5 tags filled, one to go.

Hunter decided that he wanted to choose the where and how for his hunt today. We had seen a few deer last weekend in this one big bowl, just down from a landing. He wanted to glass it and wait them out. Turns out it was the perfect strategy for today.


We decided to leave the black rifles in the truck as the distances would be from 100-300 yards from our vantage point. While the 6.8spc and .458 Socom were up for the job, both only wear straight red dot type sights with no magnification. We decided to go old school with the 742 Woodmaster in .280 Rem that we inherited from one of Hunter's great uncles. I carried along my .300 win mag in case there was something WAY out there.

We got to the bowl about 6:30am, and nobody was there. We were literally in the clouds, and visibility was 30 yards at most. As it got lighter after shooting hours started, the clouds came in and out, giving us a peek into the bowl below us every once in a while.

About 9:30 I look into a hole in the clouds below and see white that I hadn't seen before, and it looked like a deer. Pull up the binos and sure enough, it was. Hunter was right next to me and I showed him the deer just as another cloud rolled in. That allowed him to move his position and get the shooting stick set up, and about a minute later the clouds parted and our deer was still there, locked on to us.

The staredown lasted a few minutes, and he was looking right at us, not moving. Dead on shot. I gave Hunter the option of taking a dead on shot, and he drilled the deer right in the neck below the jaw. It literally flipped over backwards, and that was it. A short 200 yard drag up a very steep slope and we were at the road.

We heard a number of trucks drive past our bowl that you couldn't see from the road, and we weren't more than 30 yards down from there. Funny thing is, these folks might have seen the deer if they got out and just poked into the brush a bit. Pays to get out and hunt, even if we were only 30 yards off the road.

Hunter felt pretty good about picking the spot and having the guts to stick it out. 2.5 hours for a 13 year old, sitting still, in the wind, fog & rain, waiting for the clouds to give you just the right shot is a chore.

He also got to skin out his deer, and he did pretty well.



Dad/guide duties are done now. Time for me to fish & hunt for myself!