Eastside Late Archery Extravaganza!!!!!

[WAPITIHUNTER]

Well we are back. Here is a story with pictures to follow. I left wednesday around 10 o'clock and hustled over to pickup our permission slips and then over to talk to the neighboring land owner. He said ok and then told me to "shoot 'em all"! He does not like the deer as they trample his wheat and eat allot of it. He is very old but still has a great sense of humor. He says, "well if you shoot one and it's not quite what you want just kick it to the side and then get a different one." So needless to say it is very easy to get him to let us hunt the neighboring property.

Seeing as how Finnman and PJ are a couple hours behind me I head on in for a 1.5 hour hunt and promptly get on 7 whitetail does. That was cool. Of course they go running everywhich direction flagging their tails like crazy. I meet up with Finn at the motel and we settle in and get ready for the morning hunt.

The next morning finds us in our usual spot and we each take a side of the canyon we usually hunt. Do you see anything?

[WAPITIHUNTER]

   Ok right off the bat first thing I see a couple whiteys again and as we make our way down along the canyon "oh what is that way over across the other side, looks like a deer." I plop down and throw the glass up and ok I have some does to look at. I inform Finn since he is on that side and he starts moving in.

Well now what is this I see something with antlers............crap he looks pretty nice. Our intensity just climbed up a couple notches. We plan a stalk and Finn is in neck deep.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

Sorry about the picture quality as my Canon was zoomed all the way in 80x digital so you get what you get. It was way over there. At any rate Finn moves in and he gets winded and his part of the gig is up. Crap!

The deer go charging down the canyon and end up coming across onto my side about half mile further down. I give chase and it is on! I find them up ontop and circle downwind and come in on them.......................................................The does on this hunt were like sharp shooters with their eyes. They were ontop of everything. So they bust me and I give them some bleats with the can and they just move off. I am wondering why the buck is not with them so I move over to look into the coulee they were in and there he is looking at me from 120 yards. Crap!!! I am totally busted. He takes off and well I pursue him. I catch up to him out in the sage flat as he is bird doggin does. He has his nose to the ground sniffin. I got to within 70 yards and I wanted to get a little closer so I hit my doe bleat. He took one look back and Then hauled ass. CRAP!!!!!!!!! Well that didn't work. I chased him down one more time but could only get to 150 yards. He just boogied out across the endless sea of sage and disappeared. He was a nice 3x4. That was the morning hunt. That afternoon we both end up seeing some does and chasing them around quite a bit but no more bucks and no whitetail bucks. Some photo's of the terrain we were hunting in.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

A few more pic's.

I have a fealing that something is going to die across that canyon.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

We hiked our stinking behinds off that first day and were fealing it in the legs and lower backs so for dinner we refueled with some extremely high grade protein compliments of Finnman and his fancy shooting the prior year rifle hunting this property. Whitetail backstraps for dinner did us up just right.

We were fired up and ready for the next day.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

Well as a side note before we get to the grand finale this hunt rewarded us with quite a few little gems. Here they are.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

So we had our protein and we go out and hunt very hard the next morning and we are seeing some does and getting close but can't make it happen. Like I said before the does were like crazy wary. They were spotting us from a half mile. It was extremely difficult to get on them. We are kind of starting to wonder where all the bucks are at as we have only seen the one big 3x4 and a spike. Lots of does but really not as many as there should be. What is going on. We decide to head up to where we had seen some does up where the big 3x4 ran to. We spot two does from the truck so we plan our stalk and Finnman dumps me off and he drives around. I walk 50 yards and I have a heap of does right in my face. HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT BUCK!!!! Biggest clean fork horn I have ever seen is tending these does. 16 inch tines and 20+ inches on the spread. I reach back for my camera. CRAP! I left it with my pack in the truck. I radio Finn and let him know what is going on and he positions himself on the otherside of the rocky plateau and I move in on these deer. I Belly crawl a short distance and what the heck!!!! 10 yards in front of me I see a nice 3 point rack move through the sage brush Where did he come from. Next thing I know I have 3 beautiful bucks and six does 74 yards in front of me. I ranged the 3x3 and shot right under him. A rock flies up from my arrow hitting and strikes him in the bottom of the chest. All the deer jump and run and I let Finn know they are coming. He is looking up the hill focusing where we had seen the two does bedded and the giant 2x2 with 5 does come right by him at 40 yards. No shot at the does. CRAP! We chased those deer around quite a bit more that day as they did not want to leave that area. Well we found our bucks. We finally end up going to an area that we hadn't hunted yet and We plan an afternoon hunt and we take off in different directions. We are both feeling hopeful and confident for this afternoon hunt after all the deer we had been into and seeing. I crest up onto a rocky plateau and am slowly picking my way along through the cobble and sage breush. I look up just intime to see this deer feeding right towards me. HOLY CRAP!!! I was so used to getting busted by all the does that it shocked me. This deer was all by itself and it had Antlers. Is it legal I frantically grab my range finder and at the same time ease over behind a sage bush. As I am ranging him multiple times I am trying to make sure he is a three point. Ok finally I confirm it. I draw back and settle the pin and let her fly and wack and then an explosion of hair. The deer jump up and kicks runs straight at me and stops to look behind. Ok I don't need the rangefinder for this shot. Smack! The deer runs over 25 yards ontop of a rock flat and lays over onto it's back with its mouth open. Well he is done. I walk over and the buck blasts up and tears off another 50 yards and immediatley beds down. Ok then take another. I plow one more through him at 40 yards. He goes tearing down this narrow rock shoot and there is a huge explosion of 30 quail. WOW. He runs out into a little dry pothole and expires for good. I get Finnman on the radio and he starts heading over.

[BLKBEARKLR]

Congrats to you Wapiti, that is a good area you are in, I watch them a lot of times when doing bass tournaments.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

So we then proceeded to haul the sucker out of there.

[WAPITIHUNTER]

The three of us then proceeded the beat the does at there own game and we rustled up a doe. 2 miles from the truck. Thank goodness we were able to get the truck within a few hundred yards and we then game carted her out. We had an amazing four days of Muley hunting. We saw 10 bucks with only two legal. We saw aprox. 100 does if not a few more. This was a great experience to spend time with my brother and his wife PJ. We all agreed that we had a great hunt. Finnman and PJ put on 7.6 miles on one of the morning hunts according to his Rhino radio gps. It was a strenuous hunt with allot of ground being covered to find the deer. In the end we showed the does who was boss. Although we both missed some shots

Hope you all enjoyed this story and pic's.

[NWBrute]

Sounds like you guys had a great time, congrats.

[MtnMuley]

Tons of great pics.  Thanks for sharing!

[MLBowhunting]

very nice story.  Great buck and sounded like one hell of a hunt

[carpsniperg2]

congrats great photos

[Kowsrule30]

Way to go!!