Well, struck out this year like most of you. One guy in our group got a nice 4x4 on opening morning. The weather didn't cooperate for most of the week. Seemed like a late summer camping trip than hunting season. Regardless, it was a great time as usual. I did have a few cool experiences though. On the last day of our trip, w went back to an area that we had seen the most action. My bro went down into a deep ravine and I decided to stay up on the saddle in case anything slipped by him or came over the top. Within the first 15 minutes, I had two doe pass in front of me at about 150 yards. It was pissing rain, so this was a good sign that they were moving and trying to find some place to bed down. Within a couple minutes of seeing those two, I hear a thud off to my right. Now, I am standing with my back to a tree to get some cover from the rain, and I was kind of in a wall sit position. I peek to my right and see two doe about 15 yards away walking right towards me.
The had just crested the saddle, so my hope was a buck wouldn't be far away. Well, they continued their stroll right at me. One of the doe went around the log in front of me, but the other walked directly in front of me, no more than 3 feet away!!! I could have reached out and touched her or jumped on her back and went for a ride. It was a neat experience to say the least. Then as we were making our way back out along an old skid road, my bro and I stopped for a quick break and waited for our other buddy to meet us. As we were standing there, light almost gone, I hear another thud to my right. I slowly turn my head and see a buck standing on the road, 30 feet behind my brother
I told him not to move so I could try and get a better look at him, but before I could he took off over the road and down the hill. We both scrambled for our rifles as he ran down the hill. I got a quick peek at him through the scope, but couldn't put more than 2 points on him. He wasn't very big to begin with, but being last day and all it was like a dagger to the heart knowing I couldn't pull the trigger. Better safe than sorry; definitely don't need any more two points killed for no reason.
But, the story of the hunt for me was the big one that got away. We spotted this guy Tuesday or Wednesday night deep down a ravine. We tried to cut the distance through thick brush and trees and got to about 540 yards of where we saw him, but couldn’t find him anywhere. We knew he looked big through the binos from about 1,000 yards away, so I could only imagine what he looked like up close. We decided to try for him again the following day. It wasn’t until about 4:00 PM when my brother says he sees a doe moving around in the same area. We had seen her the day before as well, so we assumed it must be the same one. Soon after he say “I got him” and takes off running down the skid road. Now, technically this should be my buck since I had spotted him the day before and we specifically came back to find him, but being the nice brother I am and since he has yet to shoot one, I let him continue his sprint. I got him on the radio and said I would stay up high and glass for him as he made his way around the bowl and down the ravine. Right off he tell me his radio is dying and that he would have to turn off and on, SUCKY. I had the deer in my binos forever, and occasionally would find my bro along the ridge line. When he got close to where I wanted him to make his decent into the ravine his radio went out. He went down the opposite side I wanted him to. When he finally got me back on his radio, he was about 150 yards away and on the wrong side of the rock slide I was trying to get him to, totally exposed and probably making a lot of noise. I had briefly taken my eye off the buck, and wouldn’t you know it, I put the binos back up and he was gone. Couldn’t find him anywhere. I am certain he had his cover blown, but what could we do. I managed to get a quick video of the buck from a little over 1,000 yards away. Apologize for the shakiness, as it was cold and holding tight at that much zoom is tough. Let me know what you think. I think he looks huge, outside the ears and deep forks. Hope you enjoy and sorry for the long winded write-up.
http://youtu.be/dz69-bAnatc
