Well, we are home from the hills.
My brother in law was starting to get disappointed in the bucks that we were seeing and decided that last night would be our last out in the wilds. We just were not seeing the kind of bucks that we should of, I tried to convince him that the migration for this area was 2-3 weeks behind schedule and that there were a couple of areas that we hadn't checked out yet and that we should at least give it the college try and see what turns up but he didn't want to try any new areas. So last night we took a ride up to the area where we had been watching the bucks filter through.
We watched the area for a while and there was nothing so we headed to the truck to take a ride up to the top of the hill and see if we could find something that would tell us to stay. We went up and watched a couple of areas from the road and then headed back down. Just as we came to a spot where deer had been crossing I spotted a doe in the trees but it looked like she was alone so down the road we went. We hit a pull our so I stopped and did some glassing but didn't come up with anything so we headed back on down the road. I hadn't driven a 1/2 mile before he said "There's a deer and it looks like a buck". I got the glasses on him and saw that he looked like a nice 3 pt. My brother in law gout out of the truck and headed to the far side of the road and the guardrail. He went to step over the rail and fell flat onto his rear, all this while I was watching the buck start to lay down. By the time I got out of the truck my BIL had started to get up and then over the rail he went. I'm not sure if where he shot from was quite legal as far as length from the center of the road but he was a ways off of the side of the road and down far enough on the side hill that I couldn't see him from the truck. Then a shot rang out and the deer was moving. Then another shot and the deer was just walking along the ledges. Well my BIL started to walk to get closer to the buck when he went down again, only this time he went down on the hill that was close to a 45 degree angle. I told him to just take his time and get set up in a sitting position (I don't remember if I said that or not but it sounds good in a story) The buck stopped and a shot rang out and the deer was down, I just hopped that he was down for good because if he wasn't he would go for a 1000 vertical feet before he would stop again.
Luckily the buck was dead up against the last cedar log before he went down that 1000 feet. I drove the truck over to where I was above the buck and went to see if I could find a easy way for my BIL to get down to it. I had to lower a couple of strands of a fence so that he could get over it and then went down the hill to the buck, he was dead thank goodness so I found a route for my BIL to come on down to him. I got one picture before the battery in my camera went dead so no real trophy shot at the scene. We got the cleaning chore taken care of and I looked back up the hill and figured that we had our work cut out for ourselves. The deer was only about 100 yards down from the truck but it was on of those type of hills that if if wasn't for the wet soil we would have a hard time getting a foothold. There were two small benches so we headed to the first one. Then headed up to the second one. I had around 150' of rope in the truck so we tied the buck off and then tied the rope to the trailer hitch. Then up they cam. The deer first and then my BIL who was holding onto a tag end of the rope hollering directions to me as I pulled them up.
Just so that you know my BIL has two artificial knees along with one hip and at times just walking is a chore for him but we were out there.
So for our trip that started nearly a month ago we had two real nice bucks. I am ecstatic with mine and he was very happy with is 4x4. It measured out a 18 1/2" wide and 14 1/2" high with a single eye-guard. I think that if he would of let me just take him to a doctor when he cut his fingers we may of also bagged a spike bull elk. But we will never know.
So give me a few days to recuperate and I'll be ready to do it again.
Final resting spot
The hunter with his trophy
