Posted: 11/2/2007 3:43:17 PM EDT
 Well, it wasn't a total waste of time  Monday, hit the trail head, decided at the last minute to take another route in (was supposed to be shorter) but by the time you topped 5 ridges to hit the flat we camp at with a 75lb pack, the other, longer..FLATTER trail would have been nice. Day 1. Hoofed it in, got camp set, got water situated and went for a walk. Only saw a few deer, 10x as many hunters as normal. Walked up to the head end of one canyon and saw a decent buck, but couldnt size up his fronts as he ran away from me at 300yds and the only shot would have been to asshole him. Deer 1, peta and crew 0 Day 2. Got some weather overnite, cooled off by 10deg and was wet and quiet. Made a hunt down a series of finger ridges hoping to put my buddy in front of a buck worth packing out. I hit the end of my ridge and started up to the head end towards some buck brush. Heard two spaced out shots. Kewl, one down. Later on that evening after packing meat out all day, I saw a buck worth a second look at....but it's funny how they know where those important fences are at, like the ones for the next state down. Deer 1, peta and crew 1.  Day 3. My dad walked in that morning. It was hot, clear and damn hot, had to have hit the mid 60's or so. I passed on a small 3pt early in the am. Made the hunt from hell and didn't get to see jack shit. But, my father, in all of his big buck years, let a very nice 4pt and a decent 3pt walk because they "were not what I was looking for". His description was "heavy, tall, wide, 4pt..but not big enough"  Deer 2, peta and crew 1 Day 4. Too many people were finding thier way in to that area, less deer than we had ever seen before. So, we decided to hunt this damn brushy knob behind camp that had not been touched. For those of you who don't know, scrub oak, when it's thick,is a hands and knees affair to get thru. I still managed to jump a buck, who wasn't worth me shooting....though the guys in the canyon he ran into must of thought he was bigger than I did, 9 shots later and I wonder if they touched hair or not. We had a pow wow after that hunt and decided to call it quits. I wanted some meat for the freezer but wasnt willing to pack out a scrub buck for 3 or 4 miles. Time to head home, get lil peta and hit the ranch for a meat buck. Out we went. Deer 3, peta and crew 1. Today, woke the lil one up at 6am, got ready and headed up on the hill. Ended up seeing 9 bucks, one who I had seen a couple times before that was a 17-18" wide forkie who was just asking for it, but the shot never happened. I had another 3pt pegged at 418yds, but he never showed enough of anyhting to shoot at thru the poison oak.....hell I had enough time I called spankeefan while we were waiting him out  The shot just never happened. So, about 11 or so, lil peta and I are up on a ridge, watching this spork ram his nose up a few does rears and out of no where comes a lil dink forkie. Walked up below us at 100yds or so and started feeding.I caved to peer pressure  Kind of hard to not do anything when your 4yr old is at your side whispering..SHOOT HIM DAD, SHOOT, SHOOT, DAD!!!!!!!!!!!! DDDDDDAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.......So, I popped him behnd the shoulder and got an earfull of "awesome, cool, awesome!!!" and even a high 5 out of it So, I can sit here and say, out of all the bucks I've killed in my life, one of the most memorable will be the damn lil forkie I took with my son at my side  And for saturday??? I'm huntin sun devils  Go Ducks
|
Nice bucks
That was a few weeks ago, it will be touched up and green/gold for tmrw, got the lil one a ticket!!!!! The 3pt was my buds best to date. Funny thing is, he only seems to find 3pts to shoot This will make 3 in the last 3 years, all 3 points too. Maybe the 4th buck, on the 4th year will be a.....nah, don't say it and jinx him already
|