dirtytough
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Here are my thoughts and opinion on the SR deer hunt. I only had a few days out there with my wife so keep that in mind. I'll type up a short story first then give my opinion on the actual quality of the hunt and animals.
I got to a spot I wanted to scout at daylight Friday. My wife Katrina was meeting me later after our boy got out of school. I hiked into the area and started seeing does right away. After 20-30 does I finally saw a little fork horn muley. I hiked over a ridge and almost immediately spotted a decent muley buck. I got the spotter out on it and while getting it setup 6 more muley bucks walked out of some trees about 400 yards from the other buck. After looking them over I was kinda surprised I didn't see a better buck. I backed out and hiked back over the little ridge and hiked down it a ways. I saw 4 whitetail bucks with one being really nice. I hiked about .5 a mile down the ridge and checked on the muley bucks. They were still there feeding out of the wind. I walked and glassed all the way to the end of the ridge. On the way back I stayed on what I was starting to call the whitetail side since I was seeing mostly whitetails on one side and muleys on the other. About midway back I spooked a few whitetail does which ended up spooking 3 nice whitetail bucks. I didn't see much after that besides does and small bucks the rest of the hike.
I was pretty excited for Katrina. I hadn't seen any big big bucks but one of the muleys was an old buck that was heavy with a roman nose, and 3 of the whitetails were pretty nice. The whitetails were hanging in thicker stuff so I figured we would go after the muley bucks first thing.
Saturday morning Katrina, Kohl, (our 9 year old boy) and I started hiking in a little before daylight. We got up to the ridge and started glassing. I spotted a big group of deer about 1.5 miles out on a flat. Got the spotter on them and they were all does besides a little fork. We hiked up the ridge this time to look for the herd I had seen the day before. I spotted a nice whitetail walking right at 600 yards. It was 2 finger ridges over from us so we hurried to drop into the first ravine and get up the next finger ridge for a shot. It disappeared into some thicker stuff before we got up on the close finger ridge. We hiked around the draw glassing into it but never could spot it. We kept hiking and glassing up the ridge. I spotted a group of 4 muley bucks about 2 miles away. They all looked smaller then a couple of the bigger bucks I had seen the day before. I figured we might be able to find some that size closer to the truck then where they were so we didn't go after them. We hiked back down the ridge glassing as we went.
When we got to the far end of the ridge I finally spotted one of the bucks from the day before. It was the second biggest muley I had seen on Friday. It was about a mile away and we had half an hour of daylight left. Katrina said she wanted to go after it so we hot footed it off the ridge. We ducked out of sight behind a little finger ridge. We lost the terrain advantage at about 700 yards. When we popped out into the open I looked for it and it wasn't in sight anymore. We hoofed it over there. It had ended up dropping into a small creek bed and we came upon it at about 30 yards. It spooked of course. It stopped at 200 yards for a few seconds but Katrina was slow getting the gun on it and it trotted away. I walked over to where it had went over a little rise and saw it was headed in the direction of where we had seen the 4 smaller bucks earlier in the day. We finally got back to the truck and Katrina said we had done a little over 12 miles.
Sunday I decided we would hike into the area I had seen the 4 bucks the day before. It was windy and rainy Sunday morning. We kept glassing and hiking and were only seeing does. I spotted 7 does about 800 yards away. While looking at them I see a couple does about 400 yards away bedded in some tree's. I couldn't see into there very well because there was a little ridge in between us so we worked our way to the little ridge so we could see into the trees better. Right as I got to where we could see over deer started going everywhere. The 7 does that had been 800 yards away had ran towards the other deer and spooked them. I spot 2 bucks at 218 yards and get Katrina set up for a shot. She shot while it was quartering away and hit it back. It rolled into a small ravine where we couldn't see it anymore. We wait a few minutes and work our way over there. When we got close to the edge of the ravine there were a lot of leaves on the ground that were super crunchy that we couldn't avoid. As soon as we could peak over I see it get up and start running off. There was to much brush in the way for her to shoot so we drop off the ridge and walk the trail it took off on. I found its tracks but couldn't find a drop of blood. When we came around the corner where I last saw it it was nowhere to be seen. We hiked back up on the ridge so we could get a vantage point so I can hopefully glass it up since it wasn't bleeding much at all.
As soon as we got on top I spot it bedded about 150 yards away. Katrina got a good rest prone and shot it in its bed. We hike down to it and of course take pics etc. I boned it out and loaded it into my pack. A little over 4 miles back to the truck and she had her first deer in the cooler.
Katrina’s first buck by dirtytough,
I got to a spot I wanted to scout at daylight Friday. My wife Katrina was meeting me later after our boy got out of school. I hiked into the area and started seeing does right away. After 20-30 does I finally saw a little fork horn muley. I hiked over a ridge and almost immediately spotted a decent muley buck. I got the spotter out on it and while getting it setup 6 more muley bucks walked out of some trees about 400 yards from the other buck. After looking them over I was kinda surprised I didn't see a better buck. I backed out and hiked back over the little ridge and hiked down it a ways. I saw 4 whitetail bucks with one being really nice. I hiked about .5 a mile down the ridge and checked on the muley bucks. They were still there feeding out of the wind. I walked and glassed all the way to the end of the ridge. On the way back I stayed on what I was starting to call the whitetail side since I was seeing mostly whitetails on one side and muleys on the other. About midway back I spooked a few whitetail does which ended up spooking 3 nice whitetail bucks. I didn't see much after that besides does and small bucks the rest of the hike.
I was pretty excited for Katrina. I hadn't seen any big big bucks but one of the muleys was an old buck that was heavy with a roman nose, and 3 of the whitetails were pretty nice. The whitetails were hanging in thicker stuff so I figured we would go after the muley bucks first thing.
Saturday morning Katrina, Kohl, (our 9 year old boy) and I started hiking in a little before daylight. We got up to the ridge and started glassing. I spotted a big group of deer about 1.5 miles out on a flat. Got the spotter on them and they were all does besides a little fork. We hiked up the ridge this time to look for the herd I had seen the day before. I spotted a nice whitetail walking right at 600 yards. It was 2 finger ridges over from us so we hurried to drop into the first ravine and get up the next finger ridge for a shot. It disappeared into some thicker stuff before we got up on the close finger ridge. We hiked around the draw glassing into it but never could spot it. We kept hiking and glassing up the ridge. I spotted a group of 4 muley bucks about 2 miles away. They all looked smaller then a couple of the bigger bucks I had seen the day before. I figured we might be able to find some that size closer to the truck then where they were so we didn't go after them. We hiked back down the ridge glassing as we went.
When we got to the far end of the ridge I finally spotted one of the bucks from the day before. It was the second biggest muley I had seen on Friday. It was about a mile away and we had half an hour of daylight left. Katrina said she wanted to go after it so we hot footed it off the ridge. We ducked out of sight behind a little finger ridge. We lost the terrain advantage at about 700 yards. When we popped out into the open I looked for it and it wasn't in sight anymore. We hoofed it over there. It had ended up dropping into a small creek bed and we came upon it at about 30 yards. It spooked of course. It stopped at 200 yards for a few seconds but Katrina was slow getting the gun on it and it trotted away. I walked over to where it had went over a little rise and saw it was headed in the direction of where we had seen the 4 smaller bucks earlier in the day. We finally got back to the truck and Katrina said we had done a little over 12 miles.
Sunday I decided we would hike into the area I had seen the 4 bucks the day before. It was windy and rainy Sunday morning. We kept glassing and hiking and were only seeing does. I spotted 7 does about 800 yards away. While looking at them I see a couple does about 400 yards away bedded in some tree's. I couldn't see into there very well because there was a little ridge in between us so we worked our way to the little ridge so we could see into the trees better. Right as I got to where we could see over deer started going everywhere. The 7 does that had been 800 yards away had ran towards the other deer and spooked them. I spot 2 bucks at 218 yards and get Katrina set up for a shot. She shot while it was quartering away and hit it back. It rolled into a small ravine where we couldn't see it anymore. We wait a few minutes and work our way over there. When we got close to the edge of the ravine there were a lot of leaves on the ground that were super crunchy that we couldn't avoid. As soon as we could peak over I see it get up and start running off. There was to much brush in the way for her to shoot so we drop off the ridge and walk the trail it took off on. I found its tracks but couldn't find a drop of blood. When we came around the corner where I last saw it it was nowhere to be seen. We hiked back up on the ridge so we could get a vantage point so I can hopefully glass it up since it wasn't bleeding much at all.
As soon as we got on top I spot it bedded about 150 yards away. Katrina got a good rest prone and shot it in its bed. We hike down to it and of course take pics etc. I boned it out and loaded it into my pack. A little over 4 miles back to the truck and she had her first deer in the cooler.
Katrina’s first buck by dirtytough,