What a day,
Finally a success story. After 2 years of very nice armed hikes in D5, it all came together on opening day. Met with a buddy (Steven) at 4am to make the hike into the woods. We geared up, had a quick snack of Bananas and Ostrich jerky my buddy brought back from Africa...it is terrible, avoid it. We left the trucks and headed out.
Made the couple mile hike, in the dark and where we turned off the trail the wind picked up. We walked into a stiff wind until we got to the Rock bench that we were planning on glassing/hunting from. Thankfully we found a small rock outcrop to stash our gear under, since we heard there was a chance of rain and snow. We chose our spots and waited for the sun to come up. According to the app, the wind was gusting up to 20mph and we felt every bone chilling moment of it.
We got to a point where we could only sit for 15-20 mins, before retreating to our rock cave to get a quick break from the wind and try to warm up. As I was about to call it and head back to the truck things started to pick up. A monster buck emerged from the tree line chasing 2 does. I lined up a shot on him, we tagged it at almost 300 yards and there was as strong cross wind. I pull the trigger and "CLICK"...The round was dimpled but it was a dry fire and the deer walked off. Now I was really close to calling it and heading down the mountain.
We decided that the deer were probably staying close to the tree line and decided to cut our distance and head to another rock bench about 150 yards down the hill. Thankfully the wind was in our face and at 20mph, we could move and make noise without spooking anything down hill.
The lower bench had much less wind, but there was no action for a while...sooooo I took a quick snooze and was woken up to Steven frantically gesturing that there was a deer down the hill feeding. He was positioned on the left of the bench and I was over on the right. We watched 2 Deer feed and then they vanished...totally lost 2 deer that were directly down hill. Turns out they had bedded down. in a few minutes the younger deer stood up to feed, he was a big bodied spike and was rough housing with the other deer, that I couldn't see too well. Then the big boy stood up and he was impressive.
Since I took the first "shot", I was waiting to Steven to take the shot. Just in case I sighted the deer in and got ready to fire, in case of a miss or a wounded animal. Turns out he had an obstructed shooting lane and didn't have a clear shot. As the Deer was going to walk away, I pulled the trigger, saw the deer take a step sideways and then lost sight on him. Now the fear sets in that I missed the shot. We wait about 15 mins and then make our way down and about 5 steps from where he was feeding there was my first buck. Took him with a .270 from 110 yards, with wind, double lung punch, no meat loss and the organs where in perfect shape. Steven and I high fived for a while and then got to work breaking down the deer. He was like a surgeon and we made quick work of the butchering as the sunny day turned to a snowy day.
With our packs loaded up, we decided that the scramble up the hill in the rock slurry would have been to difficult and the wind on the ridge would have been an issue, so we hiked down the draw, according to OnX it would be a short hike out. It turned into a 6.5 mile hike out, in the snow annnnnnnd with a pack failure, shouldering the load was a challenge. We made it down the hill and back to town, in time to eat a few Bear burgers with Don and then I headed home for some brown liquor, a hot shower and some sleep.
Amazing opening day and one I will remember forever. Huge thank you to Steven for the incredible teamwork and to everyone on this forum who has provided the knowledge and help over the last few seasons.
Finally a success story. After 2 years of very nice armed hikes in D5, it all came together on opening day. Met with a buddy (Steven) at 4am to make the hike into the woods. We geared up, had a quick snack of Bananas and Ostrich jerky my buddy brought back from Africa...it is terrible, avoid it. We left the trucks and headed out.
Made the couple mile hike, in the dark and where we turned off the trail the wind picked up. We walked into a stiff wind until we got to the Rock bench that we were planning on glassing/hunting from. Thankfully we found a small rock outcrop to stash our gear under, since we heard there was a chance of rain and snow. We chose our spots and waited for the sun to come up. According to the app, the wind was gusting up to 20mph and we felt every bone chilling moment of it.
We got to a point where we could only sit for 15-20 mins, before retreating to our rock cave to get a quick break from the wind and try to warm up. As I was about to call it and head back to the truck things started to pick up. A monster buck emerged from the tree line chasing 2 does. I lined up a shot on him, we tagged it at almost 300 yards and there was as strong cross wind. I pull the trigger and "CLICK"...The round was dimpled but it was a dry fire and the deer walked off. Now I was really close to calling it and heading down the mountain.
We decided that the deer were probably staying close to the tree line and decided to cut our distance and head to another rock bench about 150 yards down the hill. Thankfully the wind was in our face and at 20mph, we could move and make noise without spooking anything down hill.
The lower bench had much less wind, but there was no action for a while...sooooo I took a quick snooze and was woken up to Steven frantically gesturing that there was a deer down the hill feeding. He was positioned on the left of the bench and I was over on the right. We watched 2 Deer feed and then they vanished...totally lost 2 deer that were directly down hill. Turns out they had bedded down. in a few minutes the younger deer stood up to feed, he was a big bodied spike and was rough housing with the other deer, that I couldn't see too well. Then the big boy stood up and he was impressive.
Since I took the first "shot", I was waiting to Steven to take the shot. Just in case I sighted the deer in and got ready to fire, in case of a miss or a wounded animal. Turns out he had an obstructed shooting lane and didn't have a clear shot. As the Deer was going to walk away, I pulled the trigger, saw the deer take a step sideways and then lost sight on him. Now the fear sets in that I missed the shot. We wait about 15 mins and then make our way down and about 5 steps from where he was feeding there was my first buck. Took him with a .270 from 110 yards, with wind, double lung punch, no meat loss and the organs where in perfect shape. Steven and I high fived for a while and then got to work breaking down the deer. He was like a surgeon and we made quick work of the butchering as the sunny day turned to a snowy day.
With our packs loaded up, we decided that the scramble up the hill in the rock slurry would have been to difficult and the wind on the ridge would have been an issue, so we hiked down the draw, according to OnX it would be a short hike out. It turned into a 6.5 mile hike out, in the snow annnnnnnd with a pack failure, shouldering the load was a challenge. We made it down the hill and back to town, in time to eat a few Bear burgers with Don and then I headed home for some brown liquor, a hot shower and some sleep.
Amazing opening day and one I will remember forever. Huge thank you to Steven for the incredible teamwork and to everyone on this forum who has provided the knowledge and help over the last few seasons.
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