My therapeutic deer hunt

[naturegirl]

I started planning this August’s archery hunt quite some time ago with plans of going after a group of bucks that in past years held a drop tine mule deer buck. To be perfectly honest, I would’ve taken any of the bunch, but that drop tine kept me dreaming. I dusted off the cameras with the intent on patterning these bucks in an area I’ve seen them multiple times. We ended up with four cameras on trails in this one specific area. My to be ex-husband went up to check the cameras about a month before season opened and he was kindly greeted by a hot shot crew that was preparing to burn the entire area that I was going to hunt. On a good note, he did manage to get the weasel camera I had set up, but the other cameras still sit in a burned area with their status unknown.

 

Reenacting mother nature. This was a good spot with little burn.

 

Because of the “to be ex-husband” part mentioned above, I now knew it was time for me to put on my big girl panties so I could carry out a hunt from start to finish on my own. When I posted for help on CWT, I received loads of great advice and help and believe me this really did help me move forward in a difficult time and continue on towards my hunt. Between the pointers from CWT members, the field dressing class at Cabela’s, and having 6ANut on standby, I 100% went in with the confidence that I could and would be able to pull this off.

 

I came up a day early to get a better look at the burned area, although at this point I had thrown out all plans that I had to hunt where the burn was. My new goal was to only hunt areas where I’ve seen bucks more than once in the past. I completely threw everything else out the window and I strictly wanted to put myself where I’ve seen them before, do my thing, and play the wind.

 

On my scouting day, I saw 6 bucks in two different groups. Now that is a great day any day and I was praying I hadn’t used up all of my buck luck. I also made it to the knoll where the weasel was and I was very relieved to see that the only oak tree the hot shots didn’t burn was the one I believe hovers over the weasel’s rock den. I plan on going back to spend a day trying to get a photo of that thing, but now wasn’t the time.

 

 

I decided to start opening morning in the area where I saw the group of 4 bucks the day before. I’ve seen groups of 3 bucks many times in this area, so this was a great place to start. It was a very quiet morning with me only seeing one doe. I was not seeing tracks like I would’ve liked either considering the downpour I was stuck in the day before. I moved on foot to another close by area where I shot my bull (and unfortunately lost it) a couple years ago, but that area was quiet too. I decided to sit a water hole midday in an old ground blind, but all I did was sit and wonder “Why would someone start a salt lick within a couple feet of the tank and then put a camera there?” We had a camera on that tank years ago and got great footage with no salt because the tank is not accessible by roads in anyway, which is rare. Regardless, this was a bust and more of a rest than anything. I made my way back to the trail to check it out again. I didn’t see a thing and still no good tracks. Time to move on.

 

I moved to an entirely new area and right away I lucked out. I saw a 3x, but he saw me first and I had no opportunity. He ran up a steep hill so I ran down a ways and up the hill I went. What I found at the top was amazing. There was a cow with two calves feeding and the area had deer written all over it. I worked my way to where I thought would be a good place to watch the area until the cow moved off. There were well-used trails everywhere. After she left, I still hunted my way across this flat area trying my best to locate deer and keep the wind in my favor. I went as far as I could and started making my way back repositioning myself with the wind. About halfway back, I noticed a couple deer coming my way. I moved down the edge of the hill so I could move quicker to get into position, climbed back up, and then I waited. They were coming right to me walking and grazing and they were bucks! They looked small, but I positioned myself behind the side of a short bushy oak tree and reached down for my range finder. It was gone! I thought a few choice words and then guessed the distance of where they were headed at about 40 yards. I was getting ready and as they got closer I had to decide if I would shoot or not because now I could clearly see one was a big fork and one a small fork. I was ready, but let them walk. I’ve done this before and quite often question myself throughout the hunt if I did the right thing, but for me I can say without a doubt today that I’m 100% okay with letting them continue on their way.

 

Me and my son

 

My son came up Friday night to hunt with me the next morning. I told him about the area I was in the night before and he was ready to go. We get up early at 3:30 am, which did not thrill the boy at all, and head up to the spot. We had decided ahead of time if we were together anything 3x or over was mine and anything 2x or under was his. For either one of us it would be our first deer.

 

When we get to the top, I go right and he stays put. I’m a firm believer that one person moving through the forest is better than two. As I make my way right, I see a doe and my son ends up having a 3x walk within 80 yards of him, but he didn’t get close enough for a shot. I then had the two forkies down at the bottom of the hill, but this time feeding away. We meet up about an hour or so later and take off in different directions. I have a GPS. He does not. He’s been in the area only once or twice before, but I let him go as he is now 21 years old. The plan is to meet at the rhino at 11 am.

 

To make a long story short, he got lost. To conserve my battery, I keep my phone off so when I finally spoke to him around 11:30 am, he was in a bit of a panic because he was all kinds of lost. I’ve learned this lesson before the hard way and since have always carried a GPS.

 

Because he wanted to be found quickly, he asked me to fire off gun shots to find him. My suggestion is first to drive the rhino around to see if he can hear me. I do this, call him back, and he didn’t hear a thing. Hmmm. Normally I can hear ATVs from pretty far away and he can’t hear me. Then I ask for any landmarks. He really became a smarty pants at this point and said “Mom, what did the road look like when we came in?” I said “It was brown and rocky.” He said, “Well just like that everything looks exactly the same to me.” I tried asking him to pick out tall mountains or hills, but I was getting nowhere until finally he said he saw a tank not long ago when he had crossed a road.

 

I immediately tell him to go back to the area of the tank, find a high spot to get better phone reception and to google his location. He manages to locate the tank he’s by and calls me with the info. He’s about a mile or so from me as a crow flies. I said “Great. I’ll be there in about 30 minutes to get you.” He had been chasing a second group of bucks and got carried away because these deer encounters with his bow were his first stalk opportunities ever. He totally got into the moment and off he went.

 

I took this opportunity to talk about the importance of a GPS if only to mark your starting location, staying on roads if you are lost, staying by a tank, etc. If he would’ve crossed the road he was at and kept going, it would’ve been a lot more difficult for me to find him. Before I hung up the phone, I asked “Do you want to hunt still?” and he said “Yes!” I knew exactly where he was. I gave him specific instructions to stay on the road, but when you get to the top of this little hill go slow as there are often does in there and sometimes there is a spike or fork. So, when I get to him about 20 or so minutes later he is dripping with sweat because he had been chasing yet another group of bucks. I will say my son came out of this totally loving bow hunting

 

The rest of my hunting days consisted of seeing lots of does and lots of young bucks. Morning #3 I climbed the steep hill only to be face-to-face with a big bull feeding right toward me and I also heard a turkey gobble at the top of the same hill. The gobble totally threw me off because it is the fall, but I know what I heard and it was a turkey gobble. I didn’t go the direction of the gobble even though I had a tag because my first priority was a deer.

 

 

I took a couple hunting breaks. I took the picture above of two does bedded together butt to head. Now you all may have seen things like this before, but I haven’t so I took a picture. I was about 80ish yards from these deer. One doe you can see her head and the other doe’s head is behind the tree on the left. I watched these does (there were actually four) for a couple hours as they bedded and grazed. Their personal safety was very impressive so I was completely surprised when the doe in the picture (the doe you can see her head) actually stretched out her neck and laid her head straight down on the ground in front of her kinda like a dog does chin down. She only did it for a few minutes, but I’ve never seen any deer or elk lay their head down to rest. She must’ve felt pretty comfortable.

 

My son’s words made me pretty happy. Toward the end of his hunt he said “You really do know what you are doing out here Mom.” I'll take that as a compliment!

 

My quest continues…. Illinois here I come.

 

Here's a few things I learned this trip.

1. Make it fun for the new guy. We somewhat lucked out because luck is a big part of hunting, but him having 3 different opportunities in one morning is a good day any day in my book.
2. I love learning to call, but I can’t share everything I learn.
3. Noise isn’t necessarily the end all. I have a funny story with a doe on this one when I was throwing together a blind, but I’ve already typed forever.
4. I need to rig a better system for my GPS. I did end up finding it, but only after I had given up any hope that I would. I went back and ranged where the two bucks were. They were 35 yards.

If you read this far, thank you because it’s been very therapeutic for me

This frog was really trying to hide from me

This is the third time I've seen antelope this year. He was trailing the herd.

A young buck digging

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Congrats on a good time out in the field. Great photos and story.

Sorry to hear about the EX part of the story and the cameras. Keep up the hard work.

[AZ8]

Thanks for sharing! Appears to have been a successful hunt for the both of you. Your son has a story for the rest of his life on how his mom "rescued" him in the woods!

 

Great story and pictures!

[bgshooter]

Nice write up. Very cool you and your son had a great time. I hope to be out there one day with my sons (currently 7 & 9 yrs). We still have some time to go...but then again, I still have a lot to learn so that I can one day teach them.

[reezenhunter]

Wow that's awesome ill be your hunting partner good luck keep it up it'll come together

[Heat]

Nice report. Thanks for sharing. With the number of encounters you're having it's only a matter of time! Best of Luck!

[Apache7mm]

Great story thx for sharing and keep on your quest, good luck.

 

DAN

[johnnie blaze]

Freakin x bullriders

[Mesabulls]

Great pictures!

[Havasuhunter]

Great read and pictures.

[4Falls]

Great pictures. I especially like the frog one. How did you even see that little bugger?

[lucky2hunt]

Sounds like a great hunting excursion! Nothing beats wandering the woods with a bow in hand!!! Thanks for sharing.

[sjvcon]

Great story. Glad to see someone getting out this year and having fun with a successful hunt ... note success does not mean tagging out, it means getting out with nature and having some therapy with God. I am looking forward to that when my back heals up.

[CouesWhitetail]

Great write-up! I enjoyed all your adventures and photos, thanks! Sounds like an excellent hunt....I hope next time you get to try out your field dressing skills.

[PRDATR]

That is pretty awesome. Just being in the woods with family makes it all worth it somehow.