Father/son late archery success!

[scoutsniper17]

Well,what a crazy year...but it ended just fine!
Took off the thursday before opener of late archery up to my little honeyhole in Okanogan county and got the wall tent all set up on friday.I had friday afternoon and all day saturday to do a little scouting and was not disappointed with what I saw at all!First 10 minutes after leaving camp on friday afternoon I drive right up on a 7x5 mulie chasing does about 20 yards off the road...prelude to a great late archery season?So saturday rolls around,get up early and hike into my favorite spot to do a little glassing and see what I can see....again not disappointed...several decent bucks...can't hardly wait for sunday.
So sunday rolls around and have a couple of shot opportunites at some smaller bucks but I got a feeling this year is gonna be a dandy so I pass on the shots and spend the rest of the day glassing some hidden quakie patches I know of.Monday rolls around and the weather went crazy!When I left my truck at 6:15 it was reading a cool -6 and the wind is blowing about 20-25,so to say it was cold would be an understatement.I decided with the fresh snow from friday and saturday that I would still hunt through a stand of quakies on my way up the mountain....good choice!About 7:00 or so I have only gone about 500-600 yards up this quakie patch when I just happen to look through a little open lane about 80 yards long and here is a nice 4x5 looking my way.Of course I freeze and the staredown begins.Fortunatelly for me, he was more interested in the does he was hanging out with so i just stood still as can be and started to see deer everywheer in this aspen patch.Did I mention this aspen patch is right in the middle of a deep cut and the wind was non-existant inside of it,dead calm!So after standing there for about 30 minutes and losing all the feeling in my fingertips, I end up spotting a total of 9 bucks and about 25-30 does scattered all over this aspen grove,it was crazy.There were bucks grunting,trying to mount does,chasing other bucks around..it was cool.Finally I spot this pretty decent 4x4 that looks to be pretty wide and tall so I decided if he gave me a shot opportunity that I was gonna take it.Finally after standing dead still for damn near an hour this 4 point steps into a little clearing at 59 yards,perfect broadside shot.I  pull the old Matthews back,take a deep breath and send the Gold Tip on it's way.Heres where things get crappy...so just as the arrow hits the buck,he rears back like a bareback bronc and I see his left front leg hangin' there.OH NO..what the hell happened?So he takes off like a bat out of hell,straight up hill..i figured I would give him a good 45 minutes to an hour so I just sat down and tried to replay what happened in my head.I walked up to where he was standing and find the back half of my arrow right in his tracks,minus one vein.Sh*t, I hit a little twig a few feet in front of the buck and the arrow deflected down and forward..not good.So after about 6 hours of trailing and 3 draws and 2 ridges later, I decided I am gonna head back down to the truck,eat a sandwich and call a couple of buddies to come help me....heres where things start to look up!So I see this Toyota coming down the road and as they get closer I flag them down and we start to shoot the breeze.I played my morning back to my new friends and they just told me about an hour before that they had jumped my buck out of his bed and get me pointed in the right direction to start looking again.Off I go,back up the mountain at 3:30 to try and locate the bed that they had jumped him out of and start to track again.I find the bed and where the buck was headed,finally at 6 p.m.,with the wind blowing about 40 and temps in the -3 to -5 area I decide that I will have to come back in the morning and pick up the trail.To say I didnt sleep that night would be an understatement.I have yet to lose an animal in 16 years of bowhunting and my guts were just turning circles all night.
Up bright and early the next morning,I head up the mountain to try and find this buck.The wind from the night before had filled in my boot tracks,any deer tracks and any sign of blood with the snow off the top of the surrounding ridges.I figured if this bucks was dead from the cold the night before that he had to be in bottom of this jungle of blowdowns and willows,so I just started to zig-zag back and forth through this crap as slow and quite as possible and after about 800 yards I stepped around the top of a blowdown from the night before and there at 32 yards is my buck from the day before,bedded down and looking right at me,very much alive and kickin.One more Goldtip into the pump station and he was mine.Man, what a realief to finally put a closure to that hunt.
The best part was that I would have one extra day to scout before my son arrived to hunt with me from wednesday-Sunday.Time to get him a big buck!My son Tyler is 15 and is a certified mule deer nut,but had yet to harvest one with his bow,so that was the goal for the rest of the hunt.Skip ahead to friday morning...got a hot tip from another hunter about a little saddle on this remote ridge that he had been seeing some nice bucks crossing back and forth on over the last couple of days but he had to head for home,so he wanted to know if we might like to hunt his spot.Boy,Tyler wasted no time on taking him up on that offer.So at 7:00 friday morning,tyler and I are set up in Our ASAT pop-up blind,waiting for something to happen.Didn't take very long,within 5 minutes a mulie doe walks in to the saddle and starts to feedabout 30 yards from us,it was cool to watch but only cool for so long...wheres the bucks?We are both pretty amped up and anticipating what the day will bring.Finally at 10:30 Tyler says..."Theres a buck dad,about 40 yards and closing.""
So we watched this little 2x1 work his way in but he was very cautious and taking his time and just as I tell Tyler "It's not legal son,to small."His reply is..."Holy Chit,look at that 4 point!"....Sure enough as I slide my window open a little bit,there he is,standing broadside at 35 yards,with not a care in the world.I just kept telling my boy to not look at the rack,pick one hair and put that broadhead thru that one single hair.It was like slow motion,he drew,took a deep breath,released and within seconds he had just killed his first archery buck.He was dying when I told him that we had to wait for 30 minutes before we could start trailing.Just want him to understand the inportance of giving an animal time.So half an hour and 50 yards later,he had his hands on his buck.Man,what a great feeling as a father to get to watch that!Pretty darn proud of my boy,center punched the heart and took out one lung,awesome.Enjoy the pics

[WAcoyotehunter]

Great first post!!!  Congratulations on a great season with your son!

[vandeman17]

Nice work and that is a good way to start out here on the forum. 

[scoutsniper17]

few more pics

[remington300mag]

Great Post! Congrats to you and your boy!!!

[gaddy]

nice job, father and son-doesnt get any better than that

[GoldTip]

Very, Very cool, congrats to both father and son!

[bucklucky]

Nice job guys!

[wamuledeer]

Great post. Sounds like an awesome hunt. Congrats

[scoutsniper17]

Thanks everyone,it was great.The coolest part of that whole story isnt in the post...about 2 months ago my ex wifes house was broken into and everything down to the dirty socks was stolen including all of my boys hunting gear.I think everyone knows how slow insurance can be and Tyler wasnt sure he was gonna be able to make it and I didnt really have the means to buy him all new gear....well 4 days before late archery opened,low and behold a big insurance check came thru and he got another matthews drenalin,just in the nick of time.So I thought it was fitting that after all the crap associated with a home robbery,he gets his new bow,puts in his time and has some nice success.

[BLKBEARKLR]

Awesome story, even done to the sad part of being robbed. Congrats to the both of you.

Joe

[lewy]

Congrats!

[bearhunter99]

Couple of dandy bucks there, congratulations.  Kudos to you for keeping after that buck and tagging him instead of giving up and continuing on.  A good sign of a true hunter and a great lesson to teach your son..

[400out]

Holly cow! congrats to you and you boy! thats awesome 

[bowguy]

awesome story . nice pair of bucks congrats to both of you.