Well the year started off poorly. Hunting hard opening weekend in the chiliwist near malott and then above our cabin in riverside. The chiliwist was just unlucky, always being on the wrong side of the mountain but oh well. Riverside I saw absolutely nothing except for a cougar when all i had on me was a pistol
... Thats why I saw nothing there.
Came home and started hunting around Ellensburg with friends. Saw quite a a few deer up the umptanum but nothing shootable. Went up taenum another day with 2 buds and hunted for a few hours. While driving back to get my friend's truck we saw a nice sized buck full out sprinting parrelel to our truck up on a hillside. I put it in park and jumped out, got a shell in my gun and took one running shot but missed. It was a difficult shot but I still think I should have made it. I thought my season was over...
A week or two later I start looking into the late hunt because that miss was really digging at me. I talk my friend into going and we head out the night before. We make the long trip with no tents or motels, just the bed of the ford f150. We started off near colville but the fog was too thick and so was the growth in the area we were hunting. We had to change plans so we met up with my friend's uncle who was camping near newport. Did a light evening hunt in the area they had seen a nice 4 point but saw nothing. Just as camp was dying down some *censored* came and said we needed to move... It was 9:30 and they had been there for 2 days already and already picked up OVER 100 BEER CANS to recycle. We had 2 adults, my friend and I (20 years old) and a 12 year old kid. There were absolutely no signs near saying we couldn't park there to camp.It was a sack of horse *censored* if you ask me but we moved to our third spot in 24 hours. A lot of things started going our way, we ran into a nice woman who owned the land that we wanted to hunt on and she was more than please to let us.
The next morning we got up early and went to the spot. We set out scent along a skid road and sat on it for half an hour... Saw nothing. Went for a hike for about an hour and saw nothing... Came back and figured we might as well rattle and grunt. We are muley hunters and have never done this before. So my friend started rattling. I almost laughed at the sound of him rattling and grunting. On and off every couple minutes for about five minutes. At that point i was cold and lookin in the other direction for any hope of deer. When i looked back down the road I saw a deer looking at me. I quickly put my scope on him and saw the rack. I never even warned my buddy, just shot it right in the chest as it was looking at me. It jetted in the other direction.
"WHAT DID YOU SHOOT!!" J said..."I had to have gotten him, it was a nice buck." The shot was only 60 or so yards away and I had my good o'l shootin sticks ready. "You owe me dinner if you got it" j replied...
So we went lookin for it. 10 minutes pass and we have NO BLOOD and NO FUR... I am getting very discouraged so i go back and retrace the shot. Sure enough the buck is lying about 30 yards away from the shot. I hit him right in the brisket and he hardly even got a chance to catch his breath. I was very please. This is my first whitetail buck. Sorry for the long post but I always see you guys asking for more of a story so i did the whole thing. I was very pleased with the deer and the hunt in general. He is a 4X4 with eyeguards over 3 inches.
