Best Hunting Story

[baldopepper]

Couple of the threads got me thinking of some of the old hunting trips and one in particular -pops out for me. Was 1968, I was still in college, married and extra money for hunting was tough to come by. Night before the last day of the season I got a call from a good friend.  He and 3 other good friends, all like me-in school married and poor, had not got a deer yet and wanted to know if I could help them out the next day. We all hunted to fill the freezer back then and sympathizing with their predicament I agreed. I had managed to fill my freezer already so had no tag, but all 4 said to get one if anyone could and they'd tag it.(obviously not kosher, but times were tough and they needed the meat)  I took them the next morning to an area I was quite familiar with. 3 small canyons parallel each other dropping down off a main ridge and while tough to hunt, usually held deer.  We went to top of the middle canyon and popped over to the head of one of the others.  It had snowed about a foot the day before, so I suspected the deer would be on the heavily.oak brush covered south slope. I told them to scatter out where they could see on the pine and quacken aspen  north slope and I'd work the south side to hopefully jump.something they could shoot.  Gave them a few minutes to get in position and started zig zapping down thru the oak. Got about 100 yards down and spotted a deer standing in the bottom of the canyon. It was looking up at  me, standing in front of what I thought was brush, but when he turned his head I realized the brush was horns. I knocked him down with my 1st shot and one of friends appeared about 100 yards above him. I hollered over that I had one down below him and he started down.  He got about 30 steps down and danged if another nice buck jumped from the trees in front of him.  Ran about 50 yards, stopped to look back and I dropped him where stood. 2 shots, 2 deer.Another of my friends popped out not far from that deer and as I hollered directions a third buck broke from cover, I winged a shot at him as he was trotting in and out of cover and danged if he didn't drop dead.  3 shots, 3  bucks and I still hadn't moved 20 yards from the first shot. As I stood there kind of amazed at what had just happened, one of my other friends appeared and I started hollering directions to him.  Yep, he got halfway there and jumped another nice buck.  Took a quick shot at him just as he disappeared into a small side Gulley  Didn't think I'd got that one, but when I guided my friend to where he disappeared he found him piled up. Took me a few minutes of standing there to realize what had just happened, but my friends hollering congratulations and then come help woke me from the stupor..Fortunately the snow made it fairly easy to drag those deer the mile down to the road and his poor jeep was way overloaded with all of us crammed in along with deer tied to the top and on the front. They each tagged and took a deer, all were nice bucks with the first one a 5x5 with a quick width measreme.of 29"  They all kept the racks and because the true story couldn't be told much,all claimed later they had shot em.(not to me of course) I didn't care, but sure a hunt I remember quite vividly.
 

[wadu1]

My dad had story. When he first started hunting in the late 50's, our neighbor a Nisqually (Wayne) took him out for his first hunt. Walking a trail a small buck stood up behind a downed tree, dad shot it, and it disappeared. Wayne said you missed and said it stood up and said try again, so dad shot again same thing it disappeared. Wayne was getting frustrated with dad when a third deer stood up and Wayne said try again. So, dad took another shot, and Wayne said you got that one. When they went to retrieve the deer low and behold behind the log there were three deer.   

[bigmacc]

I think I’ve told this one before, I have a few but this one is my favorite.

My dad killed a big nontypical one year, the family had killed some monsterous bucks in this particular draw, my dad had killed 3 total over his 77 years of hunting that came out of this particular draw that were, let’s say, big deer. Here’s one I was an eyewitness to.

I was a small boy, it was cold I remember. Real cold! There was snow on the ground and it was foggy. Those that know my dad knew he liked to get to this spot early, “we got to, have to let things settle, I’ll make some sandwiches, grab some apples”.

We headed out at 2 AM, about a 4 mile hike, deer were moving in, it was perfect! That’s what my dad told me as we were walking in calf deep snow up a cold creek drainage, in the fog! We eventually got to “the spot”, he told me to sit tight and “take a snooze”. I was about 20 minutes in to my snooze when the feeling of freezing toes set in, dad took my boots and socks off, put them in his Black Bear wool coat pocket (I still have the coat) and he began to rub them, like he was trying to start a fire😆😉😆. It worked, after a while I was asleep with warm feet, then dad woke me up as the sun was coming up saying “sit tight, there’s deer moving”.

What happened next has never happened again and probably won’t happen again, at least for me.

It was a steep draw, the migration was in full tilt, the cold, the snow, the moon, the wind were all perfectly aligned when dad said again “sit tight, don’t move “. A bunch of does with some smaller bucks walked up the draw right in front of us. Then a lull, “sit tight”. A few minutes later some more does, at this point maybe 20 or so had come up, then another long lull and more fog. I’m getting cold again because I can’t move, my feet are still in my dad’s pockets!

Then some bucks come out of nowhere, some big bucks, I’m wondering why dad isn’t shooting. Now more deer, more bucks, the kid in me that’s only allowed to pack a BB gun is wondering why he’s not shooting, there’s bucks everywhere. We sat. The fog, the cold and the sound of deer crunching through the snow.

After a few minutes of nothing, dad said again “sit tight, the big boys are coming”, sure enough, up the draw came a handful of bucks with some does, then came the big guy.

A buck came up that draw, head down, swaying side to side (as some know, not only the sign of a heavy rack, but the sign of old age), he was trailing a lot of deer, I remember dad saying “there he is, he won’t make it through the winter”. Dad dropped him in his tracks, we went to the buck, my feet weren’t cold anymore. 13 by 9.

After a few days the word got out. Another buck the Game Department drove to camp to check.

I have actually seen one bigger that my dad and I seen, it wasn’t hunting season, we filmed him with an old 8mm, I remember telling a few on here about him, it’s a whole nother story, this one was one of those “bucks that haunt you”.    bone knows.

One of a few I will never forget.

[boneaddict]

   cool stories of a bygone age.

[Boss .300 winmag]

My dad had story. When he first started hunting in the late 50's, our neighbor a Nisqually (Wayne) took him out for his first hunt. Walking a trail a small buck stood up behind a downed tree, dad shot it, and it disappeared. Wayne said you missed and said it stood up and said try again, so dad shot again same thing it disappeared. Wayne was getting frustrated with dad when a third deer stood up and Wayne said try again. So, dad took another shot, and Wayne said you got that one. When they went to retrieve the deer low and behold behind the log there were three deer.

When I lived on Whidbey Island me and some buddies were out hunting, and had this happen x4, luckily we had enough tags.🤣

[Angus]

My dad had story. When he first started hunting in the late 50's, our neighbor a Nisqually (Wayne) took him out for his first hunt. Walking a trail a small buck stood up behind a downed tree, dad shot it, and it disappeared. Wayne said you missed and said it stood up and said try again, so dad shot again same thing it disappeared. Wayne was getting frustrated with dad when a third deer stood up and Wayne said try again. So, dad took another shot, and Wayne said you got that one. When they went to retrieve the deer low and behold behind the log there were three deer.

I have a similar story, up in Alaska in the late 90's I was hunting Sitka blacktails on POW Is, 1 morning I shot at a 1x2 and was pretty sure I hit it but it ran off, I tracked it about 75-100 yards and there he was, standing there looking at me so I shot him again and he dropped. About half way to him I just about stepped on the first buck I shot, I suspect they were brothers. Made for a fun pack out, boned one out and drug the other about a half mile to my quad.

[baldopepper]

I must admit some of my favorite memories are those of the young hunters I've helped get their first deer
Most were small bucks, couple were does, but the excitement and big smiles probably surpassed those of older hunters taking a big buck. Highly recommend you try doing it if you haven't. (Just be ready to be patient when you watch them field dress it)

[WapitiTalk1]

Good thread

[OutHouse]

Awesome story! And don't worry Baldopepper, the statute of limitations has long passed in case party hunting was not legal back then.