2014 Season

Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4,808
Location
Colorado
I have recently moved from Washington and really miss the ability to head to the mountains on whim. Kansas has great whitetail, but that is about it. Thank God I only have 18 more months here.
 
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Justin Crossley

Justin Crossley

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Staff member
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
7,268
Location
Buckley, WA
A few recent pics.

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Justin Crossley

Justin Crossley

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Staff member
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
7,268
Location
Buckley, WA
Picked a few berries today.

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Shot a grouse with the little .410 my grandpa gave me too! Not a bad morning.

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Justin Crossley

Justin Crossley

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Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
7,268
Location
Buckley, WA
I've been home the last couple weekends doing family stuff with my wife and kids. My buddy Paul and I will be leaving Friday though, to try and fill my WA late season whitetail tag and then we'll be heading to ID for a few days of deer hunting there. Hopefully I'll have some good pics and stories next week!
 
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Justin Crossley

Justin Crossley

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Staff member
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
7,268
Location
Buckley, WA
Friday afternoon, my friend Paul and I headed to eastern WA to try and fill my late whitetail tag. I have never shot a whitetail before so I have been pretty excited about this hunt. We got to our spot just before dark and glassed up a pretty nice buck and a few does before we settled in for the night.

The next morning we were up before daylight and after a quick breakfast, we were headed down the road to where we planned to hike over a ridge and glass some CRP strips. The first draw held a small mule deer buck and eight does. My tag was only good for whitetail so we continued over the next ridge. In the second draw, we saw a 3x3 whitetail and a couple more does. The buck wasn't quite what I was after so we just watched them as they fed over the hill. After they were out of sight, we continued on to the third draw. This one was empty so we headed on to the next one.

As we crested the hill, we stopped to glass and Paul spotted a few does. Then he spotted another deer about 1000 yds down the draw bedded in the grass. This one was a decent buck and we decided we should get a closer look. So we backed off the ridge and hike around a little ways and peaked back up over the ridge. It took us a few moments to find him again, but we finally did and sat down to get the spotter on him. Once we got him in the spotter, after some discussion, I decided that he was big enough and I wanted to shoot him. The buck was bedded, facing away from us and I could only see his head. At over 700 yds, this was not a shot I was comfortable with so we decided to crawl down the ridge and try to get to the next one and close the distance.

We had to crawl down hill for just over a hundred yards before we were out of sight and could stand up and hike the rest of the way. The next ridge put us within 400 yards of the buck and he still had no idea we were there. I laid my pack down and started getting my shooting rest setup. I input all the conditions into my ballistic app and ranged the buck at 393 yards. I set the camera up on the spotting scope so we could video the shot and after waiting quite a while we decided to try and whistle to get him to stand up. After a couple minutes of whistling, the buck still would not stand up, so I decided to take the shot that I had. I checked my breathing, steadied the cross hair on the center of his neck and squeezed the trigger.

Here is the video of the shot.
[video=vimeo;111803034]http://vimeo.com/111803034[/video]

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