A success story (Long, probably confusing)
Yesterday morning I woke up at o-dark-thirty. I left the house knowing that I had about a 30 minute drive, and an hour's worth of walking. Well I got out to my parking spot a little too late, and ended up having to high-tail it out there. I started walking at 6:00am, legal shooting light was 6:45. I was walking toward where a large (nine-mile long) canyon meets a small river that dumps into the snake river.
Well at 6:30 it began. The *censored*es that hunt the public land across the canyon started shooting up the place. from 6:30-6:40 I heard ten shots. I was getting frustrated because they were shooting illegally, but decided if I cut my walk down and adjusted my intended overlook point, it might work in my favor.
I finally got to a position where I could look into the canyon at 6:59. The canyon is about 400 feet deep (where I was) and 1500 yards across. I sat down on a tier that's about 100 feet down from the top, and started glassing/getting my bearings/ranging landmarks. I was fully prepared to have to shoot up to 500yds, as last year I had to go 440.
I started immediately counting does. I saw three mulies at about 175 directly below me (45-degree look angle), and three whitetail does hauling a$$ up the canyon at 300+. Then as I looked down the canyon toward the river I saw a group of five mule deer does, with two more unidentified's working their way up the canyon. This group was on a lower tier, about 200 feet below me and 300 yards down the canyon. I pulled up my shooting sticks and started looking through the scope to see if there were any antlers. Well I saw one of the two pop up, and he definitely had antlers. I spent about 30 seconds waiting for him to clear some sagebrush, and saw his 3rd point, and said to myself "well, there's your legal buck".
My nerves were just fine, until I looked at my watch. It was 7:05, and I realized I could potentially end my season 20 minutes after it legally started. I dialed him up and estimated his range at about 240 yards. This helped to calm me down, because I routinely shoot coyotes way beyond that, and 240 is actually an average shot out this way. I pulled the trigger and heard the splat. I found the spot again in the scope, and there was another 3-point standing there!!! The one I had shot at moved down the ledge about 10 yards and was facing away from me, but still on his feet. I was in shock, there's no way I could have missed!!
I watched him for a couple seconds and his tail was whipping, so I thought he was hit, but he would not go down. All the does were looking around, and the other buck was looking toward the river where all the previous shooting had come from. The buck I shot at walked behind a scab rock, out of sight, so I proceeded to ditch all my gear on the hillside and go up the cliff, but toward them. I figured if I went fast enough, I could get above them and try again. I had about 100 feet to climb, straight up. The whole time, I was cursing the fact that I had cleaned my rifle the night before, and trying to figure out how I could have missed. Just as I was working out how to explain the miss to all of my buddies, I saw two legal bucks heading right up the side of the canyon, 180 yards in front of me!
I sat down and took up a rest with my sticks. I thought that the second deer was mine, so I was going to try to shoot again. Well the one in the lead was the second buck that I had seen earlier, and the second one was a different one that apparently was on the hillside that I hadn't seen! I continued to head up the hill to see if I could see MY buck, and found a suitable ledge to look over.
I looked down onto the particular draw that I THOUGHT I had shot him on, and saw nothing. Just as I was starting to second-guess if he was one of the two I just saw, I heard a snort and some rocks falling. There he was, 20yards to the left of where I thought he was, belly up.
He had just expired, so I actually headed up to the top to make a call to my stepdad to come help haul him out. When I got down there, I noticed that I had actually hit him in between two ribs,and damaged almost no tissue. The liver was gone though. He had traveled a grand total of 12yds from where I shot to where he died.
I was very thankful that I had lost some weight and quit smoking over the summer. I had to go back up that canyon carrying my 20lb pack, 11lb rifle, and do so in a hurry. Then I had to run a mile to the truck. I was covered in sweat by the time I got back to the truck, but relieved. The part about hunting that I love is that it forces you to go places that hiking would not, so it is a great way to stay in shape, and see some pretty country. I'm still planning on taking my stepbrother down that canyon tomorrow, and some friends from out of town later in the week.
I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was in a hurry to get him out of there. For those that are interested in those kind of details, the stick I'm using is a custom Remington 798 in 7mm RM. It has a (heavy) Shaw barrel and a Nikon Buckmasters scope. I'm shooting Berger VLD's, 168gr hunting match. I'm really impressed with that bullet, and it's worth every penny.
I'm going to try to post pics of him. The first one is right after finding him, second one is later, at the bottom of the canyon, from the pickup. The third pickup is right before skinning.
Hope everyone has a safe season, and good luck!
