Well opening weekend started off good. Me and my buddy Kellen had planned to pack in Friday night to a spot and spend the night, unfortunately I got off work too late Friday.
We decided to just leave early Saturday morning. Before I knew it we were in my trusty glassing spot that I've seen a ton of bucks from over the last few years. The cold weather was a promising sign there would be deer movement.
Right at first light I spotted 4 does across the canyon. Within the next 10 minutes we had spotted 2 forkies, 1 spike fork and about 8 other does. One of the forkies and the spike fork kept occupied for over an hour chasing a doe around a little bowl below us at around 500 yards. It was one of the coolest things I've experienced, unfortunately the bucks never fought, but man they were obsessed with chasing that doe.
The movement died down, so me and kellen started to focus on shade, rock ledges and fallen timber in hopes of finding a bedded buck.
After roughly 9 hours of sitting in the same glassing spot our shade had disappeared. About 20 yards below us was a good spot to get out of the sun and still have slot of glass-able area.
As I was getting ready to sit down Kellen whispers to me that there's a shooter right below us. I quickly spotted the deer and ranged him at 288 yards, the buck slowly walked into some thick trees.
Kellen went right down and I went left, there was no way this buck could put the slip on us. Once kellen had got about to where the buck had went into the brush, he busted out running. At 150 yards the buck stopped broadside and kellen made a perfect neck shot dropping him in his tracks.
After a short celebration we got to work on getting this deer cut up so we could make the gnarly pack out (about 3 miles straight up hill).
Long story short, we made it home that evening and were able to BBQ some of the harvest, plus make plans for the next mornings hunt.
We decided to let that spot cool of for a bit and go to one of my favorite childhood honey holes, and where I killed my 4x3 last season.
Sunday morning came quick and once again there I was waiting for enough light to glass. I started to glass the horizon of the hills as I always do, and not 30 seconds in I glassed 4 deer making their way across the top of a ridge. The deer stayed on that same ridge until light came. Once I had enough light, I confirmed there was a buck in the group I was willing to put a tag on. Not a huge buck, but a decent 3x2.
Long story short, we bedded him down, but between the time it took us to get there he had already changed beds and was no where to be found.
Over the next few hours we found a couple does and a smaller buck.
After 13 miles hiking and 14 hours of glassing we decided we would just cruise the road in hopes of getting lucky. We didn't.
Overall it was a successful opening weekend.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We decided to just leave early Saturday morning. Before I knew it we were in my trusty glassing spot that I've seen a ton of bucks from over the last few years. The cold weather was a promising sign there would be deer movement.
Right at first light I spotted 4 does across the canyon. Within the next 10 minutes we had spotted 2 forkies, 1 spike fork and about 8 other does. One of the forkies and the spike fork kept occupied for over an hour chasing a doe around a little bowl below us at around 500 yards. It was one of the coolest things I've experienced, unfortunately the bucks never fought, but man they were obsessed with chasing that doe.
The movement died down, so me and kellen started to focus on shade, rock ledges and fallen timber in hopes of finding a bedded buck.
After roughly 9 hours of sitting in the same glassing spot our shade had disappeared. About 20 yards below us was a good spot to get out of the sun and still have slot of glass-able area.
As I was getting ready to sit down Kellen whispers to me that there's a shooter right below us. I quickly spotted the deer and ranged him at 288 yards, the buck slowly walked into some thick trees.
Kellen went right down and I went left, there was no way this buck could put the slip on us. Once kellen had got about to where the buck had went into the brush, he busted out running. At 150 yards the buck stopped broadside and kellen made a perfect neck shot dropping him in his tracks.
After a short celebration we got to work on getting this deer cut up so we could make the gnarly pack out (about 3 miles straight up hill).
Long story short, we made it home that evening and were able to BBQ some of the harvest, plus make plans for the next mornings hunt.
We decided to let that spot cool of for a bit and go to one of my favorite childhood honey holes, and where I killed my 4x3 last season.
Sunday morning came quick and once again there I was waiting for enough light to glass. I started to glass the horizon of the hills as I always do, and not 30 seconds in I glassed 4 deer making their way across the top of a ridge. The deer stayed on that same ridge until light came. Once I had enough light, I confirmed there was a buck in the group I was willing to put a tag on. Not a huge buck, but a decent 3x2.
Long story short, we bedded him down, but between the time it took us to get there he had already changed beds and was no where to be found.
Over the next few hours we found a couple does and a smaller buck.
After 13 miles hiking and 14 hours of glassing we decided we would just cruise the road in hopes of getting lucky. We didn't.
Overall it was a successful opening weekend.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
