Any whitetail down this season?
- Thread starter DTP
- Start date
I finally got one on Nov 27th. I had seen a monster while hunting a different area but didn't feel comfortable with an offhand shot at around 165 yards and tried getting closer or calling him in and neither worked.
I wanted to hunt a different area but there were people there. There were people in all of the several other places I wanted to go too so I drove up to a gate that I had been scouting online but had never actually been there before. I hiked on 4 day old snow and it looked there had been a dance up there. There were so many boot prints. I headed in the direction of the area I had been scouting which happened to be the opposite of where everyone else went. After a few hundred yards of hiking without seeing boot tracks I started seeing deer sign. I finally got to the area I wanted to hunt and spotted a doe at 200 yards immediately. I decided to watch her and see if she could drum up some business. She eventually bedded. I watched her for an hour and a half before 2 more deer showed up. They turned out to be her fawns that I hadn't seen. They started feeding and after a while they all kept looking downhill. Eventually I spotted a buck staring up at them. They started feeding up towards me and he followed them up. I wanted to take a broadside shot but he was facing me straight on at about 100 yards and I could feel the wind on my back and thought it was about to go sideways so I took the frontal shot. He went about 60 yards. I wanted to get better pictures but I had been standing in one place for about 3 hours by that point and was so cold that I only took the one photo.
I wanted to hunt a different area but there were people there. There were people in all of the several other places I wanted to go too so I drove up to a gate that I had been scouting online but had never actually been there before. I hiked on 4 day old snow and it looked there had been a dance up there. There were so many boot prints. I headed in the direction of the area I had been scouting which happened to be the opposite of where everyone else went. After a few hundred yards of hiking without seeing boot tracks I started seeing deer sign. I finally got to the area I wanted to hunt and spotted a doe at 200 yards immediately. I decided to watch her and see if she could drum up some business. She eventually bedded. I watched her for an hour and a half before 2 more deer showed up. They turned out to be her fawns that I hadn't seen. They started feeding and after a while they all kept looking downhill. Eventually I spotted a buck staring up at them. They started feeding up towards me and he followed them up. I wanted to take a broadside shot but he was facing me straight on at about 100 yards and I could feel the wind on my back and thought it was about to go sideways so I took the frontal shot. He went about 60 yards. I wanted to get better pictures but I had been standing in one place for about 3 hours by that point and was so cold that I only took the one photo.
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I shot that deer about a mile and a half as the crow flies from one of my deer last year. Here are both of their racks. I don't know if they are related but they look pretty similar to me. This years buck looked ancient. He had the biggest neck of any deer I have ever shot. His muzzle was really gray and his teeth were worn to the gums. He also didn't have any fat on him. Fish and Game wanted teeth from whitetails in this unit this year to try to get an estimate on average deer age so I sent them off. I'd like to know how old he was. He still had a huge body but I don't think he had much time left.
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cohunter14
Administrator
- Jul 10, 2017
- 5,335
Well done Ribo!
