Vanish and FireTiger's 2018 Hunt Journal - Season 8

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Monday morning

We were on top of it. At the parking lot well before light, with bonus darkness from the cold front that had moved in during the night. We were the only vehicle there when we headed in to the glassing knob where we had seen the "Pretty Buck" the morning before. It kind of sucked up there. It was cold, dark and rainy. But around 7am, we spotted a buck at only 320 yards. It was the small buck that was hanging with the "Pretty Buck" the day before. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, he fed out of the timber right in front of us.

FireTiger debated whether she should shoot right then and there, or try to get closer. She has made shots at that distance before, but not in rain and wind on a steep slope covered in cacti. The plan was to drop down using the north facing timber as cover, circle behind the buck and get a ~150 yard shot. I watched through the spotter while she made her move. Halfway through, the wind completely switched directions, and she had to invert the plan. With this change, I couldn't see her anymore, but kept eyes on the buck. Suddenly, he lifted his head and started sniffing.

Uhoh. I looked up from the scope and FireTiger was right above him. The terrain had been flattened from my POV, and I don't think she knew she was only 35 yards away from him, just on the other side of a small hump. The buck felt something amiss and trotted away just before she peaked over the hill. I couldn't see him after more than a few yards as he went behind the trees. Darn, so close!

There may have been some hindsighting thrown out about shooting from the knob. With no other animals showing themselves, we decided to go check on the group from the night before...

 

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Monday morning part 2

It was about a mile hike to where we'd be able to glass the ridge the bucks were on the night before. As this ridge is West facing, normally it is very difficult to glass in the morning from this angle as the sum shines right in your face. This morning, with the cold front moving through, it was easy to see and we spotted deer immediately. We hurried in to an aspen clump and set up the spotter.

There were five bucks slowly feeding their way up the hill, including the three from the night before. The wind and terrain were all wrong for an approach. Heck, I was a bit concerned they might wind us or see us as it was, as they were about 450 yards away. FireTiger made the call to wait for them to bed and then re-evaluate.

It was a good call as had she made a move, they would have just worked away from us. We watched them feed up the hill, through the aspens, eventually bedding in the thickest patch of trees at 750-800 yards. I got to practice my gridding and finally picked out one of the bucks.



With them being in this thick clump, FireTiger again made the call to wait. There was no shot possibility into there, the terrain for approaching was marginal and the winds were not stable enough. So wait we did, for nearly 6 hours. Sure, we'd see a buck reposition once in awhile, but we mostly couldn't see them. The skies cleared, allowing us to dry out from the morning.

The bucks are bedded in the middle of the W.



Some precipitation moved back in, and I think that triggered the bucks to get up and feed.



[video=youtube;-FWum7l1AxM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FWum7l1AxM[/video]

We watched them for another half hour as the rain passed and the sun came back out. This had them heading to bed down again, and they bedded in a great place for a stalk; just uphill from the largest aspens, bedded in the sage but shaded by the aspens. This meant FireTiger could use the aspens as cover to move up the hill and get above them to get the wind in her favor. She just had to be careful to stay far enough away from the bucks that an errant wind drift didn't give her away.

After 7ish hours, the stalk was finally on! Hank and I sat back and kept an eye on the bucks through the spotter.

 

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Monday Evening

As FireTiger made her way into position, a couple of times the largest buck stood to looking her direction. I'd let FireTiger know and she'd hold position until he went back to bedded or feeding. After about an hour, she was on the upper side of the aspens and peaking down to find them. She ended up being a little closer than intended at only 120 yards. The bucks were in such tall grass and so close together that she had no shot.

I could no longer see FireTiger so I focused on the bucks. After a few minutes, they all stood up and looked in her direction. I waited for the shot to ring out, but nothing came. Several minutes passed, and they soon bounded away. I watched two groups of three bucks make their way over the ridge in different places. The second group of bucks stopped to look back, but naturally neither of the two large bucks were in that group.

Wait a second. 3 + 3 = 6.

There were only five bucks in the group we had been watching all day. Ugh, of course. I hear this repeatedly when listening to podcasts about alpine deer hunting, and though this wasn't in the alpine, the rule still applies. Keep your eyes open and watch for other deer! It turns out there was a sixth buck bedded uphill from the five, and as FireTiger was getting in a better position for shot, either the wind drifted to him or he caught her movement. Being only 30 yards away she was busted by the forky, and he ended up taking the five with him.

I was really dejected. I can only imagine how FireTiger felt. We had been on these deer nearly eight hours at this point, and they just left the public.

 

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Monday Evening Part 2

What do we do? I met FireTiger part way up the ridge. It seemed like there could be some glassing to be done to the North, and if the clouds held, back to the West, so we picked a knob and headed over. The was only 90 minutes of light left, but that is the magic hour, right? We jumped a dozen does on our way over, so there were certainly deer in the area.

The wind was ripping as a storm moved in again, but I don't think we sat on the knob for 10 minutes when I spotted a deer on the ridge to the North of us. I put down my binos and grabbed the spotter, but it was gone. I went back to my binos and couldn't find anything. There's a lesson here that we failed to learn several times on this trip. If you see something in your binoculars, pick out some landmarks and not just the general location before you switch to get a closer look.

I knew I had seen a deer, so I got serious with the spotter and finally found him with a few yards of where I had originally spotted him. He had bedded and all we could see was his white face and the tips of his antlers. It was pretty tough to judge him this way only seeing part of him, and being alone there weren't other bucks to compare either. The clock was ticking, but FireTiger decided we should keep glassing for the time being and keep him in our pocket.

Well, it was going to take her nearly half an hour to get in position on him if she decided to go for it, so when 6:30 came and nothing had changed, she began the stalk. He was bedded 630 yards from us, looking straight at us. She had to drop down the ridge behind us, head uphill 1/4 mile, then use the trees as cover to get onto the same ridge as the buck. Once on that ridge, she'd cross to the back side, close the distance, and then pop back over hopefully about 200 yards away.

The stalk went pretty much as planned. I sort of watched through the spotter as right as she set up to shoot the sun came out again, shining right in my face. The buck had stood to look at her, but it was too late as a shot rang out. The buck didn't move one inch. I didn't see any sign of a hit either. It was too windy to hear one. A minute later, a second shot. This time dirt and sage went flying, and the buck took off. He rounded the ridge, stopped to look back, then trotted away.

To FireTiger's annoyance, I met her over where the buck had been standing; she was wishing I had stayed so I could guide her to the exact spot. Generally, I think that would have been the right call. She thought he'd just fallen down when he rounded the corner, but I didn't think it was even a hit. Something had told me we needed to go up the ridge and glass for him. FireTiger looked for blood while I climbed the ridge. She didn't find any sign, but I did. He was down in the bottom about 600 yards away.

We gathered up to make a plan, but darkness was fast approaching. He was out there calmly feeding. We didn't see any blood on him. Just as we were about to let him go, he fell over. I was shocked.

We gathered our gear and went to find out what the heck happened.

 

[Crumb]

Wow, that’s one beautiful buck!!

 

[teej89]

dang what a buck, congrats!

 

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I'll be the first to admit the photo makes him look a little bit bigger than he truly is, but I swear it wasn't intentional! By the time I took that photo FireTiger was getting a bit cranky and wanted to start the butchering. I'm glad I got that shot though as the other photos didn't come out at all.

It had been a long day. We had initially planned to head back to the vehicle and resupply during the middle of the day, but we didn't want to leave the bedded bucks and miss something. We were out of water and down to two cliff bars, and as you can see, it was pretty much dark by the time we got to the buck. Fortunately, he was only a few yards from the bottom, and we were able to drag him to a nice open grassy spot to break him down.

Both bullets had gone through the bottom of the liver. He had been more quartering than FireTiger realized. There was nothing for blood on his entire hide. We usually bring out the liver to cook for Hank, but there was very little left of it.

Shortly after we started quartering, the clouds cleared and we were able pack him the three miles out mostly by moonlight.

 

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Wow, that’s one beautiful buck!!

dang what a buck, congrats!

Thanks for reading guys. I really appreciate knowing others are out there.

I'll forward the congrats to FireTiger.

 

[jeremy.b]

Thanks for reading guys. I really appreciate knowing others are out there.

I'll forward the congrats to FireTiger.

I'm sure there are others out there keeping tabs (including myself) on this thread, even though few folks are posting much as the stories unfold.

You guys both did good work, and that's absolutely a great buck!

 

[bowhuntmontana]

Love the details and the play-by-play. Thank you for sharing this. Congrats on the great deer!

 

[Carlin59]

Congrats! I love following along. It seems like every weekend there is some great action happening for you and your hunting group, and then we get to spend the next week getting the recap here. Keep up the good work!

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff

 

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I'm sure there are others out there keeping tabs (including myself) on this thread, even though few folks are posting much as the stories unfold.

You guys both did good work, and that's absolutely a great buck!

Thanks for the kind words!

Love the details and the play-by-play. Thank you for sharing this. Congrats on the great deer!

The details are what make the story, imo. They're too easy to forget. Sometimes I refer back to my own threads to figure out why a particular event happened.

Congrats! I love following along. It seems like every weekend there is some great action happening for you and your hunting group, and then we get to spend the next week getting the recap here. Keep up the good work!

Much more to come! I wish I could do it more truly live, but at the same time, it can take away from the hunt.

Great stuff

Woohoo, better than mediocre! ;D Thanks!

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FireTiger told me she wanted some alone time this weekend, so I am off on an adventure. I was a bit hesitant as I was thinking a break might be a good idea, but I'm too motivated right now. In a few minutes Ill be on the road to Nebraska to scout some places I haven't been before, with the chance of a stalk. Sunday, I'm planning to swing down to my turkey unit in Eastern CO after a morning glassing session.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

What a great read and pictures! Congrats on the buck!
You’re getting pretty handy with that spotter.

 

[publichunter1]

Great buck. Congrats!

 

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Alright, I'm camped out here in Nebraska! Tomorrow I try my hand at glassing some sandhills.

 

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Its 40 degrees and the wind is ripping. A bunch of clouds keeping things dark this morning.

 

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Spotted what looks like a whitetail buck. He moved into some cedars on private.

 

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Well, there are some mule deer in the area. Just had 3 does run a ridge about 500 yards out.

 

[PA deer hunter]

Fully subscribed, thanks for taking us along , @ congrats on a beautiful buck !