1st deer of my life in CA D6

[flinginarrows]

... Make plenty of noise at night if you get scared; they will get out of your way...

We talked so much on the hike back to camp. I'd sing too "Hi Ho Hi Ho Off to camp we go..." Lol! Good times. We did see some eyes glowing in the distance... I guessed deer but we'll never know

I'm in the same boat as you, hoping to connect for my first time on my AZ hunt starting Friday 8/21!

All the best and good luck. What I learned on this hunt that I'd been missing on all my previous hunts was glassing. I believe it was the absolute key to success this time around.

... Those backstraps are going to awesome. The harder the hunt the better they taste.

I have a hard time thinking about the fact that I'm going to share the meat with friends and family... i dont think anyone understands just how hard we had to work for it. Can't wait to eat it myself though

One thing about the meat that surprised me is how non-gamey it is. When we were cutting it up and carrying it out it had a really strong gamey/sagey smell to it. By the time we got home and it chilled in the fridge for a bit it really mellowed out and now smells like red meat more than anything. I've had a couple of pieces simply sauteed in butter with some salt and pepper and it was absolutely delicious! I have most of it cut up and in the freezer now. I have a whole bunch of meat that I still need to turn into sausage tonight.

It's a High you're gonna be chasing now forever! Congratulations man! And your first was Bow too, kick ass!

And yeah.. f*ck... life gets serious as hell the moment you rise to your feet with an entire buck's worth of meat in your pack along with everything else and miles to go to get back to your vehicle.

I can't get myself to get back to work mode. My mind is still out there and thinking about when I can go back.
I did only carry half the buck. My buddy carried and got the other half. The deal before the trip was that we split whatever we get, regardless of who shoots it.

 

[Takem]

Congratulations. Nice write up.

 

[TheGDog]

I did only carry half the buck. My buddy carried and got the other half. The deal before the trip was that we split whatever we get, regardless of who shoots it.

You did right. It's extremely important to make sure these types of things get discussed ahead of time and everyone is clear on how it will all go down and what etiquette rules you guys are gonna elect to observe. I remember being shocked when I first heard there is an expectation of dividing up the harvest. I just assumed it was whoever shot it took it home, and the idea was that's your partner, so if you're ever with them and they make the shot...or... they drop you a homey-call saying they need your help, you reciprocate in packing out duties. So yeah... I'm very glad I had asked about this before ahead of time on forums like this. Ya know... cause nobody wants to be "that guy" where everybody goes "Wow... REally dude?"

 

[flinginarrows]

You did right. It's extremely important to make sure these types of things get discussed ahead of time and everyone is clear on how it will all go down and what etiquette rules you guys are gonna elect to observe. I remember being shocked when I first heard there is an expectation of dividing up the harvest. I just assumed it was whoever shot it took it home, and the idea was that's your partner, so if you're ever with them and they make the shot...or... they drop you a homey-call saying they need your help, you reciprocate in packing out duties. So yeah... I'm very glad I had asked about this before ahead of time on forums like this. Ya know... cause nobody wants to be "that guy" where everybody goes "Wow... REally dude?"

Sharing anything we got was an absolute no-brainer to me. Getting the deer was the 'easy' part... packing it out was the hard as hell part... if we're sharing the work, we should also share the reward.

 

[Fowler530]

Congrats on the nice buck! Glad to see your hard work and dedication payoff! Thanks for sharing!

 

[mod700]

Congrats on getting it done! just a suggestion for the future, when you shoot a animal, just stare at where it was the last time you saw it, and at where it was when you shot it at. Take a few minutes, calm down, set down and relax. With a arrow your working on hemorrhaging, and some times dependent on hit location, it takes a few minutes. Generally speaking unless you saw where you hit it, your going to want to give it 20 or so minutes, paunch hit, your looking at hours, A animal hit will a lot of times be watching his backtrail, sometimes bedded, instead of expiring there, close, you bump him and they can cover a lot of ground and be lost. Ease up and see if you can find your arrow, and what sign is there, make a judgement call from there. I've known to many guys who loose deer, because of bumping them. Sounds like you got the bug now, good luck on getting your partner a deer, and congrats again. enjoyed the read,
Mike

 

[Shindo]

Congrats man! I did a solo backpack hunt in the Sierras at 11,500ft last year. It is no joke. That elevation will make anyone an ounce counter. Broke my collarbone right before this season started, so I'm stuck reading the forums this year. Thanks for the story.

 

[Jeffb717]

Awesome!! Congratulations


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[timr00ger]

Congrats! I am a new hunter in CA as well (3 years). While I do enjoy bowhiking and armed walks in the woods, I have yet to successfully harvest a deer. CA is tough hunting, especially in SoCal where I live. Your post gives me hope! Thanks for sharing.

 

[TheGDog]

Congrats man! I did a solo backpack hunt in the Sierras at 11,500ft last year. It is no joke. That elevation will make anyone an ounce counter. Broke my collarbone right before this season started, so I'm stuck reading the forums this year. Thanks for the story.

Aww man. That's the worst! High School... I had weight-training all 3 years ofit and gew A LOT. One of the coaches had ties to the BodyBuilding world so we had this assembly at school to get kids interested in joining. Students do lifts, and pros did posing. Then next year students could do posing. It was 3rd year, my last year in school and soo wanted to pose and hear all those b*tches loosin' their damn minds. But NOPE! I had an incident offroad where I had to frantically just miss a kid on a BMX bike, which caused me to have like 1 liter of interal bleed, and the skin all across my ankle joint got abraded off because I was just wearing street shoes, so in the crash that one got taken off. Looked like a Bear swiped thru my shoe and sock. And OMMFG... the first morning I put my foot down after sleeping... Holy Phuqballs that hurt! All that tissue hardened and scabbed over during the night, so it all re-cracked open upon placing weight on that foot! Talking about wanting to shout curse words! Learned to slather it all up with Neosporin before going to bed so it'd stay soft.

So yeah, blew my chance to post on stage. So I was running one of the video cameras to record the evening. At least the year before I got to demo a Squat on stage though, so that was cool.

 

[LIWolverine]

Outstanding! Huge congrats to you!


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[Tyeguy]

Congratulations! All that hard work paid off. Great story!