outheretryin
FNG
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2023
- Messages
- 27
Hey all! Me and my brother started a multi year plan a couple years ago. We had not many, but enough points to draw a nice buck tag in a totally new area to us. We wanted to focus on taking "nice" deer (most on here would probably pass on what we would think is a "nice deer", so decided hunting 2 years with 1 tag was better than 1 year with 2 tags. To paint a picture: This area is a mix of private lowlands and valleys covered in grass, sage, bitterbrush with public mountains and rollers covered in spruce, fir, and pine. (3000'-8000') I would say it has more than enough road access to 80% of the NF and BLM stuff, and some areas of Wilderness making up the rest. There is decent deer numbers year round but it is definitely a winter migration destination for tons of deer summering in other units. You dont wanna be driving at night in November around this place!!
Anyways.. last spring and summer I scouted a very small portion of the unit. and found piles of deer. weekend after weekend I made the long drive to check on "my brothers bucks" and had a blast keeping track of a group of bucks within a couple small draws throughout the spring and summer. One buck I was sure to be a 180"+ BOAL
I had hemmed and hawed about checking different areas for other deer. But I guess watching deer was more exciting than looking for deer.
The early October opener comes and goes with no sign of "our deer" but instead a solo forky standing where 4 more deer had been standing a few weeks before, including Mr. BOAL^. Gunshots ringing around like it was opening day at the local duck lake. My new "secret" trail to my new "secret" honey hole had been discovered by every other hunter in the unit. I was sure the decent bucks had been run out of the country never to return. Hunted for a week with no success. practically swatting small bucks and does away. A week later we show up on I believe a Monday night. Driving in, there were almost no trucks parked at the camp spots filled with toy haulers like the week before. Next morning before light we are up at our glassing nob looking over our "old not so secret honey hole." my brother standing, looking through his binos "deer" he says. I was sitting next to his feet with my binos on a tripod. I pan in the direction he is facing and see 2 deer. A doe and a deer with its head down blocked by brush. I range the deer at 310 and say "sit down" I unclip my binos from the tripod, extend one leg several inches and place the tripod in front of him. He silently sluffs his day pack off, with his right knee bent towards the sky he put his pack between his thigh and chest for an improvised rear rest. The deer raises his head from the brush and almost like he knew, he should not be on this open saddle as the sun is starting to show itself, He stares right up at us. "big buck" I say. On our drive over the previous night we had talked about expectations and whether or not he could imagine shooting a smaller buck after seeing such great deer in the summer. We knew what we wanted to achieve but I seriously dont think we were ready to leave this season behind without him punching his tag. Well with a deep breath and squeezing out a little fart, my bro pressed the trigger. The deer took 1.5 steps backwards before hobbling over a small rise out of sight. my brother got a second shot off but didnt catch a reaction from the deer or impact. "you nailed him!" my brother was in disbelief of how fast all of it had just gone down. "you nailed him" I said. We had no idea how big that deer was. "hes either a little 4 or a really big 3" "no hes a big 4" "hes dead just over the rise ill bet" "his body was huge" "well lets just sit here and give him a few" We went back and forth for a while. My brother confesses "Is he big? you said big buck, I saw antlers and just shot." We had no idea what to expect from the deer but I knew we had done something that we were so proud of. We both mentioned we wished our dad had made the trip. We cut the head off and placed it on a stump 10 yds from the carcass. As we spent the next hour or two processing the buck, each of us took turns standing up, starring at the head, cracking a grin and pumping our fist "h*** yeah."
I Believe this buck was the "BOAL" mentioned above. We had accounted for the other smaller bucks from his bachelor group throughout the week. and the only deer we were missing was him. As the deer lays in this picture, He is 200 yds from where I first found him in April. and not a quarter mile from where I had seen him last in early September. I have no idea what the deer scores. I tell people 150"+. By far the biggest buck our immediate family has taken to date.
It fascinated me that a summer deer would be spending his fall in the same exact place. I have heard guys telling similar stories but had always thought "thats not how it works where we hunt" This year I HAVE THE TAG. I have already spent 10 or so days scouting the same and different areas of the hunt unit. Im going to continue to post updates and pics on this thread. Hopefully ill cap it off with a nice field photo mid october. I blurred my bros face, not because hes in the cia. but anti social media lol
Anyways.. last spring and summer I scouted a very small portion of the unit. and found piles of deer. weekend after weekend I made the long drive to check on "my brothers bucks" and had a blast keeping track of a group of bucks within a couple small draws throughout the spring and summer. One buck I was sure to be a 180"+ BOAL
I had hemmed and hawed about checking different areas for other deer. But I guess watching deer was more exciting than looking for deer.The early October opener comes and goes with no sign of "our deer" but instead a solo forky standing where 4 more deer had been standing a few weeks before, including Mr. BOAL^. Gunshots ringing around like it was opening day at the local duck lake. My new "secret" trail to my new "secret" honey hole had been discovered by every other hunter in the unit. I was sure the decent bucks had been run out of the country never to return. Hunted for a week with no success. practically swatting small bucks and does away. A week later we show up on I believe a Monday night. Driving in, there were almost no trucks parked at the camp spots filled with toy haulers like the week before. Next morning before light we are up at our glassing nob looking over our "old not so secret honey hole." my brother standing, looking through his binos "deer" he says. I was sitting next to his feet with my binos on a tripod. I pan in the direction he is facing and see 2 deer. A doe and a deer with its head down blocked by brush. I range the deer at 310 and say "sit down" I unclip my binos from the tripod, extend one leg several inches and place the tripod in front of him. He silently sluffs his day pack off, with his right knee bent towards the sky he put his pack between his thigh and chest for an improvised rear rest. The deer raises his head from the brush and almost like he knew, he should not be on this open saddle as the sun is starting to show itself, He stares right up at us. "big buck" I say. On our drive over the previous night we had talked about expectations and whether or not he could imagine shooting a smaller buck after seeing such great deer in the summer. We knew what we wanted to achieve but I seriously dont think we were ready to leave this season behind without him punching his tag. Well with a deep breath and squeezing out a little fart, my bro pressed the trigger. The deer took 1.5 steps backwards before hobbling over a small rise out of sight. my brother got a second shot off but didnt catch a reaction from the deer or impact. "you nailed him!" my brother was in disbelief of how fast all of it had just gone down. "you nailed him" I said. We had no idea how big that deer was. "hes either a little 4 or a really big 3" "no hes a big 4" "hes dead just over the rise ill bet" "his body was huge" "well lets just sit here and give him a few" We went back and forth for a while. My brother confesses "Is he big? you said big buck, I saw antlers and just shot." We had no idea what to expect from the deer but I knew we had done something that we were so proud of. We both mentioned we wished our dad had made the trip. We cut the head off and placed it on a stump 10 yds from the carcass. As we spent the next hour or two processing the buck, each of us took turns standing up, starring at the head, cracking a grin and pumping our fist "h*** yeah."
I Believe this buck was the "BOAL" mentioned above. We had accounted for the other smaller bucks from his bachelor group throughout the week. and the only deer we were missing was him. As the deer lays in this picture, He is 200 yds from where I first found him in April. and not a quarter mile from where I had seen him last in early September. I have no idea what the deer scores. I tell people 150"+. By far the biggest buck our immediate family has taken to date.
It fascinated me that a summer deer would be spending his fall in the same exact place. I have heard guys telling similar stories but had always thought "thats not how it works where we hunt" This year I HAVE THE TAG. I have already spent 10 or so days scouting the same and different areas of the hunt unit. Im going to continue to post updates and pics on this thread. Hopefully ill cap it off with a nice field photo mid october. I blurred my bros face, not because hes in the cia. but anti social media lol
