First whitetail

I'm on top of the world right now, gents!

 

I will get to the story after I settle down a bit. Got him hanging now and I'm having some burgers and beer with daughter now- IPA for me, root for her. What a fantastic 4 days! I learned a lot, had a blast out in the woods. Felt like I was getting back to my roots. Felt my dad.


And yes Rach, I did gut, with a little help.

 

So mornings mostly consisted of turkey. Then days spent scouting in woods. Lots of state land in the mountains, lots of state timber bordering farms- dairies and alfalfa fields and such belonging to people my friend/guide knew. Saw shit tons of doe, a few bucks at first, getting rutty, but weather has been weirdly sunny and dry this fall- not great for hunting as we crunch through the fields and timber. Saw a nice 3 point the first night come tbrough the timber into the fields, nose down chasing around the 25 or so doe out there, but they were a couple hundred yards into a neighboring field we did not have permission to hunt in. We did turkeys again the next morning, then trekked the woods all day- learning forgotten lessons for me- then got into position just inside the tree line around 3 near the same spot as the night before, knowing where they were going to come down out of the timber into the fields to feed. I took my orange hat off, and we were hunkered down an hour or 2 in some tall grass, then I raised my eyes to see 3 doe staring at me 15 yards away. They start snorting. I immediately lowered my head and froze. Normally when they're snorting, they're already running, and you're so busted they're making sure everything within a mile knows how busted you are. 30 seconds, tops. These damn does snorted all around us for 15 minutes!!! Finally my buddy said "it's your damn blonde hair, they think its a white ass of another doe waving at them and they don't know what to think!" Then it was too dark and a bust. So then Saturday we decide to hunker down farther down the field where we saw them coming out- in timbered state land, but bordering a field of some guys known to be douche bags. Thought maybe we could get them in the timber. Saw tons of rubs and scrapes. Lots of buck sign. Lots of elk rubs too, and plenty of bear scat. They eluded us that night, just saw lots of does through the timber, never that 3 point again. Heard shots, and by the time we got out of the timber at dark, scoped some guys loading something in a pickup in the neighboring field- possibly my 3 point.... But as we were coming out, turkeys were roosting in the trees just at the timber line, so we figured, okay, at least we know where the turkeys will be in the morning. Planned to meet out there at 6- about an hour before daylight there. Show up- my last morning! and there's 3 does and this damn 4x4 with eye guards! He didn't give 2 shits about us either, he was so damn rutty. Half hour before legal shooting hours, so we decided okay let's go grab coffee and come back. He wasn't in sight when we got back but we got settled anyway. Not 15 minutes goes by, there he is again, following this doe. I had him dead to rights in my scope and something spooked the doe and she ran off- he started to follow her- so my buddy snorted at him and he stopped and I took the shot. Just under the armpit, 65 yards, 6mm 100 grain soft points. He stood there a second and then turned to follow her, so I hit him again from the other side. He slowly trotted up a small bank and around a big bush about 20 yards and just laid down gently. No exit points with that small round. He was soup to open up, as he bled out internally, and his liver was eviscerated, but heart was good and lost zero meat.


I should buy a damn lotto ticket! That would be another first!

 

And here's a big ego boost- the little dive hotel I stayed at in one of the town's up there was full of hunters. Passing in the halls at 4am saying good luck today and at 6pm saying how'd you do today. These men were all consistently saying 'tough luck today' or 'we didn't see shit today' or 'we saw 2 does and that was it today'.

Man, I saw 30 some does, several bucks from little spikes, 1x2's, 3 points, and the biggest being my take, 4 elk, bear sign, hundreds of Turkey's, bald eagles, frikking everything!

I really should buy a damn lotto ticket!!!

 

Daughter was not there. But she is proud all the same. She got to witness the hanging and skinning. Requested a tooth, so I pulled her one with the promise I'd make her a necklace.
She'll get hunter safety this next year.