First Deer Hunt Of The Year

Yesterday morning I got to dad’s a little earlier then normal so that grandpa and I could go hunting.

It was quite windy when I left for dad’s place I walked over there and got there about 8:20 or so am. We made our lunch and dad got the rifle out. I got my pack packed and we left.

We walked down to Indian river trail head and when we got there I unstrapped the from my backpack and put the clip in it then put the rifle over my shoulder and walked up the trail.

As we got close to one of the big bridges we went off the trail and took a side trail back into a valley with open timber. just as we got into the I looked and saw a small crowbar poked in a tree so I walked over and pulled it out and put it in grandpas pack. We walked up the valley slowly looking for deer. It was snowing a little on and off but nothing stuck, it was very windy up there and the strong winds were swirling  in the valley where we so I did not have much hope for seeing a deer but I continued to carefully watch for any deer that we might see. As  we walked up the valley I heard something that sounded a little bit like a deer call I stopped and looked around and saw that it was just a tree moving in the wind.

We were getting far enough up the valley that I was starting to head down to cross and dry river bed and head back on the other side when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  I looked up and saw a deer trotting away across the dry river bed. I stood atop the river bank and raised my rifle. I looked through the scope at the deer as it went behind a tree. It had slowed to a walk by the time it had gone behind the tree I waited with the rifle raised for a few seconds then I lowered it. I watched and a few seconds later I saw the deer walk out from behind the tree a little further up then I expected but I raised the rifle aimed at the deer it was about 75 to 110 yards away and quartering away quite a bit but I aimed right behind the front shoulder and shot. I saw the deer jump a little and went up under a clump of trees a bit. I could see that one of its legs was broken. I quickly ejected a shell and put another one in the chamber and aimed again as it was limping away towards the woods. I aimed for the neck this time and missed. Grandpa asked if I had hit it and I said yes, and it was a big buck and that it had went into the woods, he said to go slow and keep an eye out for it. I slowly walked across the river bed and walked up to where I had seen the deer after I had hit it and looked for blood on the rocks but I did not see any. I slowly went over to the edge of the forest to look for its tracks, by that time grandpa was just about to me. I looked and saw some fresh dirt that had been kicked up I went up the hill and saw a few more places where it had been kicked up. I was slowly moving looking for tracks when grandpa called me back to show me some blood on the ground. I turned and went back to look he said all this was blood, he was using an end of a stick and was moving it in a circle. Since I am a little red-green color blind it was hard for me to see blood on a greenish background but I eventually saw something that looked wet and saw that it was a bit different shade from its background and I saw that it was blood. We made our way looking for blood. It was quite hard for me to see the blood so grandpa told me to keep an eye out for the deer and he would look for the blood. We walked a bit further then ran into some big old trees that had fallen over. Grandpa figured the deer would go around so while he was looking for blood I went and got up to where I could see over the logs and when I did I saw the deer sitting on the other side with only its head and part of its neck exposed. I told grandpa I found it and when I said that the deer turned and looked at me. I raised the rifle and took a head shot. the deer went forward and I told grandpa I got it. I climbed over the the logs and got to the deer. When grandpa got over there we dragged it to a spot that was a bit more flat and open where it would be easier to gut it. It turned out I had hit it in the rump the first time we would not be sure how bad it was until we got it homed and skinned. Once we got it gutted we started packing it out. I tried to carry it out all by my self but it was just a bit to heave so grandpa and I look turns caring it.

Once we got home I got it skinned and saw that I had only got one hind quarter and the other one was fine which was a good thing.