OcciditDominus
FNG
I should probably preface this story by saying that I am a new hunter. I have only been hunting since 2017. Before this, all the outdoor experience I've had was camping and fishing with friends and family. My brother-in-law and I decided to try our hand at hunting. We have no one in our family or group of friends that hunt and didn't no where to start. What do we decide to start hunting? Only one of the more difficult animals to hunt in the Pacific Northwest, a blacktail buck. (I never said we were smart) So we spent a bunch of money on gear, researched and scouted the hell out of our local units and studied the habits of the deer in our area for months ahead of the season. Only to end up hunting for 5 days of the season in Northwest Oregon and coming out with nothing. But we learned a crap ton and, more importantly, we had caught the bug. We were hooked on hunting.
The next season, last year, we decided to hit it much harder and try some new areas as well. We decided to close out the season in Southwest Oregon with a week long hunt much further away from home. After a few days of sitting, glassing, hiking, driving, more glassing and getting most of my gear soaked with rain. We came to the day before the close of the season with not seeing much in the way of deer. We set out in the morning in pretty foul moods. I was close to having to leave early because most my gear was soaked through and we hadn't hardly seen anything but a ton of sign.
I decided to break off and wander down this long clear-cut we were glassing to see if I could get a better vantage point. About halfway down I see a fawn at the bottom of a little culvert about 20 yards from me. The fawn and I lock eyes for what seems like 5 minutes and I get down on my knees slowly. This is where my inexperience shines. I was tunnel-visioned on this fawn and didn't see his family foraging on the other side of the culvert from me. But I sure did notice them when I heard a buck warning grunt and they all hopped off into the woods with the fawn scrambling after them. I had no time to react so I ran up to where we were parked and told my brother what happened.
We looked at the map and saw there was a "trail" that looked like it met up with where the deer bounded off into the woods. We hopped into the car and drove around to the "trail-head" to see if we could head the deer off. Well, we couldn't find a trail but my brother went off into the woods in the direction the trail was supposed to go. My plan was to wait up on the road we just came down to head them off in case he bumped them again. As I'm looking into the woods where the deer should have been, it sounds like all hell breaks loose. I hear the same buck I heard earlier give out a couple more of those warning grunts and the sounds of running deer all over down below me. All I can see were flashes of brown hide darting between the thick undergrowth of the forest. Then, nothing. No sounds, no movement.
My brother comes out of the forest a few minutes later and tells me he spooked the deer soon after we split up. As I'm telling him what I had heard and seen, we hear a gunshot from the clearing where I had originally bumped them. We look at each other instantly know that the chase is over. We decide to go back to where we had started earlier that morning to see if our suspicions were correct. Sure enough, another hunter had taken the buck we had helpfully pushed straight into his hands. That's what you get when your hunting public land, I guess. Anyway, I helped the guy's son haul deer a couple hundred yards to the road and my brother and I left to wallow in our self pity.
A few hours later, I was able to bag my first quail. It was my first harvest since starting hunting so it didn't end up to be all that bad of a day. However, it is definitely a series of events I will remember for a long time. Sorry if this is a little long-winded of a story but I thought some of you more experienced hunters might get a kick out of the shenanigans us newbies get into. Also, it might help some other new hunters learn from my mistakes. Thanks for reading my story, Good Hunting!!
The next season, last year, we decided to hit it much harder and try some new areas as well. We decided to close out the season in Southwest Oregon with a week long hunt much further away from home. After a few days of sitting, glassing, hiking, driving, more glassing and getting most of my gear soaked with rain. We came to the day before the close of the season with not seeing much in the way of deer. We set out in the morning in pretty foul moods. I was close to having to leave early because most my gear was soaked through and we hadn't hardly seen anything but a ton of sign.
I decided to break off and wander down this long clear-cut we were glassing to see if I could get a better vantage point. About halfway down I see a fawn at the bottom of a little culvert about 20 yards from me. The fawn and I lock eyes for what seems like 5 minutes and I get down on my knees slowly. This is where my inexperience shines. I was tunnel-visioned on this fawn and didn't see his family foraging on the other side of the culvert from me. But I sure did notice them when I heard a buck warning grunt and they all hopped off into the woods with the fawn scrambling after them. I had no time to react so I ran up to where we were parked and told my brother what happened.
We looked at the map and saw there was a "trail" that looked like it met up with where the deer bounded off into the woods. We hopped into the car and drove around to the "trail-head" to see if we could head the deer off. Well, we couldn't find a trail but my brother went off into the woods in the direction the trail was supposed to go. My plan was to wait up on the road we just came down to head them off in case he bumped them again. As I'm looking into the woods where the deer should have been, it sounds like all hell breaks loose. I hear the same buck I heard earlier give out a couple more of those warning grunts and the sounds of running deer all over down below me. All I can see were flashes of brown hide darting between the thick undergrowth of the forest. Then, nothing. No sounds, no movement.
My brother comes out of the forest a few minutes later and tells me he spooked the deer soon after we split up. As I'm telling him what I had heard and seen, we hear a gunshot from the clearing where I had originally bumped them. We look at each other instantly know that the chase is over. We decide to go back to where we had started earlier that morning to see if our suspicions were correct. Sure enough, another hunter had taken the buck we had helpfully pushed straight into his hands. That's what you get when your hunting public land, I guess. Anyway, I helped the guy's son haul deer a couple hundred yards to the road and my brother and I left to wallow in our self pity.
A few hours later, I was able to bag my first quail. It was my first harvest since starting hunting so it didn't end up to be all that bad of a day. However, it is definitely a series of events I will remember for a long time. Sorry if this is a little long-winded of a story but I thought some of you more experienced hunters might get a kick out of the shenanigans us newbies get into. Also, it might help some other new hunters learn from my mistakes. Thanks for reading my story, Good Hunting!!
