For my brother in law’s birthday, we had a 2 day backpacking trip planned to fill his D-16 tag. I tagged out a couple weeks ago, and my brother is so busy with work, I realized this was the end of our season. It just so happened that those terrible Santa Anas were peaking on our first day. My wife was concerned cause we live in the mountains now, and our area had a 3 day power outage during the same time. She hesitantly still let me go (though I’m convinced she was a little pissed!).
We get to the trailhead at 2:40 am, and begin our hike at 3 am. The wind was so bad we had to cover our faces with wraps and pull our caps down low to shield our eyes. I actually wish we had goggles, cause our eyes were bloodshot for 2 days from getting pelleted nonstop. Regardless, we had a mission, and we stuck with it.
After a couple hours trekking in the dark, we made it to our destination which was a high ridge with a full 360 degree view. We had come to this spot the year before and saw multiple deer, missed our chance at a decent buck, and so decided this was where we would camp. At grey light, we decide to look east into the wind until the sun wouldn’t allow us to glass in that direction (we had seen most deer on that specific hillside last year). With wind conditions making it tough and not finding any deer, I decided to glass north. Not 5 minutes later, I spot 3 deer just under a mile away feeding under a bush across a distant creek bed. We can only identify the front deer being a doe, and after 20 minutes, the deer go out of view. They never looked spooked, and were slowly grazing the entire time, so we just continue glassing other areas, and kept a mental note of where they were. I know the rut is happening, and they do say: where there’s does, there's probably bucks. So we keep that all in mind.
We move around the ridge, glassing all directions for a couple hours with no avail. Weighing out our options, we decide to go after the deer we saw earlier instead of looking for a new area. The hike ended up being a long one because the terrain made it impossible to travel in a straight line. We had to head back down from the steep ridge, pushing through chaparral, dealing with terrible winds, cross the creek more than 1/2 a mile south of the deer, and shoot straight up another peak to stay downwind from where they were last seen. By this time, its noon, and we’re already drained, hiking around 7 miles, with more than half of that going uphill. We eat lunch and rest at a good lookout spot. It’s beautiful country, so we just soak it all in for a minute. But only a minute….
I look directly below us with my binos and I see the same deer we saw at sunrise, under the same bush! They didn’t go anywhere, they just bedded where they were eating. Since we were closer, we see that they are 2 does with a fawn. Excited that they’re still there, we continue glassing the area. Then, with my bare eyes I see dark brown figures moving towards the bedding does… 4 more deer, and the back one being a buck! We are so pumped at this point cause the wind is howling in our favor. We were under 350 yards away, but the wind was so bad, we had no idea what the bullet would do, so we decide to back out the backside of the hill, drop down and get to a closer spot.
Once there, we peak through a bush and see the deer are all still there, either grazing or bedding. We drop all our gear except the rifle, binos, and rangefinder, and army crawl to the edge of a drop-off. Adrenaline is rushing cause we know this could be it. We are extremely cautious about how much and when we move cause there are 7 pairs of eyes 150 yards below us now. After an intense few minutes, the buck finally pops out from behind a bush and goes broadside/quartering away. I range him at 200 yards, and my brother lets it fly… The buck drops immediately where it stood, and the rest of the deer scatter in all directions.
Im so pumped for my brother in law! His first deer ever, and on his birthday! At noon! Perfectly executed spot and stalk.
We quarter the deer up and begin our long journey back to the car. We were kind of bummed we didn’t get to camp, but the wives were very happy we came home the same day… Happy wife, happy life.
Im still new to hunting, but harvesting 3 deer this year myself, and pulling off this spot and stalk with my brother, I’m starting to pool together all of my previous years’ mishaps and successes into retainable knowledge. Everything from where you can assume deer are, to what they eat, to what useless crap you don't need in your pack haha.
Can anyone identify the bush in the picture? These deer were eating a buffet of whatever is on the ground below them.
We get to the trailhead at 2:40 am, and begin our hike at 3 am. The wind was so bad we had to cover our faces with wraps and pull our caps down low to shield our eyes. I actually wish we had goggles, cause our eyes were bloodshot for 2 days from getting pelleted nonstop. Regardless, we had a mission, and we stuck with it.
After a couple hours trekking in the dark, we made it to our destination which was a high ridge with a full 360 degree view. We had come to this spot the year before and saw multiple deer, missed our chance at a decent buck, and so decided this was where we would camp. At grey light, we decide to look east into the wind until the sun wouldn’t allow us to glass in that direction (we had seen most deer on that specific hillside last year). With wind conditions making it tough and not finding any deer, I decided to glass north. Not 5 minutes later, I spot 3 deer just under a mile away feeding under a bush across a distant creek bed. We can only identify the front deer being a doe, and after 20 minutes, the deer go out of view. They never looked spooked, and were slowly grazing the entire time, so we just continue glassing other areas, and kept a mental note of where they were. I know the rut is happening, and they do say: where there’s does, there's probably bucks. So we keep that all in mind.
We move around the ridge, glassing all directions for a couple hours with no avail. Weighing out our options, we decide to go after the deer we saw earlier instead of looking for a new area. The hike ended up being a long one because the terrain made it impossible to travel in a straight line. We had to head back down from the steep ridge, pushing through chaparral, dealing with terrible winds, cross the creek more than 1/2 a mile south of the deer, and shoot straight up another peak to stay downwind from where they were last seen. By this time, its noon, and we’re already drained, hiking around 7 miles, with more than half of that going uphill. We eat lunch and rest at a good lookout spot. It’s beautiful country, so we just soak it all in for a minute. But only a minute….
I look directly below us with my binos and I see the same deer we saw at sunrise, under the same bush! They didn’t go anywhere, they just bedded where they were eating. Since we were closer, we see that they are 2 does with a fawn. Excited that they’re still there, we continue glassing the area. Then, with my bare eyes I see dark brown figures moving towards the bedding does… 4 more deer, and the back one being a buck! We are so pumped at this point cause the wind is howling in our favor. We were under 350 yards away, but the wind was so bad, we had no idea what the bullet would do, so we decide to back out the backside of the hill, drop down and get to a closer spot.
Once there, we peak through a bush and see the deer are all still there, either grazing or bedding. We drop all our gear except the rifle, binos, and rangefinder, and army crawl to the edge of a drop-off. Adrenaline is rushing cause we know this could be it. We are extremely cautious about how much and when we move cause there are 7 pairs of eyes 150 yards below us now. After an intense few minutes, the buck finally pops out from behind a bush and goes broadside/quartering away. I range him at 200 yards, and my brother lets it fly… The buck drops immediately where it stood, and the rest of the deer scatter in all directions.
Im so pumped for my brother in law! His first deer ever, and on his birthday! At noon! Perfectly executed spot and stalk.
We quarter the deer up and begin our long journey back to the car. We were kind of bummed we didn’t get to camp, but the wives were very happy we came home the same day… Happy wife, happy life.
Im still new to hunting, but harvesting 3 deer this year myself, and pulling off this spot and stalk with my brother, I’m starting to pool together all of my previous years’ mishaps and successes into retainable knowledge. Everything from where you can assume deer are, to what they eat, to what useless crap you don't need in your pack haha.
Can anyone identify the bush in the picture? These deer were eating a buffet of whatever is on the ground below them.
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