pendletonhunter
Member
The date was 9/20/14. It was archery season in G-10 (Camp Pendleton). After the first two weekends of having our hunts busted by other hunters. No hunter courtesy, I know its hard to believe but hunting Pendleton there is more pressure than you think. A buddy and I decided last minute to go check out an area I hadn't been before. We had parked the truck at a locked gate and walked in from there. We had been walking down the dirt road, taking our time and glassing deep in this valley/canyon when we finally spotted some oak trees that looked promising. So me and my buddy both knocked an arrow and continued down the road. I had just bought a bow back in May and was looking for my first bow kill my buddy found out you could hunt Pendleton so I offered to take him out with me. Anyways we had gotten under the oak trees where there was some brush when my buddy spotted a buck 130 yards away. We thought we had been made because the buck was looking right at us but what we didn't realize was that we were actually were in more cover then we thought. After deciding we didn't really have a move because every where else was open country the buck actually started thrashing his antlers in some brush. This buck was rutting hard. Swollen neck, glands on the legs stinky. So after thrashing a bit he started walking toward us. My buddy whispers to me (I think he's going to walk right to us) I didn't believe him but the buck just kept coming so my buddy says once he gets behind the tree we will draw and when he steps out I will count to 3 and we will shoot at the same time. Well we both drew our bows back and the buck steps out at 30 yards facing head on and I am waiting for my buddy to count down. All of a sudden my buddy releases and sticks the buck right in the neck. The buck takes off and lays down about 100 yards from where my buddy shot him.I let the bow down and look at him and laughed what happened to 3 man and my buddy says man I just got in the zone I forgot what I was doing. I gave him a hard time and we joked about it. Not gunna lie I was a bit butt hurt I was happy for my buddy because it was his first mulie and first deer in California but I had been scouting hard months before the season. We ended up tying the buck up to a piece of wood hanging upside down and carried him out about two miles to the truck which was uphill. From then on my buddy said he owed me and would go out with me every time and be my camera man. He came out with me every time besides my last and that's the day I made it happen during rifle season (p.s. after I shot my buck I forgave him for shooting the other one haha) He would have entered his buck into the contest but he didn't start hunting until after the season had already started and it was too late to sign up.
