Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: C-Money on October 07, 2011, 07:58:05 PM
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This is not a big buck thread, but this was surly one of the funnest hunts I have ever been on. Opening morning I was on the edge of the timber well before daylight. I was enjoying the sounds of elk screaming in all directions. Not a second went buy with out the sound of bugling bulls for over an hour after daylight. Once light began to chase away the dark, I was seeing elk. ELK! Wow did I see ELK! I had elk every where around me. At one time I had 5, 300+ 6x6's that would have been sure things had it been bull season. I lost count at 15 different branch bulls that morning. This was very strange, like all the elk in the entire area decided to congragate at the farm for the deer opener. I knew one thing, the elk were in thick, and the deer were no where to be found.
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Opening day ended with seeing a few does, whitetail and mule deer, and I saw one little whitetail buck in the old apple orchard. My uncle tagged a nice 4x5 whitetail after lunch and his friend killed a dandy 4x5 whitetail in the evening. I bumped into elk, and nice bulls on every hunt I walked on different parts of the farm. Here is the opening day bucks.
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nice bucks. Those two bucks are either brothers or father-son. The racks are almost identical except the 2nd one is larger
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nice bucks. Those two bucks are either brothers or father-son. The racks are almost identical except the 2nd one is larger
:yeah: :tup: nice!
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very nice
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Sunday was more of the same. lots of elk, not many deer. No bucks seen on Sunday.
Monday morning I walked up to an old house that was built by some of the first folks to farm the land. It is very old, not anywhere near liveable, but very cool to look at. This old house has an apple orchard close to it, different than the one I mentioned earlyer, that usually holds a few deer. As day reaks, I saw some whitetail does and fawns feeding near the old house and a few trying to get some apples down. All does and fawns. No bucks. I go around the orchard so not to bump any of the deer and begin to glass the CRP fields above the house/orchard. Two deer. Not sure what they are. I move in closer. Cool, two little whitetail bucks. They are keeping each other busy as they spar and play fight. I check the wind, look at the land, and put a stalk together. Off I go, wind in my face and a nice grassy hill to cover my movement.
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Here is a picture looking back at the old house and orchard. I am a bit below where the two bucks were, but this gives an idea of the lay of the land.
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nice bucks. Those two bucks are either brothers or father-son. The racks are almost identical except the 2nd one is larger
The second one had to be a year older, as he was 19'' wide, and the first was a bit over 15''. They must be related somehow, as they do have very similar antlers.
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Nice bucks. I thought it was same buck in both pics until I went back and read through the post and looked a little closer at the pics. Congrats!
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That cant be the end of the story. You've got me hooked. I want the rest of it.
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I start up the CRP grass hill, trying to be a quiet as possible. With in minutes I am getting close so I put a small pine between me and the deer. I now can see the backs of the two deer, they are still sparring, no idea I am about 80yards from them. I deploy my shooting sticks and hunker down to see what my shot looks like. Nope! I need to inch up the rise a bit more, to much grass and things in my sight picture. The bucks are back to playing, hands and knees up a bit more, their, that should do it. Re deploy the shooting sticks. Good, I can now lay the cross hairs right on top of the grass for a broad side shot. I figure the first one to lift his head so I can re confirm its a buck, I am gonna put in the freezer. The buck on the left lifts his head....yup spike buck, settle in behind the shoulder, Boom.Whop! Down right there. The .270win did its job. I thank god for the meat and the chance to hunt, call the house, one bar :tup:, and have my wife bring up our kids. That is my story from Oregon this year. Sure was a fun time. My Aunt also connected on a 3pt. So far 4 out of 5 tags filled this year. My family has been blessed with another great year.
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Thats one bar :tup: on the cell phone, reception is limited, LOL! It sure was wierd how many elk were around this year. We usually see some around all year, but this was crazy. My uncle has lived on the farm his entire life and can not re call so many elk being around. Hope they are there in a few weeks so the Uncle can get one.
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That sure looks like a great family/meat hunt with a couple nice bucks to boot thanks for sharing.
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I taged my deer at 722am and the race was on! The Yellow jackets were terrible, especially around barn where we skin our deer. We made it back to the barn near the Uncles home by 830am. The morning was cool enough to keep the bees away for the most part. The morning was warming fast, so had the deer skinned and deer bagged in record time! Funny how fast you can make a knife work when motivaed by stinging insects. :chuckle:
