So, as I said in my intro post, getting a DIY, public land D16 buck was a big goal of mine this year. Fair warning! This is a long post. The excitement is at the end if you want to skip to that. I kind of needed to put it in writing to process it. Here's how my season went:
I'll be honest, I wasn't ready for the opener at all. As important a goal as this was for me, I was a bit stressed financially from traveling this summer and had to wait a bit to order my scope. I went with a Leupold VX-3 2.5-8. It was also important to me to mount the scope and sight it in myself. For those that haven't done it, I highly recommend it. It's pretty easy and ensures that your scope is set up perfectly for you. I also think it's important because it gives you a knowledge of your whole rifle system that you wouldn't otherwise have….. meaning, if you foul something up in the field you may be able to fix it instead of ending your hunt.
My rifle is a Tikka M658 in .270 Winchester. The M658 is a predecessor of the modern T3, or "Hunter" rather, as it does have a wood stock. It is approximately 25 years old, however, as far as I or anyone else can tell, it sat in a safe for 25 years and was never fired prior to my purchasing it. It was part of a lot of 100 guns that came to one of the local gun shops after the collector died. I can only assume his kids had no interest in guns or hunting and just wanted to sell them. Sad, but nice for me and a bunch of other people!
So, after mounting and sighting in my scope and a shooting a few sessions at the range I felt ready. The rifle will shoot MOA or better with cheap ammo if I do my part. Only problem was that at this point the season was two weeks old. The pressure was on now so I apologized to my dogs and explained to them that there would be no bird hunting for the next two weeks. Between work and other life obligations, I determined that I could hunt 5 days of the last two weeks of the season. I had spent a lot of time on the ground and pouring over maps and satellite imagery so I felt somewhat confident that I had some good spots, but was focusing on one in particular.
Saturday 11/15/14: Hiked in in the dark. Didn't quite make it to where I had initially planned to start hunting, but the area is quite remote and I figured this hillside is as good as the one I originally planned to go to. Started climbing up to the first ridge as shooting time came around. During my climb up to the ridge I noticed some fresh tracks traveling in the direction I was headed, so I followed. I tried to be quiet but the brush sometimes makes it impossible. Crested the ridge and took of my pack off to start glassing. After I got my binos out of the pack and looked up I see two deer trot out of the trough in front of me and onto the next rise, maybe 100 yards or less from me (I'm on the side of a hill, not the top, so the deer are side-hilling across the peaks and troughs of the hill). I think they had heard me but were not heading for the horizon. We proceeded to have a stare-down for the next 10-15 minutes. They were does, and I just sat there motionless and watched them through the binos, watching me. As soon as they turned around and started walking again, I got my rifle ready anticipating, hoping, praying that a buck would follow them out of the trough they had come from. I waited and waited, but that didn't happen. When the does were out of view I started to slowly follow. This went on for a while, and I just watched them feed. I was able to get within 50 yards of them without spooking them. It was good experience because I was seeing what a brand new track looked like, and brand new poop, and anytime you can stalk that close to a big animal you feel confident. Eventually it became apparent that no bucks were anywhere near these does and I wanted to move on. I tapped my monopod on a rock loud enough to get them to trot down the hill and I moved on. In retrospect, I might just continue shadowing them in the future. I covered a good amount of ground over the rest of the day, moving, glassing for a while, moving, glassing, and saw no more deer.
Sunday 11/16/14: Went to a spot not far from where I was on Saturday, but higher on a "mountain." A friend who was eager to help pointed me in that direction as he had shot his deer in the area. It was a new spot for me and it took me a bit to figure out how to get where I wanted to go in the dark. Unfortunately, a wind event began that sunday, and by 7 it had started to blow and by 8 it was 30-40 MPH winds. Nothing was moving, and it was fairly miserable to be out in. I toughed it out until around 1 and called it a day.
Friday 11/21/14: Had to take my girlfriend to the airport in the morning. Made plans to meet a hunting buddy at a kind of "roadside" spot for a half-day hunt. I've been hunting with him since the beginning and he returned from Afghanistan this summer so I've been trying to get out with him a lot. His work/school schedule pretty much ruined the deer season for him but any day in the field is a good one. We climbed high up onto a ridge and glassed the bowl on the other side of it. Saw nothing. As we traversed that bowl to get to the ridge to glass the next one, we did find deer tracks and poop. Glassed the next bowl until the end of the day. Saw nothing. Started to hike out, looked a few more times back into this bowl, and saw a white butt disappear around a corner…. to late to pursue. Turned on the headlamps and hiked out.
Saturday 11/22/14: Went back to my spot from the previous Saturday, but hiked further in as I had previously planned. There were a few other hunters there this time, however they were not climbing the hillsides but were hunting the bottom land. As I climbed the hillside, I see fresh tracks and fresh poop everywhere. It had rained on Friday, and the freshest track were easy to identify in the still-damp earth. There is so much deer sign in this place it is frustrating to not see more deer. But, I know they are there. There isn't anything else out here that leaves behind deer tracks and shi*. I spend the day, from sunup to sundown, glassing for a while, then moving to the next glassing point, glassing, moving. I made a point of staying put in glassing spots for a few hours to allow anything I may have spooked to leave the area to calm down again. Saw nothing all day. Hiked out in the dark.
Sunday 11/23/14: End of the season. Now or next year. For these weekends that I was hunting I was staying at a friends' ranch near the hunting area. It was great because I could get up at 3:30 at their place instead of 2:30 at my house in San Diego or sleeping in the truck at the trailhead. Dave was up at 4 when I was leaving the house and we chatted a bit. I said, "you know Dave, if I see legal buck today I'll consider it a success." He agreed and I said "see ya later" and jumped in the truck. I was hunting again in the same area as the day before, however this time I decided that I would not go as far in as I previously had been. I had been eying this area and figured I'd give it a try on the last day, as the hike was shorter and I had put many, many miles and countless feet of elevation gain/loss in in the last week. Same thing, lots of deer tracks and poop, including some that were hours old or less. I got to the top of the hill and glassed and glassed. Moved a bit, glassed and glassed. I even glassed areas that I wouldn't be able to successfully pursue deer in just to see if I could lay eyes on something. Nothing. I was frustrated. I knew there were deer in the area. The two does the previous weekend and the quantity of fresh and old sign told me that this was their home, yet I was finding so few.
Unfortunately another wind event was scheduled to begin that day and sure enough, around 8 it picked up. By 10 it was blowing hard, 30+ again. It's really demoralizing to be in that kind of wind for extended periods of time. You are constantly working to maintain your balance, especially when boulder-hopping with a pack and rifle (for all of these hunts except the hunt with my buddy, I was hunting with a pack and gear to carry out meat on my own). I decided I needed a change of scenery and thought I would head back to the ranch, eat lunch, and go to another spot for the afternoon where I might be able to escape the wind.
Not wanting to blow any potential opportunities, I though about how best to make my way back to the trail. I figured, if there are any deer around here right now, they are probably bedded down in one of these draws, hunkering down out of the wind. So, I started to slowly make my way down, peeking into the draw to my left. The wind benefitted me in two ways, it was coming from the east and thus I was downwind, and secondly it was blowing hard enough that it was covering any sound I was making. I slowly made my way down the hill, taking a few steps, glassing etc etc. Soon, I noticed some very fresh tracks, and something about them struck me as odd. They were heading downhill. All of the fresh tracks that I had seen in the mornings on all of these hunts were heading up hill, which I assumed was the daily routine of these deer heading to their bedding areas high up on the hills. I studied the tracks closely as I took the next few steps, and I quickly noticed that there were two sets, one larger than the other. At this point I stopped, unslung my rifle and began to very slowly still-hunt. I couldn't really believe that there were two deer between me and the trail, which was not far away, but all of my senses were telling me "get ready." I took a step, scanned, glassed areas where I could see further, scanned some more, took a step, repeat. Following the tracks exactly, I continued like this for a minute or two or three, I really don't remember. My senses were tingling, EYES OPEN! I was trying to make them open wider. Took another step. SNORT! A buck leaps to its feet 10 yards from me and then a doe that was just down hill from it. My nervous system and heart simultaneously explode. The deer both start their kangaroo-like run across the hill side. I threw my rifle to my shoulder and start to track the buck in the scope, which is difficult because they were so close to me and even at only 2.5 magnification they are jumping in and out of the field of view (if only I had been hunting a rifle with open sights….). As the deer slows at the crest of the hill, I twist up the magnification. He stops for a moment and then trots over the hillside out of view before I can calm myself and steady my rifle. YOU IDIOT! I know that mule deer often stop at the crest of a hill to look back before continuing on. I instantly scolded myself. At the moment the deer jumped from it's bed I should have thrown off my pack, placed it vertically and sat down to rest my rifle on it and waited. I would have been ready for him when he stopped. Instead I was trying to steady myself while standing on a steep sandy hill for a two second opportunity. The deer had run side-hill away from me, so as soon as they were out of view (only about 100 yard from me) I instantly started running diagonally uphill to try to get above them and get another shot opportunity. It probably took me two or three minutes to gain a point where I felt I should still be able to see them. Nothing. I told myself, they've gone further than you think. Glassed further. Nothing. I told myself, wait, wait longer than you think you should. They could trot out of any one of these draws, or from behind any one of these sumac bushes. Nothing. I waited and waited. I slowly gained elevation to the point where I could glass the entire hillside. Nothing. I saw a hunter heading back to the trailhead. Got ready in case he spooked the deer out of any one of a thousand hiding places along the hillside. Nothing. Couple BP guys came by, again nothing. I waited about 90 minutes or so before I decided to call it, of course, the whole time going over and over what had happened and kicking myself. They vanished, which as we all know they are quite good at doing. I did decide to walk down to the area of the path that they took and see what I could decipher. Hunted slow again, but really knowing that they were long gone. I went back to where I originally bumped them from. Found some of the first tracks from where they jumped from their beds:
Those are the rear feet, and you can see how they land simultaneously and right next to each other when they are running.
With the wind doing what it was doing and from the direction it was blowing, I knew that the probability of getting into anymore deer was slim, and I decided to call it, telling myself maybe I'd hit one more "roadside" spot on the way home.
My analysis and suggestions to myself and others: I think given the conditions and the specific situation on this particular hunt, I made the best of it, with the exception of the one thing I needed to do right to seal the deal. Of course, ideally I would love to glass a buck from a few hundred yards, make a short stalk and shoot from a nice comfortable prone position, and that is what I will continue to try to do. But I think it's important to be adaptable. In general, game animals are not moving about in wind conditions like that. I don't hear of many guys still-hunting in the west, the terrain dictates spot and stalk, which I'm all for. But don't rule it out is all I'm saying. Look at tracks, look at poop. When I see fresh poop I pick it up, if the pellets on the bottom are still shiny or damp, you know it's really fresh. If you do find yourself on walkabout and jump a buck, my suggestion is to rest your rifle, chamber a round, thumb the safety off and wait. He might just give you the opportunity you need as he crests that next hill….
I did hunt that roadside spot on the way home for the last hour…. tracks and poop.
Thanks guys. Suggestions, criticism, hate mail. All welcome.
I'll be honest, I wasn't ready for the opener at all. As important a goal as this was for me, I was a bit stressed financially from traveling this summer and had to wait a bit to order my scope. I went with a Leupold VX-3 2.5-8. It was also important to me to mount the scope and sight it in myself. For those that haven't done it, I highly recommend it. It's pretty easy and ensures that your scope is set up perfectly for you. I also think it's important because it gives you a knowledge of your whole rifle system that you wouldn't otherwise have….. meaning, if you foul something up in the field you may be able to fix it instead of ending your hunt.
My rifle is a Tikka M658 in .270 Winchester. The M658 is a predecessor of the modern T3, or "Hunter" rather, as it does have a wood stock. It is approximately 25 years old, however, as far as I or anyone else can tell, it sat in a safe for 25 years and was never fired prior to my purchasing it. It was part of a lot of 100 guns that came to one of the local gun shops after the collector died. I can only assume his kids had no interest in guns or hunting and just wanted to sell them. Sad, but nice for me and a bunch of other people!
So, after mounting and sighting in my scope and a shooting a few sessions at the range I felt ready. The rifle will shoot MOA or better with cheap ammo if I do my part. Only problem was that at this point the season was two weeks old. The pressure was on now so I apologized to my dogs and explained to them that there would be no bird hunting for the next two weeks. Between work and other life obligations, I determined that I could hunt 5 days of the last two weeks of the season. I had spent a lot of time on the ground and pouring over maps and satellite imagery so I felt somewhat confident that I had some good spots, but was focusing on one in particular.
Saturday 11/15/14: Hiked in in the dark. Didn't quite make it to where I had initially planned to start hunting, but the area is quite remote and I figured this hillside is as good as the one I originally planned to go to. Started climbing up to the first ridge as shooting time came around. During my climb up to the ridge I noticed some fresh tracks traveling in the direction I was headed, so I followed. I tried to be quiet but the brush sometimes makes it impossible. Crested the ridge and took of my pack off to start glassing. After I got my binos out of the pack and looked up I see two deer trot out of the trough in front of me and onto the next rise, maybe 100 yards or less from me (I'm on the side of a hill, not the top, so the deer are side-hilling across the peaks and troughs of the hill). I think they had heard me but were not heading for the horizon. We proceeded to have a stare-down for the next 10-15 minutes. They were does, and I just sat there motionless and watched them through the binos, watching me. As soon as they turned around and started walking again, I got my rifle ready anticipating, hoping, praying that a buck would follow them out of the trough they had come from. I waited and waited, but that didn't happen. When the does were out of view I started to slowly follow. This went on for a while, and I just watched them feed. I was able to get within 50 yards of them without spooking them. It was good experience because I was seeing what a brand new track looked like, and brand new poop, and anytime you can stalk that close to a big animal you feel confident. Eventually it became apparent that no bucks were anywhere near these does and I wanted to move on. I tapped my monopod on a rock loud enough to get them to trot down the hill and I moved on. In retrospect, I might just continue shadowing them in the future. I covered a good amount of ground over the rest of the day, moving, glassing for a while, moving, glassing, and saw no more deer.
Sunday 11/16/14: Went to a spot not far from where I was on Saturday, but higher on a "mountain." A friend who was eager to help pointed me in that direction as he had shot his deer in the area. It was a new spot for me and it took me a bit to figure out how to get where I wanted to go in the dark. Unfortunately, a wind event began that sunday, and by 7 it had started to blow and by 8 it was 30-40 MPH winds. Nothing was moving, and it was fairly miserable to be out in. I toughed it out until around 1 and called it a day.
Friday 11/21/14: Had to take my girlfriend to the airport in the morning. Made plans to meet a hunting buddy at a kind of "roadside" spot for a half-day hunt. I've been hunting with him since the beginning and he returned from Afghanistan this summer so I've been trying to get out with him a lot. His work/school schedule pretty much ruined the deer season for him but any day in the field is a good one. We climbed high up onto a ridge and glassed the bowl on the other side of it. Saw nothing. As we traversed that bowl to get to the ridge to glass the next one, we did find deer tracks and poop. Glassed the next bowl until the end of the day. Saw nothing. Started to hike out, looked a few more times back into this bowl, and saw a white butt disappear around a corner…. to late to pursue. Turned on the headlamps and hiked out.
Saturday 11/22/14: Went back to my spot from the previous Saturday, but hiked further in as I had previously planned. There were a few other hunters there this time, however they were not climbing the hillsides but were hunting the bottom land. As I climbed the hillside, I see fresh tracks and fresh poop everywhere. It had rained on Friday, and the freshest track were easy to identify in the still-damp earth. There is so much deer sign in this place it is frustrating to not see more deer. But, I know they are there. There isn't anything else out here that leaves behind deer tracks and shi*. I spend the day, from sunup to sundown, glassing for a while, then moving to the next glassing point, glassing, moving. I made a point of staying put in glassing spots for a few hours to allow anything I may have spooked to leave the area to calm down again. Saw nothing all day. Hiked out in the dark.
Sunday 11/23/14: End of the season. Now or next year. For these weekends that I was hunting I was staying at a friends' ranch near the hunting area. It was great because I could get up at 3:30 at their place instead of 2:30 at my house in San Diego or sleeping in the truck at the trailhead. Dave was up at 4 when I was leaving the house and we chatted a bit. I said, "you know Dave, if I see legal buck today I'll consider it a success." He agreed and I said "see ya later" and jumped in the truck. I was hunting again in the same area as the day before, however this time I decided that I would not go as far in as I previously had been. I had been eying this area and figured I'd give it a try on the last day, as the hike was shorter and I had put many, many miles and countless feet of elevation gain/loss in in the last week. Same thing, lots of deer tracks and poop, including some that were hours old or less. I got to the top of the hill and glassed and glassed. Moved a bit, glassed and glassed. I even glassed areas that I wouldn't be able to successfully pursue deer in just to see if I could lay eyes on something. Nothing. I was frustrated. I knew there were deer in the area. The two does the previous weekend and the quantity of fresh and old sign told me that this was their home, yet I was finding so few.
Unfortunately another wind event was scheduled to begin that day and sure enough, around 8 it picked up. By 10 it was blowing hard, 30+ again. It's really demoralizing to be in that kind of wind for extended periods of time. You are constantly working to maintain your balance, especially when boulder-hopping with a pack and rifle (for all of these hunts except the hunt with my buddy, I was hunting with a pack and gear to carry out meat on my own). I decided I needed a change of scenery and thought I would head back to the ranch, eat lunch, and go to another spot for the afternoon where I might be able to escape the wind.
Not wanting to blow any potential opportunities, I though about how best to make my way back to the trail. I figured, if there are any deer around here right now, they are probably bedded down in one of these draws, hunkering down out of the wind. So, I started to slowly make my way down, peeking into the draw to my left. The wind benefitted me in two ways, it was coming from the east and thus I was downwind, and secondly it was blowing hard enough that it was covering any sound I was making. I slowly made my way down the hill, taking a few steps, glassing etc etc. Soon, I noticed some very fresh tracks, and something about them struck me as odd. They were heading downhill. All of the fresh tracks that I had seen in the mornings on all of these hunts were heading up hill, which I assumed was the daily routine of these deer heading to their bedding areas high up on the hills. I studied the tracks closely as I took the next few steps, and I quickly noticed that there were two sets, one larger than the other. At this point I stopped, unslung my rifle and began to very slowly still-hunt. I couldn't really believe that there were two deer between me and the trail, which was not far away, but all of my senses were telling me "get ready." I took a step, scanned, glassed areas where I could see further, scanned some more, took a step, repeat. Following the tracks exactly, I continued like this for a minute or two or three, I really don't remember. My senses were tingling, EYES OPEN! I was trying to make them open wider. Took another step. SNORT! A buck leaps to its feet 10 yards from me and then a doe that was just down hill from it. My nervous system and heart simultaneously explode. The deer both start their kangaroo-like run across the hill side. I threw my rifle to my shoulder and start to track the buck in the scope, which is difficult because they were so close to me and even at only 2.5 magnification they are jumping in and out of the field of view (if only I had been hunting a rifle with open sights….). As the deer slows at the crest of the hill, I twist up the magnification. He stops for a moment and then trots over the hillside out of view before I can calm myself and steady my rifle. YOU IDIOT! I know that mule deer often stop at the crest of a hill to look back before continuing on. I instantly scolded myself. At the moment the deer jumped from it's bed I should have thrown off my pack, placed it vertically and sat down to rest my rifle on it and waited. I would have been ready for him when he stopped. Instead I was trying to steady myself while standing on a steep sandy hill for a two second opportunity. The deer had run side-hill away from me, so as soon as they were out of view (only about 100 yard from me) I instantly started running diagonally uphill to try to get above them and get another shot opportunity. It probably took me two or three minutes to gain a point where I felt I should still be able to see them. Nothing. I told myself, they've gone further than you think. Glassed further. Nothing. I told myself, wait, wait longer than you think you should. They could trot out of any one of these draws, or from behind any one of these sumac bushes. Nothing. I waited and waited. I slowly gained elevation to the point where I could glass the entire hillside. Nothing. I saw a hunter heading back to the trailhead. Got ready in case he spooked the deer out of any one of a thousand hiding places along the hillside. Nothing. Couple BP guys came by, again nothing. I waited about 90 minutes or so before I decided to call it, of course, the whole time going over and over what had happened and kicking myself. They vanished, which as we all know they are quite good at doing. I did decide to walk down to the area of the path that they took and see what I could decipher. Hunted slow again, but really knowing that they were long gone. I went back to where I originally bumped them from. Found some of the first tracks from where they jumped from their beds:
Those are the rear feet, and you can see how they land simultaneously and right next to each other when they are running.
With the wind doing what it was doing and from the direction it was blowing, I knew that the probability of getting into anymore deer was slim, and I decided to call it, telling myself maybe I'd hit one more "roadside" spot on the way home.
My analysis and suggestions to myself and others: I think given the conditions and the specific situation on this particular hunt, I made the best of it, with the exception of the one thing I needed to do right to seal the deal. Of course, ideally I would love to glass a buck from a few hundred yards, make a short stalk and shoot from a nice comfortable prone position, and that is what I will continue to try to do. But I think it's important to be adaptable. In general, game animals are not moving about in wind conditions like that. I don't hear of many guys still-hunting in the west, the terrain dictates spot and stalk, which I'm all for. But don't rule it out is all I'm saying. Look at tracks, look at poop. When I see fresh poop I pick it up, if the pellets on the bottom are still shiny or damp, you know it's really fresh. If you do find yourself on walkabout and jump a buck, my suggestion is to rest your rifle, chamber a round, thumb the safety off and wait. He might just give you the opportunity you need as he crests that next hill….
I did hunt that roadside spot on the way home for the last hour…. tracks and poop.
Thanks guys. Suggestions, criticism, hate mail. All welcome.
