Entiat Quality Deer Modern

[NOCK NOCK]

Yes closes the 20th, none of those bucks pictured are the quality needed for that tag so hopefully OP found a buck he’s really happy with or had a great hunt and saw lots of deer.

......for YOU. JS

[KB88]

Hoping to see the success update. My group of 4 drew the swakane late tag years ago. We passed solid bucks until the very last day when we were confident on shooting big bucks in the snow. Well it was completely fogged in and couldn’t see 10 ft. One buddy got a 2 pt on the way down off the road. Hope OP did better!!

[Gentrys]

Monday morning we headed right back to the same canyon we'd seen a good number of deer in on Sunday.  Steve, a member here on Hunt WA (and really good guy), lives in Entiat and informed us a big storm was coming Tuesday night. With our previous experience of dealing with fog when it rains or snows, I really was hoping to find a solid buck before the storm rolled in as the season ended on Wednesday.  We found two decent 4x4s on Monday morning and got to within 150 yards of the bigger one who was bedded down with a doe.  I was ready to punch my tag, knowing we had put in the time, seen well-over 100 bucks over the course of the hunt and had a major storm coming our way.  That's when my daughter reminded me that neither of these 2 bucks is what I had hoped for prior to the hunt.  She said keep looking Dad, we're seeing bucks every day and we've got more time.  We'll find a better one.   

She was right, we were seeing bucks every day.  I told her ok, I'll pass this guy up, but if we don't find anything else this afternoon, we're going to come back and see if we can find him tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

We hunted the rest of the day Monday and easily saw 50+ deer that day.  We saw numerous small bucks, but nothing I'd shoot with this tag.  The deer were up and moving around pretty much all day.  Who knows, maybe they could sense the storm coming Tuesday.

As darkness fell on Monday evening, I told my daughter I'm shooting the 1st mature buck we see tomorrow.  I don't want to chance zero visibility and impassible roads when the storm hits Tuesday night/Wednesday.

[Magnum_Willys]

to be continued…….. ?

[elkrack]

This guy has been taught well by Plat

[jackelope]

This guy has been taught well by Plat

Sheesh. Might be him in disguise.

[millerwheeler]

Man the anticipation is a killer …….

[Gentrys]

So Monday night was a tough one.  Didn't sleep much at all, knowing the hunt was coming to a close on Wednesday and a big storm was coming in Tuesday evening.
We were up and on the road in the dark once again Tuesday morning, headed to our first glassing point.  Fortunately the fog was minimal, so getting up high and glassing down in the canyon was going to work out.  At first light, we could see a group of 4 does with a couple of fawns.  Throughout the hunt, if we saw a group of does together, there was a good chance a buck was near.  Sure enough, a mature 3x4 was about 50 yards away, following another doe.  This buck had the tallest rack we had seen in 11 days of hunting, but I bet his horns weren't even 12 inches wide.  They just went straight up.  My daughter said you're not shooting that Dad and I agreed.  Before the hunt started, I had set my goals on finding a mature buck with thick horns and hopefully at least as wide as his ears.  On to the next glassing point we went.

We drove over to the next ravine that we had seen 2 decent 4x4 bucks in the past couple of days.  It was time to dig one of those boys up and hang a tag on it.  After glassing the entire ravine, we only found a group of 7 does and fawns.   I had a feeling a buck was close by, but nothing visible at this time.  We'd come back to this ravine a little later and glass it again.  By now it's 9:30AM and the fog is starting to move in.

So now we're headed to our 3rd glassing spot for the morning.  My daughter is out of the truck and has started glassing already as I'm slow to get my spotting scope, gun and everything else needed for the next glassing.  Before I can even get everything together at the truck,  she's excited and says "Dad, there's a good buck across the canyon".  She thinks it's one of the biggest bucks we've seen so far.  Sure enough, even though he's almost 400 yards across the canyon, it's easy to tell he's a solid mature buck without even using optics.  My daugther grabs the spotting scope from me as I find a solid shooting position.  I already know I'm going to try and shoot this buck and I haven't even put glass on it yet.  Within seconds, she has the spotting scope up and located the buck.  Sure enough, he's a solid 4 point with eyeguards and horns just beyond the ears.

He's moving down through the trees, following 2 does.  In and out of view, but as long as we can see at least one of the does, we know he isn't far behind.  As the 2 does get to a little opening, one goes left and stops and the other begins feeding of to the right.  The buck comes out into the open and turns broadside.  Boom!  I put a good shot on him.  he runs about 50 yards and lays down.  I can see him clear as day, so I  take a second shot.  Once again, we can hear the bullet make impact. He jumps up and starts running again, but this time only goes about 25 yards when he runs straight smack into a tree and then piles up.  He was dead before he hit the ground.

It's all high fives and hugs now. He's laying there in plain view, but now we've got to figure out how to get to him.  That is some steep and deep country.   After using my mapping system to the best of my abilities, we've got him marked and it's time to drive around the canyon to a road we can see above him.  As we drive over, the fog continues to move it.  By the time we get over there and park above where we think he's located, you can't see more than 100 yards.  Well, after about an hour of searching, we finally found him.  Of course he was lower down in the canyon than I had expected.  That just makes the packout that much more fun, right???  When it was all said and done, I was only parked 4/10ths of a mile above him.  The packout was straight up a steep face with snow and ice.  That was brutal.  An hour and 15 minutes of literraly crawling up the ravine.  As you all know, nothing feels better than when you finally make it back to the rig. 

We made the slow drive out of the canyon, chained up front and back.  Those narrow, icy roads are no joke!  A big THANK YOU to all of you who recommended 2 sets of chains.
By the time we got back to camp, it was dark.  Amazing how you can harvest an animal in the morning, but not get everything done and back to camp until after dark.  By now it was snowing as the storm had arrived.

We woke up Wednesday morning to a foot of new snow and fog.  The storm had come and in full-force.  Man was I glad we weren't having to try and hunt Wednesday.

[MADMAX]

That’s a dandy
Congrats

[hunter399]

That’s a dandy
Congrats

Whoop there it is.
Heck ya ,dandy for sure.
Congrats 👏👍

[SkookumHntr]

Great buck!!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nicely done on a great mature buck.

[Mtnwalker]

Nice work and great write up! Way to stick to your guns right up until the end. Congrats to the both of you

[elkrack]

This is what a quality hunt is supposed to look like! Well done 

[redi]

Congratulations on the fine buck. Way to get the most out of your quality tag