A Whole Lot of Shootin'

The rifle deer hunt this year took us back up to Wolf Creek area, and due to the fact that we had seen so many bucks on the bow hunt this year, we had high hopes that this hunt was going to be a successful one, and it did not disappoint.  Prior to the first weekend, Dad drove up a couple of days early and set up camp in the bottom meadow along the North for of the Duchesne.  In the first two days leading up to the hunt he spotted a nice three or four point buck across from camp early in the morning just before light, so again, hopes were high.

On opening morning it was Dad, Glen, Nick and I, and we all met up at the usual pull off area just before light.  Dad and Nick headed up the East ridge and Glen and I headed up to our usual spot along the West ridge.  Well right off the bat we were seeing groups of deer all over the place, but in usual fashion, we were having a hard time with the lighting and struggling to determine if there were any bucks.  Glen and I were ahead of Dad and Nick when we looked back to see Dad was sitting down and ready to take a shot.  With our binoculars we could see the group of deer they were looking at, but it was too far and the lighting was too bad to make out any antlers.  Dad started firing shots, he shot three times at about 200 yards, but was not able to connect (later on in the hunt we learned that the rifle he was shooting was quite a bit off).  We got on the radio and found out that the buck he had been shooting at was a big two point, but he was sure that he had missed it, as they saw it run up over the skyline and out of sight.

With that, Glen and I decided to continue up our ridge, we saw a few does and fawns initially, and then Glen spotted a single deer clear across from us, on the opposite ridge ahead of Dad and Nick.  We set up and watched the deer for probably about 15 minutes debating over whether or not it was a buck, until I finally got a glimpse of an antler and gave Glen the go-ahead to start shooting.  Well...that's where the fun began.  I realized that it was a far shot, but didn't realize just how far until Glen fired off his first shot, which was about 10 feet below the deer and a clear miss.  Then a second shot, again way off, a third, a fourth.....  Luckily the buck was on a ridge with absolutely no cover and for some reason was not sure which direction to go.  Now a new clip, Boom!....miss, Boom!...miss, Boom!....miss, well, at some point within the chaos, two clips later, and breaking into a new box of shells.... lets just say we worked together and were some how able to finally get a clean hit on this buck.

After lighting up the hillside and basically filling the mountainside with lead, we hooked up with Dad and Nick on the radio and over the next hour or so we were able to guide them to the buck.  Well when they finally happened upon it, we were all a bit surprised to find that it was the famous "Spike Buck Bull" that Dad and I had caught a glimpse of the year before.  This buck has a large spike on one side (kind of like an elk), and on the other a deformed antler that comes straight out sideways and hooks up.  Though the antlers were that of a spike, the body on the animal was quite a bit bigger, so we knew it was older than a one year old deer.  We got the animal off the mountain by about 1pm and headed back to camp.  The next day when we headed down the canyon, Dad stopped by the check station and by looking at the teeth, they were able to determine that the buck was actually about 2 and a half years old.  In fact, it wasn't the only deer to come through this season with a similar rack, there was another one that also had the same deformity in its antlers, so it was pretty interesting.

With a successful opening weekend in the books, we were ready for round two.  A few days later we headed up early in the morning around 4:30am.  From the get go the weather was awful.  Driving up Parleys was a mix of snow and rain and the forecast was supposed to do nothing but get worse, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  By the time we reached the area however, we were surprised to find that with the exception of some small snow flurries the weather was actually pretty good.  The plan was to have Dad hike up the bottom of the canyon while Glen and I headed back up to the usual spot.  It took us until about half way up the ridge before we started to see deer.  Suddenly we saw a group of deer out in front of us on the same ridge running through some quakies.  The first few were clearly does and fawns, but then the last one came through and we could tell it was a two point at about 100 yards in front of us.  The buck stopped, Glen set up, and Boom!! He fired off a shot, yet again, a clear miss!  The deer started running and angled away from us in a way that didn't allow for a second shot.  Glen was pretty disappointed that he started off the day with another miss, and was sure that he had the cross hairs directly on the deer.  Well after a few minutes, across the canyon there was another group of deer heading up into the quakies.  It was dark but we were fairly sure that the last one was a pretty decent sized buck.  Dad was still in the bottom of the canyon and proceeded to make his way through the trees while Glen and I worked our way up the ridge and over the top.  When we first got over the ridge we didn't see any deer.  We sat there in the freezing wind for about 45 mins until finally we spotted some movement on the next ridge over.  We quietly made our way closer, but the deer took off before we were able to get close enough.

We then decided to keep pressing on, and worked our way over yet another ridge.  Just as we were coming over the top of this smaller ridge, I looked out in front of me and spotted a doe and fawn not 100 yards in front of us.  Then behind them came another doe and finally a nice two point buck as well.   Once again, Glen set up, gathered himself and fired off three more shots.....All clear misses!! This was beginning to become a common theme for the hunt.  By this time the buck had taken off and Glen was now more frustrated than ever, and I think we both kind of figured we had used up our luck for the day.  We followed the trail of the deer over the ridge and found a whole lot of quakies, with just a few openings.  By this time we could see Dad ahead of us as well, and we all met back up.  We found a clearing and sat down patiently, hoping that the deer were still in the area, and that there would be one last opportunity.  Well within about a half hour, believe it or not, out came the same two deer just across from us.  "Here we go again", I was thinking to myself, and I'm sure Glen was thinking the same thing.  He set up to shoot, I told him to take his time, take a deep breath, and to not jerk the trigger.... BOOM!....miss,  BOOM!....miss....how could he be missing?!!  One more shot opportunity...I couldn't help but think to myself that if he misses this, it's going to be a lonnnnng ride home.  He took a deep breath, held steady and BOOM! Finally and clear hit!  The buck went down and I could tell that Glen was pretty relieved and shocked that he was able to finally connect, even after such a crazy morning.

Dad got to the buck before we did and we headed over to take a look.  Even before I approached the deer I already knew it was a really nice two point.  As we got to work on the deer, we couldn't help but laugh about the situation and think about how lucky we were to keep getting all these opportunities. Before heading out the bottom of the canyon, I sat down and took a practice shot with the rifle in attempt to determine whether or not the scope was off.  I took about a 100 yards shot and was at least a foot off.  So in other words, I think it's safe to say that the reason for all the misses throughout the day likely had to do with the scope being off.  We proceeded to drag the deer out the bottom, which was flat and rocky most of the way, and made for quite the workout.  We finally made it to the rode and dad went and got the truck.  All in all an awesome hunt this year, between the bow and rifle hunts, we have three deer down and a freezer full of meet.  I guess it's safe to say that the hunt was filled with a whole lot of excitement, luck, AND shots fired!  Until next year...