit list”, and that buck was not on it.  Daylight showed the other two bucks to be young 3 points.  As the morning passed, the deer all filtered off to their beds, but no appearances from either the neighbor’s white pickup or The Ghost.  On his ridge, PathfinderJR passed on a pair of 3 points early on, then suffered through an uncharacteristically quiet opening morning.
At 8:30 I noticed a doe in the draw behind us.  I Snuck over the hill (or at least thought I was sneaking) with my binos to get a better look, and suddenly realized the hillside was covered with 14 deer.  They had been in plain sight, but the sun and shadows had hidden them so completely that I didn’t even realize they were there until they started running.  There were two bucks in the group, and I thought that one of them probably needed a second look.  So I went back to where Little Pathfinder was set up and we packed up our gear for a stalk.  I had a pretty good idea where they had gone.  After a half mile hike, we perched on a hill close to the draw I thought the deer had run into.  Just as we sat down, we saw the white Chevy pickup droning through the wheat field on the neighbor’s property.  All at once I realized that we probably needed to get back to our glassing point.  If The Ghost was going to make his appearance, it was going to be soon.  As I started packing up my spotting scope, suddenly all 14 deer came boiling out of the draw in our direction, headed right for us.  The bigger buck in the group was a decent 3x4 and I pointed him out to Little Pathfinder.  As the deer all trotted past us at 30 yards, LP elected to pass.  He still wanted “his shot” at The Ghost.  With that in mind, we picked up and hot-footed it back to our original glassing point.

[Pathfinder101]

We got back at about 9:30.  We could still hear the pickup “hunting” distantly.  After about 30 minutes, nothing had moved, so I decided to check a draw I couldn’t see.  Leaving Little Pathfinder with the spotting scope, I took my binos and snuck over the crest of the ridge.  Looking back towards PathfinderJR, I could see a dark figure moving out of the neighbor’s wheat towards the CRP.  I put up my binos and could tell it was a buck by the way it walked.  I didn’t think it was The Ghost, but I wanted a better look, particularly since it was generally headed in the direction of PathfinderJR.  I jogged back to Little Pathfinder and swung the spotter over.  3 point buck, big body, small horns.
Just then I noticed 5 small black dots headed in our direction.  Even though they were over 1000 yards away, I only needed a second to tell that The Ghost was in the group.  Little Pathfinder was on the spotter when he trotted into the scope’s view.  I heard him suck in his breath.  He’d seen pictures, but this was his first view in the flesh.  “He’s so big Dad…” he whispered.  The group was now 700 yards and closing. 
At 468 yards they entered the CRP (legal for us to hunt him now) and stopped.  I ranged them.  Little Pathfinder started begging me to shoot.  Unfortunately, they were all bunched together and it would not have been ethical, even if the shot were closer.  Besides, there was no reason to take a sketchy shot if the deer were still headed in our direction.  They came up the draw past the barn and disappeared to us, due to the angle of the hill.
We had him.  No way for this to go wrong.  Last we saw him, he was headed straight for us.  We were on top of the ridge, and he had to cross the ridge to get past us.  He was either going to come past us on the left, the right… or run us over.  After 5 minutes, we still hadn’t seen them.  They must have stopped before they climbed the hill.  We crept forward and peeked.  Nothing.  Slowly, we returned to our glassing spot.  Then I noticed something.  About 300 yards to our left, I couldn’t actually see a few feet of the saddle.  Stupid mistake.  I knew the trail went right through that saddle.  With a sinking feeling, Little Pathfinder and I walked to the saddle and looked.  The trail was freshly churned up.  Looked like the work of… about… oh, I don’t know… about 5 trotting deer…  (Well, maybe 4 deer and a friggin’ Ghost…)
I sat down on the saddle and started glassing.  There were about 4 draws between us and the next wheat field.  I thought I could see something on a small eyebrow about a mile away.  I pulled out my spotting scope and focused in.  Yup, a bedded buck.  Another one.  There they all were, including the Ghost.  Snoozing in the shade. 

[Pathfinder101]

PathfinderJR relocated to our spot and we all glassed the Ghost for a while, hoping he would come back into the CRP.  No dice.  After about an hour, he picked up and headed deeper into the neighbor’s property.  That was the last time we saw him this year.
We hunted hard for the rest of the day, turning up a couple more 3 points, but nothing that either boy had on their hit list.  Aside from The Ghost, there was another big framed 3x4, a 4x4 with short tines and a 4x4 with a drop tine.  Before dark we all 3 took up a position on the ridge overlooking the draw The Ghost had come through and began to wait for the witching hour.  30 minutes before daylight ended PathfinderJR decided that nothing was going to show itself.  “I’m going to hike back to the truck really slowly” he said, and took off. 
10 minutes before the end of shooting light, we spotted a deer on the opposite ridge, 630 yards away.  I dialed the spotting scope in.  It was the short tined 4x4.  “Better take a look” I told LP.  He peeked through the scope and got excited.  “Oh, Dad.  I’d shoot that buck.” He whispered.  “Ok then” I said, gathering up our gear and stuffing it into our packs.  “Let’s go.”

[Pathfinder101]

We trotted on the backside of our ridge in a direction that put us directly across from the buck.  Peeking over the swell of the hill, I ranged him at 355 yards.  LP was already on the bipod, looking through the scope.  LP has been shooting on the range out to 500 yards with that rifle, but in the last few minutes of light, 355 is still a long poke.  I whispered the range to him and we put the clicks on his turret.
“Don’t shoot unless you’re REALLY steady..” I whispered.  No response from LP. 
“That’s a long shot.” I said.  “Don’t try it unless you are sure.”  No words again, but I heard the safety click off. 
A second later, as I was watching through binos, his 6.5 CM sang and I watched the buck drop in its’ tracks.  The report of the bullet whacking flesh came back to us a second later. 
“He’s dead, right dad?” LP said out loud.  “I KNEW I would hit him!”
After the hugs and celebrations ended, we hiked over to find his buck.  Unfortunately, by the time we picked our way across the canyon in the dark, we were unable to locate the buck in the tall grass.  We resolved to come back and get him as soon as possible in the morning.

[Pathfinder101]

We hiked in again at 5am and set up to glass at first light.  The rising sun showed us a couple of smallish 3 points that didn’t stick around long, and a dead buck laying on the opposite ridge.  As soon as the deer went to bed, we left PathfinderJR with the spotting scope and he hand signaled us over to the buck.  I have never had to leave an animal overnight without gutting it, and I was nervous that the coyotes would find him before we did, but he was still intact.  After a round of photos and some guttin’ and gillin’, we got him back home for skinning.

[Pathfinder101]

That afternoon, I met PathfinderJR back on the ridge, still praying for The Ghost to show himself.  I told him that I was going to hike one of the areas we hadn’t been into yet.  I hiked up a canyon, but the wind was in my back the whole time, so it was really not much more than good exercise.  At the top of the ridge, I spotted some deer about a mile below me, bedded in a draw.  PathfinderJR had the spotting scope and I couldn’t tell what any of them were with my binos, so I decided to investigate.  A half hour later, I was belly crawling into position behind a bush.  Peeking around it, at 300 yards I could tell there were 10 deer, 7 of them bucks.  I glassed each one, hoping to see The Ghost.  No dice.
As I carefully looked at each buck, I could see that 2 of them were 4x4s.  Then one of the bucks turned his head, revealing the drop tine on his passenger side.  We had photos of this buck from the summer.  He had only showed up on the trail cams twice, but I had glassed him up twice in addition.  He was a big bodied deer, with a fair set of antlers that looked small on his big body.  The drop tine made him special though.  Four years ago, Little Pathfinder’s first buck was a double drop tine 4x4 that he killed only about 500 yards from where this buck was bedded.  This buck was without doubt either his son or a sibling, with nearly the exact same configuration and size.  I was still focused on killing The Ghost, but I thought PathfinderJR might consider shooting him.  I peeked at my cell phone.  Miraculously, I had service.  I called him and told him that he should probably come look at these deer. 

[Pathfinder101]

He was nearly two miles away from my location, with only a little more than an hour of shooting light remaining.  I had backed out so as not to alert the bedded deer, and met him at the bottom of a deep draw with a large spur between us and the deer.  He had made good time, and was pretty red faced when he got to me, huffing and puffing as much as I have seen him do in a long time.  After catching his breath and discussing the buck, he decided that he did want him, and we crept up the hill.  I put the large bush between us and the draw and we crawled up to it and peeked over.  No deer.
The draw looped up and to the right, out of our view and I assumed that the deer had gotten out of their beds (it was now getting close to sunset) and were feeding towards the top of the draw.  We crawled around the side of the bush and I was trying to get an angle to see the top of the draw, when suddenly the deer fed out into the canyon directly below us. 
I ranged them quickly at 207 yards and we started scanning the group for Drop Tine.  Quickly, we found him.  PathfinderJR proned out the rifle on his backpack and found the buck in the scope.  A few seconds later the shot rang out and his season was over.  Always the one with the eye for a good photo, PathfinderJR stood up and handed me his phone.  “Look at that sunset” he said.  “take a picture”. 
I hadn’t even noticed. 

[jstone]

Very cool
Great memories

[Pathfinder101]

.

[Pathfinder101]

The Ghost never showed himself for the rest of the week.  I had an Idaho elk camp that I left for on Thursday, and by the time I got back the season was over. 
2020 was a good season for us.  Little Pathfinder shot his first bear, both boys got their first pronghorns and both boys tagged 4x4 muleys.  I got to chase a big buck and have more time in the field than I have had in a long time.  In the end, I’m chalking this one up in the “win” column. 

[h3x0ctb1n]

Good story, good deer, good hunters, and a great Dad for teaching his boys the tradition!

[OutHouse]

You're a good writer. Thanks for sharing!

[Dan-o]

What a terrific share!!!!!!
Thanks for taking the time.

[Pathfinder101]

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen. 

[Pathfinder101]

Out of the boil and into the degrease...

[fishngamereaper]

 
Well done as usual.

If those boys ever get in trouble and need punishment send em on over I'll take em blacktail hunting. Guarantee we won't see a deer for a week and when they finally see that legal button spike it will the biggest deer they've ever seen..

[Brushbuster]

Great season for the Pathfinder Team! Thoroughly enjoyed reading your adventures. 

[Pathfinder101]

 
Well done as usual.

If those boys ever get in trouble and need punishment send em on over I'll take em blacktail hunting. Guarantee we won't see a deer for a week and when they finally see that legal button spike it will the biggest deer they've ever seen..

I may take you up on that.   

[HikerHunter]

great story, great photos, and great deer, thanks for sharing!

[mburrows]

Great story and congrats!

[Pathfinder101]

Finished the Euro mounts last night.

[gramps]

Thanks for sharing!!

Good job making memories to last a lifetime

[270Flat]

Great job Sir!

[Bango skank]

A leather couch with built in beer holders.  Now that there is classy.  I like it

[csaaphill]

Outdoor life quality of a story as usuall, you should really write for a outdoor magazine.
Anyow great story great pics and grats to you all...

[Pathfinder101]

A leather couch with built in beer holders.  Now that there is classy.  I like it

Nothin' but the best for the man-cave...

[Pathfinder101]

Outdoor life quality of a story as usuall, you should really write for a outdoor magazine.
Anyow great story great pics and grats to you all...

Thank you sir.  I am humbled.

[highbuckklr]

Very nice year for family.  Congrats!

[Alchase]

Great job!
And a fantastic read, thank you.

[Gonehuntin01]

Great story and congrats to all.  Well done.

[boneaddict]

    Love it!   Congrats

[arees]

What a great story and great bucks.