Arrowslinger
WKR
My deer season has been one of the worst ones in recent memory. With 100+ deer spotted on my trips, only 1 has not been a doe or spike...which i promptly missed twice with my bow. Been a little frustrated and decided to mix things up a bit. I've always wanted to find or hunt a great D3-5 (Sacramento to Sierra Nevada's) high country spot, so after chatting with a local hardcore hunter, he said he knew just the spot. So off we went.
Doug spotted a buck literally the second we sat down and he was legal, but nothing to jump on in the first few minutes. As we glassed, a couple does appeared and the warmth from the 2 hour hike in started to fade. I added layers and continued to shake from the 20* temps. We decided to warm up and head behind us another couple hundred yards to get a different view on a western slope.
Two bucks were feeding 300 yards below us at a pretty steep angle and with the wind blowing hard, we decided to drop elevation and cut some yardage. 8:45am and at 245 yards, both bucks were feeding out in the open with no clue of our presence. We never really had a chance to warm up and as both of us lay prone with the bucks in our scopes, we were shaking almost uncontrollably. The larger of the two bucks stayed behind a tree for close to 10 minutes before offering a broadside shot. For some reason, which i can only suspect was hypothermia, Doug said "he's yours"....."uhmmm, what?", "your buck, you shoot", "this is your spot and you found'em, you shoot", "nope your buck"...and with that, i sent one down range.
We heard the hit and the buck hunched up and moved behind some trees, all i could see was his shadow and he was moving backwards, kinda doing the moonwalk, which i knew probably was a good sign.
Big bodied 2x3 and for me, a great public land muley!
A big thanks to Doug for the adventure!
Doug spotted a buck literally the second we sat down and he was legal, but nothing to jump on in the first few minutes. As we glassed, a couple does appeared and the warmth from the 2 hour hike in started to fade. I added layers and continued to shake from the 20* temps. We decided to warm up and head behind us another couple hundred yards to get a different view on a western slope.
Two bucks were feeding 300 yards below us at a pretty steep angle and with the wind blowing hard, we decided to drop elevation and cut some yardage. 8:45am and at 245 yards, both bucks were feeding out in the open with no clue of our presence. We never really had a chance to warm up and as both of us lay prone with the bucks in our scopes, we were shaking almost uncontrollably. The larger of the two bucks stayed behind a tree for close to 10 minutes before offering a broadside shot. For some reason, which i can only suspect was hypothermia, Doug said "he's yours"....."uhmmm, what?", "your buck, you shoot", "this is your spot and you found'em, you shoot", "nope your buck"...and with that, i sent one down range.
We heard the hit and the buck hunched up and moved behind some trees, all i could see was his shadow and he was moving backwards, kinda doing the moonwalk, which i knew probably was a good sign.
Big bodied 2x3 and for me, a great public land muley!
A big thanks to Doug for the adventure!
