Rattling for bucks

That is a nice looking buck, sorry it is not gonna be on your wall.
Maybe next year.....or this year if your season allows.

 

yeah man...he was definitely on survivor. i cant remember his name, or which survivor he was on, but i definitely recognize him.

 

Not "Rattling Bucks" by any means, unless you count my teeth rattling from the cold.
OK so the write-up on my deer hunt on Saturday goes like this.
I had been up to this mountain the Saturday before (Nov 15) as well as the Thursday before (Nov 20) and we only spotted a buck (ONE BUCK!) each day, (Pay atttention here, quiz later) and that was just about the time to put the guns away & whip out a beer (After legal shooting time).
On saturday (Nov 15) I have 4 buddies with me for the trip (My buddy's '06 F350) and after 2 of us walk a good 3-5 miles we go to another spot, walk that area for a couple more, then (QUIZ TIME - see note above about when bucks are seen) my buddy spots a buck at, oh a half to 3/4 of a mile away using his spotting scope (My buddy using the scope, not the deer, smart-arse!)! The buck looked decent, a four-point (10-point for those that count them all). Might have even been the same buck I ended up shooting (I only got a short peek & he never turned his head before he went out of sight). Overall we saw over 20 does & 1 buck.
So I decide that I wanted to come back up here during the week. Only 1 buddy could get the time off, so away we went.

Thursday, up at 3:00, drive hiway for a little over an hour, then the last 5 miles takes another hour and a half, maybe longer, we checked odo, at one spot it took us about 40 mins to get 1 MILE, a nice pumpkin patch for the Taco! Tested the belly armor, WORKS! Anyway, we see does at first light and I pretty much think this deer is in the bag! Walked out to where we spotted the buck from last trip, we kicked-up 2 does & a fawn at 40-50 yds. That was it!

they didn't have a care in the world. We sat down & had a sammich with the best view I have seen in a long time.

Walked back to the truck and rested a bit, then walked some more, more does. We decided to head out, and maybe get a jump on something starting the evening cruise. I spot deer about 600-800 yds away just below a rock ridge. We put the spotting scope on them & pick out a 2x3 (7-pointer - Eastern), size-small for NV standards, or for any mule deer for that matter). I decide to try to make a sneak, with 20 mins of shooting time left. My buddy stays behind the scope to give directions, and watch the action. I started off OK, then the distance catches up with me. It seems that I didn't figure the elevation gain when I calculated ETA. I was probably about 250 yds away from where the buck was SUPPOSED to be when I hear my buddy whistle at me to come back. Shooting time was over anyway. He said that he watched the buck walk over the ridge about 3 mins before he saw me hunker-down for a peek and/or a shot at the buck. Days' end, 22 does, 1 buck.
That got me thinking about how the deer were moving up there, so I googled the area and came up with a new plan. We always saw deer at the point where the dreaded "Pumpkin Patch" ended, so I found a fork on the road (I took it, you never know when you'll need a spare). This got me below the deer spot and another ridge west. Not thinking about the extra 40 min drive I didn't have to take, I had plenty of time to just sit in the truck, enjoy my coffee, set a fly trap, and plan my jerky recipe. Finally got light enough to chase away the boogie men, so I started out. walked about a mile & found a rock to block the wind while I waited for the ambush. After maybe 45 mins of looking into the wind & getting the bio-crys, I happened to glance around and noticed 4-5 rocks moving in my direction! Tossed-up the Nikons & saw ANTLERS! They came at me at about 8 o'clock (direction, not time). I slithered around that rock to get it between me and the deer as slow as I could. Got into position, and thought, what the heck, let's see how close they want to get to me. At about 200 yds, they turned to go more down the mountain, as opposed to diagonally to me. The sun was making it really tough to see them through the scope anyhow. I knew that I'd have a better change at sneaking on them after they crested the ridge, so I let them go. As soon as I thought they were out of sight, I moved to intersect. I got to the ridge and didn't see them at first, then picked them up just above me, walking down the old "Pumpkin Patch" trail. I had a trekking pole with me to be used as a
shooting stick, but it wasn't tall enough. They were about even with me at this point and I was losing the wind, so I had to free-hand a 100 yd shot. Still a little winded from the sneak, it was tough to put, and keep, the crosshairs where I wanted them. OK, time to try! BOOM! I didn't notice him lunge up like they're supposed to, I just saw this huge puff of dust on the other side of him. OH CRAP, A MISS! THey all got cornfused and ran towards me again (Mule deer aren't as smart as them white tails) I reloaded the 7mm and waited for a chance for the finishing touch. The does ran by at 30-40 yds, and the buck followed. Noticed a red spot as he went by, but it looked a little too far back for my liking, so I tried a running shot at 40 yds. In afterthought, it wasn't the best idea, he was laboring BAD, he couldn't even take a whole jump at this point. He circled around after the shot (a miss. Leading a deer is NOTHING like leading a
duck at 40 yds!) and collapsed. I took a min to gather my gear & reload (In case I had to try another passing shot, ha). Found him deader than the rock he fell next to. WAHOO! BACKSTRAP for Supper! The first shot (the only hit) took out the lungs, turned them into blood pudding. Left me with all four corners in great shape, as well as the liver and heart! I called the buddy that went with me last time and he wouldn't stay home (he wussed-out on me on the getting up at 3:00 again). He was there in little over an hour. Meanwhile I dressed-out my kill, walked back to the Taco, found a cold one & waited at the fork in the road.
I apologised to him for the length of the drag, after-all 75 yds, down-hill, a draw of Crown Royal and he was all better. Not sure why he was wearing the coveralls, I was just in my shirt-sleeves. Oh yeah, total deer count - 4 does & 1 buck.


Had the liver last night (Gotta love egg & flour/corn starch). That got me thinking about my youth when one of us would come home with a deer. We'd have liver and pancakes! Sounds like hell, but that was one of the best meals I have ever had.
Well, I figure that I had better butcher tomorrow with family coming in for Turkey day. Would like to hang it longer, but don't think the Thanksgiving visitors would appreciate having to push the carcass out of the way to get the the stovetop stuffing mix, or maybe me forgetting to tell them about it before they went to fetch another batch of beers and then having to listen to the explanation of why they wet their pants.
If you're interested I have more photos in my gallery. I did post in "Post your hunting photos" also.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/guns-hunting/4763-post-your-hunting-fishing-pics-9.html#post255136
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Hope that you have at least as much to be thankful for as I do!

 

good luck!!!

 

Hope you stuck something today Krookz......

Congrats Stu......great trophy and tasty viddles!
Those are some beautiful pics, that is a beautiful place you get to live and hunt man!
I really enjoyed reading about the hunt you had. Sounds like a rush. I just got done pheasant hunting and with not many evenings off work to hunt, wanted to go deer hunting this evening but just feel too tired after following a bird dog all morning and afternoon. Thanks to your story, I'm pumped up and gonna head to the woods! Thanks Stu!!
Good luck to all..........

 

nice job krookz, congrats......nice call for safety.......great story!

rib your buddy for us, that tree has probably been there for a long time...lol

Can't see any pics, just red 'x', maybe just me??

 

good shooting krookz, and good story too man!!


well......i have been in the woods the past 3 days...........all rain and no deer to show for. hopefully, it'll dry up a bit,at least by friday anyway. supposed to rain on thursday, so hopefully,thats only thursday.

 

krookz...their you go nice looking buck.
Oh the smell of back straps in the evening

 

Warmed up the smokepole today and finally laid down some meat. Looks like the deer are starting to get into groups again. 6 came through together today.
Knight 50 cal. does a fine job. Check out the shot placement. Always comforting to put an ethical harvest down on a deer. Now how 'bout some

 

good shootin hoosier!!! i aint gonna be back to work til tuesday..........getting some time in again for myself. hopefully...i get some sleep tonight and head out in the am!!!

 

Great Jobs Krookz & Hoosiertaco, need reports from tacomaman06 & Longbow.
I had some steaks from that 4-point I shot, & was puzzled. I tried a new approach of wrapping a piece of bacon around a steak, then season & BBQ & It had NO gamey tast, NONE! I think next time I'll BBQ them plain, I miss a little gamey flavor!

 

damn.............that sounds tasty as hell buddy!!!

im gonna go the rest of the week and hopefully, my luck will look up!!

 

Thanks dude.........

That sounds real good man. One thing I like to do is cube some steaks for the grill. Simple really, just make a 'bowl' with some alluminum foil and add the cubes and smother in salsa or BBQ and onion, seasonings or whatever you like. Then take the foil and wrap it around all the ingrediants as to completely keep in all the moisture. Delicious and a good reason to fire up the grill even in the winter...

Good luck brotha, hope we get to see some pics from ya, have fun..........

 

thanks man!!! gonna try to give myself an early christmas present.......with antlers or not!!!

 

Nice shot hoosiertaco....haven't been able to hit the woods yet with the muzzleloader. Home issue's, but hopefully this Saturday, still have two doe tags to fill.
I tried to get in good with the top dog Amish guy down south, so I donated a few to them. They are making summer sausage with pork this month, so I am good to go on a few pounds of it.

I will say though, the season is WAAAAAAAAy to short for gun and muzzleloader here.

 

thanks dude.....

thanks 'bow.....yeah, way too short of a season......

 

Maybe I need to bring it up in a DNR meeting to cut your bow hunting...

Just joking.

 

you funny man....I just need to convert you back to bowhunting....hehe

 

You can bet I will look you up when that time comes.

 

well......did some work on my buddy's jeep and honda on sunday after lunch....then went to the woods. it was overcast out...looking like rain. and it was very cool outside...felt awesome. sat in our blinds....and after listening to some asshat revving the piss outta his "liquor cycle"(seriously.....i was almost ready to open a couple of cans of whoopass with this guy) right next to the land we hunt.......i hit my can call a few times, then after about half hour...i hit my primos buck roar a few times. 5 minutes later, i heard it..........uuurrrrpppp!!!! i sat and waited til dark, but the deer never did come out of the treeline or wherever he was. i heard walking thru the trees, up on the hill next to my blind...but never saw him/or her. gonna go thursday and see what happens.