Opening Day - 36B Success

[kazpilot25]

Opening morning… Got up at 4AM, had a breakfast burrito and a cup of orange juice and headed up the mountain. Got to the spot I decided to hunt opening morning well before sunrise. My buddy and I started unloading our gear from the truck and getting ready for the hike in. There was another truck that came in behind us and parked a couple hundred yards back overlooking a big tank. As we started the hike in, a UTV with big led light bar blazing/blinding came and pulled right up to us. I approached them and asked, “what’s going on?”, they proceed to ask “are you guys hunting in this area?” Well of course we are, what else would we be doing? After a little conversation they move on and drive back down the hill to a different area. I found it a bit strange they would even come up and ask, but at least they understood we were there first and moved on.

 

After hiking in and getting setup before sun up, we were ready. As the sun came up, the opportunity for another hunt down in 36B began. Glassing the hill at first light was something I’d been waiting for. As the sun started beaming light on the hillside, little coues deer began to appear. The grass was DEEP, like chest high deep. As the deer walked around you could see their heads, and that’s about it. First we spotted a few spikes and a couple forkies, then a few does. The hill was coming alive. Then from behind the spikes came what looked like a nice big buck. I was setup at 580 yards, and got him in my scope. Just as I setup the shot, he went behind a tree. Waiting for him to come out the other side seemed like it was taking forever. After a few minutes I got back on the binos and saw the spikes, forkies, and does cresting over the top of the hill to the shady side. Big buck was not to be seen. I assumed he bedded down below the tree as I never saw him come out. With that in mind, we moved closer.

As we moved closer and over a couple ridges to get a better view and a closer shot if it presented itself, we ranged it at 280 yards. Still not able to see the buck, we waited. He bedded down at about 6:30am and by 10:30am I started having my doubts that he was even there. Without seeing a simple ear flick or any sign of a deer in the shade of the tree, I really had to trust what I saw earlier, and believe that he was there. Then at about 10:45 he stood up, not exactly where I thought he was, but a little lower in the shadow of the tree, right at the base of the trunk. As he stood there, his head came out the left side of the tree and his butt out the right side. His vitals were perfectly blocked by the tree. As quickly as he stood up, he laid back down and disappeared into the grass. Now I knew for a fact he was there, and the waiting game began.

Over the next 4 hours he would stand up with the tree blocking his vitals, every hour for about 30 seconds, almost to tease me. It got to the point where I was starting to wonder if he would ever step out from behind the tree, or if I was going to have to try a head shot. At about 2:30 he stood up, and took a half step forward. It seemed like this may be the best chance I’d have, so I lined up the shot and let the 145 grain LRX fly. Hit. Deer down.

After hiking up the steep hill to get to him I quickly realized this was going to be A LOT of work getting him out of there. It was either down the steep hill and a half mile uphill back to the truck, or up the hill, then back down and up a couple others to the road behind. We opted for the latter option. Took about 2 hours to hike that bad boy out of there, and was completely exhausting. We got back to camp and skinned him with the truck (Golf ball trick), and butchered him out. We had some excellent back straps for dinner! Nothing quite like the glorious taste of success.

The next day we still had to one more tag to fill. Glassed all around all day and spotted about 46 does/fawns. At about sunset I glassed a nice big 4x4 on the top of a hill about 450 yards away. The sun was setting fast and we couldn’t get in on him fast enough. Tried to get back on him the next morning, but he gave us the ‘ole sliparoo. It was time to pack up camp and head back home to the families.

What a great trip!

[PelaPapas]

You ain't lying about the grass down there! It was crazy tall and everything was super green.

 

Congrats on that amazing buck!

[AZ23]

First off...congrats!!! Awesome buck.

Question, is that a Gridspotter on your tripod?

[kazpilot25]

Thanks! Not a gridspotter. Never heard of that before.

[Will K]

That country is just amazing this year with all the rain. Congrat's on a nice buck.

[murfys69law]

Great story and superb buck!!!

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations to you on a nice buck!

[ElkyG]

Nice! Congrats!

[BMC]

Congrats, hope I can fill my tag in the same unit after Thanksgiving!

[rcdinaz]

Nice pictures, and a great story!

[mattys281]

Awesome buck! Congrats!

[Big Browns]

Congrats and great job! I got dizzy so I decided to fix the pictures for you:)

[hoghntr]

Nice! Congrats! Shoot took forever to clean the grass off my buck before butchering. Was almost impossible to find bedded deer in that stuff this year.

[kazpilot25]

Nice! Congrats! Shoot took forever to clean the grass off my buck before butchering. Was almost impossible to find bedded deer in that stuff this year.

 

Yes it was. That was a tough hunt with that crazy grass. Even when they were feeding they'd occasionally vanish into it.

[hoghntr]

 

 

Nice! Congrats! Shoot took forever to clean the grass off my buck before butchering. Was almost impossible to find bedded deer in that stuff this year.

Yes it was. That was a tough hunt with that crazy grass. Even when they were feeding they'd occasionally vanish into it.

I was up north but still I can look at the same field for 2 hours glass and with 16 power optics and not see them and suddenly 1 deer would be standing there and when I focused on that 1 mule deer then I'd find six or eight of them laying in the grass but below the grass height. Congrats on a successful hunt!