A crazy thing happened today

Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
4,973
Location
oregon coast
My day started in a unique way seeing an American Marten in the dark driving… first for me, and I guess a good omen.

the spot I was hunting was a place I have spent some time in but not a ton, and it really lacked deer sign on top, and I don’t see many deer there, but it’s beautiful, and I know low deer density spots in good habitat hold good bucks… I was intrigued by the lack of activity. It’s also just shy of 5 miles in there to the beginning, and I don’t see any foot traffic in there which is another thing I liked.

I got in there and waited for daylight a couple hundred yards from my glassing point, not sure what the wind was doing exactly, I didn’t want to get in there too early and bump anything.

I sat there with my binos on the tripod trying to pick anything out, fog was moving in and out of the bottom, so I would glass what I could, when I could… nothing moving and cold.

I was freezing up there with the light breeze, but I was waiting it out until the sun hit everything for awhile… waiting for the sun to hit me, haha.

the sun finally started warming things up, but I was glassing to the East, so the whole right side of the unit was hard to see detail through the glare.

after awhile, through the glare on a little dirt road going through the cut across canyon I pick up movement with my naked eye, and see it’s a deer, put my binos on it and see it’s a little 2yr old forky, walking with purpose.

I watched him, he looked like he knew where he was going, and he was alone, but at least I had something to watch now. He got about half way through the cut, stops, looks up the hill, and started marching up this vertical hillside… now I’m really wondering what he’s doing… he’s looking for something, but not randomly… he was being weird.

I watch him just steadily climb this steep hill without pause, then he gets on a little ledge and turns right, as I’m following him, I pan into another deer… good buck!

i’m watching them, the little forky hackles up, squared off with the big buck and just attacks him! What?! It’s not just playing, I can hear it from 315yds, they are going for it! I get a couple more good looks at the bigger buck and decide I need to get things going, this buck is a good one.

I get my gun set up, get a range and get him in the crosshairs just in time for them to collide a second time… I couldn’t believe what I was watching, what was the little buck thinking?

they finally break up, the big buck pushed the forky up the hill, so now he’s quartered away, and facing steep uphill.. I held high back of shoulder and shot, and he went rolling down the hill, luckily getting his antlers hung up in the brush, and there he is, hooves up, head stuck in the grass, and white belly showing… instantly the realization sets in, I no longer have a tag… pretty bittersweet this year killing one before it gets good… but I think I have a good buck dead across the canyon.

I had to go around a mile to loop around to him (easier than going across that particular canyon) which took me about a half hour to gather my stuff and get over there. I climbed up that cliff and found the buck, and slowly worked him down to the dirt road below.

I get my buck down there and catch movement… here comes mr forky walking to me and his dead battle buddy.

he came to probably 70yds and stood there with his ears back giving me the stink eye for probably 5 minutes… I called my wife and he stayed the whole time I was on the phone… finally the bully forky walked off.

pretty crazy lead up to my buck this morning. I really wonder what that little buck was thinking hunting that big buck down and attacking him without hesitation… never know what you’ll see in the woods.

bummed out I’m done hunting myself, but super happy with the buck I got, and now I can focus on getting my wife in front of a good buck. Really healthy big body buck… it was a heavy trip out of there
 

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Scrappy

WKR
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
766
It's not the size of the antlers in the fight, but the size of the fight in the buck. 😀😀
Congrats a great buck.

Reminds me of the video I took with my phone of a button buck trying for hours to engage my buck decoy. He would sling his head around as if he had antlers. He was the meanest button head around.
 

TripleJ

WKR
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
Messages
1,810
Location
OR
Great story and great buck Mike! You have those coastal bucks dialed in, your consistency is impressive!
 

Stalker69

WKR
Joined
Apr 12, 2019
Messages
1,728
That forky probably thinks he’s a real bad ass now, he probably thinks he killed that buck and didn’t even work up a sweat. Just imagine what he thinks he will do when he grows up, king of the mountain. Nice buck by the way ! Try and find that same forky when you bring your wife back, you know he’s going after even bigger bucks after kicking that ones ass so easily. He’s your “ bird dog”, use him as such lol.
 
Last edited:
OP
roosiebull
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
4,973
Location
oregon coast
Great story and great buck Mike! You have those coastal bucks dialed in, your consistency is impressive!
thanks buddy!

i certainly don't feel like i have them dialed in, but i have a strategy that has treated me well, but like all things hunting, it's a dynamic learning curve every day. i'm always disproving my own theories, which is good.... the day you think you have things figured out is the day you quit getting better.

look forward to seeing what you and the boys kill this fall!
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2015
Messages
575
stud buck mike... that a local deer or is that a down south buck where you moved ?

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
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