Skyhigh
WKR
This season my girlfriend was fortunate enough to draw a whitetail rifle tag again here in SD. This past weekend we went out and hunted for one after I was able to harvest a mule deer. The hunt was pretty interesting, and I think someone my gain value from it, so I figured I would write up the story here.
We began the hunt on Monday, waking up at 4:00am and leaving camp by 4:30. Driving to the spot doesn't take too long so we were there by about 5. We walked in and waited for sun up to begin glassing, and did not see a whole lot in the way of whitetails. Where we were hunting in the shortgrass there is a much higher percentage of mule deer and antelope than whitetail. With that said, we didn't see a whitetail. We did see around 30 mule deer and about 40 antelope. Cool to see, but not the target species. We had to move to find the whitetails.
That afternoon we drove to some hay fields that had not been cut yet this year. Around the edge of the field there are a few draws that would likely hold whitetail. The first spot we went to had a person parked at the access. so we went to spot two. The second spot has a fairly lengthy draw that splits and forms two smaller draws. Of these two splits, one is filled with deciduous trees (cottonwoods I think) and the other with conifers (Ponderosa's). We chose to sit over the valley with the deciduous trees because it seemed to have more activity because of a large trail and a few rubs being in the lower elevations of the valley. We ended up not seeing any living deer that night, but enjoyed a nice sunset. Also, we did see a nice mule deer buck getting a ride in someones backpack about half a mile away. A word of warning to anyone packing out deer, if you put the antlers upright, make sure you have visible orange on yourself or the deer's antlers. When cresting the hill and walking towards us all we could see was the rack. For myself, and most other people I know, this wouldn't be an issue because we make sure of my target before we shoot, but some shoot and ask questions later. An extra bit of orange cloth or a hat is worth the weight, because it may be your life when you have irresponsible people around. The other option is flip the rack down so it isn't overly visible and high in the air.
After that evening we figured we should head back out into the prairie because we could at least put our optics to use. The glassing spot we chose allowed us to stay relatively close to the road, about a half mile. We chose this particular spot because it allowed us to view two mostly dry creek bottoms and a cut alfalfa field that were all on walk in areas. Beginning at sun up, we immediately spotted mule deer and antelope. As the morning continued we ended up seeing around 30 muleys and about the same number of antelope. None of the mule deer were particularly big, but they were rutting around and chasing does, so they were fun to watch. After about an hour and a half of not seeing whitetails Julia asked, "When do you think we should head out?" She was cold and discouraged from not seeing a whitetail yet while hunting her tag. We also felt pressure to leave because of the seven hour drive we had to still make that day. I replied, "we should at least wait till most of the deer we can see bed, we may catch something moving still while they are on their feet." About five minutes later I spotted a deer walking away from us, and could not see the classic white rump patch that all mule deer have. We had found a whitetail. I informed Julia and pulled the deer up in the spotting scope. The deer was across the road and about two miles from our current location. Fairly quickly after spotting the buck, he moved behind a hill out of sight. We then made the choice to move to that hill, which was about a mile and a half away.
After arriving at the hill we began glassing immediately. We saw zero movement from the valley the deer was walking in, but we once again found a good number of antelope in the area. We also saw a plane that appeared to be doing some sort of surveys about five miles away. It kept flying in circles over a small area. We continued glassing for a while with no luck. Eventually, Julia spotted an anomaly in the relative evenness of the prairie with her 8x binoculars. She said to me, "do you see that black dot in line with where the plane is?" I glassed under the plane and immediately saw a coyote. I told her what I saw, and she was adamant that what she was seeing was larger than a coyote. I scanned across the valley to the right and immediately saw what she saw, the buck from earlier! The coyote was upwind of the buck, and had caused him to stand. The buck then began to walk towards us. We took a closer look through the spotting scope and my tripod mounted binoculars. He was definitely a decent buck, but from the distance it was hard to make out exactly what he was. He had a good frame though, so there was no question we were going to make a stalk on him. We kept following the buck with the glass, and eventually he bedded along the creek. With very few land marks in the valley, and the buck bedded in yellow sweet clover over his head, it was going to be difficult to find the exact spot he was at in the valley.
We are extremely fortunate to have the technology we do these days. I was able to use OnX to draw a line from our current location to a landmark that was about 3/4 a mile behind the buck.
This in turn crossed a section of the creek bed, so we had a location marked roughly where he was. Following this we watched the area he bedded for about half an hour to make sure he didn't move away and re-bed in a new location. During that time I planned how we were going to stalk up the buck. The easiest way seemed to be to circle far to the east and stay low in the creek beds. The creek beds were only about 3 feet deep, so we had to stay low, but we could walk at least.
So we walked along the creek bed until we got to the edge of an old dam that had been broken. We moved through it, and walked the edge of the washout (the white soil in the screenshot). I then moved up slightly to try and find where the buck was, immediately I spotted his antlers. He was much closer than I anticipated, ranging him showed 66 yards. I then backed up to Julia and explained where he was, and let her move up to see him. It took her a while, but eventually she was able to spot him (being shorter, she had vegetation in the way that I was able to look over). After seeing him where he was, and comparing it to where we were, we knew we had to get the buck to stand up or else she wasn't going to be able to make a clean shot. With that in mind, Julia crawled forward to the edge of the vegetation cover and set up her rifle on my backpack. I crawled back, and went around to get a different angle so the deer wouldn't be looking Julia's direction when I tried to make him stand. Finding some cover away from her, I snortwheezed at the buck. He looked over, but didn't care enough to stand up. I then grunted, with the same result. I repeated this a couple times over a few minutes, but he was not interested enough to stand up and look. I then tried throwing a small rock near him, but was unable to throw it close enough to make him react at all. The last thing I could think of that was going to be a somewhat natural noise for the buck was to blow like a doe, and then stomp the ground like they do when they are nervous. Making a loud "PFFFFF" sound the buck snapped his head my direction, and was alert, but didn't stand. I then began to stomp the ground. After three or four stomps the buck stood up quick, ready to bolt. Being set up already, Julia was on him immediately. I had just enough time to plug the ear on her side before she shot. She then shot, and the buck tucked the front leg facing Julia. After running about 50 yards, the buck piled up, leaving no question as to the quality of the shot she made.
We then waited about ten minutes. We knew he was not going anywhere, but more out of respect then anything else we figured we should wait and let him die in peace without us standing over him. We then walked up and Julia got her first good look at her second deer ever.
A little backstory to the picture. Julia's father passed away when she was young from cancer. Knowing what the conclusion was going to be, he had the ivories from his elk made into a necklace for his girls. Julia wears hers on every hunt we go on. I have been very fortunate to share in her experiences and help her grow as an outdoorswoman, since she was unable to receive the guidance from her father. This picture represent a lot to her, and I feel was very important to include, even if not related directly to the story.
Following this we did the typical cutting up and packing out necessary to get an animal back to the truck from a couple miles deep.
We then packed up the truck, packed up camp, and began our drive home. This is when Julia got her second deer for the day. While driving she had seen a couple deer, but had decided to continue driving 75 down the interstate. Coming around a corner, there was one in the road. Despite her best effort, we squared the little buck up.
If you see deer on the road, its probably best to slow down. We wasted more time then it would have been to drive 60 mph and not hit (or at least not hit as hard) the deer in the first place. Oh well, it was a lesson that had to be learned. Sadly, it was learned on my front bumper.
Anyway, that concludes this little story. Hopefully you can find some lesson from it, and thanks for reading!
We began the hunt on Monday, waking up at 4:00am and leaving camp by 4:30. Driving to the spot doesn't take too long so we were there by about 5. We walked in and waited for sun up to begin glassing, and did not see a whole lot in the way of whitetails. Where we were hunting in the shortgrass there is a much higher percentage of mule deer and antelope than whitetail. With that said, we didn't see a whitetail. We did see around 30 mule deer and about 40 antelope. Cool to see, but not the target species. We had to move to find the whitetails.
That afternoon we drove to some hay fields that had not been cut yet this year. Around the edge of the field there are a few draws that would likely hold whitetail. The first spot we went to had a person parked at the access. so we went to spot two. The second spot has a fairly lengthy draw that splits and forms two smaller draws. Of these two splits, one is filled with deciduous trees (cottonwoods I think) and the other with conifers (Ponderosa's). We chose to sit over the valley with the deciduous trees because it seemed to have more activity because of a large trail and a few rubs being in the lower elevations of the valley. We ended up not seeing any living deer that night, but enjoyed a nice sunset. Also, we did see a nice mule deer buck getting a ride in someones backpack about half a mile away. A word of warning to anyone packing out deer, if you put the antlers upright, make sure you have visible orange on yourself or the deer's antlers. When cresting the hill and walking towards us all we could see was the rack. For myself, and most other people I know, this wouldn't be an issue because we make sure of my target before we shoot, but some shoot and ask questions later. An extra bit of orange cloth or a hat is worth the weight, because it may be your life when you have irresponsible people around. The other option is flip the rack down so it isn't overly visible and high in the air.
After that evening we figured we should head back out into the prairie because we could at least put our optics to use. The glassing spot we chose allowed us to stay relatively close to the road, about a half mile. We chose this particular spot because it allowed us to view two mostly dry creek bottoms and a cut alfalfa field that were all on walk in areas. Beginning at sun up, we immediately spotted mule deer and antelope. As the morning continued we ended up seeing around 30 muleys and about the same number of antelope. None of the mule deer were particularly big, but they were rutting around and chasing does, so they were fun to watch. After about an hour and a half of not seeing whitetails Julia asked, "When do you think we should head out?" She was cold and discouraged from not seeing a whitetail yet while hunting her tag. We also felt pressure to leave because of the seven hour drive we had to still make that day. I replied, "we should at least wait till most of the deer we can see bed, we may catch something moving still while they are on their feet." About five minutes later I spotted a deer walking away from us, and could not see the classic white rump patch that all mule deer have. We had found a whitetail. I informed Julia and pulled the deer up in the spotting scope. The deer was across the road and about two miles from our current location. Fairly quickly after spotting the buck, he moved behind a hill out of sight. We then made the choice to move to that hill, which was about a mile and a half away.
After arriving at the hill we began glassing immediately. We saw zero movement from the valley the deer was walking in, but we once again found a good number of antelope in the area. We also saw a plane that appeared to be doing some sort of surveys about five miles away. It kept flying in circles over a small area. We continued glassing for a while with no luck. Eventually, Julia spotted an anomaly in the relative evenness of the prairie with her 8x binoculars. She said to me, "do you see that black dot in line with where the plane is?" I glassed under the plane and immediately saw a coyote. I told her what I saw, and she was adamant that what she was seeing was larger than a coyote. I scanned across the valley to the right and immediately saw what she saw, the buck from earlier! The coyote was upwind of the buck, and had caused him to stand. The buck then began to walk towards us. We took a closer look through the spotting scope and my tripod mounted binoculars. He was definitely a decent buck, but from the distance it was hard to make out exactly what he was. He had a good frame though, so there was no question we were going to make a stalk on him. We kept following the buck with the glass, and eventually he bedded along the creek. With very few land marks in the valley, and the buck bedded in yellow sweet clover over his head, it was going to be difficult to find the exact spot he was at in the valley.
We are extremely fortunate to have the technology we do these days. I was able to use OnX to draw a line from our current location to a landmark that was about 3/4 a mile behind the buck.
This in turn crossed a section of the creek bed, so we had a location marked roughly where he was. Following this we watched the area he bedded for about half an hour to make sure he didn't move away and re-bed in a new location. During that time I planned how we were going to stalk up the buck. The easiest way seemed to be to circle far to the east and stay low in the creek beds. The creek beds were only about 3 feet deep, so we had to stay low, but we could walk at least.
So we walked along the creek bed until we got to the edge of an old dam that had been broken. We moved through it, and walked the edge of the washout (the white soil in the screenshot). I then moved up slightly to try and find where the buck was, immediately I spotted his antlers. He was much closer than I anticipated, ranging him showed 66 yards. I then backed up to Julia and explained where he was, and let her move up to see him. It took her a while, but eventually she was able to spot him (being shorter, she had vegetation in the way that I was able to look over). After seeing him where he was, and comparing it to where we were, we knew we had to get the buck to stand up or else she wasn't going to be able to make a clean shot. With that in mind, Julia crawled forward to the edge of the vegetation cover and set up her rifle on my backpack. I crawled back, and went around to get a different angle so the deer wouldn't be looking Julia's direction when I tried to make him stand. Finding some cover away from her, I snortwheezed at the buck. He looked over, but didn't care enough to stand up. I then grunted, with the same result. I repeated this a couple times over a few minutes, but he was not interested enough to stand up and look. I then tried throwing a small rock near him, but was unable to throw it close enough to make him react at all. The last thing I could think of that was going to be a somewhat natural noise for the buck was to blow like a doe, and then stomp the ground like they do when they are nervous. Making a loud "PFFFFF" sound the buck snapped his head my direction, and was alert, but didn't stand. I then began to stomp the ground. After three or four stomps the buck stood up quick, ready to bolt. Being set up already, Julia was on him immediately. I had just enough time to plug the ear on her side before she shot. She then shot, and the buck tucked the front leg facing Julia. After running about 50 yards, the buck piled up, leaving no question as to the quality of the shot she made.
We then waited about ten minutes. We knew he was not going anywhere, but more out of respect then anything else we figured we should wait and let him die in peace without us standing over him. We then walked up and Julia got her first good look at her second deer ever.
A little backstory to the picture. Julia's father passed away when she was young from cancer. Knowing what the conclusion was going to be, he had the ivories from his elk made into a necklace for his girls. Julia wears hers on every hunt we go on. I have been very fortunate to share in her experiences and help her grow as an outdoorswoman, since she was unable to receive the guidance from her father. This picture represent a lot to her, and I feel was very important to include, even if not related directly to the story.
Following this we did the typical cutting up and packing out necessary to get an animal back to the truck from a couple miles deep.
We then packed up the truck, packed up camp, and began our drive home. This is when Julia got her second deer for the day. While driving she had seen a couple deer, but had decided to continue driving 75 down the interstate. Coming around a corner, there was one in the road. Despite her best effort, we squared the little buck up.
If you see deer on the road, its probably best to slow down. We wasted more time then it would have been to drive 60 mph and not hit (or at least not hit as hard) the deer in the first place. Oh well, it was a lesson that had to be learned. Sadly, it was learned on my front bumper.
Anyway, that concludes this little story. Hopefully you can find some lesson from it, and thanks for reading!
