UtahMountainMan
New member
Sun morning I was up early and got to my area in the dark. Within about 30 minutes of light I glassed 2 deer to my right on a steep side hill. The 1st deer turned out to be a doe, the 2nd had its head down facing away from me. I kept watching and finally saw that it was a mature buck. I was guessing the buck was about 400 yards away from me which is outside of my comfort zone. I put my range finder up and he was actually only 292 yards away, which surprised me. I quickly got my rifle set up on my bipod and took a full minute or so to get steady on the buck and get ready for a shot. Once I felt comfortable I squeezed the trigger. I looked up and saw that the doe on the right hadnt moved but the buck was frantically running and crashing through scrub oak straight down hill. The shot had felt good and his reaction seemed to be that he was hit.
I waited for about 45 minutes then walked over to where he was approximately standing when I shot. I started looking for blood but didnt see any right away. At that same time, down the canyon on the road below, there was a truck parked that started honking its horn obnoxiously often. The truck was a little over 1 mile away and about 1k feet below where I was at, so I could barely hear the horn but it was still annoying. I thought it was maybe some anti hunter driving around trying to scare off the deer.
After about 15 minutes looking (and the truck still honking pretty often) I sat down to get a drink. I looked down at the truck through my binocs and I could barely make out a guy with a tripod in front of his truck who seemed to be waving his arms in my general direction. Then I realized that maybe he was trying to get my attention? I glassed up and down the canyon and didnt see a single other hunter that he could have been trying to communicate with. I figured "well, maybe I will go down and see if maybe he saw where my buck went down.". So I decided to go down there and see if he had some intel for me, and worst case if he did not, I would just hike back up and continue searching for the blood trail since I hadnt looked for all that long yet.
I hiked/jogged down the mountain and made it to him in about 35 or 40 minutes. Sure enough, he had been watching me through his spotting scope. He had seen that buck the night before and was there watching him in the morning. He was debating going after him when he saw the buck jump and start running and a few seconds later heard the shot (takes a while for sound to go that far).
Turns out, the whole time I was looking for blood the buck had been standing about 100 yards from me on the other side of a small aspen patch so I could not see him. He was looking tipsy and had his head down and was definitely hit. After we figured out exactly where he stood, I took about an hour to hike back up and found the exact spot he was standing. Sure enough, there was a big pool of blood. I followed it about 50 yards and the buck jumped up 10 feet in front of me and tried to bound away once or twice but was pretty close to dead. One last shot through the neck and he dropped!
I probably would have eventually found blood, but I want to thank Martin from Arizona for taking the time to help a fellow hunter locate an injured buck. Class act. I told him I am going to send him a Cabelas gift card as a thank you. It was awesome to team up with a complete stranger to complete my quest of shooting and finding a good buck.
I dragged him a little more than halfway out before I decided to get back to camp and recruit a few cousins to come help. That made the rest of the drag out a LOT easier! Had a great time, and the weather was beautiful although about 15 degrees to warm for my liking.
I waited for about 45 minutes then walked over to where he was approximately standing when I shot. I started looking for blood but didnt see any right away. At that same time, down the canyon on the road below, there was a truck parked that started honking its horn obnoxiously often. The truck was a little over 1 mile away and about 1k feet below where I was at, so I could barely hear the horn but it was still annoying. I thought it was maybe some anti hunter driving around trying to scare off the deer.
After about 15 minutes looking (and the truck still honking pretty often) I sat down to get a drink. I looked down at the truck through my binocs and I could barely make out a guy with a tripod in front of his truck who seemed to be waving his arms in my general direction. Then I realized that maybe he was trying to get my attention? I glassed up and down the canyon and didnt see a single other hunter that he could have been trying to communicate with. I figured "well, maybe I will go down and see if maybe he saw where my buck went down.". So I decided to go down there and see if he had some intel for me, and worst case if he did not, I would just hike back up and continue searching for the blood trail since I hadnt looked for all that long yet.
I hiked/jogged down the mountain and made it to him in about 35 or 40 minutes. Sure enough, he had been watching me through his spotting scope. He had seen that buck the night before and was there watching him in the morning. He was debating going after him when he saw the buck jump and start running and a few seconds later heard the shot (takes a while for sound to go that far).
Turns out, the whole time I was looking for blood the buck had been standing about 100 yards from me on the other side of a small aspen patch so I could not see him. He was looking tipsy and had his head down and was definitely hit. After we figured out exactly where he stood, I took about an hour to hike back up and found the exact spot he was standing. Sure enough, there was a big pool of blood. I followed it about 50 yards and the buck jumped up 10 feet in front of me and tried to bound away once or twice but was pretty close to dead. One last shot through the neck and he dropped!
I probably would have eventually found blood, but I want to thank Martin from Arizona for taking the time to help a fellow hunter locate an injured buck. Class act. I told him I am going to send him a Cabelas gift card as a thank you. It was awesome to team up with a complete stranger to complete my quest of shooting and finding a good buck.
I dragged him a little more than halfway out before I decided to get back to camp and recruit a few cousins to come help. That made the rest of the drag out a LOT easier! Had a great time, and the weather was beautiful although about 15 degrees to warm for my liking.
