Well, as was said our main goal this trip was to get my wife her first local buck and to give them a great first experience with "roughing it".
Unfortunately things haven't gone according to plan in this area since the full moon went through. We glassed our butts off for the second weekend in a row only to see an occasional doe or fawn here and there. We did have a great time on Saturday night though as we made our dinners, had a few cocktails, played a game of cards and then just sat and watched the harvest moon rise from over the desert.
One of the problems that I face putting my wife on a deer is to make it something that she can physically achieve. She has had some problems in the recent past of getting anxiety attacks which we found out about last season while trying to push her onto a deer. As you all know the chances of finding deer close to roads on public lands just doesn't happen very often around here. So, a max shot of 300 yards and under (praying for 100 yards!) with a minimal, slow paced hike is what I have to work from.
We were just about to call it quits when I start glassing the furthest ridge that I could see. This was exactly one ridge past where I shot my buck from last year. It was very difficult to glass here because my glass turns grey at this distance. BUT, low and behold there is two deer and I could see just enough to verify that one of them was a buck. I bring my wife over and let her look for a few moments when she said that she seen another deer run down and chase another one. So now I'm thinking that there are two bucks fighting over this doe. Unfortunately by the time I get back on the glass there is only one deer standing looking down into the draw. This is when I told my wife "this is where that spotting scope on my Christmas list comes into play"!
I was still very undecided as I couldn't say for certain that this was a good buck or not...but then I got on the radio and told Sammy that I see one but that it is FAR! His reply was just a simple "AND". Again, it is FAR...again, AND...shit! I'll meet you at camp in 10 and we can drop weight. My wife asks me what's the plan and I told her that she could in no way do that hike. "I know it looks completely doable but these draws in between these ridges are steep and loose! So, Sammy and I will go after them and you and Darcy can watch." I know she was bummed as was I but... :-\
So we meet at camp, drop weight and devise a plan to where we will hike the wives (and chairs) up to where I was glassing from and get them set-up on my tri-pod so at least they can watch it unfold. It only took us about 45 minutes to hike into position. At this point we drop our packs and range find the next ridge and it's only like 100 yards. We then slowly start poking our heads up over the ridge and there is a doe standing broadside feeding. I don't see the buck but Sammy sees him bedded down and he see's us. Sammy says he's a legal fork and he's getting up. As soon as he starts standing up I see him and Sammy says take him. I shoulder the gun and boom...he drops! My first thought was "I just shot my wife's deer!" I never got a chance to look at him but that brief second in the scope I seen enough to know that he was a meat deer. I was then hoping that a second deer would pop up for Sammy but never did.
We butchered it and threw it in our packs for the hike out. All I can say is that we screwed up again! We should have hiked out the same route that we hiked in but Sammy wanted to side hill out of the steep draw and drop down the face of a vertical cliff. About a 1/8th of the way down the first ridge we were stuck in no mans land! HEAVY brush, STEEP LOOSE DG, heavy backpacks and along ways to go! This hike out kicked my ass! LOL!!!
