Author Topic: PathfinderJR's 2011 Whitetail Hunt (Read 7365 times)

Pathfinder101 · « **on:** November 17, 2011, 08:21:53 AM »

Well, I was going to have Jr come on here and do a thread himself, but between basketball and homework we could be waiting a couple of weeks. Soo... I guess Dad will have to tell the story...

We camped at about 3,000 feet, on a flat in the Blue mountains above Dayton,

wind and weather were horrendous. I am not sure how many knots or mph the wind was blowing, but I can tell you that my metal frame 16X20 wall tent blew over twice, came back to camp Friday and Sunday and stuff was strewn everywhere.

3 inches of snow, sleet and ice Saturday morning... Battery cable rattled loose Friday, I thought my battery was dead (luckily the guy camped next to us was a diesel mechanic and figured it out).

Of course with the weather, nothing was moving, we hunted Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday without even getting a shot at a whitetail doe (Justin had 2 tags, the Blue Mountain Foothills buck tag, and a 2nd deer whitetail doe tag). Then, Saturday evening, last light, pouring rain, 2 does walked out in front of us at 30 yards and he couldn't see through his scope for a shot. I'm not going to lie to you, the kid was pretty bummed out. There may be some dents in a big cottonwood tree where he was slamming his head against it.

On a tip from Woodchuck, we hunted one spot up around 4,000 feet. Saw some rubs, a few tracks, tried a little rattling and grunting, but the storm blew in while we were there and that was that. We did see two herds of elk, bedded down out of the wind, 2 spikes and one nice 6x6, but not a single solitary whitetail. Weather was just too nasty, specifically the wind.

Then, Sunday morning, the weather cleared up just long enough to get the deer moving. Finally we spotted a lone doe, stopped the truck, PathfinderJR scrambled up the hill with his .308 to get prone. The deer was over 250 yards (guessing, I didn't range it),only the top half of her was visible due to the curve of the hill and the hill was VERY steep. I pulled his .308 out from under him and put my 7mm in it's place, then told him to aim low due to the angle. Shot and a miss, over her back. "Aim low" I told him again. Another shot and a miss. "No, no, no, that's really steep, aim REALLY low. " He held the crosshairs in the grass about where the bottom of her belly should be and touched off a round. Perfect shot, right behind the shoulder. So, he learned a lesson about shooting at steep angles. We dressed her out and had about the easiest drag downhill to the truck. Could have just about ridden her down the hill it was so steep.

About 9:30 we were heading down the road to an area that Jackalope had suggested, and I glimpsed a heavy looking deer picking it's way up a hill through the star thistle a few hundred yards from the road. We stopped and I said "We'll look at him, but I think it's a mulie." I pulled up the binos and immediately saw it was a big buck with two whitetail does.

Justin jumped out (this time with my 7mm) and ran up on the hill to get prone. The does spotted him and ran to the right. The buck followed, and as luck would have it, stopped on a finger, turned directly towards us and stared. 294 yards, straight uphill again. First I said "Wait for him to broadside", but then realized that he was about to bomb out of there and said "Never mind, if you have a shot, you had better take it now". A second later the gun boomed, the deer lurched, tucked his tail and ran off the finger into the draw.
"I HIT HIM!" Jr shouted.
"Well, he acted hit" I allowed (not wanting to get too excited until I saw the buck dead on the ground.)
"No." JR insisted. "I hit him. Right where his neck and his chest ccome together. That's where I was aiming, and I held a little low this time."
"OK, I said. "Let's go see"
It took us a few minutes to climb the steep hill he was on, JR chattering the whole way. When we got up to the finger, we found him lying not 30 yards from the tracks he was standing in when JR pulled the trigger. The entry hole was directly through the center of his chest, right at the base of his neck. You can barely see it (no blood, just a dime-sized cirlce) in some of the pictures.

The buck was much bigger than what I had expected him to kill. Probably be a LONG time before he gets a shot at anything this big again. We green-scored him at 147 7/8 (gross) Sunday night. Bigger than any whitetail that I have ever killed.

Sunday night was spent taking down camp, skinning two deer, and carefully caping out his buck.
We'd both like to than everyone that emailed and PM'ed tips for us when they heard that JR drew this tag. Especially Woodchuck and Jackelope (who's area's we were kind of in-between when we lucked onto this guy.
And, for those of you who haven't experienced it yet; I can tell you without question, that when your kid kills a buck bigger than any you have ever killed yourself, you wouldn't trade it for the world....
Here's some pics.

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:23:28 AM »

A few more pics...

PolarBear · « **Reply #2 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:24:52 AM »

Awesome, that smile in the fourth pic says it all!!! Great buck as well, congrats!

archery288 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:27:20 AM »

Simply awesome!! Congrats to the little guy!!

FSTaxidermy · « **Reply #4 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:34:29 AM »

Holy smokes! one proud little guy, Congrats! Jr.

KopperBuck · « **Reply #5 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:39:51 AM »

Excellent! Seen some pretty heavy WTs the last week looking for a doe. I have to confess, I've spent more time wandering around watching the rut going on. Congrats

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:45:59 AM »

Quote from: PolarBear on November 17, 2011, 08:24:52 AM

Awesome, that smile in the fourth pic says it all!!! Great buck as well, congrats!

That one's my favorite too. Lotta whoopin' and hollerin' when we saw those antlers sticking up out of the grass...

724wd · « **Reply #7 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:47:51 AM »

that's a stud buck!

MichaelD · « **Reply #8 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:51:01 AM »

Wow! Congrats to Jr. On a great buck and late hunt!

This post doesn't help at all..

..fighting off the fever to get out for my late foothills whitetail tag that starts on Thanksgiving day.

Great job guys!

Gringo31 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:51:11 AM »

AWESOME!!!

blacktailer · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:51:16 AM »

Wow, what a Dandy. Congrats to the young man.

bucklucky · « **Reply #11 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:56:23 AM »

Very cool, its nice to see all the kiddos pics getting posted with there kills!! I love it! Congrats to Jr!!

quadrafire · « **Reply #12 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:57:08 AM »

Monster whitey. Congrats

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #13 on:** November 17, 2011, 09:08:02 AM »

Thanks all. I'll have JR take a look at the thread tonight after his game.

Good luck MichaelD. I think you'll have a great hunt. I think It was mostly the wind that had us screwed up last weekend.

Woodchuck · « **Reply #14 on:** November 17, 2011, 09:13:54 AM »

Great deer and congrats are in order for sure..... for both of you.

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 17, 2011, 09:55:18 AM »

Quote from: Woodchuck on November 17, 2011, 09:13:54 AM

Great deer and congrats are in order for sure..... for both of you.

Thanks again for the tip Woodchuck...

Cascade · « **Reply #16 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:02:01 AM »

Great buck! Congrats to your son.

The smile on his face says it all.

Woodchuck · « **Reply #17 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:12:52 AM »

Quote from: Pathfinder101 on November 17, 2011, 09:55:18 AM

Quote from: Woodchuck on November 17, 2011, 09:13:54 AM
Great deer and congrats are in order for sure..... for both of you.

Thanks again for the tip Woodchuck...

Shoot man I didn't do anything but draw a map. Wish I could have done more. You made it happen with your son and that in my mind is as good as it gets. Congrats some more.

denali · « **Reply #18 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:18:16 AM »

Great story and photos

congrats to JR and dad.

400out · « **Reply #19 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:35:37 AM »

Way to go Jr! thats a hell of a buck! This hunt will live on in memories! Great memories! Way to go guys

gaddy · « **Reply #20 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:43:30 AM »

cant get much better than that. the look on the boys face is priceless. hope the two of you get to experience the same excitement & pride again & again in the future.

Machias · « **Reply #21 on:** November 17, 2011, 10:51:38 AM »

Yea baby!!!!!! Wohoooo AWESOME buck, fantastic job young man and Dad!!!! Congrats!

Holg3107 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 17, 2011, 11:02:39 AM »

Nice work Pathfinder Jr. That bucks a stud! Well done.

colockumelk · « **Reply #23 on:** November 17, 2011, 11:33:06 AM »

Way to go. That is a stud of a buck. That is so cool. Many if that kid is anything like you you're gonna hear about how his buck is bigger than yours all year.

Congrats.

Echomules · « **Reply #24 on:** November 17, 2011, 11:50:35 AM »

Absolutly AWESOME!
Nice Buck JR!

Good Job DAD

Camp David · « **Reply #25 on:** November 17, 2011, 12:28:55 PM »

Nothing like the first buck...young or old. Congrats to both of you

BLUEBULLS · « **Reply #26 on:** November 17, 2011, 12:30:50 PM »

Nice job! Congrats!

I saw your wall tent on Saturday and thought it looked like a balloon. Then i saw it sunday all over the place. If I would've known that was you I would've cleaned it up a bit...

400out · « **Reply #27 on:** November 17, 2011, 12:33:09 PM »

Quote from: BLUEBULLS on November 17, 2011, 12:30:50 PM

Nice job! Congrats!

I saw your wall tent on Saturday and thought it looked like a balloon. Then i saw it sunday all over the place. If I would've known that was you I would've cleaned it up a bit...

then you could have gave it back to him or the christmas gift exchange

huntnphool · « **Reply #28 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:08:49 PM »

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #29 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:46:10 PM »

Quote from: colockumelk on November 17, 2011, 11:33:06 AM

Way to go. That is a stud of a buck. That is so cool. Many if that kid is anything like you you're gonna hear about how his buck is bigger than yours all year. Congrats.

Truth is Colockum, I don't know that I would/could have made that shot when I was 12. And so far, he's pretty humbled by the whole experience. Not seeing a single shootable animal for the first 3 days really put things in perspective for him. He knows we got lucky. I am just glad he was able to make the shot count when he had to...

boneaddict · « **Reply #30 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:50:58 PM »

PERFECT! Great whitetail

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #31 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:51:53 PM »

Quote from: BLUEBULLS on November 17, 2011, 12:30:50 PM

Nice job! Congrats!

I saw your wall tent on Saturday and thought it looked like a balloon. Then i saw it sunday all over the place. If I would've known that was you I would've cleaned it up a bit...

Yeah, I'm not going to lie to you. That sucked.

When it happened Friday we had neighbors camped next to us that helped us set back up. When we got to it Sunday at noon, we just gathered everything into the truck and drove home. There was stuff strewn across Pioneer Park all the way across the road. I think we got everything; I haven't had time to do a proper inventory yet though.
I think we looked like the Beverly Hill Billies headed back to Walla Walla, except that instead of Granny on top, there was a whitetail buck...

270Shooter · « **Reply #32 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:58:17 PM »

Awesome hunt!

longashes · « **Reply #33 on:** November 17, 2011, 02:21:46 PM »

Now there's a happy young hunter! ... Congrats

ANDERWAGON · « **Reply #34 on:** November 17, 2011, 02:34:03 PM »

Nice work!

wsucowboy · « **Reply #35 on:** November 17, 2011, 03:07:29 PM »

Awesome! Love seeing people having the kids out hunting, and getting a great buck like that makes it even better.

huntnnw · « **Reply #36 on:** November 17, 2011, 03:10:24 PM »

wow nice buck! love the mass

jager · « **Reply #37 on:** November 17, 2011, 03:51:49 PM »

That's awesome! Congrats! love the pics!

Wacenturion · « **Reply #38 on:** November 17, 2011, 06:36:28 PM »

My oh my. Good for that young man. Very nice buck indeed and great pictures. That's a special hunt, my personal favorite over the years and for you and your son some special memories that are priceless.

Thanks for sharing. You son's expression says it all.

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #39 on:** November 17, 2011, 07:11:27 PM »

Thanks all.

PathfinderJR · « **Reply #40 on:** November 17, 2011, 08:53:26 PM »

Thank You guys for the cool coments and encouragement!!! I guess its time to change my avatar , Huh?

News:

Advertisement

Author Topic: PathfinderJR's 2011 Whitetail Hunt (Read 7365 times)

Advertisement

Quick Links

Recent Topics