After the highs of filling all of your tags passes and you realize you are done for the year it’s a bummer. Thankfully my brother hit that magic age and got his first D16 tag this year. Convinced mom to call him out sick for the day and we started our trek into the hills at 4:45. We hike up to a spot I like to glass from and immediately before it’s wven legal shooting light I see 6 deer. We are pumped thinking it’s going to be a good day, and then the ultimate disappointment happens. Other hunters pop out of the brush 30 yards away and spook the 6 deer below us. We stay put and the others headed deeper into the hills. Not long after I spot 2 deer about 2000+ yards away. I through the Razor spotter on the tripod and see bone. Unfortunately it’s where the other hunters just went. So after not hearing any shots we decide to make the trek over to the buck. When we got about 3/4 of the way there we hear a gun shot. Little brother is super bummed but I reassure him we will stay with it. We decide to head back to the original rock were glassing from in the morning. We get back there at 10:30 and to my amazement still saw some deer out and about in the heat of the day. Nothing but does so we watch them till they bed down and decide to take a nap. That lasted about 30 min and we were back to watching doe walking around in the middle of the day. By around 2:30 we were discouraged and tired and decided to head back to the truck. As we got down the trail I realized a hillside was already shaded so I decided to sit down and put glass on it. Within minutes of sitting down we spot 2 deer. A buck and doe at 500 yards. We took our time sneaking down the ridge line and closed the distance to 240 yards. After changing shooting positions and spots 4 times until the little brother finds something comfortable we are ready to go. After helping him get his breathing under control we wait for the buck to take a step forward into a small clearing. With a smooth squeeze of the trigger, the 28 Nosler lets out a bark and the buck didn’t know what hit it. Shot was a tad forward but the lungs were blended and he didn’t even take a step. First successful big game hunt my little brother had been apart of so let him go find the buck and took tons of pictures. With dark closing in fast I quartered up the deer with help from him and we started hiking right at last light. Around a 2 mile hike out he carried damn near the whole thing him self. Couldn’t be more proud!!
