A little late - Early Hunt

[Avid Hunter]

Finally getting around to posting..

 

This year my goal was to hold out for a 3x or better opening day, after that anything was fair game due to only being able to hunt the weekend. Opening morning came, and I found myself hiking back to a new spot with my buddy. However we never made it to our intended destination as we kept running into deer.

 

We saw a couple bucks feed over a ridge in front of us so we made our way slowly to the top. We slowly crept over and spotted a doe down below us in the ravine. After glassing the thinck vegetation below us for a bit I spotted a nice buck with his head feeding in a tree. Saw he was a nice 3 point so I tried working to get position for a better shot as he moved into the tree. Well this is where my nice laid plan fell apart. As I am moving over to my left to get a better angle, two deer bust 20 feet from me. (We've been sitting here for at least 10 min now) Then two more deer bust. Two deer when down the ravine and two went over the ridge we just came from. Now I see this buck running up the hillside in front of me, I can tell its a decent buck as well so I (stupidly) decide to shoot at this deer on the move. He stops for a second I shoot and miss. He takes off, same thing happens, I can't get a solid rest quick enough and miss again right as he goes over the hill. As soon as he goes over the hill I hear three consecutive shots. I ended up pushing him right to someone else ha. In all of that chaos my buddy goes over the top of the previous ridge we crossed and I hear a shot. He shoots his first buck at 40 yards. A nice little forkie with a split eye guard and hes ecstatic! High fives are exchanged and we get to work! I blow an opportunity that evening and on to Saturday.

 

Once again I find myself hiking to the location I was trying to get to opening morning. Being that it is the second day, if it has horns it is fair game. Coues taste too good and I just didn't have the time this hunt to be picky as I would like. Making my way back to the spot I stop and do a quick scan of the hill next to me and I see a deer with my naked eyes. Put the binos up, buck! Tried to get my other buddy a chance at him but he couldn't hear me "whisper yelling" so I decide to take the shot. Lay down, have a solid rest on my pack. Range him at 360, check my drop and slowly squeeze off a round. I watch him through my scope jump 5 ft in the air and hobble into a tree! I knew I hammered him. Slid down the ridge I was on and crawled up the one he was on! Gotta love coues country! Took me about 15 min to find him once I got to where I shot because from where I was I couldn't see that he went over the ridge 10 ft and then proceeded to slide down the opposing side about 20 yards where he was graciously stopped by a prickly pear.

 

All in all I had a great hunt, wish I could have held out for bigger but still am blessed to have taken a deer. My wife is just happy we have more deer in the freezer! First time I did the euro and I am really happy with how it turned out! Sorry for the long read.

 

 

[papa]

Nice story Congrats.

[az_shooter]

Way to get it done, like the skull.

[Mocha1545]

Congrats. Thanks for sharing the story and pics!

[loco4coues]

Nice job!

[Ernesto C]

Well done! nice story and pics

 

Ernesto C

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations. Very nicely done!

[chuckhustle1]

Congrats, nice buck.

 

[ElkyG]

Congrats your sucess

[Coues Kid]

Good job and congrats on a nice buck he's going to taste great.

[randyolson]

Congrats on the nice buck! It's a trophy non the less, just getting one!!

[bonecollector]

Congrats, way to stick with it and get it done.

[azryan]

Nice job!! The euro mount looks great!

[Avid Hunter]

Thanks guys!

 

I used the 40 proof peroxide and stuff called quick white I believe and it really got the skull nice and bleached!