gillettehunter
AH ambassador
Some of you may be aware that I had my hip replaced 4 weeks ago. We are getting near the end of our local deer season. Between the Congo trip and the hip I hadn’t been out.
I called a friend with a ranch near Devil’s Tower in the Black Hills. I received permission to come, but was warned there were few deer around. There has been a triple whammy in that area. Blue tongue a couple of years ago. Then a rough winter didn’t help. On top of that an increase in predation isn’t helping things either. Both coyotes and cougar.
Last Sat we packed up 2 grandkids, my son and I headed over to see about a buck. The regs this year are buck only.
We arrived at shooting light and started our search. This ranch has both whitetail and mule deer. . I usually prefer whitetails for eating. So we started around some of the fields and creek bottoms. . We found a few whitetail does and then a buck. We parked and I tried to find a position to get a shot. The buck had left the field and gone up a hill. Folds in the ground allowed him to get out of sight. Eventually I saw him 40 yards to the right of where we thought we might see him. I scrambled for a shooting position and took a quick shot as he was leaning my sight window and missed…… I hate missing. I slapped the trigger. We walked up the hill to verify I had missed. Less than 200 yds away. My hip complained on the way down.
We next drove back to the North side of the property. Not far from the blacktop we spotted a coyote. I got out and he thought a trot was fast enough to leave the area. He didn’t make it. One and done. Wish I’d of been that accurate on the first buck.
There is an area near the Belle Foursch “river” that always holds whitetails. Nothing there . Surprised the heck out of me. The neighbors have a center pivot that waters a hay field. A few yrs ago there had been perhaps 200-250 deer in that field. I counted 16 this year…… Not many.
We looped back towards the main road and then cut up into some rough stuff that usually has some mule deer. We saw one lonely doe driving up to the top of a large plateau. We worked around the edge glassing below us. We were on a rim rock with a cliff below us. As we got close to exiting the plateau my son spotted a doe with a fawn and then a buck.
At that point they were around 350 yds. We were able to make a short stalk out of eyesight of the deer and got to 282 yards. Steep downhill shot angle. I got set up with a solid rest and bleated at the buck. I was a little surprised he heard me because the wind was around 8-10 mph.
He stopped at the bleat basically broadside. I shot him just in front of the near shoulder exiting through the far shoulder. He didn’t go far. We then had some figuring on how to get him out….. We were able to mark him well and drive around to the bottom. We got within 100 yds. Getting him out was a bit of work…. for my son. I wasn’t much help. The grandkids are 6 and 11 yrs old . Both want to help field dress and haul him out. Good experience. Just an eating deer. 3X3 mule deer.
I think we saw 10 deer total on the ranch we were hunting. 10 yrs ago it would have been 40-60. Kinda rough in Wy.
Bruce
I called a friend with a ranch near Devil’s Tower in the Black Hills. I received permission to come, but was warned there were few deer around. There has been a triple whammy in that area. Blue tongue a couple of years ago. Then a rough winter didn’t help. On top of that an increase in predation isn’t helping things either. Both coyotes and cougar.
Last Sat we packed up 2 grandkids, my son and I headed over to see about a buck. The regs this year are buck only.
We arrived at shooting light and started our search. This ranch has both whitetail and mule deer. . I usually prefer whitetails for eating. So we started around some of the fields and creek bottoms. . We found a few whitetail does and then a buck. We parked and I tried to find a position to get a shot. The buck had left the field and gone up a hill. Folds in the ground allowed him to get out of sight. Eventually I saw him 40 yards to the right of where we thought we might see him. I scrambled for a shooting position and took a quick shot as he was leaning my sight window and missed…… I hate missing. I slapped the trigger. We walked up the hill to verify I had missed. Less than 200 yds away. My hip complained on the way down.
We next drove back to the North side of the property. Not far from the blacktop we spotted a coyote. I got out and he thought a trot was fast enough to leave the area. He didn’t make it. One and done. Wish I’d of been that accurate on the first buck.
There is an area near the Belle Foursch “river” that always holds whitetails. Nothing there . Surprised the heck out of me. The neighbors have a center pivot that waters a hay field. A few yrs ago there had been perhaps 200-250 deer in that field. I counted 16 this year…… Not many.
We looped back towards the main road and then cut up into some rough stuff that usually has some mule deer. We saw one lonely doe driving up to the top of a large plateau. We worked around the edge glassing below us. We were on a rim rock with a cliff below us. As we got close to exiting the plateau my son spotted a doe with a fawn and then a buck.
At that point they were around 350 yds. We were able to make a short stalk out of eyesight of the deer and got to 282 yards. Steep downhill shot angle. I got set up with a solid rest and bleated at the buck. I was a little surprised he heard me because the wind was around 8-10 mph.
He stopped at the bleat basically broadside. I shot him just in front of the near shoulder exiting through the far shoulder. He didn’t go far. We then had some figuring on how to get him out….. We were able to mark him well and drive around to the bottom. We got within 100 yds. Getting him out was a bit of work…. for my son. I wasn’t much help. The grandkids are 6 and 11 yrs old . Both want to help field dress and haul him out. Good experience. Just an eating deer. 3X3 mule deer.
I think we saw 10 deer total on the ranch we were hunting. 10 yrs ago it would have been 40-60. Kinda rough in Wy.
Bruce
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