Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

[sn.outdoors]

After spending almost 4 years living on the wide open and depressingly flat Llano Estacado of Eastern New Mexico and West Texas, I have developed a strange fascination with hunting in this difficult terrain. So when I moved to Idaho last fall the first place I went out and wandered around on was the desert... And boy was I surprised with what I found. But I was even more excited with what I didn't find, people.

Now I'm well aware of the fact the desert doesn't have nearly as many animals or the quality of animals other areas hold, but the thing I like the most is the lack of competition from other hunters. Also, having grown up on a small farm in Wisconsin, being able to walk as far as I can see is another aspect of the desert I've grown to love.

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Back in January when I first started exploring this wide open playground from behind a coyote gun, I found several large groups of deer and I decided to go back every once in a while to keep tabs on them. I assumed most of the deer would leave and find greener pastures, which they did, but a few deer stuck around all summer. Even though I never really sat down and looked at the deer close enough to determine any antler size, I knew there HAD to be a nice buck based on the sheer number of deer in these couple spots.

While I was out on a random hike/workout/shed hunt/coyote hunt/nature hike in late July, I spotted a decent sized buck with a good amount of antler growth. I couldn't tell how big it was or really any specifics, nor did I care much, but he was a good buck and all the confirmation I needed to get back out there.

My original plan for last night was to take my daughter to the same place we'd been twice before, but she insisted she didn't want to go. Half heartbroken, half curious, I texted Dan to let him know I was headed to the desert.

I was going to one of the spots I'd always seen deer and was going to cover some ground and do some glassing. After only 5 minutes of glassing I spotted several deer over a mile away. I had absolutely no clue what they were and didn't have time to pull the spotting scope out before they dropped into a small coulee. So I did what I do best, I walked over there and took a closer look

Does... I found lots of does, and I had to stare directly into the sun to see them. I wasn't in a position to move at all until the sun dropped below the horizon. So I just sat and kept an eye out... And maybe burned a little bit of retina in the process. I ended up seeing around 18 deer, but I couldn't tell if any of them were bucks. Therefore, I'll say there weren't any deer worth keeping my interest.

As soon as the sun went down enough to put me in the shade I stood up to get a better vantage point. WAY off to my right, in the middle of a wide open grassy area, I saw 5 dark spots moving around. As quickly as I could, I moved my spotter over to get a better look.

It took all of half a millisecond for me to decide I was going after him, and I was going to kill him.

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[sn.outdoors]

With the sun at or below the horizon, I scanned the open prairie with my binos to see if the stalk was even feasible... It wasn't. Before me laid about two thousand yards of flat wide open grass. There was no way I could crawl up to them with the amount of daylight I had... So I chose to run.

I walked down to a fence line and dropped my pack and spotter near a corner post next to a pile of rocks so I could easily find it again. I ranged the buck at 1800 yards, evaluated the terrain again, and came to the same conclusion... There wasn't enough time. I had to run.

So I did just that. I ran.

To my surprise the deer didn't pay me much bother. They kept their heads down, for the most part, and fed on the grass. Every few hundred yards closer I got the deer would casually look up at me. It seemed like they were confused. They didn't seem to get worried until I broke the 600 yard mark, but instead of running away, they all just turned and looked at me.

I slowed to a walk when I got to 500 yards, and was able to close the distance to 360 yards. I could tell the deer weren't comfortable with the strange, tan object that stopped and sat down, and they started moving away. There next time they stopped the buck was at 430 yards and I let the trusty weatherby bark.

The buck stumbled and looked weak in the legs, but I racked another round and sent it. Both bullets found their mark and the buck was down.

With the light quickly fading, I ran straight to the buck. I've lost a few things in the desert after the sun went down, and I didn't want to lose this deer in the vast sea of grass he was laying in.

I propped my rifle up with the buck's antlers because I knew I had to get to my pack and back to the deer before sunset or it might all be gone. So I ran... to my pack and back. The light had faded, but I managed to find my rifle standing tall above the grass. Below it lied a tall tined buck, and I couldn't have been more happy.

As we all know, when the animal is down, the work begins. I kind of lost track of time, and didn't realize how far I'd walked. So when I looked at the gas, I was surprised to find I was just under 3 miles from the truck, but only 3/4 of a mile from the nearest road, but that route took me further away from the truck. It was 730pm, I had a dead buck I needed to pack 3/4 of a mile, 3.5 miles of road to walk back to the truck, then a 90 minute drive back home. Good thing I needed to be to work early the next morning.

I packed all 4 quarters, head, and cape to the road, and made it home before midnight.

This Kifaru got a heck of a workout over the last 2 months.

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And just like that I'd filled the last of my 4 tags on my 2017 Idaho to-do list. What an amazing season it was. When I chose to move here, I never imagined I'd have a season like this. It's been incredible, and I'm extremely grateful.

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[Lostinthewoods]

Last night was uneventful. It was thick and I'm pretty sure there were deer around me, but nothing walked into a shooting lane.


I'm heading out tomorrow morning. There's a storm due in the morning, so I want to be in a tree as SOON as it breaks.

Last year my target buck was at my stand 20 minutes after a storm broke and I wanted to hunt that day....

I just can't wait to be in a tree!


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[Lostinthewoods]

First Florida deer of the season!

Got into my stand at 12:30 and shot her at 1:59.

She's already gutted, hanging, and I'm back up in my tree for another!

I'll get her weighed and roughly aged by the biologist when I check out. The crazy thing is I believe this is a mature Florida doe.

Nothing like the does I'm use to!


It'll be very yummy though! Mmmhmmm backstraps!!!


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[Lostinthewoods]

Tonight was a great night. This morning was full of thunder storms and it was going to break around 10am. Then winds were going to shift at noon and a nice north wind was going to bring in some cool weather. I HAD TO SIT! I even had a spot all picked out.


I got to my stand at 12:30 and my cameras had does moving around 3-4

At 1:59 this doe came in, 30 yards broadside, and the rest was history!


It was a great night!


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[Lostinthewoods]

Stories later.... this is actually aftermath of last night and I've been dying to tell the story... just had to find him this morning....


I actually killed two yesterday on the same sit!!!! Will update later, I've got a busy day ahead!


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[Lostinthewoods]

Sorry for the delay, I had some cutting and quartering to do!


So yesterday and this morning were a very action packed and exciting 24 hours!


I had posted earlier that we were going to have some storms here Saturday morning and that once they broke I wanted to hunt.

When I watched the weather it showed that once the storms broke, a few hours later the winds would turn (coming from the north) and bring in some cool temps.

I was super excited because I had one spot in mind that I had been dying to hunt. It's an area I found earlier this year and everything just felt right about it.

I gave you the story yesterday about the doe I shot, but there was more.....


Around 6:15pm yesterday two bucks came in with 15 minutes left of legal shooting light. The smaller of the two wasn't legal and I knew the bigger one was. 30 yards, quartering away, I picked my spot and shots. Everything felt good, looked good, but now is when it got a little crazy.


I'm hunting Florida public land(military base reservation/range), but it's managed in the way you have to check in and out at certain times.
I had to be out of there by 8pm. I was a mile from my truck with a 20 minute drive after that to the gate. I had my doe that I needed to get back to the truck, and I had just shot this buck.

I climbed down and went to the spot I hit him.... arrow was there and with good blood. That's when I also noticed the ground was super wet because it had rained about an hour before and I got a little nervous.

I packed my doe up and sprinted to my truck.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

I got to the gate just in time and let them know I'd be out early in the morning to look for the buck.

It stinks, but they won't let you search pass the check out time...

The wet ground really worried me, I've never tracked blood before after a rain storm and was not sure how it would effect the blood trail.

I was posting in a local Facebook group and they put me in touch with a guy who had a young dog named dozer. He said he'd love to come help me look.

I absolutely hate putting people out and wanted to do it, but they all recommended I use the dog so we could get into the deer quickly in the morning to save the meat.... fair enough.
Lucky for me the temps dropped down to mid 30s last night.



I met Justin and his dog dozer early in the morning, bought them breakfast, and we went off.

We found good blood

Dozer worked the trails like a champ and I just sat back enjoying the show and marking blood.

At one point we found a lot of blood and it was leading all over the place. Dozer started a grid search and I got on my hands and knees. What I discovered was the buck had doubled back on us... I started walking down a trail and was finding fresh blood.... I marked about 7 spots and decided to yell for Justin and Dozer so they could get ahead of me. Once they got to me Dozer took a few steps and guess what.... DEAD BUCK!

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[Lostinthewoods]

I was so so so so so pleased for so many reasons!


For starts I did in fact shoot two deer from the same stand in the same day. I've never done that before! I was SO PUMPED!!!

I also had my first tracking dog experience and it was very cool! There is definitely a need for those dogs out here in these nasty Florida swamps and it all just worked out great.


The best part is the meat was still good!

Don't mind my goofy face ^

What a great day indeed!
Another cool piece to the story is I had this buck on camera 9 days ago in this spot.

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[sn.outdoors]

I was blessed with another opportunity to spend a day in the field with another friend. After a few miles of hiking and a lucky series of events, my buddy was able to harvest his first mule deer. We glassed up a lot more deer than I was expecting, and we were able to finally get close to this guy and get a shot off. He's going to be delicious.

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[Lostinthewoods]

Completely forgot to do a month update for my hunts. It's been busy and my mind turns to garbage once Nov hits because it's whitetail time!


October was an amazing month because I was able to take my first ever antelope buck. He was a nice old buck with some cool character

Then I was able to take two whitetail deer in Florida on public land.

Not only were these my first Florida deer, but it was also my first double. It was a great hunt!

So what's in store for November?

I leave Tuesday for Kentucky and I'll be hunting out there from Tuesday evening to Saturday evening.

Then I am hunting in Oklahoma Nov 17-24th!

Add in Florida too and it'll be a great month!!!


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[sn.outdoors]

I can't believe October is already gone. It was the month I'd been dreaming of since I drew my moose tag many months ago. I spent countless hours researching and preparing for my moose hunt, and everything else took a backseat. Despite the success in September, my mind and efforts were focused on October, and specifically the moose hunt.

After 6 challenging, but awesome and fun days of hunting I killed my first moose, and very likely my last moose in ID. (I'll definitely be playing the raffle... "So you're saying there's a chance!")

Since I tagged out and was back home halfway through my leave, I was fortunate to be able to capitalize on an amazing aoudad/Barbary sheep after a trip to the taxidermist.

I didn't waste any time after getting back from the road trip, and was able to help a good friend kill his first deer, and find and kill a good buck down in the desert away from the crowd.

I was also blessed with the opportunity to help another buddy harvest his first muley on the last day he was able to hunt.

Never could I have imagined my October turning out the way it did. Each hunt was amazing in is own special way. I don't think I could list them in any sort of rank order. They're all just a piece of an outstanding season, and I can't be thankful enough to have been so blessed.

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[sn.outdoors]

It wasn't exactly how I would have wanted it to go, but we got it done with the whole family there. I'll get the rest of the story and better pics up soon.

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[sn.outdoors]

As I said, this hunt didn't turn out the way I would have wanted it to, but it happened the way it did. I made a few mistakes, learned a few lessons, but we got it done.

With November arriving, so too came my wife's controlled hunt season. I spent countless hours over the summer walking around the desert trying to learn as much as possible. I did spend some time actually looking for nicer bucks and managed to turn a few up, and I couldn't wait for November to roll around and get after some rutting muleys with my wife and kids.

I planned to hunt weekends and only take a few days of leave the week of Thanksgiving. Since my in-laws came to visit us last week, we weren't able to hunt until Sunday, and since we were bringing both of our kids with us, we ran a little behind that morning. We didn't get out there until just before 11.

It didn't take me long to find some deer.... 5.2 miles away.

I counted 35 little brown dots moving around up there, and I was sure there would be more. I even saw a buck decent enough to actually tell it was a buck.

I'm sure there were deer closer to us in the sagebrush, but I'm not a huge fan of hunting deer I can't see. So we packed the kids back into the truck and headed up hill to play around in the snow.

For me there's just something I absolutely love about hunting animals, especially deer, in wide open grass lands. So when I saw they were up in the grass, my heart fluttered with a bit of excitement. We quickly found one of the groups of deer, and it had 2 bucks in it. A small raghorn, and a very large buck I only got a short glimpse of. The little guy laid down up high, and I lost the big buck after he dropped down into the drainage. He was really nice.

So we loaded up the kiddos and started making our move.

Both kids actually behaved pretty well and seemed to enjoy the first stalk. The weather was chilly, but the sun was just strong enough to keep them warm. My daughter was wrapped in a few jackets inside my pack, and my son absorbed all of the excess heat from my chest. Later on in the day I could tell his feet were getting cold, which kind of bothered him, but he did really well considering the conditions.

As we began to crest the ridge where the deer were bedded, I told my wife to take one step at a time and take extra time to glass all of the new terrain she could see each time. Not surprising to me, the big buck was bedded on the opposite side of the drainage from the rest of the deer, which put him only 60-80 yards away from us when we got to the top of the ridge. As soon as I saw the tips of his rack, he bolted. He ran to the bottom of the drainage and around the corner out of sight before my wife even knew he was there. It happened extremely fast, and there was no looking back from him.

The rest of the deer simply stood up and walked a few yards up hill and into clear sight. I asked my wife if she wanted to shoot the smaller buck, and not being picky at all, she said yes. The deer stopped at just under 200 yards, and she laid prone to take the shot as I moved back to keep the kids away from the muzzle blast. I don't know what happened, or how she did it, but she missed the layup. She must have hit some brush right in front of her, because I have no clue where the shot went.

After the miss, the deer moseyed off and drop off the ridgeline and out of sight. It might sound bad for me to say this, but I honestly was a little glad she missed. I didn't want it to be over so soon. I wanted to do some more hunting.

We walked toward where we watched the deer disappear to check a few small drainages and circle back to the truck. There were still a lot of deer further up the ridgeline, and there was a road on top of the ridge so we decided to drive around and get above the herd.

The drive also rewarmed the kiddos, and got them just enough motivation to put up with is dragging them along for another walkabout. Since there were deer basically everywhere, we had a tough time moving around to get into a spot which gave us a good vantage point. Eventually I accepted the fact we weren't going to get to a 'spot' and I just had to glass and wait.

I spent nearly an hour searching every nook and cranny for a big buck laying down. After a minutes of looking I found this buck.

Since there was no rush I kept searching the rest of the area, and didn't even tell my wife I'd seen the buck for three reasons; I didn't want to get her excited, I was tired, and I also didn't want to miss a big buck bedded within my view.

When I decided he was the biggest buck, I set the spotting scope on the buck and told my wife I found one. Before she even looked through the spotter, she was noticeably excited. And as soon as she saw the buck, I could see the effects of the cold and adrenaline starting to run their course.

We moved as close as we could, and I talked her through the shot. I made sure she was stable and had her do a few dry fires. She seemed just fine so I had her load a round and reconfirmed the distance. The buck was still bedded and I knew she could make the shot; she'd done it plenty of times before during practice.

So when she fired the first round and sailed it WAY over the buck's back, I was completely baffled. What the heck? How'd she miss two easy shots? After discussing what happened with my wife, I realized she didn't have the scope on the right magnification and her hold over was WAY too much.

Luckily, the buck was distracted by an attractive doe that walked past him, and he slowly got up and followed her. These deer most not have too many run-ins with people, because they didn't seem to care to much about the gunshot or our kids making a ton of noise.

The buck was basically in the same spot as the first shot, so I coached her through the shot and made sure everything was setup correctly this time. Since the buck was quartered away to the right and the wind was blowing left to right, I told her to aim mid body and let 'er rip. Finally... A shot found it's mark... Or so I thought.

The buck hunched, ate that round and turned left. I told my wife to wait and put one in his arm pit, she let it rip immediately, but he hadn't turned enough. She hit him exactly where she was aiming, but the shot didn't appear to go into the chest cavity. She broke his shoulder, which motivated him to move further away from us.

The next time the buck stopped and gave us another shot opportunity he was further than what I was comfortable letting my wife shoot, but I gave her the right wind and elevation and she sent another round. The bullet hit the buck in the hind quarters, but he barely even flinched.

We sat and watched for a few minutes hoping he'd tip over, but he didn't. Eventually, he started slowly walking back downhill closer to us. He stopped again near the same place he was hit the first 2 times, so my wife shot at him again but missed twice. I'm pretty sure she was just cold and pumped with adrenaline at this point. She had spent almost 20 minutes laying behind the rifle and was dressed for hiking... Not laying on wet and cold snow.

At this point we only had one round left, and I asked if she thought she could make the shot or not. After rewarming her hands, gaining her composure again, and waiting for the buck to turn broadside, she sent the last round. It hit him just in front of the shoulder and the buck slowly stumbled down into the drainage below us. He stopped and stuff on the edge for a few minutes before slowly walking out of sight.

I could not believe the buck took 4 rounds and didn't fall over. To say I was confused and baffled would be an understatement. I looked at my wife and didn't know what to say. It didn't look good.

I had my wife take the kids back up to the truck to warm up while I went down to see if I could find the buck.

Well I found the buck, but he was still alive. He looked really rough, but he was still alive.

I watched him for over an hour and 4 or 5 times I thought for sure he was going to stiffen up and die, but he never did. As light was almost entirely gone, he stood up! He stood for around 5 minutes before he began stumbling, falling and eventually regaining enough footing to walk off into the darkness.

He was one tough animal. I couldn't believe it. I regretted not bringing all of my ammo with us. All we needed was one more round.

I'm sure all of the hot does being chased by young bucks helped motivate the deer to stay alive.

It was a rough drive home, and a fitful night of sleep. I hated it, but I had to go to work in the morning, and couldn't get back out there until the afternoon. I was hopeful that he just walked to the next drainage and laid down again, and hopefully died.

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[sn.outdoors]

Monday was one of the least productive with days I've ever had. I could not focus on anything. I felt terrible. Everything worked out so well and it was going almost perfectly, but the buck just wouldn't die.

I wasn't able to get out of work as early as I would've liked, so by the time we got to the area, we only had an hour of light to search for him, and we had over a mile walk to get to where I had last seen the buck. I put my daughter in my pack and had my wife carry our son. I told my wife I was going to cover as much ground as possible, and for her to do her best to keep up. I didn't have enough time to wait for her, but she did a good job of keeping up.

We walked past over 40 deer on the way, and I spent a few seconds glassing each herd to check for the wounded buck. I never saw him, so I beelined to the spot I figured the buck would most likely be. Halfway there I was pretty exhausted and had stopped looking hard. I was just walking... and walking fast.

There wasn't much light left and I was starting to lose hope of finding anything when I got to the coulee I thought the buck would be in. I stopped and glassed up the drainage for half a minute, but didn't see anything. I took a few more steps to see below me to the bottom of the cut....

THERE HE WAS! Bedded down, looking right at me.... 30yds away. I walked straight to him!

I took a few steps back and told my wife, "he's right there! Still alive. Give me the kid, and shoot him."

By the time she was ready for the shot, the bucks head slowly drooped back to the ground. He was in rough shape, and my wife quickly put him out of his misery.

As you can tell... My son was done with being outside. My daughter was excited, but she quickly got cold outside of the warmth of my pack.

My wife carried my son and helped my daughter walk back, while I carried what was left of the deer back to the truck.

I definitely got my money's worth out of my new Kifaru this year.

After looking at the wounds, I was even more baffled that the deer didn't die Sunday night. The first shot into the body hit high liver and one lung, and somehow the other shots didn't hit anything important enough to kill him. He was the toughest deer I've ever seen.

I'm not really happy with how it all turned out, and we could have done a lot of things differently. This hunt may not be one of those hunts people like to read about, or watch in TV but it's what happened. At the end of the day we learned a lot and were able to see it through and get it done.

Helping my wife kill her first buck would have been an awesome time by itself, but having the kids with us the entire time made for a uniquely challenging and fun experience. Even though it didn't go the way I would have preferred, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

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[Lostinthewoods]

I hit the road at midnight on the 7th and made my way towards Kentucky!

I got in and wanted to go directly to my creek crossing. I knew that would be a hot spot for the rut and wanted to hit it hard.

Well apparently Mother Nature had a different plan.

My normal coupe in creek had turned into the Mississippi River.


It was still a beautiful sit for the night though.

I didn't see any deer that evening, but it was amazing to be back in crisp weather and experience an actual Fall season.


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[Lostinthewoods]

This morning I woke up bright and early and snuck into a spot above the creek crossing in the timber. It was a known travel route and had some acorns, so I figured what the heck.

Around 7:45 I had three does come in at 30 yards and bed down. Of course they teased me for about 15 minutes before they laid down.... they gave my plenty of broadside shots and all I could think about was summer sausage. I resisted though.

Around 8:30 I saw a buck going towards the does. I pulled out my range finder to get a better view and he was a young basket 6 point. He too teased me at 30 yards, but he just wasn't what I was looking for. He ended up pushing the does out, but it was a great encounter and fun to watch.


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[Lostinthewoods]

Typically at this part of a whitetail season I would do all day sits. However with the creek crossing being so deep I wanted to go check out spots to pull cameras and access possibilities. You have to be flexible and have many options!



These are some of the better bucks around this area and what id be happy shooting.

I also found an extremely fresh scrap that had been hit within the past 8 hours because that's when the downpour stopped.

I also saw a baby die while exploring.


One thing I found on my cameras is that the doe population is extremely healthy and I don't believe EHD hurt my spots. So maybe, just maybe on the last day I'll consider a summer sausage doe. It's just hard to do that when you know a buck could be right in tow.


I'm sitting another travel point that I hunted last year and killed a doe. It's also where this guy frequents.

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[diyguy]

I just spent at least 4 hours at work reading this entire thread and I am so glad I did! I can't wait to read about the rest of the season from you guys!

 

[sn.outdoors]

I just spent at least 4 hours at work reading this entire thread and I am so glad I did! I can't wait to read about the rest of the season from you guys!

Thank you! We're glad you read it all as well! Haha.

Glad we could help you get through the work day too.

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