209hunter
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2014
- Messages
- 294
Finally put down my first buck this weekend! I've been deer hunting for 5 years and every year I learned a lot and got closer and closer but never sealed the deal. This year I drew a tag for a good zone in an area Ive spent a lot of time in. Went on four scouting trips and found some nice bucks. The opening weekend my buddy and I backpacked in for 5 days. We got into bucks everyday and on the last day of the trip my buddy filled his tag. We were super excited to have had a successful first backpack hunting trip and it felt good packing out that buck.
I still needed to fill my tag and I only had two weekends that I could get back up there. So two weekends ago I was back up there and all weekend I only saw two bucks and I couldnt get on them. After that weekend I was getting pretty discouraged. I did not want to eat a tag that cost me 4 points and I felt like this year I was due for my first buck. So this weekend was the last weekend of the season and I met up with another friend of mine who knows this zone very well. First thing Saturday morning we were glassing an area I hadnt hunt yet. After about a hour and a half of seeing a few does but no bucks we decided to hike a ridge that had some sage and cedar pockets that looked good. About a 1/4 mile into our hike we stopped to glass a small canyon. We glass for about 30 seconds and my buddy whispers "theres a buck!" He was all alone 450 yards away. I used cover to make it to about 310 yards away and at that point the buck bedded down. Once he was bedded I moved to 290 yards but I had no more cover to use and the buck was watching me now. I settled my rifle on a rock and tried to control my breathing but my heart was racing! Finally I settled down a little bit and slowly squeezed the trigger. At the shot the buck immediately got up and started to move up the ridge so I racked in another round and fired again. After the second shot his front legs buckled but he made it over the ridge.
I wasnt that confident in either shot but was sure that I hit him based on his reaction to the second shot. We hiked over to where he was bedded and I found a small drop of blood. Then about 5 yards farther up the hill we found blood everywhere. We found him dead just over the ridge! My first shot was perfect and the second shot barely grazed his shoulder. Ive been so emotional while hunting, when we found him my buddy and I were jumping up and down and hugged about 10 times haha I still cant believe I finally killed my first buck! This game is filled with so many ups and downs but thankfully I was able to keep on hunting and we finally found a way to fill our tags.
Thanks for reading guys and thanks rokslide for all the great info!
I still needed to fill my tag and I only had two weekends that I could get back up there. So two weekends ago I was back up there and all weekend I only saw two bucks and I couldnt get on them. After that weekend I was getting pretty discouraged. I did not want to eat a tag that cost me 4 points and I felt like this year I was due for my first buck. So this weekend was the last weekend of the season and I met up with another friend of mine who knows this zone very well. First thing Saturday morning we were glassing an area I hadnt hunt yet. After about a hour and a half of seeing a few does but no bucks we decided to hike a ridge that had some sage and cedar pockets that looked good. About a 1/4 mile into our hike we stopped to glass a small canyon. We glass for about 30 seconds and my buddy whispers "theres a buck!" He was all alone 450 yards away. I used cover to make it to about 310 yards away and at that point the buck bedded down. Once he was bedded I moved to 290 yards but I had no more cover to use and the buck was watching me now. I settled my rifle on a rock and tried to control my breathing but my heart was racing! Finally I settled down a little bit and slowly squeezed the trigger. At the shot the buck immediately got up and started to move up the ridge so I racked in another round and fired again. After the second shot his front legs buckled but he made it over the ridge.
I wasnt that confident in either shot but was sure that I hit him based on his reaction to the second shot. We hiked over to where he was bedded and I found a small drop of blood. Then about 5 yards farther up the hill we found blood everywhere. We found him dead just over the ridge! My first shot was perfect and the second shot barely grazed his shoulder. Ive been so emotional while hunting, when we found him my buddy and I were jumping up and down and hugged about 10 times haha I still cant believe I finally killed my first buck! This game is filled with so many ups and downs but thankfully I was able to keep on hunting and we finally found a way to fill our tags.
Thanks for reading guys and thanks rokslide for all the great info!
