It's been a crazy year at our house. My wife has been battling breast cancer since last November, so hunting wasn't exactly a top priority for me. We canceled our annual trip to her parents' deer camp in Arkansas (her parents decided to come out here and spend the year with us to help out instead). Just an FYI, my wife is in full remission and is cancer free!
Being the amazing woman my wife is, she let me go to Colorado this September for an OTC archery elk hunt (3rd year out there). Everything panned out for that trip except putting one on the ground. On the 4th day of that trip, I was able to shoot at a bull (first shot attempt in 3 years) but missed him by a few inches. I ranged a bush he came out of instead of him, and that small miscalculation cost me big time. But I am very thankful for the opportunity to finally shoot at a bull with my bow.
Back to the "16"....
Last week was my second time going out this season. I took my little brother, who is just getting into hunting. He's carrying a G13 tag and I'm carrying a D16 tag, so we had options for the hunt. As first light came in, we started glassing the area with no luck. I decided that we should start moving through the area, Still-hunting more than glassing. Every few paces, we would stop and pull out the binos, looking over every new corner. The further we moved throughout the morning, the more fresh sign we would find.
At around 9:00, we decide to sit down, eat some snacks, and give ourselves some time to see if anything will pan out in the area we ended up in. About 30 minutes later, I hear a snort somewhere in front of us to the right, coming from some thick cover. I let my brother know what I heard and told him there's deer in the area, but that snort wasn't necessarily the best thing to hear from a deer. I assumed we may have been winded....
Not 30 seconds later, a doe comes running out into the open 200 yards in front of us, being chased by a buck, with another doe behind him. He's got his nose to the ground while trotting, and then all 3 deer just happened to stop right in front of us under an oak tree. I tell my brother that this is it, and get him set up on a shooting stick. He is absolutely losing it, breathing hard, getting the shakes that we all crave! At that point, I'm now shaking for him. I tell him to pick out the biggest doe and send one when he's ready. She's standing full broadside with her head down eating, and I tell him that he's got a good opportunity. A few minutes go by, and my brother still hasn't taken a shot. I ask him if he's ok, and he's still shaking, but tells me he's ok, and that he's trying to calm down. I tell him to breathe, try to relax, and that he needs to make a decision soon because this opportunity can fade at any moment. I also tell him if he's not ready, that he needs to give me the rifle lol. Something needs to be done!
He tells me that he can do it. So we wait for her to go broadside again. Once she turns, I let him know he's got a good shot. He sends one.... She ducks down and goes into a full sprint with the other deer right behind her. They go out of view. We have no idea if he hit her, but I'm leaning towards a clean miss. I tell him to rack another round, leave his pack, and that we'll move forward and see if they're still around. So we creep up and turn a corner in the direction they went. My brother whispers from behind me "there's the buck." And there he is, 100 yards away following one doe. He hands me the rifle, but this buck has us pinned down. He's staring straight at us, full frontal. I opt not to shoot at that moment and wait it out for a better shot. Good thing is the doe he's following hasn't pinned us down, and he keeps on glancing at her. A few minutes go by, and he finally commits to the doe. As he turns broadside and starts walking to the doe, I grunt at him. Nothing. I grunt a few more times and he finally stops. So I send one... I see the shockwave through his hide. He stumbles backwards a little, then goes into a full run forward. He chooses to go uphill, but it's obvious he's slowing down significantly. He disappears into some thick chaparral. We wait maybe half an hour, and then decide to go look for the doe my brother may have hit.
We find no blood for the doe, and as I move in the direction she went, I see ears bouncing. She comes into full view, and I see no sign of injury, no blood. We feel some relief knowing that she was not hit, so we start looking for the buck. We follow the trail he most likely went up, but we can't find any blood anywhere! My heart sinks a little, but we keep on pushing forward. I find an old antler shed, put it in my pack, and just beyond that, there he is, piled up right on a game trail. He doesn't have the biggest rack, but damn he's got a big body! We struggle to drag him into the shade, and just like that, I'm tagged out. He's a nice forky with the beginning of a split on one side, and matching eye guards. We quarter him and take him to the nearest fire station. The guys there say to write that he's a 3x2 cause the split was big enough to hang a ring on.
My brother and I were stoked. Even though my brother missed his doe, I was very proud of him for trying. He forgot about it all once we got to the buck, and we had a great time packing that buck out together. Great memories with family will never be forgotten!
Being the amazing woman my wife is, she let me go to Colorado this September for an OTC archery elk hunt (3rd year out there). Everything panned out for that trip except putting one on the ground. On the 4th day of that trip, I was able to shoot at a bull (first shot attempt in 3 years) but missed him by a few inches. I ranged a bush he came out of instead of him, and that small miscalculation cost me big time. But I am very thankful for the opportunity to finally shoot at a bull with my bow.
Back to the "16"....
Last week was my second time going out this season. I took my little brother, who is just getting into hunting. He's carrying a G13 tag and I'm carrying a D16 tag, so we had options for the hunt. As first light came in, we started glassing the area with no luck. I decided that we should start moving through the area, Still-hunting more than glassing. Every few paces, we would stop and pull out the binos, looking over every new corner. The further we moved throughout the morning, the more fresh sign we would find.
At around 9:00, we decide to sit down, eat some snacks, and give ourselves some time to see if anything will pan out in the area we ended up in. About 30 minutes later, I hear a snort somewhere in front of us to the right, coming from some thick cover. I let my brother know what I heard and told him there's deer in the area, but that snort wasn't necessarily the best thing to hear from a deer. I assumed we may have been winded....
Not 30 seconds later, a doe comes running out into the open 200 yards in front of us, being chased by a buck, with another doe behind him. He's got his nose to the ground while trotting, and then all 3 deer just happened to stop right in front of us under an oak tree. I tell my brother that this is it, and get him set up on a shooting stick. He is absolutely losing it, breathing hard, getting the shakes that we all crave! At that point, I'm now shaking for him. I tell him to pick out the biggest doe and send one when he's ready. She's standing full broadside with her head down eating, and I tell him that he's got a good opportunity. A few minutes go by, and my brother still hasn't taken a shot. I ask him if he's ok, and he's still shaking, but tells me he's ok, and that he's trying to calm down. I tell him to breathe, try to relax, and that he needs to make a decision soon because this opportunity can fade at any moment. I also tell him if he's not ready, that he needs to give me the rifle lol. Something needs to be done!
He tells me that he can do it. So we wait for her to go broadside again. Once she turns, I let him know he's got a good shot. He sends one.... She ducks down and goes into a full sprint with the other deer right behind her. They go out of view. We have no idea if he hit her, but I'm leaning towards a clean miss. I tell him to rack another round, leave his pack, and that we'll move forward and see if they're still around. So we creep up and turn a corner in the direction they went. My brother whispers from behind me "there's the buck." And there he is, 100 yards away following one doe. He hands me the rifle, but this buck has us pinned down. He's staring straight at us, full frontal. I opt not to shoot at that moment and wait it out for a better shot. Good thing is the doe he's following hasn't pinned us down, and he keeps on glancing at her. A few minutes go by, and he finally commits to the doe. As he turns broadside and starts walking to the doe, I grunt at him. Nothing. I grunt a few more times and he finally stops. So I send one... I see the shockwave through his hide. He stumbles backwards a little, then goes into a full run forward. He chooses to go uphill, but it's obvious he's slowing down significantly. He disappears into some thick chaparral. We wait maybe half an hour, and then decide to go look for the doe my brother may have hit.
We find no blood for the doe, and as I move in the direction she went, I see ears bouncing. She comes into full view, and I see no sign of injury, no blood. We feel some relief knowing that she was not hit, so we start looking for the buck. We follow the trail he most likely went up, but we can't find any blood anywhere! My heart sinks a little, but we keep on pushing forward. I find an old antler shed, put it in my pack, and just beyond that, there he is, piled up right on a game trail. He doesn't have the biggest rack, but damn he's got a big body! We struggle to drag him into the shade, and just like that, I'm tagged out. He's a nice forky with the beginning of a split on one side, and matching eye guards. We quarter him and take him to the nearest fire station. The guys there say to write that he's a 3x2 cause the split was big enough to hang a ring on.
My brother and I were stoked. Even though my brother missed his doe, I was very proud of him for trying. He forgot about it all once we got to the buck, and we had a great time packing that buck out together. Great memories with family will never be forgotten!
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