Daughter drew entiat tag

[boneaddict]

Rut is going into the 7th inning stretch.  A little early, but activity fired hard and fast before all this weather hit.   It will appear slow for a bit then There will be another peak near thanksgiving.  Bucks are tired.  80 percent I am seeing are bedded.

Literally 5 minutes after I posted this I had a huge 7x9 running a doe like a whitetail.  I stand corrected.   I think they all got into grandpas jar of blue pills.   They were all fired up today.   

[TXDoug]

Well, day two had its downs and ups.  We tried to get into a spot down lower that I'm sure had a dozen accessible 150" plus bucks.  But we got our asses kicked by the road, so we'll never know  :'(  I made a pretty serious mistake in coming over with two snow chains instead of four.  Not only did we not make it into the preferred spot, we very nearly had to come-along the back end of the truck away from the cliff edge in a couple of places.  Not at all pleasant for me or Aubree.  So we tried another spot up mud creek and made it up to the ridge we wanted, but couldn't drive the ridge road to glass and move like we wanted to.  We had a fabulous hike down the ridge road in beautiful sunny weather, glassing deer the whole time, but the only two bucks were spikes.  We had a good laugh at the thought of shooting a spike with the Entiat tag to see how the trophy hunting world would react. 

After coming to our senses regarding taking a spike, we tried to get up to another spot, and again got our butts handed to us.  This was even sketchier than the first spot that we couldn't make it up.  We were exposed a couple of times and were quite relieved to get down the mountain.  I had read on this forum that 4 chains are a must, but I just spaced it.  To be honest, I had never used chains before and didn't even check to see how many were in the pack we bought at Les Schwab.  I know - dumb mistake.  And for anyone else reading this thread with thoughts of heading up there this time of year TAKE 4 CHAINS!  These dudes know what they're talking about.  So in the midst of all this, our Wenatchee buddy came with about the most generous offer ever.  He was going to bring his side by side (with 4 chains) for us to use on Sunday to get into the honey holes. 

So, we had a morning plan and about 1.5 hours of daylight still to burn that evening. We headed back up to the one spot we knew we could get to. On the way up, we spotted a pretty nice buck.  It wasn't what many on this forum would consider a shooter, and I was of the same mind when we saw it.  But this was Aubree's hunt and she wasn't messing around.  I was glassing the deer and talking about it when I realized the kid was already out of the truck setting up sticks and loading the rifle.  I got out and helped her finish setting up while the buck walked to the top of the ridge.  I thought it was gone (with mixed emotions), but then it stopped, literally one step from being gone.  Aubree says "Dad, I think I want to shoot him."  I reply "are you sure this is the buck you want?"  "Yep it is," safety goes click rifle goes BOOM, deer falls over!  Which led to lots of joy and a little bit of work to get him quartered and packed out. 

I'm trying to post some pictures, but the attachment function is fighting me.  Regardless of if I persevere with that, this was a really fabulous experience for us.  That Entiat area is special and I'm already dying to go back.  We were in deer the whole time and we had a blast hunting together, even if we did have a little bit of stress over traction.  My lone goal in coming into this was to have a great experience with the kiddo and make some memories, and we definitely accomplished that goal!  Thanks to all on this forum that offered advice and/or well-wishes. 

[bigelk1030]

Congrats to you and your daughter.   Special times together is what makes it great.     

[Griiz]

Congratulations

[highside74]

The picture is to big most likely. Use your phone to take a screen shot and post the screen shot.

[TXDoug]

The picture is to big most likely. Use your phone to take a screen shot and post the screen shot.

Thanks!  File size was the problem.  Added a couple of pics to the post earlier.

[highside74]

Way to go you 2. Great story and buck.

[Birdguy]

Fantastic!!! That is a beautiful buck and some amazing memories and stories! The double throat patch is super cool! The weather is no joke! Very glad you were able to keep it on the road and allow her to take an awesome deer! Thank you for taking us along!

Again, congrats to your daughter!!!

[Mulie87]

Awesome story. She looks so happy. Congrats on the special memories uou gwo made together, she will never forget it.

[high_hunter]

Great story, experience gained, and times spent together.  Definitely looks like a good shooter buck!  Great work young lady on being decisive and getting the job done.

-HH

[highside74]

The pucker factor is maxed out on some of those roads when there is snow.

[Quackwhacker]

Congratulations! Great memories indeed. Doesn't matter if it's a 200 inch buck or a spike. She will remember it forever. Can't wait to see the mount.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[jrebel]

Congrats you two….  That is a great buck!! 

[full choke]

Congratulations! 

[kramman]

Solid animal. Congrats to the young lady.