1 for 2 in early December

[az_shooter]

The day after Thanksgiving I found myself in a familiar situation in an unfamiliar territory. Myself and a good buddy, who has never killed a deer with a rifle, were unsuccessful in drawing the tags we wanted, so we found ourselves sitting in the morning darkness on a tall ridge staring into a deep canyon with thick brush and tall peaks. He and myself both whispering while also gasping to catch our breaths at the same time because of the long steep climb we just made to get to our spots before first light. As soon as it was light enough to see, we start pounding the canyon bottom and drainages glassing for deer and it's not long before we both start finding them, and in plenty. 20 minutes after first light we had two bucks on a far ridge and smiles on our faces. It seemed to go on like this for most of the day, the only problem was that all the bucks we were finding just wasn't what we were looking for. That went on for the first two days of the hunt when finally I glassed up a group of bucks that had one buck that my buddy would be happy with shooting. We were running out of light and we had a long distance to travel to get into any decent shooting position, so we set off down the steep canyon and then right back up the other side. We made it down and back up in what seemed like no time at all and right away got set to start glassing for the bucks again. In no time I found the bucks and picked out the shooter and got my buddy set up for a 723 yard uphill shot. I doped the scope and with no time to spare he laid behind the rifle and sent the round hurling towards the buck. Miss, just a slight wind adjustment sent the round a foot and a half to the right of the shoulder and the bullet just about brushed the bucks nose. With dirt and rock sprayed all over the buck, they took off up and over the ridge and with no light left we backed out of the canyon, sure to return in the morning.

On the morning of the third day we were right back in the same shooting spot as the night before glassing the same hill side we missed the buck on. As fate would have it I picked up some bucks in the exact same spot as the previous evening and it just so happened it was the same bucks as last night. I immediately grab my kestrol and rifle and start doping the scope getting my buddy set up for the same shot that he took once before. I ranged the buck at 700 and the game was on. As the first shot rings out, I catch no vapor trail in the binos and the buck seems to be unharmed. I tell him to reload and shoot again, boom, another miss, still no vapor trail and now the buck is headed down hill still unsure of whats going on. This happened two more times and then by chance the buck stops. I take a quick range and I make a small adjustment on the scope for 650. I tell my buddy to breathe and squeeze the trigger. Boom, I see the bullet make a solid hit and blow hair off right behind the shoulder. The buck ran five steps and piled up right there. Perfect shot, we cheered and my friend finally had his first rifle kill, with a 650 yard shot.

 

 

Now that he got his buck, it was now time to start looking for mine. I have killed three bucks in the previous years so this year I was holding out trying to break that 100 inch mark. The whole hunt we were finding good numbers of bucks, Just nothing I wanted to pull the trigger on. My friend and myself weren't able to hunt everyday during the week so I made it out by myself for a morning hunt and a couple evening hunts during the week, the whole time finding bucks but still nothing I was looking for. Before I knew it I was down to the final three days of the hunt and still haven't seen a buck over 75 inches. On the second Saturday we hiked deep into a new spot where I found a buck that I would like to try and shoot so just like an instant replay of the Saturday before we head down a steep canyon just to go right back the other side to try and get into a good spot to shoot with the light fading fast. This time we were unsuccessful in finding the buck after getting to the shooting spot and the night fell on us and time was up. With one day left we hiked right back into the same spot only this time to not find anything other than a few does. The final day came and went with no luck and all in all after passing on about 20 or so bucks I find myself writing this feeling fully successful on filling one of two tags and knowing that we worked our buts off the whole hunt. Now the only thing left to do is get ready for archery and try and get some meat in the freezer. I told my buddy, who has never killed a deer with a rifle, only a bow, that this may be a switch year. That being that I have never killed a deer with my bow, so maybe this will be my year. Thanks for reading my adventure, hope it wasn't too long. Oh and here is a picture of a dead head I picked up in one of the canyons we hunted.

 

 

[Pine Donkey]

Thanks for posting the story Justin. Sounds like you two had a great hunt. Stop by if you get over this way during the archery hunt. Good luck!

[Mocha1545]

Nice Buck. Way to keep at it.

[cvw789]

Way to go and nice write up. Congrats

[sherman]

Way to go nice write up and good luck with a bow. Did you get pictures of the mulie your friend got

[randyolson]

Nice Buck!! Congrats! Great shooting!

[bonecollector]

Good looking buck. Congrats to your buddy on his first rifle kill. Sounds like the hunt was good seeing plenty of bucks.

[cramerhunts]

Very nicely done. Congratulations.

[az_shooter]

Thanks every body, it was a really good hunt.

Sherman - I will send you a picture of the mule deer my friend shot.

Robert - I will have to swing by sometime, I was over there a little while ago but I had just missed you guys.

[tjhunt2]

That was a great story Justin and thanks for sharing your buddy and his awesome buck. Sounds like you both had plenty of deer spotted to make for an interesting hunt. Good luck on your archery deer hunt. Take more pictures!

 

TJ