I've been having technical difficulties with my usual on-line photo gallery and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight so I'll go ahead and post up my story on the late hunt even though I don't have a picture to post at the moment.
Normally I fill my tag during the first hour or so on opening morning in Benchleg County but that didn't happen this year and I packed it in after only hunting for a few hours that day. The good thing about going home empty handed is it provided an opportunity to hunt the late season for whitetails. I had never hunted whitetails before so I was pretty excited about the possibilities.
My brother, a friend and I headed to the NE corner of the state with no first-hand knowledge of the area. After setting up camp we forged out the next morning to find some public land, something that proved more difficult than expected. Eventually we were able to navigate our way through the mountains up in the snow in search for deer activity, which was in precious short supply. Miles of forest service road and not a track anywhere to be seen in the snow!
Finally, we found a few tracks crossing the road here and there so we stopped the truck and we trudged through the woods, but alas we encountered no deer on the first day. The daytime temperature was high enough for the 2" of snow to melt while we were out but at least we had an indication of where we might find some animals. The next day we went out to the same area and spent a good deal of time still hunting. We managed to see a fawn and scare off what sounded like 2-3 other deer in the thick trees. Eventually we each found the best piece of real estate we could and parked out butts to see if we could catch a wandering buck. Surprisingly, there were no indications of rutting.
Finally, just before 3 pm I saw movement on top of a little ridge about 70 yards to my right and could see that it was a buck. He was running through the trees and I had only a split second to make a decision. When I got him in the crosshairs I could see that it was at least a 3-point so I found the right break in the trees to take my shot and I put him down. I have to say, it is very refreshing to shoot at a target that runs on an even keel instead of that dang bounding action that makes it a little more challenging to make a good shot!
My brother heard the shot and arrived on the scene about the time I got my junk together and walked up to the buck. Always good to have a helper handy when you've got an animal down, eh?
As it turns out, one side was a perfect 4-point rack and the other, which had obviously been damaged while in velvet had only 2 points--a brow tine and a slightly off-kilter main beam, with a very small protrusion where a 3rd point wanted to emerge. I wish I had the picture to post because I'm curious what folks might believe his age to be. It's a young one, maybe only 1.5 years or 2.5 at most. But anyway, I was happy to have filled the tag and get my first taste of whitetail.
We headed home the next morning so the others didn't have a chance to fill their tags, but I think we have found a good area just in case we need to rely on the late hunt again next year.
