Sitkaspruce
11-22-2006, 09:59 AM
Well after 5 years and letting a whole lot of little bucks go, I finally settled on a mulie buck I liked. And I took it in my back yard.
I took this week off to get out and do some serious deer hunting, as I had not carried a gun since I was guiding. Monday was a write off as I had other committments and could not get out.
Yesterday I got out of bed, kissed the better half and headed out the door, drove the 5 min to the spot and waited for day light. As we have lots of snow, the deer have moved down from up above and were spread out along the ridges above the lake. I followed the trail, sneaking along and burp grunting every once and a while. After about an hour and half into the hunt, I decided to travel accross a large open bluff to a patch of heavy timber that I had seen deer in before. When I reached the area a large fir had blown down and there were tracks and beds everywhere. I burped a couple of times and heard some noise over the other side of the hill. I took out "The Can" doe bleat and called a couple of times as I walked to the edge. Right away I noticed an object about 70 yards away that looked like the ass of a deer. I looked through the bino's and determined it was a deer, but because of the brush I could not see anything else. I raised my rifle and turned up the scope to 9x and waited... and waited.....finally she mover her head and I could see it was a large doe. She took a couple of steps and dissapeared. I raised my head to get a broader view of the area, as I looked at where she had been I could see some serious bone in the exact same place. I looked at him through my scope and could tell that he was carring some good mass and had an extra point on his left side. I burped a couple of times, but he would not look up. He then moved another step and I could see his back and front forks and they looked good to me so I dropped the cross hairs down behind his shoulder and squeezed one off. He took two steps and then turned ass to me. I watched him for about 5 seconds and then he just fell over. I watched him for another minute, then headed down the slope to see if he was as big as I thought he was. I knew he had good forks, but was not sure of his spread. This is what I saw first...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer050.jpg
As I lifted his head I let out yell and had a big s**t eating grin on my face. This was what I was looking for, why I had passed up little bucks and spent countless hours hiking the hills around town.
I was 2 klicks from the truck, so I took some pictures, skined, quartered, boned out and caped him out. It took two loads and the rest of the day to get him back to the truck but it was worth it!!! I taped him at 25.5" wide and will put a tape on him today. One thing about him was that he was all antlers, I estimated him at around 150 lbs live. I was shooting a 300 ultra mag w/180 gr Nosler Accubonds, one shot took out both lungs and a piece of his heart, dead on his feet, just did not know it.
Here is a couple other pictures, not the best as I had to set up and use the timer, was hunting solo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer055.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer053.jpg
As whitetails close here on the 20th, I am now finished for the season.
I took this week off to get out and do some serious deer hunting, as I had not carried a gun since I was guiding. Monday was a write off as I had other committments and could not get out.
Yesterday I got out of bed, kissed the better half and headed out the door, drove the 5 min to the spot and waited for day light. As we have lots of snow, the deer have moved down from up above and were spread out along the ridges above the lake. I followed the trail, sneaking along and burp grunting every once and a while. After about an hour and half into the hunt, I decided to travel accross a large open bluff to a patch of heavy timber that I had seen deer in before. When I reached the area a large fir had blown down and there were tracks and beds everywhere. I burped a couple of times and heard some noise over the other side of the hill. I took out "The Can" doe bleat and called a couple of times as I walked to the edge. Right away I noticed an object about 70 yards away that looked like the ass of a deer. I looked through the bino's and determined it was a deer, but because of the brush I could not see anything else. I raised my rifle and turned up the scope to 9x and waited... and waited.....finally she mover her head and I could see it was a large doe. She took a couple of steps and dissapeared. I raised my head to get a broader view of the area, as I looked at where she had been I could see some serious bone in the exact same place. I looked at him through my scope and could tell that he was carring some good mass and had an extra point on his left side. I burped a couple of times, but he would not look up. He then moved another step and I could see his back and front forks and they looked good to me so I dropped the cross hairs down behind his shoulder and squeezed one off. He took two steps and then turned ass to me. I watched him for about 5 seconds and then he just fell over. I watched him for another minute, then headed down the slope to see if he was as big as I thought he was. I knew he had good forks, but was not sure of his spread. This is what I saw first...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer050.jpg
As I lifted his head I let out yell and had a big s**t eating grin on my face. This was what I was looking for, why I had passed up little bucks and spent countless hours hiking the hills around town.
I was 2 klicks from the truck, so I took some pictures, skined, quartered, boned out and caped him out. It took two loads and the rest of the day to get him back to the truck but it was worth it!!! I taped him at 25.5" wide and will put a tape on him today. One thing about him was that he was all antlers, I estimated him at around 150 lbs live. I was shooting a 300 ultra mag w/180 gr Nosler Accubonds, one shot took out both lungs and a piece of his heart, dead on his feet, just did not know it.
Here is a couple other pictures, not the best as I had to set up and use the timer, was hunting solo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer055.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/deer053.jpg
As whitetails close here on the 20th, I am now finished for the season.