My First Whitetail!

[LittleKiller]

My dad and I usually take a hunting trip every year, however, I think I have some bad luck away from home. The last, and only, trips I've been on are usually fruitless. This year was different. My dad has connections with a man over in the Tri-Cities area through the guided goose and pheasant hunting trips he takes my little sister on. The guy is a really great man, and now he's even MORE great because he allowed us to hunt on his 10,000+ acre ranch near the Juniper Wilderness area outside Pasco. His upper property has great sageland, and we saw on average 8 mulie doe a day... No bucks. On the lower end he has wheat fields and a few areas of unfarmed land. After stomping around through the sagebrush to no avail we decided to try whitetail hunting. Immediately we saw doe, but again... No bucks. We stopped for lunch back at the truck and decided to maybe walk along the rocky outcroppings he owns above a wildlife area along the Snake River. Now, I would describe us like this: loud, tired, discouraged, not alert. We were walking along the tops of rocky bluff looking out into the sageland when in front of us came a ravine. I was walking quite a ways in front of my dad and looked down and about forty yards away on the other side of the little ravine I saw the biggest buck of my life (besides one very unfortunate event). I had a moment of paralysis looking at it look at me. My dad walked up and I jumped down on my butt getting ready to shoot, and by this time the buck decided to get out of dodge. After many years of being the tiny girl I was I have gotten into the habit of ALWAYS finding a rest, which takes (wastes if you will) time. I've only killed one animal freehand. My dad's yelling "shoot" 50 yards now…  “shoot” oh 60 yards… “shoot!” at 70 yards I took my shot from me knee-rest. You know I felt HORRIBLE. I’d call myself a very ethical hunter and I ended up taking my shot right after he turned straight away and shot at his right hip. My dad took a few shots (you see why we call him brasspile?  )and didn’t think he hit him. We ran up to the edge when we lost sight and he was GONE. I was crying cause I thought I maybe wounded an animal with a dumb shot but he assured me he must at least be bedded down, he couldn’t move that fast! Miserable me said, “I guess fine, but it’s probably yours. If it only has one shot in the but I guess it’s mine.” Well….. What do ya know?  ..................

[Gutpile]

           

[quadrafire]

Very nice buck Littlekiller!!

[wilsongideon]

wow nice buck! good story

[longrange7mm]

congrats nice story and im glad you recovered a very respectable buck

[SirSpencer]

Great story, good work that's a memory you will never forget! congrats!

[turkey slayer]

Congrats on you first Whitetail

[bucklucky]

Very nice buck , congrats on your first whitetail !

[runamuk]

sweet...nice buck

[trophyhunt]

Now that's a sweet story, good job on a very nice buck.   

[PolarBear]

Once again, awesome job!!!

[missinmt]

Gotta say, I am hoping for the same results with my daughter starting Thursday.  Congrats! 

[methowman]

Great job explaining all of the details, its always fun to read about a success story. By the way great buck!
I'm hoping I can have as much luck next week in unit 204.

[ser300wsm]

Great job !  Nice buck, thanks for sharing your story....

[Wyoming08]

  Great Story!!! Congratulations on a great Buck. SOunds like you had a Great day Hunting with your DAD.