CorbLand
WKR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2016
- Messages
- 7,742
To start off, I am a college student in Utah. I grew up in Idaho and moved to Utah in 2010. I grew up in a family that was introduced to hunting via a family friend after my father passed away. I did a fair amount of hunting in high school but had other interests at that time that took most of my money and time. Deer have always been that one that got away from me. I have had multiple in the crosshairs and in front of the pins but never have been able to seal the deal.
I moved to Utah and took a few years off of hunting due to limited time and drawing tags in Utah can be difficult. I was introduced to archery hunting when a coworker offered to take me. I put in for an archery tag in 2015 and drew. That coworker and hunted hard and had a few deer within range but were unable make it happen and I ate tag soup in 2015. Either way it was fun and I was addicted enough to give it another shot in 2016.
I convinced my best friends wife to buy him a bow for Christmas and she did. Him, I and the coworker from 2015 all drew Archery tags in the Cache unit in Northern Utah. I decided that this was going to be my year, I was going to make it happen even if it meant shooting a fork horn. Hey, horns don’t fill freezers.
I spent hours upon hours looking at maps and google earth finding a different area than last year. I narrowed it down to 3 different areas that I thought would hold some deer. I spent most of the spring and summer scouting all 3 of these areas. It was difficult to find the desired amount of time between two jobs and making it home to see my nieces and nephews whenever I can. By the first part of August I had it narrowed down 2 spots that I had seen the most deer in and the most sign. It worked out perfect because they were only two miles from each other which made it easy to hunt both at the same time.
Scouting. I spent a total of 5 or 6 days before season looking at different areas, looking for water, food and most importantly deer. Put out the trail cams in areas that looked good and hoped they would get some deer. There is nothing I love more than sitting on the side of the mountain binos on a tripod, eating a mountain house and watching mountain sides. I found some nice deer, a few 4 points but most were solid 3 points and a bunch of 2 points. I was excited though as I was seeing deer and this area looked solid for hunting.
I worked for 8 days straight in order to get the amount of time I wanted off for this hunt. I ended getting Saturday through Tuesday off. I would then come back to work and work to 12 hour shifts on Wednesday and Thursday, then back up for Friday and Saturday to hunt.
Day1- Opening day. Up at the crack of dawn to head into one of the areas that I scouted the least but looked promising. I pretty much hiked up to the top of the ridge and glassed all morning. Didn’t see any deer and that had me a little bummed but I found some shade and took a nap. In the late afternoon I stumbled upon a water hole that had a decent amount of tracks around it. I hiked a couple hundred yards off and waited to see if anything would come in. I saw nothing on the water hole but when I was hiking back to camp that night I ran into 4 deer that were headed in that direction. This had me super excited as I now knew the general area that those deer were coming from. Got back to camp and my best friend had arrived as he wasn’t able to be there for opening day.
Day2- Much like day 1, up an hour before sunrise, this is my love hate relationship with hunting, hiked in about a mile and half and set up the trail from the water I found on day 1. My best friend and the coworker set on the trail below the water hole as this is where I had seen the deer the previous day and I really was hoping to get my friend one as he had a limited amount of time to hunt. Didn’t see anything during the morning sit but as I was headed up to the main trail to go find a spot for lunch and to take a nap for the afternoon I ran into a small two point at about 40 yards. I drew back but he never offered me a shot that I liked and slipped into the trees. I sat in some meadows in the area that I found that two point for the evening. Nothing happened and by about 745 I was bored so I started to head back to camp. On the way back I ran into a very tall 3 point that I tried to get into position to shoot but I ran out of light and he put the slip on me. Once back at camp, my coworker did feel well so he decided to sleep in in the morning. My best friend and I decided to go hunt the other side of the road in an area that I had my trail cam.
Day3- We ended up sleeping in a little this morning. Then the hike in to the meadow I wanted to sit in took longer than expected and I was pretty frustrated. Either way, you have to hike a ridge into the meadow I was headed for and right as we got there I looked up ahead of us about 200 yards was a deer coming over the ridge into the meadow I wanted to be in. I dropped my pack and took off after him but I lost him in the trees and have no idea where he went. We sit in the trees on the side of the meadow for a couple hours but around 830 we are cold and bored so we grab the trail cam and go for a little hike. I had planned on grabbing the trail cam and heading back to the other spot as we had seen more deer over there. I take my buddy to go see this cool view and try to find the back trail out of this area but for some reason I could not find the trail. We head back to the main trail and start the mile and half walk out.
Now this trail is a very heavily used trail, it is two feet wide and looks like a highway. I am not expecting to see anything and almost stopped to put my bow on my pack for the hike out but decided against it. My friend and I are talking and joking around, ultimately just enjoying being away from work for a couple of days. I look up and see something moving out of the trees, head in front of us and slam my fist back and hit my friend in the thigh. I can see it’s a deer and I noticed horns, I tell my buddy to range it and he replies with “I can’t get my rangefinder out of my pocket” I grab mine and range him, 60 yards. I can shoot that far and practice out to 60 regularly but I notice the deer is not looking at us but over his back shoulder trying to find what pushed him out of the trees. I take off running down the trial towards the deer, he hears me and looks at me, standing perfectly broadside. I drop to my knee, range him again, 50 yards, hook up the release, draw, stand and send it.
I thought I missed him. I saw the arrow arch and lost it. I heard it hit some bushes behind him and I thought it went over his back. He took off running and I noticed that he had a weird dark spot on his side but didn’t really think much of it. I turned to my friend and asked him if he saw the arrow hit him. He said he thought I hit it and he thought he heard the hollow thwack sound. Well there is one way to tell and that’s find the arrow. Now this all happened in less than 20 seconds so when I shot I didn’t really have a good reference of where the deer was standing and it took us about 10 minutes to find my arrow. My friend found it and said “here it is”, I asked if there was blood on it and he responded with a little. I walk over to him and he has a shit eating grin on his face and my arrow was covered from tip to tip in blood and I lost it, I can’t explain how excited I was. We found some shade to sit for an hour before going and looking for him as the canyon he went for is deep and nasty and I didn’t want to push him farther in. Overall it wasn’t needed, we found him forty yards from where I shot him, he was dead in two minutes. The best part was the shit show watching try and quarter it as neither of us had done it in 7 years. It was an easy pack out as it was all downhill for the 1.5 miles which was nice.
Day4- it is the following Saturday and it kind of starts out like the day I shot my deer. Everything takes longer than expected. We got lost trying to find the tail we were looking for and the morning was kind of a bust. That evening my friend and I were hiking along a side hill trail looking for a place to sit when all of a sudden he sees antlers coming out from behind a tree. The deer was feeding directly towards us and at 19 yards it turned and went behind a tree. My buddy drew and the deer stopped and fed on a bush for about 2 minutes, my buddy remaining at full draw for the entire time. Finally, the deer took a step forward and my buddy shot. The deer wheeled and took off running.
My friend looked at me and I smiled and nodded, I saw the arrow hit and heard the thwack. We found the arrow and it had broken off the back 6 inches but the rest was covered in blood. We let him sit for about 45 minutes before going to look for him. The blood trail started off good but trailed off really fast which had me worried. We followed tracks mostly and just hoped we were on the right set. The last 50 yards was a total guess on the direction of which he took. I was up a little higher on the mountain side than my friend was a turned to give him shit for not finding his deer yet and that’s when I saw him. He had bedded down behind a tree and bleed out there. It was awesome to find him and I was happy that it went smooth. Quartering this one went smoother and we had it done way faster than the first one. Like mine it was a mile and half pack out, most of it being downhill which was nice.
Overall, it was a good year. I made memories that cannot be replaced and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
I moved to Utah and took a few years off of hunting due to limited time and drawing tags in Utah can be difficult. I was introduced to archery hunting when a coworker offered to take me. I put in for an archery tag in 2015 and drew. That coworker and hunted hard and had a few deer within range but were unable make it happen and I ate tag soup in 2015. Either way it was fun and I was addicted enough to give it another shot in 2016.
I convinced my best friends wife to buy him a bow for Christmas and she did. Him, I and the coworker from 2015 all drew Archery tags in the Cache unit in Northern Utah. I decided that this was going to be my year, I was going to make it happen even if it meant shooting a fork horn. Hey, horns don’t fill freezers.
I spent hours upon hours looking at maps and google earth finding a different area than last year. I narrowed it down to 3 different areas that I thought would hold some deer. I spent most of the spring and summer scouting all 3 of these areas. It was difficult to find the desired amount of time between two jobs and making it home to see my nieces and nephews whenever I can. By the first part of August I had it narrowed down 2 spots that I had seen the most deer in and the most sign. It worked out perfect because they were only two miles from each other which made it easy to hunt both at the same time.
Scouting. I spent a total of 5 or 6 days before season looking at different areas, looking for water, food and most importantly deer. Put out the trail cams in areas that looked good and hoped they would get some deer. There is nothing I love more than sitting on the side of the mountain binos on a tripod, eating a mountain house and watching mountain sides. I found some nice deer, a few 4 points but most were solid 3 points and a bunch of 2 points. I was excited though as I was seeing deer and this area looked solid for hunting.
I worked for 8 days straight in order to get the amount of time I wanted off for this hunt. I ended getting Saturday through Tuesday off. I would then come back to work and work to 12 hour shifts on Wednesday and Thursday, then back up for Friday and Saturday to hunt.
Day1- Opening day. Up at the crack of dawn to head into one of the areas that I scouted the least but looked promising. I pretty much hiked up to the top of the ridge and glassed all morning. Didn’t see any deer and that had me a little bummed but I found some shade and took a nap. In the late afternoon I stumbled upon a water hole that had a decent amount of tracks around it. I hiked a couple hundred yards off and waited to see if anything would come in. I saw nothing on the water hole but when I was hiking back to camp that night I ran into 4 deer that were headed in that direction. This had me super excited as I now knew the general area that those deer were coming from. Got back to camp and my best friend had arrived as he wasn’t able to be there for opening day.
Day2- Much like day 1, up an hour before sunrise, this is my love hate relationship with hunting, hiked in about a mile and half and set up the trail from the water I found on day 1. My best friend and the coworker set on the trail below the water hole as this is where I had seen the deer the previous day and I really was hoping to get my friend one as he had a limited amount of time to hunt. Didn’t see anything during the morning sit but as I was headed up to the main trail to go find a spot for lunch and to take a nap for the afternoon I ran into a small two point at about 40 yards. I drew back but he never offered me a shot that I liked and slipped into the trees. I sat in some meadows in the area that I found that two point for the evening. Nothing happened and by about 745 I was bored so I started to head back to camp. On the way back I ran into a very tall 3 point that I tried to get into position to shoot but I ran out of light and he put the slip on me. Once back at camp, my coworker did feel well so he decided to sleep in in the morning. My best friend and I decided to go hunt the other side of the road in an area that I had my trail cam.
Day3- We ended up sleeping in a little this morning. Then the hike in to the meadow I wanted to sit in took longer than expected and I was pretty frustrated. Either way, you have to hike a ridge into the meadow I was headed for and right as we got there I looked up ahead of us about 200 yards was a deer coming over the ridge into the meadow I wanted to be in. I dropped my pack and took off after him but I lost him in the trees and have no idea where he went. We sit in the trees on the side of the meadow for a couple hours but around 830 we are cold and bored so we grab the trail cam and go for a little hike. I had planned on grabbing the trail cam and heading back to the other spot as we had seen more deer over there. I take my buddy to go see this cool view and try to find the back trail out of this area but for some reason I could not find the trail. We head back to the main trail and start the mile and half walk out.
Now this trail is a very heavily used trail, it is two feet wide and looks like a highway. I am not expecting to see anything and almost stopped to put my bow on my pack for the hike out but decided against it. My friend and I are talking and joking around, ultimately just enjoying being away from work for a couple of days. I look up and see something moving out of the trees, head in front of us and slam my fist back and hit my friend in the thigh. I can see it’s a deer and I noticed horns, I tell my buddy to range it and he replies with “I can’t get my rangefinder out of my pocket” I grab mine and range him, 60 yards. I can shoot that far and practice out to 60 regularly but I notice the deer is not looking at us but over his back shoulder trying to find what pushed him out of the trees. I take off running down the trial towards the deer, he hears me and looks at me, standing perfectly broadside. I drop to my knee, range him again, 50 yards, hook up the release, draw, stand and send it.
I thought I missed him. I saw the arrow arch and lost it. I heard it hit some bushes behind him and I thought it went over his back. He took off running and I noticed that he had a weird dark spot on his side but didn’t really think much of it. I turned to my friend and asked him if he saw the arrow hit him. He said he thought I hit it and he thought he heard the hollow thwack sound. Well there is one way to tell and that’s find the arrow. Now this all happened in less than 20 seconds so when I shot I didn’t really have a good reference of where the deer was standing and it took us about 10 minutes to find my arrow. My friend found it and said “here it is”, I asked if there was blood on it and he responded with a little. I walk over to him and he has a shit eating grin on his face and my arrow was covered from tip to tip in blood and I lost it, I can’t explain how excited I was. We found some shade to sit for an hour before going and looking for him as the canyon he went for is deep and nasty and I didn’t want to push him farther in. Overall it wasn’t needed, we found him forty yards from where I shot him, he was dead in two minutes. The best part was the shit show watching try and quarter it as neither of us had done it in 7 years. It was an easy pack out as it was all downhill for the 1.5 miles which was nice.
Day4- it is the following Saturday and it kind of starts out like the day I shot my deer. Everything takes longer than expected. We got lost trying to find the tail we were looking for and the morning was kind of a bust. That evening my friend and I were hiking along a side hill trail looking for a place to sit when all of a sudden he sees antlers coming out from behind a tree. The deer was feeding directly towards us and at 19 yards it turned and went behind a tree. My buddy drew and the deer stopped and fed on a bush for about 2 minutes, my buddy remaining at full draw for the entire time. Finally, the deer took a step forward and my buddy shot. The deer wheeled and took off running.
My friend looked at me and I smiled and nodded, I saw the arrow hit and heard the thwack. We found the arrow and it had broken off the back 6 inches but the rest was covered in blood. We let him sit for about 45 minutes before going to look for him. The blood trail started off good but trailed off really fast which had me worried. We followed tracks mostly and just hoped we were on the right set. The last 50 yards was a total guess on the direction of which he took. I was up a little higher on the mountain side than my friend was a turned to give him shit for not finding his deer yet and that’s when I saw him. He had bedded down behind a tree and bleed out there. It was awesome to find him and I was happy that it went smooth. Quartering this one went smoother and we had it done way faster than the first one. Like mine it was a mile and half pack out, most of it being downhill which was nice.
Overall, it was a good year. I made memories that cannot be replaced and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
