Iccyman001\'s 2015 Hunting Journal

I\'ve been slacking on this


Here is notes from my trip that I helped two people on.




I have only hunted two early bow seasons and one of them was only 1 day, so I am still extremely green.
This trip was my first rifle hunt experience and we will dub this the helper hunt, 2015.

Originally this was suppose to just be a father (with the tag), two sons and myself, but in the last few days we picked up an addition.


I have two personal friends who both have a mutual friend. This mutual friend had a rifle tag transferred to him a few days before the trip and he had never elk hunted before. They asked if I would take him and I agreed.


We got up to camp Friday morning and set up, then talked game plans. I took the guys to overlook a really cool spot in the evening and we just listened for bugles... NOTHING, but we had a great view.








So quick backstory. In thus unit Sept 1-22 is first and second archery. Following that any legal weapon bear season opens and they can run dogs.
Sure enough it really pushed the elk around..


Well opening day happens. I had given a recommendation to the new addition to camp and he went out that way. He went to a spot that he liked and within the first 56 minutes of his first ever elk hunt.... BOOM.



He shot a herd bull that had 9 cows. He is a little scrapper of a 6x6 with messed up ears and he had a cool hollow pocket in his main beam.
This guy was PUMPED.




Well, I took the family out to a killer spot that I had good encounters with earlier during my hunt. We didn\'t hear anything, but we got into a good 5x5 bull and some cows. No shot opportunities, but it was a GREAT first experience.

I dropped the family off at a wallow and ran to help the guy who had shot the cow.

We quartered it, capped it and removed the head.


I got back to camp, whipped up some lunch and kind of vegged out. At 4:30 I randomly had this fire hit me and I had this feeling about a random area.
I made them get packed up and we went to go, but we ran into an issue. MY CALLS WERE IN MY TRUCK, which I let the other guy use to bring his elk to the taxi/butcher. I ran to my hunting gear and I was lucky enough to find a brand new call. I grabbed it and we went down the road.

When we got out of the truck and started getting prepared I heard something that sounded like a bugle and so did the oldest son.
It was only 5:15pm, but it was in the area I wanted to check out.

We walked up this road, but the wind was crappy..... after checking and moving a bunch, the wind was finally in my face.
I let out a mew and BOOM........ we got his with a bugle. The boys and the dads faces light up as they grinned from ear to ear. We had the boys drop back and dad and I put in a stalk. It was a very thick area and we didn\'t want 4 people moving. I figured he was 150 yards away.


This is what happened to start our stalk...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j99QoAxCTc[/youtube]


We started in close and closer. I had this guy screaming his head off. bugles, chuckles, and a moan! (wicked cool and we will discuss this moan later)
Anyways, my goal was to get set up to call this guy in, but it was SO thick. We kept moving close and closer. Every section we got into that was closer to him offered like 7 yard shots if I would have called him in. We finally hit an opening that was about 20 yards (radius).
This is when it got interesting. We were sitting there and all of a sudden we saw it. He turned his head...... he was 35 yards away looking in our direction. He didn\'t see us, but he saw movement and didn\'t like it. Guys, this was the biggest elk I have ever seen in the woods and bigger than any elk I ever caught on any of my cameras.... SLOB!!!!

Now is where it all gets silly and creative. My buddy started LOSING HIS MIND. The bull ran a few yards into some thick acorn brush and I start calling again. He slows down and this is where I was able to use the situation to my advantage. I noticed a few cows with him and it seemed like he was starting to round them up. I dropped back a little and started lost calf calling. Sure enough.... he came right back.

So my buddy is running back and forth trying to find a tree to prop up on..... \"RICKY, STOP MOVING, HE\'S ONLY 30 YARDS AWAY!!!! SHOOT!!!!\"
I keep telling him to stand still next to me and shoot. He just keep running around like a fool.... while he was doing that the giant bull stood in front of me broadside.... twice :crazy:


They ended up walking off, but MAN WAS THAT SUCH A CRAZY RUSH....... think it\'s done? Nope....


We moved in closer trying to set up again and he was quiet now. No response to a cow call, so I tried something different.
I bugled..... nothing....



Well, I started lost calf calling again and I walked back 30 yards. I start racking like crazy as I was throwing cow calls around and then ripped another bugle at the end of my racking (without my tube because I forgot it wight he boys) and the bull screamed at me like no other.....

He just didn\'t come back in though



ANYWAYS.... amazing AMAZING AMAZING experience.




The rest of the trip was searching searching searching...... those elk are in deep thanks to those bear hunters.
I had to leave today, but my buddy is still out there with some great spots to hunt.


I had a ball and I gave it my all to make sure they had a good time.



Any time in the woods is well worth it....
 
Well, this weekend had its ups and downs, but it was deer hunting, so I was obviously happy.


Remember how I didn\'t have my honey hole camera on? Well I turned it on and in the 6 days I was gone I had does and a NEW TARGET BUCK show up.
He will make me lose sleep :D







One camera had died, and another had nothing on it.... October lull.... YUCK!


Anyways, Saturday morning I found some new areas that I really like and a new water source that was getting hit hard.
So I put a camera up over that.

Then I went to hang another camera and came real close to two bucks. One was a little guy and the other was a bit bigger. Both would get shot after the rut, but not before. I also saw a mule deer doe, but she was too far out.


I went to another spot that evening and had a DOE come in at 23 yards.... she came in at a blind spot and me being a dumby sent a message on my phone when I looked up, she was looking right at me broadside..... :oops: :evil: :evil: :evil:




This morning I it was nice and cool.... FIRST FROST!
I need need need this time change to happen asap.

I had two does come in at 705.... legal shooting time was 724....
Another reason is the big buck I found comes in at 630.....


After my morning sit I went into another area that I wanted to investigate and I saw 2 does up ahead. They didn\'t see me, so I put in a tiny stalk.
I got within 45 yards and.... turns out.... there were 3 does.... :evil: :evil: :evil: mama was watching me and they ran off.... GRRRRR


On my way out I ran into about 40-50 turkeys. I once again was drawn at 17 yards on a monster tom, but he was surrounded by hens.
NO ethical shot.... BOOOO

I went back to the trailer, replaced batteries in my final camera and went into an area I always see a bunch of does at.
I was silently sneaking in and looked over to the left down a ravine that caught my eye.... I SHOULD HAVE LOOKED RIGHT.
3 does were bedded by me at 20 yards..... GRRRR

Again they saw me before I saw them.




All in all it was a great trip and I am so excited for cold weather, time change, and the RUT! :upthumb:
 
Yep Dan, we\'re off next weekend and the the youth only hunt then modern gun for about 5 weeks... Hope ya have a great time as I\'m sure we will.. :upthumb: :upthumb:
 
I\'ve been slacking on this and I really enjoy doing the journal verse write ups, so I will put everything in here.


I don\'t know about my service situation when I go up to the mountains, but if I have any, I will do updates.




This will be my first ever official mule deer hunt.
I had a leftover tag that I bought last year for my bow, went one day and passed on two baby forks. I don\'t really count that haha.



So I leave this evening to head up north to the most beautiful, rugged and angry terrain that NM has to offer. This area is known for being horse country and people look at me like I am mad when I say I am hunting it by foot.


This is no easy unit by any means, but there are some great deer up here.

I pulled last year\'s results. There are two seperate 5 day rifle hunts.

2014:
1st rifle hunt: 1 of 15 tags filled aka 7% harvest rate.
2nd rifle hunt: 3 of 15 tags filled aka 20% harvest rate.

It\'s no walk in the park, but that is what fires me up about this.
One of my good friends hard a 1st rifle hunt this year and didn\'t see one buck.

Well, I take this as a challange and say game on.
Though I lack mule deer experience, between my determination and hunting abilities, I will give it my all to harvest a buck.


Also noted, this unit is still open for bears. Guess who has a bear tag ;)

I will do my best to take lots of pictures and videos. It\'s some of the most beautiful country I have found here in NM and I cannot wait.

I expect lots of boots on the ground time, still hunting, spot and stalking and glassing. This will not be one of those hunt in the morning, go eat lunch and then hunt evenings. Nope, I will be hunting every second of the legal hours. You can kill a deer from the couch!


I am also bringing my bow. The season is any legal weapon. You all know my sick obsession with my bow, but I have this beautiful model 70 .270 with brand new glass on it. I figured it would be ok to take. First because it\'s one of my first hunts and I\'m not sure how close I can get, but it\'s a tough hunt from the get go.



Goals:
- Learn as much as I can about mule deer hunting.
- Learn as much as I can about mountain hunting. (I\'m still new so this will help me learn how to hunt elk better)
- See at least 1 buck.


My goal should be to shoot one and it is, but realistically, if I am able to find a spot and see a buck, then I am succesful!


Anyways, work can\'t go fast enough. I can\'t wait to go!



I\'m open to any last minute words of advice!

I\'ll be hunting Oct 31 until Nov 4th.



Well all, I have bad news and good news.

Bad news: NO buck.

I made the strategic is and did something I NEVER DO and left a day early.
HOWEVER, I think you will agree with me on why I did it.


Tomorrow it\'s going to rain rain rain all day. So I decided to come home to my wife for an extra day of \"together time\"
HERE IS WHY.... I leave again this Friday for Oklahoma.... 2 more weeks of whitetail hunting.

So in the end, I don\'t feel bad at all calling it a day early to spend an extra day with my wife and make her happy.

In the end I saw over 50 does..... and NO BUCKS.... :shock: :crazy:
All of the does were in bow range too and today I had one in clubbing range.....

I treated every encounter as if I had my bow and practiced drawing on them all at key times. So lots of good practice.

All in all this was one of my favorite trips in a long time. I was alone, I was WAY deep in the beautiful wilderness, and was at peace!

I averaged around 13 miles a day in hiking with my huge and heavy pack ;)


I found sheds, I saw wildlife, played in the snow, and tried something new. How can I ever chalk this up to a loss?
I also did exactly what I wanted to and gained mule deer knowledge.

The knowledge.... do the complete opposite of what I did. :lol:

JK


anyways.....



















 
This could be a long post, so for the people who like cliff notes.... 1 doe down, no bucks..... YET (passed on a lot)

This trip has been such a learning experience for me both with bow hunting and learning about myself.
These numbers are approx, but I saw at least 40 deer in my 10 days out there. I passed on 15 bucks :shock:
The bucks I passed on ranged from 1-4.5 years old and anywhere from 30\" to...... 125\" :problem: I\'ll get into the 4.5 125\" buck here in a few..... my butt is red from how many times I\'ve been kicking it....


This trips had many great encounters where I learned a lot and many NOT so good encounters where I learned a whole lot more.

Im going to type out some encounters to the best of me knowledge. That way when I read this again and again I will always be reminded!

My first encounter was actually the one I killed my doe on, but she was not initially the intended target.
My buddy and I spotted 6 mule deer on a foot plot. We did a super sneak up to them from about 400 yards out. The deer breakdown was 1 buck with 5 does.... and this buck was LARGE!!!! I am not an expert scorer with mule deer, so take this with a grain of salt, but I figured he was a 150\" 5x5 with deep forks and splits on every one of his Gs, minus G1. I got up to the plot and ran out of cover. I ranged a doe next to him one last time.... 35yards.
I drew and popped up. GREAT!!!!!! The big bow has his behind to me. He sees me and walks straight off the plot, never giving me a shot, the does spook and follow. After they all left I walked a few more steps towards where they were and froze..... there was a doe standing to my left....
I drew back and with no time to range, hit her. She went about 80 yards and played down! Doe 1 down. It was a very cool encounter because my friend got to see me shoot a doe. I also learned a lot from this encounter, some things I do not wish to share because I let excitement get the best of me.
The one thing I will share...... mule deer ears make them look way bigger than they really are :(

When I shot it and when my friend saw it, we both though it was a nice sized doe....
When we got up to it, the story was not the same....
I figure she was a yearling. That is my lack of experience with mule deer coming through, but I am still happy with it. I am giving some of the meat to my buddy who needs it for his family and the other part will be summer sausage :D


One of my goals for this year was to shoot a doe. I never have and I semi fulfilled it. I killed a mule doe, but I think I am cursed with whitetail doe......

5 encounters with them.... some solo does and other were in groups.... all bagged me!!!!!
I\'ll talk about a few.

One evening I was sitting on a food plot that I knew does bedded near. 8 minutes before the end of legal shooting hours, a doe hits my plot. COOL!
I range her and she is 30 yards away. COOL! She is quartering away! COOL!!!!!
I draw, stand up...... \"oh hey, there are 3 does looking at me 6 yards away to my right....\" BAGGED!!!!!! Before I could think to myself \"crap\" mama started snorting and they all ran around like crazy, No arrow released, no whitetail doe.

Solo doe: I was walking to my stand and saw a doe about 100 yards out feeding towards me. Wind was in my favor so I got in her path and set up behind a cedar tree. I had a 50 50 shot of her coming right or left of the tree and I couldn\'t see through it that well. I heard her and knew she was close. I drew, picked a side, and she came around the other at 3 yards..... YIKES! She didn\'t know what I was, but she was not about to find out!!!!

Group of does with my buddies: We were walking to check a camera and my buddy spotted some does 40 yards off a path just looking at us. So he started running back and forth trying to find a shooting lane. I moved a little to my left and had a vital shot at a doe 32 yards away. I didn\'t draw because I wanted him to get a shot. When he didn\'t find one he gave me the nod. I drew, picked my spot, and killed a branch.......LEARNING POINT, DONT GET TUNNEL VISION...... OBSERVATION IS KEY.

Last night...... this one makes me grrrrr: I am sitting on a plot that I know does bed near and I am waiting, quiet, patient, 15 minutes left of sunlight and a doe shows up..... I tried something new and brushed in a ground blind, so I see her and she is 22 yards away, no shot due to window location. She moves up to 19 yards and she is now in a little shoot through mesh window that I have. I didn\'t want to shoot through it because it was darker and hard to pick my spot. I am not worried about shooting through it because I\'ve practiced out to 40 yard with the mesh and it worked. So in a few more steps she would hit my open window at 15 yards. Step, step, step, draw....... GONE! :shock:
So here is what happened.... I am tall and lanky, so in this ground blind its very.... awkward.
Instead of being able to point out straight and draw back like normal, I had to draw pointing towards the ground and pull up towards my chest. It wasn\'t until after this encounter after multiple draws that I realized when I pull towards my chest, my release scraps across my chest, making a small noise..... YOU WIN THIS TIME WHITETAIL DOES.

Failure leads to success, and I had plenty of failure with those does, but I learned a lot.....

Now on to the bucks.....

I am sure you all saw the pee but video, but if not, I messed up with a real good buck that would probably score in the high 120s or low 130s. It was in my honey hole, around 745 and because of my morning coffee and ? gallon of water, I HAD TO PEE!!!!! I quickly scan, stand up, and hear a noise..... it sounded like something big moving, but I didn\'t see anything. So I started peeing, right towards the end of it, I look up and this mature 9 point is walking by my lane at 40 yards broadside. He then went behind a cedar tree and walk off.....
When I got up, my chair made a TINY noise and that is what got to him. He didn\'t spook, but he changed his course due to the noise..... lesson learned? Adult diapers.... JK!!!!! New chair and not drink so much before my morning sit.

I had many other encounters with good bucks, but I want to talk to you about the mature 4.5 year old that would have scored 125\", why I passed on him, and then tie this all up on the biggest lesson I learned.

It was a very windy day, 25 mph winds with gusts to 40, so I decided to get down low in some low creek beds and still hunt.....yes, still hunt with a bow.
The wind canceled my noise out and offered great cover. I put the wind in my face and walked, stopped, scanned, waited, then moved.
About 25 minutes into this, I crossed a little funnel creek crossing and pop up to dry land...... hey a buck.....hey, look at the belly on that buck, he is big......hey... this buck is quartering away just feeding.....10.... FEET....away.... not yards... FEET.....

I draw, but I remember to be observant..... hmmmm main frame 10, but wait.... broken g4 on one side and broken 3 and 4 on the other, he\'s probably 125\" as is, but would be a 140\" full tines...... hmmmmm
I let off and do some thinking. \"Freezer is full, he\'s kind of a rough looking buck, and I probably wouldn\'t put him on the wall.\" Then something comes over me and I draw again....... nope, I let back off. I then watched him for another 20 seconds as he continued eating and went off on his merry way.

It took me 1 minute after he walked away to begin mental breakdown.... WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST DO.......
It was at that point of the trip I had to do some self reflection. I as a newbie bow hunter, just snuck up on a whitetail, a mature one, and passed it.... on land that people hunt for years and never even kill anything on. Wait, now that I think about it I have passed on a lot of good deer that anyone would be happy to shoot, that ID be happy to shoot...... WHY?????

So I had to remove myself from the woods for a few hours, went to subway for a sandwich and a coke and did some deep thinking.
I am new and I am trying to become a proficient bow hunter. Well, that takes time, practice, and learning the basic fundamentals. I need to be more realistic with what I should be taking right now to learn as much as I can. I would have been happy taking the smallest fork horn buck all the way up to a monster. So why am I here setting my minimum high. Yes there are very big bucks out there, but it\'s hard enough to just kill out there. On this trip I met 6 different hunters who have hunted this location for years. Guess what, they never have killed anything.... and i\'ve passed 16 deer. MUY LOCO!!!!!
So after I finished my coke I decided. I need to continue to grow as a hunter and learn the basic of bow hunting even more before I shoot for the stars.

With that being said, when I go back out there Thursday night, I will have a whole new mentality. I am not going to lie, I passed on 2 more fork horns and a small basket 6 point after my reflection. I am ok with that though, they were young deer and inside I don\'t mind passing young deer. However, those 3 year old 90-113\" bucks that I passed are in trouble now. The decided factor will be \"will I be happy shooting this?\" Not \"how many points and what does it score\"


Sorry for the long winded story and post.Cant wait to get back out there
 
I\'ve really been slacking this year and this will be all jumbled. I am pretty upset with myself so I plan on making my 2016 journal like no other.
 
So I completely flopped on keeping a good journal this year, but I plan on finishing out strong.

I still have hunting left this year and will not give up until I legally have to.

Next weekend I am going on an Oryx hunt with Ltsheets. I\'ll be going as his spotter/pack mule, which I am pumped about because I\'ll learn great stuff so I am more prepared for my Oryx hunt.

Then I drive home To Massachusetts on the 18th and stay there until the 27th. I also plan on doing some hunting out there.
Finally I come back home and I will finish out Oklahoma strong and then my Oryx hunt in February.

Realistic goal is one more deer and an Oryx.
I don\'t mind if it\'s a buck or doe, but I\'d like another deer for the freezer!!!!!



I have also started planning for 2016. A some of you already know my secret, but I am planning something HUGE.
 
Trailer is packed, gear is ready, I am on the road early in the morning to be with Ltsheets on his oryx hunt!
I cannot wait to see how it all goes down. This will really prime me for my hunt!
 
Great I can\'t wait for the story. Is this the same area you are hunting later? If not I\'m sure you learned a bit about hunting the critters by helping the other hunter.
 
Ok, so Ltsheets Oryx hunt.....


This was such a cool experience and definitely primed me for my Oryx hunt in Feb.

The McGregor range is not the once in a life time draw due to lower oryx population.
Saturday we spent a long time battling rain, 4 hours of snow, and high winds. Finally in the afternoon we found a group of 8 oryx and began our attack.
It was 2 full horned, 1 unicorn, and 5 broken horn slick head oryx. We attempted a few stalks on them (they were about 1500 yards out) but they pegged us and moved.

We hopped in the truck and drove to the other side of the canyon and caught them coming over a ridge. After watching them for a while the guide noticed them starting to sprint in a direction, so he yells \"get in the F\'ing truck, I have an idea.\"

He starts speeding down some roads at a certain point he said \"look to the left\", sure enough the oryx were sky lining themselves about 800 yards out and were running towards our road at a full sprint.

The guide told my buddy, \"we are going to intercept them, get ready, we are going to get right on top of them.\"

The next 30 seconds were a blurry cartoon. We were doing about 50 mph and they were easily sprinting over 40 mph. I was in the back seat ranging....800, 600, 400, 200....holy sh.... 150....

The guide stops and yells at us to get out. We hope out and get 40 yards off the road (some roads you can shoot from out there, others you have to get off 40 feet)
My buddy drops to a knee and I take position behind him with the range. The guide yells \"#2, SHOOT HER\"


Me- \"50 yards!\" BOOM........hit
Guide- \"SHOOT AGAIN\"
me- \"150 yards\" BOOM..... hit
Guide- \"SHOOT AGAIN\"
Me- \"300 yards\"....BOOM..... miss


They say bad hunts can go to a good hunt in 10 seconds and this proved that to a T.


The oryx were following a fence line and ended up running right up to us and in front of us.

For those of you who don\'t know, an Oryx is a TANK. Their will to survive is like no other animal I have yet experienced and their adrenaline glands are double the size of an elk.


My buddy who had spend months practicing long shots with his rifle just shot off range at 50, 150, 300 yards at running animals and was able to make two shots.


The first hit was the one that you see under the spine. It barely nicked the spine, but hit the artery running under it.
The second hit was quartering away. It hit right rear leg and exited through the off side mid chest.

After some quick regrouping and reloading, we went on our walk to find her. We found her tracks because the print pattern was obvious injury. You could see her deep imprints on most of them and then a soft touch on the injured leg.
We tracked for 250 yards and found her bedded down. The two shots were enough to kill her, but to speed the process up her put another bullet into her lungs.


Done deal.

She weighs about 325 lbs and scored 36\" which is a great size for an Oryx!



In the whole experience I was able to learn how to glass for them, learned about their daily patterns, how they work fence lines, and where to shoot!
I cannot wait for my hunt!
 

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