Pathfinder's Opening Day Deer

[Pathfinder101]

So, after 24 years of putting in, this year I drew the Pogue Quality rifle tag.  Things being as they are, I knew I wasn't going to hunt the general season in my regular spot this year.  My sister has killed a few whitetail, but never a mule deer, so I invited her down to hunt with me on opening weekend. 
PathfinderJR is still stationed in Fort Benning, GA (he gets out of the Army this spring), so he wouldn't be joining us again this year.  (4 years in "Regiment" has kept him pretty busy the last 4 hunting seasons)
Little Pathfinder is a freshman at Eastern Oregon University.  He's playing baseball, and they have a fall season where they scrimmage with other colleges that aren't in their regular spring schedule, so he's getting used to being a full time student plus practicing baseball 6 hours a day.  He had a game on Saturday, but thought it would be over by noon and that he could make it back to Walla Walla for an evening hunt. 

Opening morning I hiked my sister out onto the piece of land that we usually hunt.  We took off from the truck at 5:00am and made the 1 1/2 hour walk that got us to the back of the property in the dark.  This put the prevailing wind in our faces and allows you to hunt the piece with the wind in your favor as you work back towards the truck.  To our dismay, once we got in position, we could see several sets of headlamps working their way up the draws towards us in the dark. 
As it came daylight, we started picking out hunters in front of us.  It looked like 3 different parties, more company than I am used to seeing there.  The piece we were on is public land, but it is landlocked by 3 different properties, so to get to it you need permission from one of the neighboring owners.  Unfortunately, those three groups walking in with the wind in their backs appeared to have blown everything out of the area.  We spotted a group of 8 deer with a legal buck over a mile away on the neighbor's property, but they were slowly feeding in the direction of a piece of land that I have permission on.  I figured with any luck, they'd be huntable in an hour if they continued on their current path. 
About 30 minutes after shooting light, I decided to get up and waddle over to the edge of the ridge we were on and check a draw that we couldn't see from where we were sitting.  "Just to make sure nothing is sneaking up on us from behind" I think is what I whispered as I crouch-walked to the edge of the hill.
To my surprise, in the draw, less than 200 yards away, were two bucks, feeding. 
I waddled back and collected sis and yanked my shooting saddle out of my pack.  We crept to the lip of the hill and set up.  I was nervous, because I know we were skylined above them.  If either of those bucks had happened to look up, they'd have seen us scurrying into position.  Thankfully they didn't, and about a minute later the tall 3 point turned broadside and my sister let him have it with her 6mm Sako.  The buck kicked out like he was heartshot, ran 50 yards and tipped over.

[Pathfinder101]

Unfortunately, the steep angle of the shot (which caused the shot to go low and blow the bottom of his heart out) also caused the scope to kiss my sister on her right eye.  After watching for a minute for him to get up, we celebrated with hugs and high-fives and some gauze.
First muley was a respectable 3 point.  All she had hoped for was a legal buck, so she was thrilled. 
The only "bad part" was that she now holds the record for the deer killed out there the farthest from where I can get my truck.  That, and she only had a day pack. 
So we quartered him up, I loaded half of him in my pack, and hiked back to get the truck closer.  By noon we had him back in town, hanging in CoryTDF's cooler. 

[Pathfinder101]

We just bout got her euro mount half boiled when Little Pathfinder came rolling in, still dressed in baseball gear.  He trucked off to his room to get changed and grab his gear and within 30 minutes we were headed back out to catch the "witching hour".  We parked in our usual spot with about 2 hours of daylight remaining.  Since we knew the deer had been pushed around by the three groups hunting the area, we decided that hiking and checking hidey holes would be the order of the day.  We climbed the high ridge next to where we parked and started making a beeline for hidey-hole #1, a deep, brushy draw in which we have killed several bucks (including one that laid his head on the ground to avoid us seeing him).  20 minutes in, we started spotting deer as they began to materialize and feed.  No bucks, but by the time we reached the head of the draw, we had seen over a dozen does.
Just as we approached the draw from above the head, LP froze. 
"Dad, stop!" he hissed.
Less than 100 yards in front of us, the head of a buck and three does poked up over the tall grass.  They had just begun to work their way up out of the draw in our direction.  I squatted down to a half crouch, trying to keep as much of me below the grass line as possible.  I pulled out my binoculars while LP scrambled to get his rifle unbuckled from his pack.  The deer were staring at us like they couldn't figure out what we were.  We definitely had not expected to walk right into them, especially with the wind in our backs on that ridge.
I don't know why they didn't blow out.  The only thing I can figure is that due to the roll of the hill, our scent must have been blowing over them, and with just the top of our heads visible, they must have thought we were deer.
I raised up just high enough to see the buck's head, confirming that he was legal. 
"Oh, dang" I thought to myself. "That's a pretty good buck".
Right then, in a half-squat, I felt the forend of LP's rifle land on my shoulder.  The grass was too high for a bipod, not enough time to get the shooting saddle out of my pack, I would have to suffice as a rest.  I plugged my ears and tried to hold still.  The buck was facing directly at us, nearly full frontal.
The trouble was that I was in a half-squat.  My legs were already smoked from hiking and packing out my sister's buck.  LP and I were both breathing hard from hiking (we had been trying to make good time by setting a fast pace).  My legs started shaking. The longer I squattted, the more I shook.  The more I shook, the longer LP was taking to steady the shot.
Finally, he said that my shaking and our breathing synced, and the crosshairs settled on the buck's chest right below his neck.  The rifle went off, and the buck dropped in his tracks. 
When we field dressed him, we found that the 7mm bullet had entered right at his shoulder girdle and shattered; bone and bullet fragments going off inside his chest cavity like a grenade.  I don't think I have ever seen as much internal devastation from a single shot.  All of his cardio vascular organs had been reduced to red jello.  When we cut the diaphragm, we literally just poured him out. 

[Pathfinder101]

Initially, we thought that the buck had a drop tine.  As soon as he went down, LP looked at me with wide eyes and said "Dad.  That's a really nice buck."
"I know" I said "I think he has a drop tine.
When we walked up to him, we found that the "drop tine" was actually a piece of velvet he had hanging off his passenger side.  We were not disappointed though.  I know a "gift horse" when I see one, and this buck was a gift.  Shot on opening day evening in an area that had already been hunted, a pretty nice buck that had obviously been hiding all day in the brush, shot at less than 100 yards after we had been spotted, the wind in our backs...  This is the kind of stuff that never happens. 

[Pathfinder101]

As we worked to get him out, the sun started to set, so we pulled the camera back out and snapped a few more pics at sunset.  The perfect ending to a perfect day. 

[pianoman9701]

Helluva nice buck, Hawkeye. And from the story, a great shot, too.

[ganghis]

Awesome bucks, and a great story as usual!  Congrats to you all

[actionshooter]

That's a hell of a day!!

[hunter399]

Heck ya!
Congrats 👏
Great write up too.

[scotsman]

Thanks for taking us along. Great bucks and in incredibly satisfying day.

[brokentrail]

Now that is someone that WANTS to hunt!  I love that he hauled it home, in his baseball gear, to get the last few hours in.  Great story and memories.  Congrats to both of you!

[Rainier10]

Great bucks and write ups thanks for sharing

[Pathfinder101]

Helluva nice buck, Hawkeye. And from the story, a great shot, too.

Yeah, good thing he was fairly close.  LP said that it was like trying to shoot out of a moving truck...

[C-Money]

Very exciting! Congrats to both hunters!

[Okanagan]

Golly, I enjoyed reading about your hunts.  Thank you!  What a great read with coffee this morning.