Decided to hike in Friday night with @spencerlillywhite (just joined!) to make sure we would be a our glassing nob well before first light / “put a claim” to the area just in case others were crazy to hike in there as well.
In the AM we noticed a couple of headlamps down the mountain hiking up. We had hoped parking our trucks there would deterrent but oh well, it is a large piece of public land.
When they started getting closer we flashed our headlamps / signaled where we were at and hoped they would go North since we were south of where they were hiking in.
A few minutes after first light I spot a few does about a mile or so away. After we verified there were no bucks chasing them we kept glassing. Then my buddy Spencer spots a lone doe at ~900 yards. Lone does always get me excited so I started searching around her and got flashed. Forky at 850 yrds, so we pack up as quickly as we could to go after it.
It was one of those situations where everything was perfect. The wind was in our face, once we dropped down a hundred feet or so the buck could no longer see us. Buck was working his way to us and if we went straight we would reach a ridge above him with a <200 yard shot.
After booking it there, we slowed down as we get near the ridge to peak over and BOOM! I looked at my buddy because that gun shot was less than 100 yards away and we someone just shot at the buck we were after. Then it was followed by BOOM, BOOM. Lol a freakin war zone but we had to look to verify our buck was down. We peaked down and see that the doe was not phased, standing 190 yards from us but there was no buck with her. Then we saw the two hunters stand up and celebrate 70 yards to our left.
We decided to go congratulate them and help them if needed (internally frustrated but hey, it is public land).
Talked to the guys and it turned out to be the guys who were walking up and we flashed our light at them, I guess they passed by us beaneath that ridgeline so we never saw them, the climb up most of the way to watch that little bowl. Wish I would have seen them go by us, but what can you do ♂.
I helped them find their buck because the guy was to exited to watch exactly where it went down (I completely get it). I found him alive (bad shot) and called them over to dispatch it.
A big congrats to the guys because getting to their spot and packing out the meat or no small effort. They earned that buck and were in the right spot at the right time.
Overall it was a great trip with a new hunting partner who was in way better shape than me. Haha I need step up my hiking game.
Here is a picture of the buck, not a huge one but I love the green on his antlers!
In the AM we noticed a couple of headlamps down the mountain hiking up. We had hoped parking our trucks there would deterrent but oh well, it is a large piece of public land.
When they started getting closer we flashed our headlamps / signaled where we were at and hoped they would go North since we were south of where they were hiking in.
A few minutes after first light I spot a few does about a mile or so away. After we verified there were no bucks chasing them we kept glassing. Then my buddy Spencer spots a lone doe at ~900 yards. Lone does always get me excited so I started searching around her and got flashed. Forky at 850 yrds, so we pack up as quickly as we could to go after it.
It was one of those situations where everything was perfect. The wind was in our face, once we dropped down a hundred feet or so the buck could no longer see us. Buck was working his way to us and if we went straight we would reach a ridge above him with a <200 yard shot.
After booking it there, we slowed down as we get near the ridge to peak over and BOOM! I looked at my buddy because that gun shot was less than 100 yards away and we someone just shot at the buck we were after. Then it was followed by BOOM, BOOM. Lol a freakin war zone but we had to look to verify our buck was down. We peaked down and see that the doe was not phased, standing 190 yards from us but there was no buck with her. Then we saw the two hunters stand up and celebrate 70 yards to our left.
We decided to go congratulate them and help them if needed (internally frustrated but hey, it is public land).
Talked to the guys and it turned out to be the guys who were walking up and we flashed our light at them, I guess they passed by us beaneath that ridgeline so we never saw them, the climb up most of the way to watch that little bowl. Wish I would have seen them go by us, but what can you do ♂.
I helped them find their buck because the guy was to exited to watch exactly where it went down (I completely get it). I found him alive (bad shot) and called them over to dispatch it.
A big congrats to the guys because getting to their spot and packing out the meat or no small effort. They earned that buck and were in the right spot at the right time.
Overall it was a great trip with a new hunting partner who was in way better shape than me. Haha I need step up my hiking game.
Here is a picture of the buck, not a huge one but I love the green on his antlers!
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