Post by: Cummca17 on October 28, 2021, 08:58:18 PM
In 2018 I moved to the Olympic Peninsula and purchased my first WA state hunting license with similar expectations. What has followed has been years of hard work, heart break, missed opportunities, all day sits in the rain, miles of hiking, cameras placed, repeated mistakes and often times complaints to my friends and family that I was going to give up trying to hunt black tail all together as it just wasn't coming together.
Despite these failures, on Saturday 10/23/21, I woke to my alarm. I dressed and got set up in my chosen tree well before 6 am. I had been seeing deer sign. I had small bucks on my cameras just after dark and I had been seeing does daily working their way along the ridge into different bedding areas surrounding me. After 3 hours in the tree a doe stepped out at 70 yards. I enjoyed watching her work her way through the sword fern and low lying brush for 20 minutes. As I watched her my heart began to beat out of my chest when I saw a chocolate colored rack come over the hill in pursuit of her. He kept his distance from me for 10 minutes or so, but eventually stepped into my shooting lane broadside at 44 yards. The shot was relaxed and the arrow was true.
I now see that all those mistakes, all those unfilled tags, and hours that at the time may have felt wasted lead me to this success. Without those days of coming up empty I would not have known where to place the stand, where the bedding areas were located or where to expect the deer to enter from. I wouldn't have known that 10/23/21 was a day I needed to be in the stand and I wouldn't have known that I needed to be in that tree an hour and a half before sunrise. They were not failures they were learning experiences. I now know that my early success in NY was built on the shoulders of that same experience. It just wasn't mine. It was my dad's.
Thank you to everyone on this forum for your posts it has helped to keep me motivated these past 4 years. I hope this inspires someone else struggling in the woods in the same way that you have all inspired me!
Post by: meatwhack on October 28, 2021, 09:00:41 PM
Post by: h20hunter on October 28, 2021, 09:03:21 PM
Post by: FFCharlieP on October 28, 2021, 09:05:19 PM
Post by: Cummca17 on October 28, 2021, 09:14:34 PM
Post by: sagerat on October 28, 2021, 09:20:03 PM
Post by: h20hunter on October 28, 2021, 09:20:17 PM
Post by: wadu1 on October 28, 2021, 09:22:16 PM
Post by: nwalpineguide on October 28, 2021, 09:33:30 PM
Post by: elkoholic1 on October 28, 2021, 11:09:44 PM
Post by: blackveltbowhunter on October 28, 2021, 11:12:41 PM
Post by: Shoofly09 on October 28, 2021, 11:40:54 PM
Post by: X-Force on October 29, 2021, 06:20:10 AM
Post by: zwickeyman on October 29, 2021, 06:23:54 AM
Post by: hawks33 on October 29, 2021, 06:58:08 AM
Post by: ljsommer on October 29, 2021, 07:36:03 AM
Post by: Birdguy on October 29, 2021, 07:45:21 AM
Post by: Gonehuntin01 on October 29, 2021, 07:49:36 AM
Post by: Ironhead on October 29, 2021, 08:10:29 AM
Post by: jamesfromseattle on October 29, 2021, 08:25:52 AM
Post by: ljsommer on October 29, 2021, 08:33:56 AM
That's a great blacktail. Not just for a first blacktail. For any blacktail.
Any blacktail is a trophy, doubly so for an archery blacktail.
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 29, 2021, 08:46:42 AM
Post by: Big6bull on October 29, 2021, 09:09:58 AM