My last morning hail mary = got lucky

[whack em]

I closed out my first hunting season here in Washington on Friday morning with success.  Admittedly I do miss having the 4 archery tags I was used to in Connecticut, but I was determined not to eat tag soup.  Being new to the area, I had the hurdles of figuring out the regs, and finding areas to hunt very quickly.  I managed to see quite a few deer, but only one buck, a small 2x3.  I couldn't manage to get a clear shot on a few occasions, passed on several smaller deer early, but had close counters which always keeps the deer in my nightmares, and me getting my boots dirty.  Friday morning I took a different approach by walking in after light, and glassed the clear cuts from a vantage point till about 9.  Then I decided to head into the tallest of the timber, find a spot that I saw two does come out of the night before, and pop a squat and wait.  About an hour after taking a seat, I heard a couple of deer thrashing about like crazy maybe 60 yards away, and headed my way.  I grabbed my bow, and stood up.  The noise stopped, and I thought "great, I'm busted".  After a dead silence for 5 minutes or so, the deer started moving again, and I caught movement in the brush.  It was two deer just bouncing around and playing their version of tag.  I saw one break away, and was going to come around to my left.  So I snuck around my tree clockwise, so that I had some better cover, and a more open shot at a 20yd opening.  The deer went through the thick brush in front of me, and literally popped out facing me at 10 yards.  I saw spikes, came to full draw, settled the pin on my target, let the arrow fly, and watched the deer fall ass over tea kettle.  He died before he hit the ground.  No blood trail to follow, woo-hoo!  Not a big deer, but he was my first blacktail, and my last chance to go out for the year.  Hope to work on my blacktail education in the next 9 months, and get into nice shooter next season.

[scottfrick]

congrats!!! Going to be a good eater thats for sure

[Turner89]

Nice job Whackem!    Good story also.   Sounds like a pretty good stradegy, watching where they come out of the timber, and ambushing them.

[furbearer365]

I think he will score a P&Y score of 2.  Nice job brother.

[deerhunter_98520]

he'll be a tasty deer...congrats on your first blacktail

[DoubleJ]

You gonna enter him into the coyote shooting contest? 

































































J/K.  Mine wasn't much bigger this year.  Hit mine in the neck too.  Congrats of filling that tag.  Get with me over the summer and I'll show you a few spots out here around Shelton.

[whack em]

Double J, Thanks for the offer, I very well may take you up on that since I am real close to the Mason / Kitsap line.

[ICEMAN]

Whack em, small or not, you just arrowed one of the hardest damned deer to hunt in the country. Blacktail are not easy by any measure. Congrats!!!

[DoubleJ]

sunnyslope?

[Boss .300 winmag]

I think he will score a P&Y score of 2.  Nice job brother.

now wait a minute, i think he will score double that he has two spikes! 

Great buck dude, nice eats.

[grunt11B]

congrats......

[D-Rock425]

nice work would have shot him myself on friday.

[JohnVH]

tiny deer, should be great eating!

[whack em]

I'm more towards the Southworth ferry, but hunted out off of Bear Creek - Dewatto Rd.  I know a guy who hunts alot of the urban deer in Sunnyslope, but he won't give up any info.  As far as bambi's concerned, he is absolutely as tender as could be and very tasty.  I think he's a bruiser that will be about 4 3/8" P&Y...LOL.  They are definately tougher to hunt than the whitetail I chased around in New England the last few years, but I like the challenge.  Just wish I could have shot more than 1 deer.  My freezer hasn't been so empty since I bought it.  I will have to pop my elk cherry next year to remedy that.

[Camp David]

Congtrats...It will much better eating than my 2 turkey, elk, Cougar, bear and deer tags.....