Capitol Peak "Quality" Late Permit 2010

[billythekidrock]

Let me start by saying that this unit being listed as a “quality” hunt is a complete joke. I understand that the “quality” is not in the quality or quantity of bucks, but rather the timing of the hunt and the extended dates. If you have private land to hunt then you are probably golden, but if you were hunting the Capitol Forest portion of the gmu then you would be lucky to be aluminum. It was impossible to find a place without the target shooters (they are everywhere shooting from sunup to sundown); brush pickers and illegal woodcutters plus all the quads & motorcycles riding closed trails. And don’t get me started on all the beer cans left behind by the general rifle hunters.

My wife and I applied for deer permits separately with both of us picking this unit as one choice and both picking different units for our other choice. Luckily we drew the same permit and didn’t have to split time between units. We basically applied for the permit as a season extender, not a trophy hunt.

I know this unit fairly well and it is only a few minutes from home so we are able to hunt a little after work or when we only have a few hours. I am always up there and I usually have a camera or two (or 7) out at any one time but I never found any truly big bucks. I found two spots that held multiple bucks including a real nice 3-point, a decent 3-point and a small 4-point before the season but I was never able to really pin them down. I also found about a dozen spikes and a dozen 2-points near the bigger bucks.

Really wanting to hunt in November, but not really knowing how much time we would have, we set some basic expectations for the general rifle season. I did not want to shoot anything smaller than a 3-point and she didn’t want anything smaller than a big 2-point. The plan was for these expectations to drop slightly during the permit season based on what we saw during the general season and the first week of the permit but we also wanted to be tagged out by late buck. Since the harvest reports for the last two years showed only a 50% and 60% success rate with only one buck better than a 3-point I felt we had realistic expectations.

Opening day of general rifle found us on a knob overlooking two different aged cuts where I saw the nice 3-point and a couple two points. Apparently others saw them as well because when the sun came up there were at least 10 other hunters looking into the same cuts. Within the first thirty minutes into the season I had 4 deer go by at 40 yards including two spikes. My wife was on the other side of the knob and didn’t see them, but normally I would have had her shoot one.

The rest of the season we were able to get out on the weekends and a couple nights after work, spending most of our time between the two areas where I saw the most bucks, but we only saw a few does. We never saw another buck during the general season.

[billythekidrock]

When the permit season started it seemed that nothing would go right. I tweaked my hips helping a guy drag out a deer the week before and now my back was out of whack. I originally took off the whole first week from work, and then adjusted it to have back-to-back four-day weekends. Well the weather wanted to do just the opposite. The weather was nice and sunny (crappy hunting weather) on the days I took off and when I was at work it was windy and raining (best hunting weather). We also had a few issues with childcare so we were limited in what we could do and for how long. Throw in the illegal quad riders and all the rogue target shooters and it made for some stressful hunting.

We were able to get out after work the first few days of the permit season and we saw does every night but only one buck. We saw one small spike that my wife passed on. On the fourth day I was out all day and passed on a huge 2-point at 40 yards at 11 am and at noon I passed on a spike at 15 yards. Those were the only deer I saw all day and the only bucks I saw in 4 days of hunting. In three and a half week we passed on 5 bucks.

During one hunt I fell backwards on my pack throwing out my back and a couple ribs. By the time I could get to the chiropractor on Monday I was in pretty bad shape and could barely walk. On Wednesday, only hours after visiting the chiropractor for the third day in a row, I was glassing across a huge draw and I fell on my hip giving me an unexpected adjustment. But it was not a good adjustment. I felt my pelvis rotate forward and immediately noticed tension in my neck and spasms in my back.

Now I am completely pissed and ready to head home. There was only an hour of daylight left so I decided to stay in the woods but to hunt somewhere a little less steep. I also decided that the next buck I saw I was going to shoot. I didn’t want a spike but I wanted to be done. I continued glassing a cut across the draw and noticed a deer feeding near a landing. It was over a half mile away but I thought it was a doe. If it were a buck looking for does I didn’t think I would get there in time but since I didn’t feel like doing much I figured I should drive around and check it out.

After hiking back to the truck I drove two miles around the draw, parked a few hundred yards from the landing, and headed down the road. The gravel was loud, but the wind was worse. Very little wind, but it was blowing straight toward the deer. At the edge of the landing I looked over and saw the doe at 15 yards. I quickly ducked down as I felt the wind on the back of my neck. When I slowly peeked back at her she had me pegged. I stood up and after a couple seconds she bounded off to the left. That was when I noticed the second deer following her. Now I am really frustrated. With all the back pain I was experiencing I was not on top of my game and failed to look around for more deer as soon as I noticed the first one was a doe. Luckily the second deer was another doe, but that wasn’t the only slip on my part.

While standing in the wide open on the edge of the landing I noticed a third deer to my right. It was 100 yards away, broadside, and staring right at me. Crap, busted again. I threw up my binoculars and saw that it was a doe standing in its bed. If it were a spike I might have shot it.

The doe then looked to her left (farther to my right). I quickly glassed that direction and saw two deer running to the right. I saw one buck and was unsure of the lead deer. They were about 100 yards away and moving out. I thought the buck was a medium two point and decided to take him. He was on the run at about 150 yards when I shot. There was no indication of a hit and now the buck was warned. He put his head down and was flat out moving hard to my right. I had enough room for one more shot before a large slash pile was between us. I held tight to his front shoulder and as he cleared a stump I fired (ranged later at 190 yards). Again there was no indication of a hit and now the buck was out of sight. I quickly chambered another round and ran up the landing around the slash pile. As I dropped to a knee while scanning the timberline, I saw him down and kicking out his back legs.

It was about 4 pm and after packing him out, hanging and cleaning, I was able to get in bed at 11:30 pm.

Here is a picture for my wall.



And one for the ten point rangers and orange police.



Back at the truck and all loaded up.

[billythekidrock]

After a long day of hunting, I finally got to sleep at midnight and then up again at 5 am to take my wife hunting. But she wanted to sleep in so we decided to leave the house around 9 am.

We stopped and glassed a few cuts on our way to a spot where I saw numerous bucks before the season and we couldn’t even find a doe. At about 10:30 we were glassing over a cut where I shot a small 3x last year. We hadn’t seen a deer in here all season, but I knew they were around. We were only there for about ten minutes when I heard the ferns rustling and I saw two deer running in circles about 70 yards away.

I am not sure what happened, if they smelled us and were trying to leave or if they were heading our way and then smelled us, but they seemed out of sort. As soon as I spotted the buck I whispered my wife over and got the shooting stick set up. The doe took off down the hill about 60 yards from us, a spike stopped just over a ridge about 100 yards away and the 2-point buck stopped in a patch of timber about 90 yards from us.

I figured the buck would want to follow the doe down the hill in front of us and it looked like he was going to come out right behind a tree so my wife got all lined up for the shot. We waited for what seemed like minutes, with me trying to keep our son quite and out of the way and trying to keep track of the buck and keep my wife calm.

When he we came out he was hustling a bit and my wife had to follow him in the scope. She hit him a bit far back and I watched through the binoculars as he hunched up and tried to run down the hill. I told her to shoot him again but she couldn’t get him in the scope.

The buck started to slow down at the bottom of the hill and as he stopped I told her to shoot him again but before should could shoot he laid down in an old bed and laid his down hill. I told her to keep an eye on him while we reposition ourselves. I moved my son uphill and my wife downhill to a downed log for a better rest in case she needed to shoot again. The buck wiggled his tail for a couple seconds and then it stopped but when I looked through the binoculars I could see that it was still breathing. I told her to shoot it in the neck, but as she was drawing down on the buck he stood up. I practically yelled, ‘shoot him’. Boom…whap! Down for the count.

After some high fives and a happy dance by our son (he even through in a little cabbage patch), we headed back to the truck for the pack boards. The buck wasn’t very big, but he was downhill and I still needed to see the chiropractor.

On our way down to the buck our son spotted a deer (probably the spike) and we watched it go over the ridge. My wife never saw it. When my son and I got to the deer my wife asked if we found it yet and I told her “no”. I said, “we have to track it, it was the deer that went over the ridge”. She was not happy, especially since we did not bring the rifle down with us. She was even more upset with me when I started laughing and told her that we were at her deer.

[billythekidrock]

Though our son has been around a lot of dead game animals and has been with us when we were hunting, he has never actually seen one as it was shot. He has never wanted to get too involved or too close to the dead animals so I happy when he walked right up and touched this buck.



One happy family.

[billythekidrock]

The first shot was far back, and as we know, it is not always pleasant. I did not tell them that they were downwind and that it wouldn’t be as bad if they moved behind me.



Goofballs.



Packing out.




Back at the truck.



Just before we dropped the capes off at Michelle’s.



So even with all the crap we went through, I finally found some “quality” in this hunt.

[Alan K]

Way to go guys, great write-up and some good lookin' bucks! 

[Hyde]

plus all the quads & motorcycles riding closed trails.

The trails in CF don't close to MC / ATV use until the end of Nov.  Nice bucks there!  Well done!

[Timberstalker]

Great job Man.
Way to CAPITOLIZE, Pun Intended.

[billythekidrock]

plus all the quads & motorcycles riding closed trails.

The trails in CF don't close to MC / ATV use until the end of Nov.  Nice bucks there!  Well done!

Not according to the signage at Rock Candy.

[ribka]

Great write-up and pics. You really earned your deer this year.

[Black Ghost]

Congrats, I have been wondering how your CP late hunts were going.  It ain't a Winthrop tag, but a fun hunt.  I had the tag in 2007, and my wierdest story was hearing native drums and chanting from down the valley.  That was kinda eerie.  It is a challenge when you have to compete with all the target shooting, brush pickers, and everything else.  But looks like you guys did alright!  Especially having to deal with a bum back.  Good story!

[Hyde]

Not according to the signage at Rock Candy.
[/quote]

I called DNR and inquired because there is conflicting info on their website.  They confirmed the end of Nov.  The logging roads are open year round for MC / ATV use according to them, it's the trials only that close the end of Nov.  I think I would pay closer attention to posted signs though.

[ELKBURGER]

Always nice to bag a couple of blackies

[tlbradford]

Great job Willy and fam!

[bobcat]

I'm sure glad it worked out so well for both you and wife. Was great that your son got to be there when your wife got her deer too. I'm debating on whether I should apply for the Capitol Peak permit next year. It's nice being so close to home but it's also a tough hunt. Not that it really matters- I will only have three points anyway. I guess the real question is do I want to put in for the multi-season deer permit...