sadiebug

Thank you everyone!

My deer.

We were running out of time... I checked my chart one more time. I wanted to make sure I was aiming correct. BOOM... not knowing where I hit my dad said, "you just missed high...." was this the beginning or was that my chance? Who knew being stuck in traffic at 2:00 in the afternoon could lead to such an amazing deer! We left the house at around 1:00 packed for a 3 day adventure... Ate a little Whataburger for lunch on the road... not knowing and only wishing for a what was instore! After parking, we started hunting. We hiked 50 feet before we saw a beautiful doe! She was alone and had no big bucks following her, but that’s ok. We continued to hike seeing A LOT of sign and A Lot of BIG tracks! But no deer. Once we hiked and hunted a couple of miles, we arrived at a really good glassing spot. I couldn't feel my feet. Every drainage we crossed had icy run-off flowing in it. One was deep enough we had to strip into our underwear to cross!!! OMG... We quickly glassed a little 2 point buck and I passed him up. Then, we saw 2 does around 600 yards away. Continuing to glass we moved up about 20 feet so my dad could see a little better….While moving we saw 2 pigs. They were fighting and one was kicking the others butt! We watched them fight for what seemed like 20 min. It was such a cool sight!! It was starting to get late so while hiking out my dad decided to glass for a few minutes and found the ONE! My dad said "he was 600 yards!" Can I shoot 600 yards? He said "you know exactly what your rifle does and have hold over marks out to 630 yards, either you hit em or you miss em. What do you want to do?" So I got bagged up with my happy sock, (a sock filled with rice and corn for the butt of my stock) dropped my bipos and waited for him to turn. He just wouldnt turn! Finally, 10-15 minutes later I clicked off my safety... I checked my chart one more time. I wanted to make sure I was aiming correctly. BOOM... not knowing where I hit my dad said, "you just missed high.... where ever you aimed, lower it a bit." So I reloaded and found him again in the same spot. BOOM, I got em! He rolled HARD and got right back up. You could tell he was hit hard. BOOM! I got em again! He took a dirt nap! I couldn’t believe I got him from 600 yards away! I was still FREEZING!!!!! We had a long night of packing so, my dad called his friend that lived in Cotton Wood to help us pack him out! He met us about a mile away from the deer… we didn’t waste any time, we got a good photo session and then gutted my buck. My dad carried the deer and his friend took the back with the my rifle! We got to the truck at almost 11:00 and debated if we were going to go all the way home or stay in Cotton Wood. We decided to stay and had a good nights rest!! This was an amazing experience and I had a great time! I am very blessed... Thanks for everyone who helped. (Eddie, Matt, Scott and my dad) I love you all. He broke about a 3" point when he rolled. Cant wait to go back and try to find it.

The Buffalo Hunt: The hunt started when my mom and dad were out at the Wild-life Conservation dinner. Eddy Corona asked if I would like to hunt buffalo. So my dad called me and asked me, at first i was hesitant because of how big they are. But then I was like " Lets do it!!" So, right after a softball tournament on May 23, we left to go kill a buffalo! Derek Taylor, my dad, and of course me! On the way up there the altinator started going out..and the headlights started dimming!! We barely made it into Flagstaff! We called Auto Zone..and the lady stayed open late for us so we could get a new alternator! After that everything was great!once we got close it started to snow, in May!!! We spent the night at Jacob's Lake in our guide's trailor! We pulled in at about 2 am! We got up at about 4, and started driving South. We got to the camp, loaded our packs and started still hunting. Withinthe first 45 minutes of hunting, we started tracking, and saw our first buffalo! It was a bull, but it didn't give us time to shoot!! We hunted the rest of the day but didn't see anything! The second day we didn't see anything! But we did manage to get Lance's truck stuck in mud and snow...TWICE!! The third day we were only hunting for a couple hours. We were in buffalo for a long time! We were just still hunting, then lance started calling. I finally got a shot,but forgot to take safety off! Fortunately for me, I got another shot at a Big Cow! Right after I shot, she ran onto the National Park.In the park, you aren't allowed to shoot! We watched her for a long time. She layed down.. figured she was going to die right there. My dad went to get forest service... by the time he got back with them, she was long gone!! We went back out and tried to get another one but didn't see anything else. The 4th day we saw some bulls when we were diving to our hunting spot, but didn't see any when we started hunting! We had to head home because Derek and my dad had to go back to work and I had some doctor appointments to go to. Last Saturday-Monday we kept getting texts from Lance saying that he has buffalo everywhere but no hunters to hunt them and it was driving him crazy!! So we left on Monday, mid-morning. It was, my dad, my brother Cole, and me!! We got up there at around 4 in the afternoon. So we started an evening hunt..but we didn't see anything!! We got up the next morning, we were just driving roads trying to find some tracks! We didn't see any tracks, so my dad went uo to glass. While Lance and I started cutting tracks, and we told my dad where the freshest's tracks were heading so he could check that really, really good! He spotted a nice bull about 30 minutes away from us..so we hauled butt to catch up with him. We finally caught up with him 1,500 yards later. We spotted him and started sneaking up on him. There was a bush just perfectly covering his body. He started getting spooked so we set up...Then, big brown went down! It took 4 shots to kill him. They were all right in the kill zone! It took my dad about 2 and a half hours to get up to where we were. But by the time he got there the buffalo was quartered and all the meat was off. So my dad started de-boning him. While my dad was doing that Lance started caping it. And as for me, I was taking pictures!! We called Kyle Frei because he said he would let us use his horses if we needed them, earlier in the hunt! And we needed them!! He had his last client at 5. Which was 4 our time. So right after his last client, he went home, got the horses, and got a trailor! He got here right at dark. He brought his son Hunter, also. My dad and Kyle rode in on horses to the buffalo. They got all the meat and hauled it out. They didn't get back to camp until about 1:45 am!! Thank-you sooooo much Kyle, and Hunter! Im sorry you had to go to work early the next day, with no sleep!!! My Buffalo Joke: What did the daddy buffalo say to the son buffalo as he was leaving for school? Answer: Bi-son I would like to give a huge thanks to, Weston (Lance's son), Lance!!!, Derek, Eddy Corona, my dad, the woman who donated the tag, CouesWhitetail.com (Amanda), everyone else who has helped, and everyone else who has given donations and prayers!! Thanks Again!! Love, Sadie Anderson