First Buck

[WAHIKER]

I've been following the forum for a little over a year now, learned a lot and loved reading about everyone's hunts.  I grew up taking advantage of youth doe tags before college so had the opportunity to shoot a few muley does in the past, but never shot a buck.  This year I finally got my chance.  I had permission on a good piece of land and got some great advice from the farmer so I knew I had a good opportunity.  My father came as well and it was great to have him along, definitely a time we will remember together. 

We got to our spot just before dawn and started walking/glassing through a gully with quite a bit of sage and tall grass as cover.  After about an hour we came on a couple young bucks.  They hadn't seen us but, looked to be two-points.  If I could spot a third tine I would have taken one.  My goal this year was really just to get a legal buck.  After watching them for a while longer to see if they had any friends we continued on.  About two hours more of walking and seeing just a group of four does we thought we would go back to the truck to another side of the property.  We peered over a ridge to the next gully over and glassed before heading back.  No deer in this gully we both thought.  As we walked down the ridge I heard my father speak up "Shooter!"  I saw a decent sized buck standing up out of an eyelet we just glassed on the other side of the gully.   I set up my shooting sticks and got lucky with the buck stopping just before the top of the gully broadside at about 175 yards to look back at us.  Took a shot and thought I got a decent hit as he went over the ridge.

We crouched over the next ridge to see if we might be able to see him.  Just as we looked over my Dad saw him walking along the opposing side hill about 300 yards away with a gaping mouth and blood streaming down his leg.  I wasn't happy with myself when I realized I had only broken his front leg and hit too low for his vitals.  We watched him travel down the gully that I knew fed into a large canyon with a deep dry river bed carved at the bottom.  Dad and I walked to the top ridge of the large canyon and saw him at the bottom slowly trotting along some game trails.  He hadn't seen us and we were at least 600 yards away and at a much higher elevation.  From our vantage point we had a nice view of the canyon and decided to stop and wait to see if he bedded down.  We watched as he traversed a steep side hill on the opposing side when he layed.  He had absolutely no cover around him but could easily see in all directions.  It would be tough for me to get another decent shot without him seeing me from a long ways off.  My dad and I waited to decide what we should do when a coyote comes trotting down from on top the canyon towards the bedded deer.  The buck spots it, waits until the coyote is about a 100 yards off, than gets up and heads back down to the bottom of the canyon among some sage brush.  Meanwhile, the coyote recognizing the injury sits on the sidehill to wait for a nice evening meal as he watches the buck bed down.  Hats off to the coyote though because now I could easily approach the buck without being seen using the deep dry river bed as cover. I wouldn't be able to see the buck as I crouched down the river bed so my Dad stayed on top to signal me if the deer had gotten up again.  After a long steep walk down the canyon using one of the fingers to the canyon as cover and crouching down in the river bed and got to within what I thought was about a 150 yards of the buck.  I peered over the edge and could just see its rack, but there was too much brush in the way to get a clear shot.  I crawled down a little further when I peered over again.  He must have smelled me or gotten suspicious because he had stood up.  I get my rifle into position when he trots right in front of me about 75 yards away to the opposing hillside.  When he paused at the top of a rock out cropping, I had a clear shot.  He went straight down and I was relieved to retrieve the deer.  Overall a great ending and I was very happy with a nice 3x4 first buck with my father, but a little disappointed with my initial shot.  More target practice for next year.               

[denali]

Great first post and nice buck, congratulations - we don't always get the shot placement we desire for ours or the animals sake but nice fallow through.

welcome aboard.   

[spookgus]

Nice buck and good for you. Just because we plan and practice for perfection does not mean it will happen.

[Little Dave]

Nice buck and good work following the deer.

[billythekidrock]

Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[PacificNWhunter]

Congrats!

[patton1]

Congrats and welcome to the site!

[C-Money]

Nice one! Glad you got your buck!

[BlackRidge]

Congrats man, great looking buck & awesome story!

you definitely messed that front leg up 

[Black Ghost]

Tell your dad that you need your face in the picture too    nice deer

[MAVsled]

good follow through after the shot. congrats.

too bad you couldn't have dumped that deer stalking coyote afterwards.

[lazydrifter]

congratulations.  Nice 1st buck.   Way to stick with it.

[WAHIKER]

Tell your dad that you need your face in the picture too    nice deer

  My face is too beautiful, I don't want you guys to get too jealous 

Thanks for the responses everyone.  Had it hung in my garage for five days and got 55 lbs of boned out meat.  Been enjoying some tender backstrap and some nice burgers!

[ser300wsm]

Very nice buck, congrats to you & welcome. 

[cooneyes]

Nice job WAHIKER, way to follow through and complete your mission. Stuff happens. You bagged him and that's what matters most! congrats