Thursday, December 2, 2010

Rolling in does

It was a fruitful year for our little family.  Despite the apparent lack of horn soup, we are feeling VERY blessed this hunting season.  Doe #1
For the specific purposes of taking Isaac and making sure we have meat in the freezer, I applied for a doe tag for area 423.  I was able to get out with Isaac once in October to the State Section off of Highway 434, West of Wolf Creek.  We hiked all the way along the ridge but found only two does that were just off the section on the Dearborn Ranch.  We made a second attempt a couple weeks later with the whole family in the car, but had the same results (I wandered around and found nothing while they drove around and saw numberous deer on the Dearborn property).  The Friday before Thanksgiving I decided it was too late to come home empty handed again and too cold to take Isaac so I set out on my own.  I left town about 10:30 a.m. and went to the State Section lying just North of the Dearborn River on Highway 287.  On the way there I did see the nice buck shown in the photos below on the Dearborn Ranch (of course).  On this hunt, I was only hunting to fill my mule deer doe tag.  It was my first experience on this particular section.  I parked my minivan on the side of the road  near the North end of the section.  I walked west to the edge of the first big draw and turned south following the top of the draw.  As I approached the fenceline on the south end of the section I spotted three does just on the other side of the fence.  I hoped that there were others on the legal side of the fence, but could not move any closer without spooking the three does.  I backed out and crawled into a small gulley.  I went down to the fence line out of sight of the deer and then crawled on my knees for about the last 75 yards until I could see three more deer that were actually on the legal side of the fence.  I spent about 5 minutes trying to decide which one to shoot.  I didn't want to get a fawn.  I was forced out of my indecision by three does that suddenly appeared about 10 yards to my left (on the wrong side of the fence).  They busted me and began leaving the country.  As they did, the legal deer were alerted and started to move.  I quickly picked one and shot.  (about 80-100 yards).  I saw her jump and quickly go out of sight behind a hill.  I ran up looking for her to be trailing the other deer.  There was one lagging behind the group and for a second I considered taking a shot at her.  I wasn't very confident about my off-hand shot, but didn't want to end up with two deer down.  So since I couldn't see any blood on or around her, I let her go over the hill with the other deer.  That turned out to be a very good decision as I shortly thereafter found my doe piled up in the bottom of the draw.  I had mad a good hit and she had only gone about 10 yards.  She was a good size doe and I felt VERY blessed.  We have enjoyed a lot of jerky and have some good roasts in the freezer.
Here are some pics from this first successful trip.
These first ones are of a big buck I saw from the road while driving in.  He was coming my way (towards the road) but I decided not to wait for him to get closer.   My camera ended up running out of batter later that day, just before I shot the doe .  For a little camera comparison I am including photos of two different bucks.  The first three pics are the same buck.  I took these pics with my good zoom lens from about 350-400 yards away (In the first, I am zoomed in all the way).  They are not great shots, but its fun to be able to zoom like that.  The close ones are simply the same (or similar) images of the photo that have been cropped in close to the buck.  The fourth image is of a similar sized buck that I took with my cell phone on the way home.  He was about 25 yards from me when I took the shot.  I was really wishing I had remembered to charge my extra battery when he came walking along so close.  The next picture is of my doe on top of my hunting vehicle (not a 4WD, but we are considering having that added and buying some big meaty tires).  The last one is me at home.










Doe #2
Seeing how quickly we were going through jerky from Doe #1 we decided I better make sure we had enough to get through the winter.  On Saturday after Thanksgiving I called Grandpa Lay and he got permission for me to go with him on the Boulder River and try to get a whitetail with my rifle.  It was a fairly warm day and Isaac wanted to come, so we went together.  We got there about 3:00 in the afternoon and walked in to the treestand.  When we got there I cleared the snow and brush away from the ground under the tree and laid a blue fleece blanket down.  I put my seat cushion on top of that and Isaac sat down.  I handed him my ipod and put another camo fleece blanket on top of him.  He promised to be very still and quiet and I climbed the tree to the stand with my gun.  Isaac did awesome!  He didn't hardly make a noise or stir for a little over an hour.  He didn't stand up or talk until my gun went off.  After about 1/2 hour in the stand I saw about 6 deer come out about 200 yards away through the trees.  I passed on two opportunities for questionable shots.  Another 15 minutes later, the deer came back and approached my stand from another direction.  When the lead doe walked into the open at about 60 yards I made a good one shot kill.  She dropped right there.  Dad called when he heard the shot to see if I got one.  Apparently, shortly after we hung up from that call he had a good buck and 4 does come under his stand.  He made a good shot on the buck at 40 yards, but the buck was on high alert and jumped the string.  Dad said that the buck wasn't even there anymore when the arrow arrived.  Meanwhile I climbed down out of the tree and Isaac and I went over and cleaned out my second doe of the year.  Grandpa came over after dark and helped us drag it back to the car.  Isaac was a great little helper and walked all the way back to the truck.
It was really a fun day to be there with both my Dad and my son.  The freezer is full and as stated above, we are feeling very blessed this season.
This is a cell phone photo I took from in the tree stand.  Isaac is at the base of the tree to my right, under the camo blanket.

Here is the little man with the doe.
It has been really fun this year and it has made me realize how much more there is to hunting than just walking your behind off looking for large animals.  The little ones are also A LOT of fun and fill the freezer very well.  Also, the family experiences are much more important than just the hunting.  Next year I will again chase the big bucks, but I also plan on filling another couple doe tags.
--Ryan