Last time my dad had a deer tag was over nine years ago. My dad has slowly been losing his eye sight for the last several years. He has basically lost all his peripheral vision and in the dark is pretty much blind. He went on an elk hunt with me about 6 years ago but the hiking and the altitude gave him blurry vision for a week or so, at that point he threw in the towel on hunting.
The last couple years his eye sight has stayed the same, he is right handed but he can see better out of his left eye. I talked him into giving it another try this year and he put in for a deer tag with me. Over the summer we went out shooting several times, he was able to shoot pretty good out to 150yrds left handed.
Well it all came together Saturday morning. We left the truck at about 6:30 and started our hike up to where we were going to sit for the morning. 50yrds up the ravine we were heading up I shined my headlamp onto the adjacent hill and noticed two sets of eyes staring at us about 150yrds away. I thought to myself great we have deer right here, we decided to wait till it got light enough to see if one of them had horns or not.
As it started to get lite I could tell that they were does so we continued up the trail, not 50 yrds up the trail I noticed another deer feeding in the sagebrush and this one had horns. To me the deer was standing in plain sight but it was just dark enough that my dad was having troubles finding the buck. The buck had no clue we were there so we waited for about 15minutes for it to get just a little lighter out and we moved up the trail another 15 yrds. My dad set up on the shooting sticks, at that time the deer moved just enough that my dad was able to see him through the scope.
This is the first time I have seen my dad get buck fever, he was shaking so bad that he couldn\'t get stable enough to take a shot on the shooting sticks. After calming him down a little I decided to move up the trail to get to a tree that he could use for a rest that might be a little more stable. We move to the tree and se set up the deer turned broadside, I said you have him dad said yea with a couple whistles the deer stopped and wham dad let him have it. the deer looked like he hunched up took a few steps and disappeared over a little knoll. Here is where it gets crazy. So the buck looked to be standing next to a little tree when dad shot, but in fact he was standing on a little ridge 60yrds in front of the tree but with the morning shadows I would have put money on it that he was standing right next to that tree.
So up the trail we went right past the deer to that tree, well we could not find any blood but did find tracks that led over the hill. after about hour of searching the hill we came to the decision that my dad had missed. we went up to the spot we wanted to sit and glassed for about 2 hrs. We had deer every where but nothing dad could get a shot at. So we headed back to the truck and had plans to come back in the morning to try it again. On the way down the trail I had that gut feeling that buck was hit and somewhere on that hill. every 10-15 steps I would stop and scan the hill. Well wouldn\'t you know about 60yrds down from where I thought that buck was standing there was dads buck 20 yrds off the trail. Dad had made a perfect shot and the deer only went 20yrds. Talk about being on cloud nine, I still have a smile on my face. This for sure has been on of the best hunts I have been on. I have not seen my dad this happy in a long time.
The last couple years his eye sight has stayed the same, he is right handed but he can see better out of his left eye. I talked him into giving it another try this year and he put in for a deer tag with me. Over the summer we went out shooting several times, he was able to shoot pretty good out to 150yrds left handed.
Well it all came together Saturday morning. We left the truck at about 6:30 and started our hike up to where we were going to sit for the morning. 50yrds up the ravine we were heading up I shined my headlamp onto the adjacent hill and noticed two sets of eyes staring at us about 150yrds away. I thought to myself great we have deer right here, we decided to wait till it got light enough to see if one of them had horns or not.
As it started to get lite I could tell that they were does so we continued up the trail, not 50 yrds up the trail I noticed another deer feeding in the sagebrush and this one had horns. To me the deer was standing in plain sight but it was just dark enough that my dad was having troubles finding the buck. The buck had no clue we were there so we waited for about 15minutes for it to get just a little lighter out and we moved up the trail another 15 yrds. My dad set up on the shooting sticks, at that time the deer moved just enough that my dad was able to see him through the scope.
This is the first time I have seen my dad get buck fever, he was shaking so bad that he couldn\'t get stable enough to take a shot on the shooting sticks. After calming him down a little I decided to move up the trail to get to a tree that he could use for a rest that might be a little more stable. We move to the tree and se set up the deer turned broadside, I said you have him dad said yea with a couple whistles the deer stopped and wham dad let him have it. the deer looked like he hunched up took a few steps and disappeared over a little knoll. Here is where it gets crazy. So the buck looked to be standing next to a little tree when dad shot, but in fact he was standing on a little ridge 60yrds in front of the tree but with the morning shadows I would have put money on it that he was standing right next to that tree.
So up the trail we went right past the deer to that tree, well we could not find any blood but did find tracks that led over the hill. after about hour of searching the hill we came to the decision that my dad had missed. we went up to the spot we wanted to sit and glassed for about 2 hrs. We had deer every where but nothing dad could get a shot at. So we headed back to the truck and had plans to come back in the morning to try it again. On the way down the trail I had that gut feeling that buck was hit and somewhere on that hill. every 10-15 steps I would stop and scan the hill. Well wouldn\'t you know about 60yrds down from where I thought that buck was standing there was dads buck 20 yrds off the trail. Dad had made a perfect shot and the deer only went 20yrds. Talk about being on cloud nine, I still have a smile on my face. This for sure has been on of the best hunts I have been on. I have not seen my dad this happy in a long time.
