With A-22 and D-16 going to be draws next year I was pretty sure Saturday was going to be my last rifle hunt in California. My plan for this weekend was to rifle hunt Saturday and archery hunt to finish up my deer hunting season on Sunday. My passion is archery hunting so my future plan is to get my A-22 and AO tags. We went out to a spot where we knew there was a big buck hanging around. Waiting for the sun to rise, Mergrath and I were sitting side by side with our binos on tri-pods like we have done countless times. I knew if there were a single deer within miles we would find it. We glassed for hours and saw nothing but a yote and rabbits. We called it a morning and he headed back west. I stayed around with a few other buddies and waited for the evening. About 3:00pm I sat back down and had my buddy’s kid, Kyle with me. I glassed for about 15 minutes before I picked off a doe and another deer. I knew what she was but the other one had its head on the ground feeding. I told Kyle I had deer and what direction. They were standing right in front of where Mergrath and I were glassing all morning. They either were bedded all day in a draw or were moving during the day. I kept my eyes on the other deer and soon he turned his head… big buck. I told Kyle my plan and was gone! They were just less then a mile away, but I knew I needed to get there fast as it was cloudy and light would fade faster than normal. I started out at a brisk pace and slowed as I got closer. I got to the bottom of a small draw and took my boots off and put on another pair of socks. I knew I was close but not sure where they were since I couldn’t see them. I crept over in a small ridge and nothing, over another one… nothing. I had one more to go before it was all up hill so I knew I was real close. As I made it slowly over the next ridge I didn’t see anything. I thought maybe I had spooked them early and they had run off. I stood up and something caught my eye. It looked like a bedded deer. I picked up my binos and I saw body and horns. I was shaking but wanted to be sure it was legal so I rested my binos against my rifle so it would be steady and there was no question he was legal and staring straight at me. He got up as I was putting my binos down. I had no choice but to take a free hand shot. My first shot from my 30-06 hit him at about 80 yards but he quickly limped way. I ran down to a clearing and extended my bi-pod and sat down, put the crosshairs in the mark and squeezed. He dropped and I yelled!!!! I was so excited to walk up and see him. I was speechless as I walked up to him. I had no idea he was as big as he was. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking him over in the binos so I didn’t know what to expect. I just stood there looking at him. After 17 years of deer hunting and TONS of hard work I finally had a deer to put on my wall!
