Little Pathfinder's 2022 WA Mule Deer

[Pathfinder101]

Little Pathfinder and I had just returned from a marathon drop camp trip to Colorado.  We had both taken the week off from school (I am a high school teacher) and had spent the last 7 days in the Lizard Head Wilderness elk hunting, and the last 14 hours driving straight home in order to catch a couple of days of the general deer season in Southeast Washington before it closed.
Here's the link to the elk hunt story. 
https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,274664.0.html
Since June we have had trail cameras hung in the area we hunt, a mixture of public and private land not far from the Tri-Cities.  With the wet, cold spring this year the antler growth in our area was the best I have seen in the 12 years that I have hunted this piece.  Knowing that we would miss the whole first 7 days of the season due to our Colorado hunt, I had managed to draw the multi-season deer tag.  I spent archery season chasing one particular buck, seeing him 4 times, but never being able to catch up to him.  Opening day he was headed towards my stand but I ran out of daylight with him and his buddy still 150 yards away.  The next day I carelessly bumped him twice and thought I would never see him again.  On the last day of the season I spotted him one more time cresting the ridge in the direction of some private property.  I have since found that he spent muzzleloader and rifle season there, with no one catching up to him as of the last day of the season.

[Pathfinder101]

With him gone, the next buck on our list was a wide 3 point that I figured at 28” would be the widest buck we have seen out there.  I spotted him once during the muzzy season, but not in a place I could get to for a shot, and he never bedded down for a stalk.  Being the warrior-poets that we are, we settled on the phenomenally creative nickname “The Wide 3”…

[Pathfinder101]

We pulled into our driveway at 3 AM Saturday in the pouring rain.  Unpacked our gear and stumbled to bed, setting an alarm for 5:30am.  It seemed the alarm went off 30 seconds after I managed to get to sleep.  Luckily Little Pathfinder had slept some in the truck, so he wasn’t in as bad a shape as me as we piled our day-hunt packs into the back seat.  We drove to our spot, the rain seeming to get angrier as daylight approached.  As light started to illuminate the landscape, I decided to do something I have never done.  Instead of hiking to our normal glassing point (about a mile uphill), I drove to a place where we could just park and glass part of our area from the dry and warmth of the truck.  After over an hour of glassing, we had not turned up a single deer.  The rain had let up though, and at this point both of us were feeling so guilty for “deer hunting” by sitting in a truck that we figured we had better get out and do some hiking to redeem ourselves.
Although we had waterproof jackets, gaiters and boots, it wasn’t long before we were both soaked through.  Although it wasn’t pouring anymore, walking through the waist high brush had us completely waterlogged within a mile.  We still had not seen a deer (I had planned to check some bedding areas that I thought I would find them tucked into, but we turned up blank), so we turned around and retreated to the truck.  About halfway back the clouds let loose again, drenching the last remaining square inches of our bodies that weren’t already.  All we had seen was a day-old gutpile. 
All the better we figured.  We owed Mamma a little time after being gone, and the weather was scheduled to clear up before evening.  So we took her for coffee and breakfast, exchanged our wet gear for dry gear and headed back out at 3pm for the evening hunt.  The sun had come out and between it and the wind had dried the brush considerably, so we decided to hike into our normal glassing spot.  The spot is on private land we have permission on, overlooking a patchwork of public land and private land that we cannot hunt.  After gaining elevation we traversed a long ridge for a mile.  With the weather breaking, deer were out.  It also appeared that by not hunting this private piece for a week, every deer in the county had sought refuge there.  We passed on a couple of legal smallish bucks and counted over 30 does on our hike in.
Reaching the end of the ridge which overlooks the edge of the public, we settled in with our optics for the evening.  Just as we were pulling out the spotting scope, we noticed movement down in the deep canyon to our right.  A doe had seen us and was moving up the opposite hill away from us.  Not really spooked, just moving away.  We crawled a few yards in her direction and peeked into the canyon.  4 more does.  They hadn’t seen us, but they were watching the other doe and beginning to move the same way she was.  The bottom of the canyon was choked with brush up to chest high.
Little Pathfinder and I watched for a few minutes.  It was a little after 5pm at this point and they shadows had grown long.  After about 5 minutes of watching the does move away from us up the hill I heard LP gasp.
“Dad, look!” He whispered pointing down the canyon.  “That has to be a buck!  Look how big his body is!”
He was right, he looked like a steer compared to the delicate does feeding up the hill away from him.  The buck was trying to sneak out the bottom of the canyon.  A quick bino check and I recognized him.  It was the Big 3.

[Pathfinder101]

Not wanting to put any pressure on LP that wasn’t already there I whispered “He’s a shooter.  Get steady and take your time.”
Unfortunately, the angle of the buck slipping out the bottom of the canyon to our far right made it impossible for LP to get both bipod legs rested properly on the side of the steep hill where we had crawled.  Getting steady seemed like it was taking forever.  Finally, he fired the shot.  The shot sounded like a hit, but looked a little far back (turned out to be liver/guts).  The buck spun and leaped as LP cranked off another shot that missed clean (in front of his chest, too much lead).  By the time he had racked a 3rd round the buck had disappeared down the canyon. 
We picked up our gear and sprinted down the ridge trying to stay above him and see where he went.  By the time we could see around the corner, he was gone.  I figured he had bedded or was lying dead in the tall brush, so we started working our way downhill.  Once the bottom of the canyon came fully into view LP spotted the buck bedded in the tall brush, head up.  This time he had a much better rest and one shot drove through the base of his neck and into his chest, breaking his spine and flopping him over in his bed.  Once I could tell that he wasn’t going to get back up, I broke the news to LP.
“You just shot The Big 3.”  I told him. 
“Really?” He replied  “I thought it was just one of the three points.  Are you sure?!”

[Pathfinder101]

We walked up and poked his eye and the high fives and hugs began. After a photo session and tagging, we started gutting him out.  LP has never had to gut a deer that took one through the guts, so that was a new, but necessary experience for him and I talked him through it, lending a hand when appropriate.  We got through it with minimal trauma.  Since the buck had died on private land we were able to drive the pickup in to recover him.  Looking at him dead on the ground, he looked huge.  Scooting him around for gutting, we noticed that he was heavy, but it wasn’t until we tried to hoist him onto the tailgate that we truly noticed his size.  We just couldn’t manage it.

[Pathfinder101]

Ultimately, we had to drag him a few feet upslope, then back the tailgate up to him and lift/roll/wrestle him in.  Back at CoryTDF’s house we hung him up and skinned him in the headlights.  Without the skin, head and some of the huge chunks of fat that we carved off him, we managed to get him hung in the cooler, but it took us 5 tries to get his back hocks up to the hooks.  This photo shows how he compares with the quarters of my Colorado 6 point bull elk.

[Pathfinder101]

We put a tape to his rack just to see how close we had been on our guess at his width.  His beams are only 25 ½”, but his points tip out, so at the widest point, he is 28 1/8”.  The widest buck we have killed in that area by almost 5 inches. 

[Pathfinder101]

We couldn’t have asked for a better close to our season (I guess unless our #1 buck would have magically showed back up…)
We both harvested a black bear in August (my biggest), took our first horseback pack trip for elk and harvested a 6x6 bull, then came back to WA and took one of the biggest bucks we have ever killed in our “home spot”.  2022 has been extraordinarily kind to us. 

[Platensek-po]

Congrats! You guys really seem to put in the effort and work and I’m glad to see it pays off! Every year it seems like you and your fam get after it! Congrats to little pathfinder for a great buck and congrats to you, the dad, for doing a fine job as a father and teaching them right! Look forward to seeing these threads from you for years to come!

[BIGDOG253]

Very cool, congrats to you both! 

[wafisherman]

Congrats.  He'll never forget this experience with his dad.  Both are very fortunate. Nothing beats having your kids as hunting partners.

[trophyhunt]

What a year for you guys, congrats!!  Great deer!

[elkboy]

Darn good year!  Congrats Pathfinder family!   

[Pathfinder101]

Congrats.  He'll never forget this experience with his dad.  Both are very fortunate. Nothing beats having your kids as hunting partners.

Amen Brother.  Missing having my older boy with me for the first time since he was about 6.  Finished college last year and he's currently stationed in Fort Benning in 3rd Ranger Battalion.

[dvolmer]

Great job for Junior!!!!!  Sent you a PM Pathfinder.