I finally got lucky!!

[randyolson]

Sorry it took so long to post this, but better late than never.

Nov 28th, Thursday morning, without a second thought of Thanksgiving dinner (oh maybe just a little bit), I was all packed and ready to take off for my hunting unit. Same as anyone else, the excitement and anticipation of going hunting and being outdoors was un-measurable. We, my brother-n-law, (Jim) nephew, (Michael) and I made it to our destination and got camp all set up. Tomorrow is opening day and we are ready to leave camp to get to that special spot and see some whitetail bucks as the sun is coming up.

Nov 29th, that special spot had no bucks, only does, but it was great seeing them, knowing the bucks would be close by or hoping anyway. The day came and went. No shots, but we did put some miles on our boots, enjoyed the country side and we were definitely ready for some R&R in camp by the time the sun went down and ready for a good meal that my Michael made. Now it’s time to make plans for tomorrows hunt.

Nov30th, Morning came early as always but we were all ready to go. We had decided to split up and go our separate ways to cover more ground today. Plus I wanted to check out an old water hole on the way to the area I was going to. (Even though we were split up we did send a text or 2 back and forth to stay in touch from time to time when we had a signal). The water hole was empty!! Let’s move on and find a good spot and grab a seat on the South side of the mountain that gave me the best view looking at the North sides.

It was overcast that day so I didn’t need much shade. I found a small tree that would be perfect! I stayed put all day, thinking this was the best spot I could possibly be at. I was enjoying the beauty of the location as always and taking it all in, how great this was. The day was passing by faster than I had wanted and all I had seen was a couple of hunters on the opposite mountain top early in the morning.

It was now around 3:40pm and thinking that it’s getting close to that special time of the day and the deer should be moving. Tick tock, sunset was fast approaching, but wait……4:10 pm here comes a buck from around the back of the mountain, went 40 yards and laid down next to a dead tree where I had been looking at that moment with my binoculars. Bingo, game on! (By the way, no matter how old we are or get, buck fever still exists. I was a little too excited and over whelmed, I must admit!!)

The buck appeared to be to really docile and in no hurry to move any time soon. I was already in the sitting position so I figured I would shoot from where I was when the deer got up.

Now it’s 4:50pm and the sun is changing positions faster as it seems and glaring through the over cast sky. What do I do and how do I do this I thought to myself. I don’t want to lose this deer and I definitely know he will not be there tomorrow. How can I make him stand up and not scare him off back in the direction in which he came?

I better get my range finder from my backpack. (Darn, I left it at home!! It’s in my other back pack that I used on another hunt. I guess I was not all packed like I thought I was and didn’t follow my check list)!!

Ok, let’s do this the hard way!! How far away is he? Time seems to be still moving faster now and it’s getting colder too. What can I do to make this happen…..? I have to calculate how far he is and take the shot right where he lays or just let him go!? (I wanted to be ethical about this decision and make sure it’s the right one). He is a very small target lying down. Can I or not, make this shot? I grabbed my Primo’s single shooting stick and was still too excited to use it! My goodness!! I have a bipod on my rifle but it’s a too short and I am downhill!! Now what? (Truth is I never expected to see a buck that I wanted to shoot so I was not prepared. I had always been too picky. There were always smaller bucks I could of shot but thought that I will hold out for a bigger one. Before you know it, 11 years had passed since I had shot my last deer and still always holding out for a bigger one).

I decided to crawl to the base of the tree that I was sitting by all day, stood up and shoved the barrel of my 243 through the branches. By this time I had figured that he was at 300 yards. (I kept thinking of when I was at the shooting range and football fields end to end for calculating the distance and hoping I was correct). I bent a couple of branches that were in my way, took aim and pulled the trigger!!

The buck jumped up and was slowly moving West down the mountain side through the long grass and brush. He appeared to be hit and I thought I seen blood. I shot 2 more times. Didn’t know if I hit him or not since he didn’t drop? The deer disappeared as fast as he appeared!! I don’t know where he went? I don’t know if he is dead or just hit! I don’t see him on the mountain anywhere! The grass is too tall. That’s just great I thought to myself!! How can I find the landmark of that dead tree and it is getting dark? I started working my way in that direction and it is now 5:40pm and it would be 6 or later by the time I got over there. Though it was 300 yards as the crow flies it was much further than that by the time I go down and back up, I thought to myself. Best bet now was I had better not push him and come back at first light with some help and try and get back on him and that’s what we did.

Dec 1st, up early and anxiously ready to go back to that spot where the buck was at when I shot the first time. (I didn’t sleep well last night and kept wondering what if and if the buck would there or not). We got to the spot where the buck had been laying. There was blood!! But not much!! I know now that I hit him now for sure. But was it good or not? Now we can track him!! No sooner than when we had started I had lost the blood trail but Jim picked it back up. There was a huge spot of blood and then several more. He was definitely bleeding pretty bad and leaving lots of good sign. We stayed on the blood trail and found my buck laying on the edge of a canyon 150 yards from where he was bedded and I had taken that first shot. Game over!!

Josh and Jeremy White at Desert Edge Taxidermy will be doing a right turn, semi sneak shoulder mount.

A special thanks for the outstanding help from Jim and Michael!! Hopefully one day soon I will be helping them with their deer.

[BackwoodsHunter]

Great story, awesome buck!

[Coues Kid]

Awesome buck congrats and a great story to go with it.

[deercrazy]

Thanks for sharing your story. Well written, and a great buck.

[Couestracker]

Congrats on a nice buck, good story too!

[loco4coues]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing and congrats on a great buck!

[Mocha1545]

Great Buck! Very well written story.

[azpredator@work]

Enjoyed the story. Congrats

[buffhunter]

Good for you what a beautiful buck! Congratulations! !!!!

[RAM]

Great buck Randy!!!! I agree with buck fever, I still get it and enjoy it every time.....

-Ryan

[rbeevers2003]

good buck randy bout time

[Coach]

Great looking buck, and nice write up. Well done, sir.

[Xforcebaby]

Awesome. That is a really awesome buck. Thanks for the awesome story and thanks for the awesome pics. It looks like you had an awesome time and an awesome hunt.Im sure that awesome buck will turn out awesome.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on a great buck!

[bonecollector]

Great story, congrats on a nice buck.